On 30 November 2021, Ambassador Mykhailo Vydoinyk discussed with Mads Kähler Holst the preparation for the official opening of a special thematic exhibition “Rus –Vikings in the East” at the Moesgaard Museum in Denmark (Højbjerg, a suburb of Aarhus).
The exhibition will be part of a large-scale display dedicated to the South-Eastern Viking route from the Baltic through the river routes of Eastern Europe, including through the Dnieper, to South and South-East – to Byzantium and the Arab Caliphate. The scenographic tour across the Baltic States, Germany, Poland, Ukraine-Rus, the Mediterranean and the Middle East should demonstrate that “Scandinavia left a very impressive mark on the area”.
Exhibits of the “Rus – Vikings in the East” exhibition will include 400 objects specially delivered to the Danish Museum from the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, the Vasyl Tarnovsky Chernihiv Regional Historical Museum and the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Finds from the burials of soldiers, armour with various ornaments, weapons, silver treasures, jewellery, household items and many other interesting and unique things of the Viking Age, stored in Ukrainian museums, will be temporarily exhibited in Denmark.
According to Mads Kähler Holst, the Eastern campaigns of the Vikings are underexposed, and they are not similar to their Western expansion, in particular because the Vikings did not implement their culture in the territory of Kyivan Rus. It is known that the Vikings or Normans, Varangians, or Rusy, engaged in trade here and became merchants, were present at the courts of Rus rulers, were hired to fight in dynastic wars, settled and mingled with the local population.
The video presentation of the forthcoming exhibition states that this is a new story which only in the last ten years begins to take shape. It will demonstrate the battle of the Vikings for power and wealth, including fur and silver of the Caliphate. This is also the story of the Scandinavians, who helped create trade centres on the rivers, and eventually established Kyivan Rus itself. The Vikings, who became part of multiethnic, multicultural societies, assimilated and became “Rus people”.
The exhibition “Rus – Vikings in the East” will open on 19 January 2022 and will last until 11 September 2022. The official opening of the exhibition will be one of the events marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Denmark. Her Majesty The Queen of Denmark Margrethe II is expected to take part in the event.
The Danish Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Moesgaard specializes in conducting in-depth historical research, including archaeological research excavations, as well as presenting their results through innovative scenography and storytelling. The museum’s ethnographic collections contain almost 50,000 artifacts from around the world. The museum is visited by more than 400,000 people annually. The museum is also an architectural landmark located in a picturesque setting.