In 793, a monastery on Lindisfarne in England was attacked by seafarers who were likely to have come from present-day Norway. This represents the start of the 300-year-long Viking Age.    

The Scandinavian people didn’t just travel to Europe on violent raids; they also went on peaceful trade voyages and journeys of exploration. On their travels they obtained spectacular swords, silver, Oriental beads, church relics and thralls. Alongside these bounties, they also acquired vast trading networks and new ideas.
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Back home, the Vikings led an active farm life. The extended family, servants and thralls worked with agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts, hunting and fishing. They harvested raw materials in the wilderness and fashioned them into useful items and trading goods. The large farms were religious and political hubs where the ancestors were buried in the burial mounds, and rituals and feasts took place.

The objects in this exhibition tell the story of the Viking Age – which starts in a society built around the farm and the Norse gods, and ends in a unified kingdom with a new religion.

The exhibition is expanded with various themes over three years. This year's new theme is the farm.