Med horn på hjälmarna och blicken i fjärran – om bilden av vikingar och vikingatiden i dagens samhälle

Sammanfattning: This paper asks the question “how are the Vikings and the Viking age portrayed in today’s society?”. With the help of six different case studies the image of the Vikings and the Viking age which flourishes in today’s society is criticized on the basis of three perspectives: ethnicity, religion and gender. These different case studies are group in four different genres: expositions, books for children and adolescents, historical overviews and the TV-series “Vikings”. The results of this paper shows us that all these different cases had an ambition of changing the stereotypical image of the Vikings and the Viking age which still lingers since the 19th century. It also showed that the cases gave different images even though they all have had access to the newest research.