It was a bitterly acold January greeting successful Copenhagen, Denmark. The time earlier had begun fractional a satellite distant and was spent connected airplanes, conscionable to yet illness successful her edifice room, exhausted. But now, Sarah Theller, a Fresno State postgraduate pupil successful art, excitedly moved done the brisk greeting aerial towards the National Museum of Denmark to get determination arsenic soon arsenic the doors opened.
The entity she came to spot successful the expansive halls and cavernous galleries was tiny.
“It’s possibly the width of my pinky, but it’s a small spot shorter than my thumb. It’s precise small,” Theller said. “It’s casual to miss due to the fact that of however tiny it is. But I besides knew what I was looking for, and I was capable to conscionable zero in.”
The tiny figurine from Late Iron Age Scandinavia is called the “Valkyrie from Hårby.” It was recovered successful 2012 by an amateur archeologist. The portion was shaped successful metallic and gilded with a bladed furniture of gold.
Theller had antecedently traveled arsenic a survey overseas student, but this acquisition was different. Traveling unsocial allowed her to spell beyond the radical outings and lectures and research her assistance freely. With fiscal assistance from the Dean’s Council Annual Fund, funded successful portion by the community’s Day of Giving donations, she went to Copenhagen to survey the tiny figurine arsenic portion of her thesis, “The Gilded Valkyrie: How Christianization and the Binary Concepts Distort Interpretation of Viking Iconography.”
While successful Copenhagen, she met with Dr. Peter Pentz, an archaeologist and researcher with the National Museum of Denmark. While she could not personally conscionable with Dr. Leszek Dardela, elder researcher astatine the National Museum of Denmark, she did talk with him connected Zoom. Both researchers are heavy cited successful her thesis.
Growing up, Theller was obsessed with Norse mythology and stories of her ancestral Vikings, which she describes arsenic a blend of myth, past and Christian Scandinavian tradition. She loved the past images, symbols and patterns of the Viking world.
[Podcast interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfkZ3eJ7vdc]
While she was besides fascinated by Greek and Roman creation and mythological narratives, she began to announcement that Viking creation was not successful the textbooks. She besides observed that the Viking stories she had grown up with had striking parallels with stories successful the Christian Bible.
“While researching Vikings’ history, beliefs and culture, it became evident that determination are similarities betwixt Christian and Norse tales due to the fact that stories of the Vikings were not written by Viking Age Scandinavians themselves,” Theller said successful her thesis. “Due to the inherent limitations of Christian-authored sources regarding pagan belief, and due to the fact that we cannot conscionable inquire Vikings for clarification, we indispensable usage extant written sources with utmost caution and lone successful examination with different surviving archaeological evidence.”
Theller posits that due to the fact that the Vikings lacked a blase written language, their past was written by outsiders who were inherently opposed to pagan beliefs and traditions. The sex norms of the Christian lens, she said, person besides been applied to past Norse iconography. These representations tin pb to perplexing results and imaginable disorder betwixt myths and world successful the humanities record.
“Because determination was this Christian power and this Christian conversion, I looked astatine however we conceptualized these peoples aft Christianization – due to the fact that Christianization is what near america a batch of the grounds we usage to accidental what Vikings believed in,” Theller said.
As Theller researched Viking Age women and Valkyries, the Hårby fig kept popping up. With agelong hairsbreadth tied successful a knot, a formal and weapons, it seemed to beryllium among the champion cases of however a Christian sex lens could distort Viking past oregon perchance adjacent confuse the world of mundane beingness with myths.
“This is simply a unsocial figure, being truthful tiny yet three-dimensional and mega-detailed with sword, shield and elaborate dress,” explained Theller. “It’s a precise almighty figure, and it showcases precise antithetic sex socialization than we are utilized to, meaning we typically bash not subordinate swords oregon weapons with women. They are typically thought of arsenic ‘men’s objects.’”
Seeing the figurine and speaking with scholars successful idiosyncratic brought Theller a deeper knowing of the taxable beyond what she could surmise done online research. But beyond that world experience, it allowed her to link with her past astatine her ancestral land.
“It felt similar being home. It conscionable felt precise comfortable. I felt safe. It felt acquainted successful a way. But astatine the aforesaid time, wholly new.”
In summation to her thesis, Theller besides presented “Ragnarök,” her postgraduate creation accumulation astatine M Street, during the May 2023 ArtHop. The exhibition, she said, complemented her thesis arsenic she explored the conception of Ragnarök oregon the twilight of the gods successful Old Norse. The conception is akin to Armageddon, an extremity of each things. But arsenic things end, it besides marks the opening of thing new.
In May 2023, Theller graduated with a master’s grade successful art. Theller’s thesis, chaired by Dr. Keith Jordan, received the 2023 College of Arts and Humanities Outstanding Thesis Award astatine her commencement ceremony.
Fresno State’s yearly 24-hour, online Day of Giving volition beryllium Wednesday, March 26. The College of Arts and Humanities relies connected backstage fiscal support, specified arsenic funds raised from the Day of Giving, to enactment experiential learning activities for students. Visit fresnostate.dayofgiving.edu to larn however to enactment the College of Arts and Humanities today.
