Over the course of 2 days last week, participants of the Linguistic and Cultural Studies Lecture Course of the Department of Linguistics and Translation took historical and educational ‘trips’ to a branch of the State Historical Museum (SHM), where an interesting exhibition is currently taking place, introducing visitors to the material culture of the Viking Age, which lasted from the end of the VIII to the middle of the XI century. At that time, the ‘people of the North’ were exploring the various routes of Eastern Europe and became part of the Old Russian society.

‘This is not the first project that the Department of Linguistics and Translation conducts together with the SHM branch. So when the museum opened the exhibition ‘Vikings. The Way to the East‘,’ says Sergey Aleksandrovich Pukhanov, head of the Linguistic and Culture Lecture Course, candidate of philological sciences, ‘the idea to hold a lecture that is given as a part of the course on the history and culture of the target language “The Scandinavian Conquest of England” on the basis of the museum immediately arose. This made it possible to provide students with a more complete picture of the Viking Age, the heroic military campaigns, the life and culture of the Scandinavians, the nature of their trade and diplomatic relations with immediate and distant neighbours. By combining the educational lecture with a visit to the exhibition, we looked at the Viking routes to both East and West’.  

The ‘Time of Vikings’ project began with an acquaintance with the museum exposition, which the participants visited with the Pushkin map. The rich collection of archaeological monuments presented at the exhibition could not fail to impress. Many students made a discovery for themselves: not all of them suspected that the nearest Viking settlement was only 40 km away from our regional centre! The exhibition included exhibits found during excavations of the Supruty settlement, located in the Shchyokinsky district of the Tula region. Until the middle of the X century this place near Shchyokino was a major military and trade centre of the Oka-Don interfluve, which allowed to control all trade routes.

The acquaintance with the Viking Age continued in the museum's learning centre. The participants of the Linguistic and Culture Country Studies Lecture Course were warmly welcomed by Larisa Anatolyevna Kozlova, Director of the Tula branch of the SHM, and Yekaterina Nikolayevna Sheldyaeva, Head of the Scientific and Educational Work Department. They thanked the students of the department for participation in the project and visiting the exhibition and told about the plans of the museum, new exhibitions and projects of the branch.

The lecture on the history of England turned into an interactive session in English with a lot of interesting tasks. Anastasiya Borodina, a fourth-year student shares her impressions: ‘The cool lecture, funny videos and tasks helped to break a lot of stereotypes about Vikings, which we formed after watching various films and TV series. Thank you very much for such a thorough development of the event!!!’ 

Students learnt about the ancient ‘PR project’ of the Vikings, as a result of which the island, almost completely covered with snow and ice, became known as Greenland - ‘Green land’; about the origin of the popular misconception that the Vikings did not wear helmets with horns; about the mistake of a medieval translator, which led to the myth that the Vikings drank from the helmets of their enemies. They also learnt how Vikings used onion soup to diagnose the seriousness of a wound received in battle! During the class, students watched and discussed videos in English, performed various translation exercises, acted out skits about the legendary Wessex king Alfred the Great and the Scandinavian king of England Canute II, read Kipling's poems about this historical period in the original and in translation. Of particular interest to linguistics students were the exercises on the borrowings from the ancient Scandinavian language.

According to scientists, 26% of the vocabulary of modern English is made up of words of Scandinavian origin. Yes, such words known to every schoolchild as egg, anger, cake, mistake, knife, take, want, husband, window - all of them are Scandinavian ‘interventionists’ who invaded the Anglo-Saxon language in the era of Viking domination in England.

The project participants would like to thank the wonderful guides of the branch of the State Historical Museum who worked with our groups, especially as 21 February was World Guide Day!

And don't forget to visit the exhibition ‘Vikings. The Way to the East’ in the branch of the State Historical Museum. It will last until 19 May 2025.

Photo by Darya Yanchuk