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My Weekly Powerup | #club100 | The mysterious woman of the Viking Age - Denmark | #steemexclusive / 17 photos

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5 days agoSteemit4 min read

In 2022, I visited the photo exhibition by Danish Jim Lyngvild. A creative designer and photographer who has a historical interest. He has had several photo exhibitions in Denmark. I have been visiting three of them. The exhibition in this post was the latest I went to see. The place is Køge Museum, south of Copenhagen. The theme is the mysterious woman of the Viking Age – the völva. Photos are taken with my phone. Unfortunatly they don't do Lyngvilds photos any justice. I think he is amazing designer and photographer.

THE EXHIBITION

Equiped with an audioguide we started with the photo exhibition, before we visited the rest of the museum. Jim Lyngvild is a creative designer and photographer. He has chosen contemporary Danish women for his project. Then he dressed them up in costumes and took these beautiful photos. He is portraying Thorbjørg Lillevøvle together with her nine sisters. Thorbjørg is one of the figurines in the saga about Erik the Red. Noone knows what they looked like, so what you see on Lyngvild's photos is his own interpretation and the little information he has been able to find.

The völva was a mysterious woman during the Viking Age. She was respected and feared, because of her magical powers and her ability to predict the future. She would exercise the ritual of “seidr” which is an condition of ecstasy where she allows her soul to leave her body. When she does that it enables her to collect information and knowledge about other worlds and the future.

From the Islandic sagas we know about her «seidr» rituals. Through the audioguide we could listen to a conversation between Jim Lyngvild and archaeologist Leszek Gardela, an expert in religion practised by the Vikings. He has done some research when it comes to the ritual practices.

We probably won't know for sure what kind of role this woman once played, but archaeogists have found graves which holds equipment with völva wands, ointments and herbs. The findings do give some support to who this mystic woman was. But we can't be sure. The exhibition also ask the question about what happened to this mystical woman when Denmark was introduced to Christianity?

JIM LYNGVILD

He was born in 1978 and educated at the Fashion Design Academy in Copenhagen. In adition to photographing, he also writes books. He lives on the island called Fyn in a self designed Viking Castle.

In 2021, I was visiting his photo exhibition about “Danish Kings and Quens” in Helsingør. The costumes were designed by him. He found contemporary Danish men and women who looked very much like the king or queen they were portraying ( only those where we have paintings to tell what they looked like). The Danish Royal line started with Gorm den Gamle (958?). The exhibition was held on Kronborg Castle ( the castle of Shakespeare's Hamlet).

In 2022 I visited his exhibition at Vordingborg Castle called «Queens of Power» and «Blood and diamonds». He told the story about some of the most powerful queens in Denmark. Blood and diamonds were the tragic story about the Russian tsar and his family.

Sources:
Information boards at the exibition and the information told by Lyngvil via the audioguide.

CC @patjewell

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