Thor: Ragnarok may be an important case study for the cultural appropriation of the vikings, but it is far from the only one. Over the past decades—and centuries—there has been a long tradition of popular engagement with the viking tradition, encompassing many trends, forms, and manifestations. Some are relatively benign, like reconstructed ‘viking’ festivals. Others can be genuinely dangerous, like the appropriation of viking symbols by extremist groups. In her article, “Dressing for Ragnarok: Commodifying, Appropriating, and Fetishizing the Vikings,” Madeline Walsh conducts a literature review, compiling a list of viking appropriations. She concludes that a large part of viking media has little to do with scholarly reconstructions of the vikings, but it also has positive effects: “importantly, the way in which archaeology and popular culture about the vikings interact is almost a symbiotic relationship, neither would be successful without the other to help bolster it” (71). It’s easy to see Walsh’s point: Thor: Ragnarok does fetishize the viking image, and many of the scholars working on the Völuspá are distant from the popular discourse. How might this gap be bridged? Have there been moments in this exhibit that differ significantly from what you’ve learned about the vikings from pop-culture? Are there pieces of either Thor: Ragnarok or the Völuspá scholarship that the other ‘side’ might benefit from knowing?
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