Browse Exhibits (12 total)
Learning Old Norse
This exhibit gathers together resources for the teaching and study of Old Norse, using items submitted to the World-Tree Project, as well as materials that are already available online.
Viking Branding
This is an exhibit exploring the Vikings as a brand in twenty-first century society, using materials submitted to the project or previously digitized and freely available online.
Teaching Resources for Schools
This exhibit provides a range of resources for teachers to use in the classroom. It is focused on teaching children at primary school level (c.8-10 years old). To aid international usage, the exhibit includes links targeted at the project's international audience as well as pages in English.
Denne udstilling giver en række ressourcer til lærere til brug i klasseværelset. Det er fokuseret på at undervise børn på grundskoleniveau (c.8-10 år). For at hjælpe international brug, udstillingen indeholder links rettet mod projektets internationalt publikum samt sider på engelsk.
Denne utstillingen gir en rekke ressurser for lærere til bruk i klasserommet. Det er meningen at det skal være mest til bruk for å undervise barna på c.8-10 år gammel. For å hjelpe internasjonale bruk, utstillingen inneholder bidrag på norsk, dansk og engelsk.
Image based on the cut-out helmet mask (item #98) produced by Dr Dayanna Knight
For additional resources aimed at primary schools click HERE.
Viking Ships
This exhibit, put together from materials included in the World-Tree archive or previously digitised and freely available, traces the Norse relationship to that most pre-eminent symbol of the Viking Age - the Viking ship - from the seafaring culture of pre-Viking Scandinavia, to modern reconstructions and the use of ship imagery in branding.
Image based on Viking graffiti from Jarlshof in the Shetlands
(c) Anne-Kathrin Schoerner
Viking Women
This exhibit explores women's place in the Viking Age. It considers what their roles were, what they wore, and how women explore the Viking Age past in the present through reenactment. It also discusses the ever-popular shieldmaiden and valkyries. The exhibit is constructed from items submitted to The World-Tree Project or previously digitised and freely available online. If you see a topic that is not covered here, please leave a comment and suggest items that might be added to the database so we can expand the exhibit.
Image based on the Silver 'Valkyrie' Pendant from Öland (view the original here)
Performing Old Norse Poetry
This exhibit (currently under construction) explores the different ways in which the Viking Past, and particularly Old Norse poetry, is performed in the 21st Century. It has been put together from materials included in the World-Tree archive or previously digitised and freely available.
Illustration from Christian Krohg's Heimskringla (1899) of Bersi Skáldtorfuson composing poetry in chains.
Misconceptions and Misunderstandings
There have been and continue to be many misconceptions and misunderstandings about the Vikings. One of the most famous is that they drank from the skulls of their enemies, while another is that they had horns on their helmets. This exhibit addresses these and many more misunderstandings and misconceptions.
Fakes and Frauds
Vikings have been a popular topic for faux news stories, many of which have been spread on the internet as true. They have also been the subject of a number of hoaxes and faked artefacts. This exhibit highlights some of these and considers why people have done this.
While the faux news stories are about entertainment, fake artefacts may be produced for a variety of reasons. Even in the medieval period some monasteries are known to have forged charters that gave their establishment a longer continuous history than it had. This ensured that the monastery could claim established rights or lands that might have been contested otherwise. In the same way, artefacts like the Kensington runestone may have been intended to establish roots for newly arrived Scandinavian settlers in the Midwest. Other artefacts may have been created for similar reasons, for entertainment, or with deliberate intent to deceive or defraud.
Tracing of the Vinland Map. For an image of the original, see here
Unidentified Items
This exhibit contains items for which we are still seeking information. If you think you can provide the additional information, please leave a comment and we shall review the answers. Click the links to the right to be taken to the exhibits of unidentified items.
You can also email us at worldtreeproject.org
Can you help us to identify items that we haven't been able to describe or credit?
Representations of the World-Tree (Sample)
The World-Tree (named Yggdrasill in Old Norse) is the living entity that bridges the various regions of the Norse cosmos. It was chosen as the name for this community collection and knowledge-exchange initiative because it represents the preeminent symbol of connectivity in the Viking world. This exhibit looks at how the World-Tree was represented in medieval Scandinavia, and how its symbolism has been appropriated in modern contexts.
Image based on the Överhogdal tapestries (see here for the original)
Daily Life in the Viking Age (sample exhibit)
This is a sample exhibit to show how exhibits can be used on this site for informational purposes and to show what sort of information you could upload to the site. It shows aspects of daily life in the Viking Age such as might have been lived on any farm: houses, animals on the farm, and entertainment for adults and children, and uses materials already digitised and made available online. Once we start receiving contributions, this exhibit will be expanded to include additional material related to daily life in the Viking Age.
Image of Hnafetafl players from a rune stone in Ockelbo Church (Gs 19)
If you would like to browse a list of items relating to daily life, including others that are not in this exhibit CLICK HERE
Vikings in the 21st-Century
This exhibit shows a variety of ways in which modern people engage with, recreate, and reinvent the Vikings to make them relevant to their own lives. It uses items submitted to The World-Tree Project or previously digitised and freely available online.
