Reception of the Vikings

Modern engagement

Since the nineteenth century Vikings have captured our imaginations and been used for a variety of political and social purposes. The Vikings were used as a vehicle for promoting nationalist agendas in the creation of nation states in the nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century they were used and abused in interwar Germany. From the 1980s with the advent of Reaganomics and Thatcherism they were co-opted into a capitalist agenda, as proto-capitalists. Nowadays they are used politically by neo-Nazi groups, and socially by reenactors and living history groups. Usage of the Vikings extends well beyond the narrow boundaries outlined here, and we shall, no doubt, see further redefinition of the past as a model for present concerns as Vikings are constantly reinvented for a modern audience. More often than not the myth of the Vikings is the important element, especially in the case of television and movies. As the items in this section of the exhibit show, engagement with the Vikings can take many forms and can go in many directions.