"Going on a Viking"

Last weekend we finally went to the Utah Natural History Museum in Salt Lake to see the visiting Viking exhibit. I won 4 tickets to the museum and 4 free drinks from the museum cafe when I was at a STEM conference last summer (teacher perks!) I really wanted to use them before the Viking exhibit left the museum in January. The exhibit did not disappoint! I spent over an hour and a half just in that small section of the museum, and it felt like it went by very quickly! We learned that to "go on a viking" meant to go on an adventure, usually to raid and pillage, but also to seek your fortune. Vikings were not as violent as they are often depicted in the movies and they didn't wear horns on their helmets. Their boats are really amazing! They are made without any type of saw and have rivets (like nails) to hold them together. We saw lots of combs and jewelry, swords and tools, and pots and spoons. There were even samples of 1000 year old bread that looked disturbingly like the feces that were in the same case with them! Ewww! Their myth system is very interesting as well with Thor, Odin, Loki, Freyr, and Freya, and the valkyrie (among many others!) There were several replica rune stones that are apparently commonly found on the roadside in Scandinavia. I was a little disappointed that there were no shields, but perhaps none have been found in tact. I also wanted to learn more about shield maidens but the exhibit didn't have anything on that, at least not that I saw. We did also spend some time in the rest of the museum and got drinks at the Cafe. Then Tyson and I bought a couple of souvenirs at the gift shop as well. On the way home we stopped by Krispy Kreme to get the kids their donuts for good grades. We had a really fun time "going on our viking!"