Vikings: half term activities at Hull and East Riding Museum

Just in case you didn’t know, we do some amazing (free!) events at Hull and East Riding Museum.  This February half term holiday, we put on some activities linked to our World Cultures collections.

A Viking storyteller telling a tale

This time we focused on Scandinavia with a Viking theme...

On the Tuesday, we had a visit from a Viking skald from Jorvik Vikingr.  The Vikings had an oral tradition, telling stories to each other to pass knowledge on and spread news.  Their Viking skalds or storytellers would recite the stories often moving from place to place.

The Viking storyteller opens his arms at a
dramatic part of the story

Our skald told tales of the gods, kings and heroes.  If you like Thor, you’d have loved this!  We found out how Thor got his hammer and learned about the bifrost (the rainbow bridge which connects Asgard, home of the gods, to earth).  For one younger visitor, this was a highlight - ‘I liked the bit about Thor’.

Some visitors showing off their Viking longships

It wasn’t all about the gods though – we also learned about how a man managed to save his life by creating a poem.  One visitor said ‘it was really adventurous, it was like I was really there!’   After each tale, there was a bit of a pause so that our skald could have a swig of Hull’s finest mead to wet his whistle and also have a chat to the surrounding crowd about Viking life.  Some visitors were lucky enough to try on his helmet and brandish a shield and sword!

Then we had our  Viking Voyagers event on Thursday.  In this craft activity people made their own Viking longship from cardboard, art straws and string.  Everyone got creative, with some very colourful creations (particular highlights include a rainbow hull and a beautiful red and white striped sail).  We even had some modifications and upgrades, some people turned their Viking shields into wheels for the ship, there were some double sails (akin to a galleon!) and multiple oars.

A big thank you to the Absolutely Cultured volunteers who helped out at Viking Voyagers – they were positive and friendly, stars at the quick table tidy and encouraging people to let us know how they found the event.  These heroes in bright blue are all fabulous, friendly and a huge support.

Again – we had loads of great feedback about the event – people loving getting creative at these wonderful free activities.

We've got loads more amazing events planned in for the Easter holidays, find out all about them here.