Victims of Their Own Success - Academia and Public Research on 'The Vikings'

In discussing two new major exhibitions on the Vikings – ‘Join the Raid’ in the Danish National Museum Copenhagen and ‘The Viking World’ in the Swedish State Historical Museum Stockholm – Søren M. Sindbæk addresses what is currently the most important question for museums concerning the presentation of the Vikings: how should we as an academic community impart knowledge of the Viking Age to the interested public? And, do we want to act formatively, bringing our research into the public discourse, or do we agree to be passively driven by current socio-political discourses, popular myths and new focuses and habits in media behaviour? At the end of his short introduction, Sindbæk poses a provocative question: ‘Will Vikings free museums – or turn them into captives?’ (Sindbæk 2022:11). Upon reflection, a slightly rephrased version of this thorny question seems more to the point: ‘Will museums free Vikings – or will popular perceptions of the Vikings turn museums into captives’? Sindbæk rightly notes that ‘the Viking Age is one of the world’s most well-known and popular historical brands’ (Sindbæk 2022:11), and the Vikings are omnipresent in many aspects of daily life, from media to commercials. Globally-known glossy media formats such as the TV series ‘Vikings’ enshrine a glorified and romanticized version of the Viking Age in