! Standard-Examine- 1 Travel r Sunday May 7 2000 3F Viking exhibit lands at Natural History Museum exhibit - a ship’s rivet a soapstone lamp a busted barrel bits of iron slag They aren’t much to look at but they take on a bit of magic when you realize that they are proof of a Smithsonian show timed to celebrate anniversary of Leif Ericson’s voyage By PETER CARLSON The Washington Post European -- settlement in America A ' WASHINGTON ago “Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga” tells a fascinating story and the Smithsonian’s curators have used every trick at their disposal to enliven the show a movie a video painted murals big beautiful color photographs even tapes of squawking sea gulls-plu- s the usual dioramas statues and glass cases full of old broken stuff But be forewarned: the Viking relics are not all that visually stunning and the show is a wordy one that requires a fair amount of work from visitors throughout Europe for their habit of looting cities burning - monasteries kidnapping noblemen and raping women Now they are the subject of a laudatory exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History Which shows just how much a despised ethnic group can improve its public image simply by discovering America The Smithsonian exhibit is a multimedia extravaganza titled “Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga” It is timed to celebrate the thousandth anniversary of Viking adventurer Leif Encson’s voyage to various spots in Canada a trip that occurred somewhere between 997 and 1003 - nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus took his famous boat ride The exhibit runs through Aug It is open to the public and free of charge Looting and 13 pillaging are strongly discouraged ft fp' 'MV K V UTAH’S ONLY BUS COMPANY The exhibit aims to erase the absurd stereotypes that have grown up about Vikings over the SERVING ALL OF WENDOVER’S LARGEST CASINOS centuries For instance the average American believes that Vikings were violent rapacious plunderers who wore metal helmets with horns sticking out the sides This is not true Actually they were violent rapacious plunderers who wore leather helmets with no horns at all wasteland that the crafty Erik decided to call “Greenland” hoping that as the saga puts it “people would be attracted there if it had a favorable name” Amazingly this trick actually worked and Enk’s Greenland settlement lasted for centuries until a mini-ic- e Age drove settlers away The exhibit has a wonderfully macabre display of bones disinterred from Erik’s graveyard - six skulls three of them bearing scars suggesting that their owners’ demise was hastened by ax blows to the FICTIONAL AND ARTIFACTS: (Above) Vikings wore homed or winged headgear only in opular imaginations (Right) Authentic silver-inlai- d swords are part of the “Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History Blow the horns The exhibit is adamant about this helmet issue In a display called “The Way They Weren’t” a sign reads: “It’s sad but true -Viking warriors never wore homed or winged helmets” Next to the sign is a collection of the kind of Viking helmets that Vikings didn’t wear including a plastic homed Viking helmet a purple felt Viking helmet and a Minnesota Vikings football helmet There’s also a cartoon of Elmer Fudd wearing an inaccurate Viking helmet in the otherwise excellent 1957 movie “What’s Opera Doc?” n America’s Viking Hagar the Horrible’s helmet may be historically inaccurate but his view of England as ripe for plunder is dead on TTie Vikings raided the British Isles every year from the late 700s through the mid-80sacking towns and monasteries and carting off everything they could carry in their longboats The most famous of the raids was the attack on Lindisfame England in 793 “On 8 June” a monk wrote at the time “the ravages of heathen men miserably destroyed God’s church on Lindisfame with plunder and slaughter” aA - I?! Kg others roast a pig on a spit and pass around a drinking horn of - grog The mural is part of a display called “Going Viking” a phrase that meant “sailing off to ransack and rob” The Vikings were as the display points out “part-tim- e pirates” Most of the year they were normal Scandinavian farmers But during the summer after the crops were planted they would sail off under the command of a local chieftain to loot and plunder returning in time to help their wives and kids harvest the crops These raids were so lucrative and so much fun that by the mid-800- s the raiding parties grew to dozens of boats and some Vikings started pirating full time venturing as far as Lisbon Kiev and Constantinople Paris was plundered annually until 845 when the weary Parisians paid the marauders nearly six tons of silver and gold bullion not to sack the city again - an early example of the protection racket In the exhibit the raid on Lindisfame is depicted in a gloriously lurid mural that shows the monastery burning and a Viking warrior grabbing an Englishwoman and shoving her toward the beach A corpse floats in shallow water and one Viking warrior rips up a Bible while More than plundering To do a proper job of plundering one needs the right tools and the exhibit displays them: heavy metal swords long g battle spears and fierce-lookin- SLC (801) Kids Weekend axes This stuff is big fun You gotta love a museum exhibit that has a big sign that reads “Pillaging and Plundering” But Viking life was more than just pillaging and plundering alas Back home in Scandinavia nearly all the decent farmland was claimed by the mid-80and so landless Norsemen began settling in places they’d visited on raids - Normandy Scotland 0s Ireland The heartier among them took to the North Atlantic in their open boats bringing their families and livestock with them to' Iceland where they found arable land and hot springs There many Vikings settled down gave up pirating converted to Christianity and became respectable farmers In 930 the Icelanders founded an assembly called the Althing thus pioneering the concept of the The saga of Erik does not reveal what happened to those folks but it does recount the story of how Leif Erik’s son sailed west with a group of Greenlanders and discovered a land where grapes grew They set up a settlement and - surprise! -ended up fighting with the locals For centuries nobody knew how much of Leifs story was true and how much was the blarney of the bards But in 1960 Norwegian archaeologist Helge Ingstad unearthed an ancient settlement in northern Newfoundland that contained relics proving conclusively that the site was a Viking village from if s time Some of those relics are in the T I AUSTRALIA Big ALASKA A Sea Adventure 17-A- ug S 20 day tnp for tfw coot of 7 Uay enkMf 4 doyo Yukon Territory 7 day tour ot Princo WMMam Sound 3 optional (toys for a Ptuo Rafting tour much much moral Eaparianca trua Alanlrw I3t6S Breakfast - t A f EUROPE of Chnt Includes Venice Rome Parle London Guest lecturer Eidor Hartman Rector Jr City of I 17 31-S- Depicting the life plus morel Joseph Pageant a Branson 3 July 27-A-ug Histone Nauvoo B Branson Oct 15-2- 3 CANADA Canadian Rockies 4 Calgary July Stampede 7--17 May 1S-- 21 Oct 1 2-- 21 Sept Nov Nov 21-- 26 Oct Includes Fosse 7-- 12 4-- 8 I Lion King Cruiseswi 14-- 19 Dec TOURS New York Theatre Bound 1- -6 Our toura art awed wRh mom Branson shows than ever before1 Can tor package data1 PACIFIC NORTHWEST CRUISE SPECTACULAR Rails & Trails of the West Aug 21-- 26 Lover's Dream 4 May 22-2- 6 nights at a great pnea1 Call lor details 'Vision of the Sees" Train Fall Foliage Sept 24-O- ct 12 12 d Spt Eastern Fall Foliage 30-O- 11 States including 0 C 5 Canadian Providences - Nova Scotia 4 Prince Edward island S Americana ALASKA 'Northbound Route of the Glaciers pt 4 Aug 'Dawn Princess" CANADA NEW ENGLAND and the ATLANTIC COAST Oct 4-- "Crown Princess" Cal us tor air ticketing ’rental car and all your travel noadsi I X X I I firm r Near Temple Square Delta Center restaurants theaters and shopping Great Salt Lake 66 Salt Lake City - West Valiev lWd Beside the E Center Hale Theatre Davis County Fairpark and restaurants Close to shopping RunWalk Bike Ride International Dinner Fun Salt Lake City - Midvalley 59 ’ ' Tours Animals Food Fine Art ' t 49 Vlg On Main Street Close to USU Eccles Theatre and Logan Canyon ll Bird Festival May 6th Logan Vi I Aug Iiauvi Missouri 14 Juno ly nyr & One saga recounts the story of Erik the Red who was banished from Iceland after he killed several men in a quarrel over borrowed bed boards He and his posse fled west to an icy : i V: “ Shakespearean Festival a TUacahn Aug 16-1- 8 Oberammergau Passion Play By 1200 Icelandic bards were writing down the tales of Viking heroes that had been told around the fire for centuries 59 Dl§ Rooms and Suites V luTAHTOURl US BRAISCI TOUTS legislature Close to Fashion Place Mall and Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons J- & AustradaNew Zealand Oct 27 -- Now 11 Dad July Fabutoua I 59 stay Free' S-- e 1 wwwcasinocaravanscom Salt Lake City - Downtown Terrific 685-931- Retelling of history PETER CARLSON Washington Post ‘Going Viking’ mr-- head TTie best-know- PLAY WHERE YOU WISH! 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