Human genetics research projects such as those described by Bowden et al. (2008) and the associated media coverage achieved prominence with the 2001 BBC2 Blood of the Vikings series and its popular accompanying book (Richards 2001). These events have given Viking studies a much greater public profile than they attained previously. No longer merely the concerns of small numbers of academics, museum professionals, and local history societies, the Vikings have become the objects of enduring public and media fascination.
Because the most successful genetic surveys were conducted in north-west England, and notably in Wirral and south-west Lancashire (Bowden et al. 2008; Harding, Jobling and King 2010; King, Chapter 11) further raised the profiles of Viking genes and Viking heritage within the region. Major discoveries such as the Cumwhitton Viking cemetery (Cumbria) and the Huxley hoard in 2004, together with the Barrow-in-Furness and Silverdale hoards in 2011 (Kershaw, Chapter 10) have served to ‘top up’ and reinvigorate the general public’s fascination with the ancient past, even as the previous discovery begins to fade a little from public consciousness.
Major finds from other archaeological periods, such as the highly ornate bronze Roman parade helmet found by a metal detectorist at Crosby Garrett (Cumbria) in 2010 and since sold at auction to a private buyer for over ?2.3 million (despite a major public campaign to raise enough funds to buy it for the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle) further emphasise the importance and vulnerability of the region’s archaeological heritage, contributing to a widespread hunger for more information.
Perhaps the most vibrant areas of Viking studies today result from the ways in which interdisciplinary research is being made available and accessible to the general public through reconstructions, exhibitions, re-enactments, and restorations of sites and monuments. A highly successful exhibition in 1990 at Liverpool Museum titled ‘A Silver Saga: Viking Treasure from the North-West’ gave an unprecedented platform to Viking studies in north-west England and made a focus of the Cuerdale hoard (Philpott 1990).
An associated academic conference addressed historical and archaeological issues on an interdisciplinary basis for the first time (Graham-Campbell 1992). More recently, major high profile events such as the voyage of the reconstructed Sea Stallion of Glendalough Viking warship from Denmark to Dublin in 2007-2008 attracted thousands of spectators, widespread media coverage, and was partnered by a major museum exhibition (Johnson 2004). Viking-themed exhibitions have become regular occurrences such as at the National Museums of Scotland (2012-2013), the National Museum of Denmark (2013), the British Museum (2014) and the Museum fur Vor-und Frugeschichte, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (2014-2015).
The restoration and re-display of stone sculptures in churches provide a number of examples of local heritage initiatives (White, Chapter 12). The restoration of the neglected collection of Viking sculptured stones at the Charles Dawson Brown Museum at St Bridget’s Parish Church in West Kirby (Wirral) is a case in point. The museum created in outbuildings used by the former parish school in 1892 in memory of a local antiquarian and benefactor was closed and neglected for many years and its contents gathered dust. A restoration and re-display project generated a marked upsurge of interest in the early history of West Kirby. The re-opening took place on the weekend of 12 July 2013* with nearly 1000 enthusiastic locals attending (Figure 1.18).
The Chester conference that gave rise to this volume was conducted with two future aims in mind. It sought to build a consensus around interdisciplinary studies for the Viking period in north-west England and beyond. It also sought to make Viking studies as accessible and welcoming to the widest range of public and professional interests as possible. This is far from being a watering-down of academic probity. There will always be a place for education, training, and higher research in our field, combating sometimes ill-founded theories based on a lack of genuine insight. Yet the editors believe fundamentally that without well-informed popular support there can be no future for Viking studies in this region or elsewhere. We therefore present the following chapters both as contributions to interdisciplinary research and as bases for better public understanding and enlightenment.
(a)
(b)
FIGURE 1.18 (a) Local people enthuse at the re-opening of the Charles Dawson Brown Museum at St. Bridget’s Church,
West Kirby (July 2013). St. Bridget’s is the home of a significant collection of Viking Age stone sculpture including a hogback tombstone. (b) Hogback cake—a comestible replica of the St. Bridget’s hogback stone made in November 2012 to mark the 120th anniversary of the opening of the museum in 1892.
World History
