See Norway's Viking Heritage Uncovered in Oslo
Relive Viking Age Sea Power at Bygdoy Peninsula's Viking Ship Museum
Three longships dating from the C9th/C10th - the heart of the Scandinavian Viking Age - lie restored at the capital’s Viking Ship Museum on the Bygdoy Peninsula, having been discovered in separate burial mounds in the late C19th/early C20th.
All are testament to the boatbuilding skills of the Vikings, whose craft took them across the high seas of Europe and beyond throughout 400 years of conquest, pillage and settlement.
Viking Ship Museum
Two of the craft in particular - the Oseberg and Gokstad ships named after the locations where the burial sites were discovered - have shed light and cast mystery in equal measure over this fascinating era in Norwegian history.
The Oseberg ship, dated to at least as far back as the year 800, has been described by historian Keith Durham in his work Viking Longship as “one of the finest finds to have survived the Viking Age”.
The elaborately decorated 22-metre long oak vessel contains two sets of human remains likely to be of high rank or even Viking royalty, buried alongside items ranging from textiles and tapestries to wooden chests and domestic implements.
Viking Age
Research has been completed on the occupants, both female and aged 60-70 and 25-30, but it has not been established whether the two were related. However aside from their burial surroundings further evidence of their high status is perhaps to be found from their dietary patterns, found to be the luxury of meat at a time when most Vikings would typically have eaten fish.
The Oseberg burial site, excavated in 1904-1905, also contains an excellently preserved richly-carved four-wheel cart, the only complete one of its kind known to be in existence.
Sea Power
Contrasting with the grandeur of the Oseberg ship is the warlike Gokstad vessel; longer, more seaworthy and likely used for long-range expeditions.
Also found as part of a burial site and similarly plundered of some of its original valuables, the Gokstad nevertheless remains impressive, the ships powerful curved prow a likely intimidating sight for the Vikings’ foes.
The Gokstad site was excavated in the 1880s and as a sign of its seaworthiness, barely a decade later a reconstructed model sailed from Bergen across the Atlantic Ocean in 1893 to the World Fair held in Chicago that year.
Where its adventures took the Gokstad ultimately remains unknown, as do the identities of those afforded such a prestigious tomb upon the Oseberg ship, but both vessels survive to this day as tantalising glimpses into a past when the might of Norway reached out across the seas.
Bygdoy Peninsula
The Viking Ship Museum is accessible from the main City Hall quay via the Bygdoy Ferry, or alternatively by the number 30 bus from outside the National Theatre in central Oslo. The museum opens every day of the year except holidays, 9am-6pm May-September and 10am-4pm October-April. Further details and a map of the Bygdoy peninsula are available here.
The C9th Oseberg longship on display in Oslo
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