Every summer just south of Aarhus there is a Viking Moot at the Mosegaard Museum. This means that people wanting to live as Vikings meet and camp for a week by the sea. At the closing weekend the public are invited in to eat Viking food buy Viking handicrafts, see a display of Viking horsemanship and watch as a battle unfolds. We don't go every year but I have been several times as we enjoy the charred pancakes, spit roasted meat and sometimes splash out on traditional hanidicraft items. We also enjoy spotting the anachronisms such as the watches, glasses and mobile phones which some of the Vikings wear.
I had always been intrigued by the English voices I heard especially among the warriors so this year I decided to speak with representatives from the different groups for the Absolutely Intercultural podcast.
When speaking to the museum representative I discovered that the Mosegaard Moot was the first in the world and from the British warrior I learned that it was the Brits who introduced the mock battles. From the wife of a horseman I learned that the Viking period was particularly attractive because that was the heyday of Denmark as a world power. And from a wandering minstrel I learned that the Vikings included many non-Scandinavian people as well.
In the end it seemed that the Viking identity connected with a far wider group than simply Scandinavians and that its manifestations were so wide that it attracted a wide range of people.
Keywords: absolutley intercultural, Ibn Fadhlad, Mosegaard, Viking
