Dissidents, Activists, and Journalists Gathered in Norway for the Oslo Freedom Forum
One of the major sites in Oslo is the Viking Ship Museum, located in the city’s leafy Bygdoy Peninsula. The museum houses archaeological finds from three Viking ship burials of the 9th century A.D., discovered in various Norwegian farms and clearings in the late 19th century. The burials included two actual, formerly sea-faring Viking vessels that are nearly intact, from their severe, almost blade-like hulls, to the serpentine spiral patterns that still cap one of the great wooden ships’ towering bow.
The Viking ships are an imposing sight, but the museum inspires a certain bafflement as well. In 9th century Europe—long after the Christianization of much of the continent, around the same time as the compilation of the Talmud, and during a period when places like Fez and Baghdad were already thriving metropolises—there were still Pagan cultures that performed human sacrifices and had the sort of death-related neuroses that convince entire societies that it’s absolutely necessary to bury a perfectly usable boat in the middle of an inland field.