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LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, HÁTÍÐARBLAÐ 1980
Exhibition on the Vikings to Open October 4
at Metropolitan Museum
Exhibition dates:
October 4,1980,
through January 4,1981
The Vikings, the largest
and most comprehensive
exhibition ever assembled
on the famous seafaring
people of ancient Scan-
dinavia, will open at The
Metropolitan Museum of Art
on October 4 following its
popular showing at the
British Museum in London.
The exhibition brings
together over 500 objects on
loan from 45 museums and
other collections in Canada,
Denmark, Germany, Great
Britain, Finland, Iceland,
Ireland, Norway, Sweden,
and the United States.
Included are major ar-
chaeological treasures as
well as exquisite gold and
silver jewelry, delicately
ornamented objects of gilt
bronze, and carvings in
stone, wood, ivory and other
materials. This wealth of
material will be organized to
show the development of
Viking art and to show the
Vikings as warriors, traders
and explorers in Europe and
the North Atlantic from the
8th century to the llth
century A.D.
The Vikings has been
organized by the British
Museum in association with
the Metropolitan Museum.
The exhibition in New York
has been made possible by
grants from the American
Express Foundation; the
Anierican-Scandinavian
Foundation; the Charles
Ulrick and Josephine Bay
Foundation, Inc.; the
Cultural Fund of the Nordic
Council;*the National En-
dowment for the
Humanities, Washington,
D.C.; with the assistance of
SAS/Scandinavian Airlines.
James D. Robinson III,
Trustee of American Ex-
press Foundation and
Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of
American Express Company
'said: “We’re proud to help
bring this outstanding
exhibition to the United
States. American Express’s
participation in the spon-
sorship of this exhibition
reinforces óur basic
commitment to the
broadening of cultural
perspectives through the
global exchange of people
and ideas.”
The great age of the
Vikings extended from
shortly before A.D. 800,
when the Viking ships first
appeared off the coasts of
the British Isles and
devastated the island
monasteries of Lindesfarne
and Iona, to the middle of
the eleventh century. During
these two-and-a-half
centuries the Vikings
plundered and traded as far
as Morocco and Italy in the
south and Byzantium in the
east. They colonized the
islands off Scotland,
established the cities of
Dublin, Waterford, Cork
and Limerick in Ireland,
settled extensively in parts
of England, and founded the
Duchy of Normandy in
France.
The Vikings were the
greatest sailors of their
time. They fearlessly set out
on the high seas at a time
when ships rarely ventured
out of sight of land. In one of
the most spectacular
achievements of the age, the
Vikings struck out over the
Atlantic to discover and
colonize Iceland and
Greenland, and they were
the first Europeans to reach
the North American con-
tinent.
The Metropolitan
Museum has organized an
additional section of the
exhibition documenting the
Viking presence in North
America. This section will
include material from the
Viking settlement at l’Anse
Aux Meadows in
Newfoundland as well as a
Norse coin found at Blue Hill
in Maine.
The Viking heritage is rich
in the pagan traditions and
legends which centuries
earlier had been supplanted
by Christianity in the rest of
northern Europe. The
surviving Norse literature
— the legends of the gods
and the sagas of the early
kings, and also the sagas of
the first settlers in Iceland
— provide a precious
glimpse into the pre-
Christian world of Germanic
Europe.
Until recent decades very
little was known of the
Vikings, except through
literary sources, most of
which are highly un-
sympathetic. Now,
however, as a result of
extensive archaeological
activity in Scandinavia,
Germany, Ireland, Great
Britain and elsewhere, it is
possible to create a richly
detailed picture of Viking
culture.
The exhibition will be
organized into sections to
reveal many aspects of
Viking life: seafaring ac-
tivities and commerce,
spoils carried home from
abroad, the implements of
domestic life^ religious
beliefs and burial practices,
weapons and personal
adornment. Many out-
standing examples of Viking
art will be included, and
these will show the
development of the different
styles of Viking design.
Christianity had been widely
adopted in the Scandinavian
world by the latter part of
the period, and the con-
cluding section of the
exhibiton will show its ef-
fects on Viking culture.
The South Street Seaport
Museum is planning an
exhibition on Viking ships
and shipbuilding to coincide
with the exhibition at the
Metropolitan Museum. «A
full-scale replica of a Viking
longship will be shown at
one of the Seaport’s piers,
and, beginning in mid-
September there will be a
month-lcng demonstration of
Viking shipbuilding
techniques. The Seaport
gallery will house an
exhibition of Viking ship and
boat models, along with
drawings and plans, from
museums in Scandinavia
and from the Smithsonian
Institution.
The Vikings has been
many years in the planning.
David Wilson, Director of
the British Museum and long
involved in Viking ar-
chaeology, was the
exhibition’s coordinator and
organizer. The curator for
the exhibition in New York is
Charles T. Little, Associate
Curator, Department of
Medieval Art and The
Cloisters, with the
assistance of Kathryn
Gordon, research associate.
The installation in New York
was designed by Jeff Daly,
Designer in the Museum’s
Design Department.
ENJOY A TRULY WONDERFUL WEEKEND
AT THE
91sf ANNUAL ICELANDIC FESTIVAL
GIMLI, MANITOBA AUGUST 2-3-4, 1980