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Eurovikings. European Heritage Discourses and Transnational Practices in a Viking Site

from PART I - European Heritage in the Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2017

Eleonora Narvselius
Affiliation:
Lund University
Krzysztof Kowalski
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
Barbara Törnquist-Plewa
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
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Summary

Few historical inhabitants of the European continent have left such a remarkable legacy as the Vikings. The aura of adventure and heathen wisdom attributed to these Nordic people, combined with their well-documented penchant for long overseas journeys and contacts with other cultures, has charged them with potent symbolism. Over the centuries, the Vikings have acquired the status of historical celebrities due to their association with mobility, masculinity and expansion. Viking mythology and sagas used to be effectively instrumentalized to confer heroic symbolism on arts and literature, to conjure up grandiloquent national myths and justify military aggression. In the 20th century, the Viking warrior of the Aryan breed became a central figure in the racist ideology of the Third Reich. For example, the SS-Wiking units, consisting of volunteers from Scandinavia, were among the international detachments who fought on the side of Nazi Germany. Furthermore, the political elite of the latter made no secret of their fascination with pagan Nordic symbols, the runic alphabet and mysterious rituals. Yet it should be realized that this was not an isolated event and that, throughout their history the seagoing Northern tribes have been inscribed into narratives geared towards all sorts of political visions, identities and ideologies, which finally turned them into a modern European myth and a significant pointof reference for European memory cultures. Rather than being a projection of long-persisting collective memories or ancient folklore from the distant past, nowadays the Vikings are primarily a product of the ideas, visions and styles that permeate contemporary European societies, academia and the media.

Unlike the bombastic images prevalent in the periods of imperial expansionism, national mobilization and two world wars, the Vikings presently reflect popular mythologies of a different kind. Despite its darker connotations, the concept of the Viking is nowadays used lavishly for global marketing of life styles and products of Nordic societies. Vikings also caught the eye of EU heritage managers who discerned the potential of the rich archaeological relics and stories about border-transgressing cultural contacts of ancient Northerners for fostering a European identity. Since 1993, the Council of Europe has supported the Viking Cultural Route as one of many heritage routes on the continent. This network of Viking-related tourist destinations is now both geographically extensive and attractive for different groups of heritage stakeholders.

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Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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