During this summer's World Cup, the whole world could watch us Norwegians draw on a part of our history. The Viking-inspired rowing in the stands in the USA attracted attention - mostly positive, but also a bit of irritation.
For the Danish-Norwegian archaeologist Julie Lund, mixed feelings arose as she watched - and eventually also took part in - this ritual surrounding Norway's World Cup matches.
"On the one hand, all the alarm bells were ringing, because references to the Viking Age have often been associated with far-right forces," says Lund, who works as a professor at the University of Oslo.
"At the same time, there was an element of someone else reclaiming the Viking Age and turning it into something popular and accessible. I took part in the rowing myself. I thought it was both embarrassing and unifying at the same time," she says.
Even though the rowing did not necessarily have much to do with life in the Viking Age, she still found the phenomenon interesting. Especially since her own research is about how people in the Viking Age used their history and their past.
Just as Norwegians today use the Viking Age and other elements from history in different ways, she believes we must assume the same about people who lived in the Viking Age.
Far more than power
Still, Lund believes that, until quite recently, her field has tended to interpret every use of the past as an expression of power. Large burial mounds, elaborate axes and spears, beautiful jewellery - everything has confirmed the same explanatory model: this was a person with power.
"But it is far too simple to say that people in the Viking Age used the past only for power or manipulation. We see, for instance, very different uses of the past in different social groups," says Lund, who has recently published the book Time and temporality in the Viking Age.
Lund and her colleagues have studied what the Vikings left behind across Scandinavia. They have examined burial grounds, such as the large Hunn burial site in Østfold, and Viking hoards, such as the substantial hoard from Hoen in Buskerud.
"Opening graves and finding hoards from the Viking Age gives us insight into how they related to their past. If we simply assume that the one who had the most in their grave was the richest and most powerful, then we've simplified things dramatically," says Lund.
