British Museum's Viking show locates the original Scandinavian Noir
It is the year of our lord 793, and I am a God-fearing monk living on the island monastery of Lindisfarne on the Northumbrian coast. I am illuminating manuscripts in my cell, or weeding the vegetable patch. Or sneakily opening my eyes while supposedly praying, when on the horizon I catch sight of a black dot sailing this way. An hour later that small dot has enlarged to a boat, a small flotilla of boats in fact, and a few hours after that the monastery is ransacked, its storehouses emptied and precious objects stolen. Fellow monks lie slaughtered, their bodies face down in a crimson sea, or have been taken as slaves. As the wounded and maimed stumble around the beach the sterns of several longboats are still visible out on the water, heading north-east.
That was a scene outlined by a history teacher at some early point in my school career, and one that clunks mechanically into place, like a photograph in an old carousel-slide projector, whenever the word Viking is used. My understanding of modern Scandinavia was informed by cliches, this time perpetuated through popular culture, trivia and urban myths. The Swedes built reliable cars, designed collapsible furniture and had the highest suicide rate of any nation. The Danes baked pastries, produced sizzling bacon and brewed the best lager in the world, probably. And the Norwegians had their ski jumps, A-ha, and continued to hunt whales in the face of international condemnation.
I suspect that for many Britons those stereotypes persisted at a subconscious level until the more recent wave of Norse invasions which have shifted our perception of its peoples, transformed our viewing habits and redefined our attitude towards the knitted sweater. The Killing, Wallander, Borgen, The Bridge ... "Nordic Noir" has landed, and suddenly we're finding a great deal to admire about Scandinavia, including contemporary cuisine (Copenhagen boasts Noma, "the world's number one restaurant"
, architecture, interior design, bike riding, and progressive environmental policies. Even Hollywood has got the bug, if the Thor franchise can be said to retain any of its mythological Norse origins, and the new Lego movie is a box-office smash.
A good time, then, to be renegotiating our relationship with that part of the world on a historical level too, through a major new exhibition in the British Museum's major new exhibition hall. Timely as well that I should be visiting while our own nation is in a state of flood – rain bucketing from the skies, the sea spewing over harbour walls, rivers bursting their banks – because water is very much the central theme of this curation, and at its heart is a boat.
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/feb/27/british-museum-vikings-show-nordic-noir-longboat
