MY EAST FUNEN – The Viking King from Ladby & activity for primary schools

Dialogical tour and activity course at the Viking Museum Ladby

45 years before Harald Bluetooth wrote his name into Danish history with the Jelling Stone, a rich king was buried in a magnificent Viking ship inside a burial mound near Ladby on East Funen. We don’t know what the king’s name was, but we do know that his unusually expensive burial equipment shows that a special Viking was buried here. Who was this Funen king of Ladby? And why did he get the most magnificent Danish Viking burial we know? Accompanied by our Viking teacher, we learn who the King of Ladby was:

• We learn how the 1,000-year-old discoveries from the Ship’s Grave can tell stories.
• We learn more about life in the Viking Age, how it resembles – and does not resemble – our own lives.
• We discover how the Ladby King is connected to Harald Bluetooth and Gorm the Old.

The course is targeted the specific grade level – from a focus on specific knowledge to reflection on the concept of power. The course is also particularly targeted at the history-canon point about the Jelling Stone.

How does it take place?

• Tour of “the Death Ship” exhibition, at the burial site and inside the Ladby King’s “Ship’s Grave”. Along the way, we see both a reconstruction of the Ladby king’s burial and visit the Ladby Ship, which stands exactly as the archaeologists left it after the excavation. We also touch copies of the Ladby King’s burial gifts and get close to the original archaeological finds.

Which method do we use?

• The teaching is dialogue-based, and the aim is for the students to wonder and actively reflect on the Viking Age. We know a lot about the Viking Age, but there is also a lot we don’t know. Along the way, we therefore include the students’ prior knowledge, questions and imagination.

We will also feel the Viking Age firsthand with an activity. The Vikings themselveves arranged their activities according to the weather and we do the same. If the weather is good, we work with sailors and collaborate outdoors, but if the weather is bad, we are inside, working with Viking Age craftsmanship and materials.

Shared Learning Goals:

• The pupils learn about the conditions of life before their time and gain insights into continuity and change.
• The pupils learn to use archaeological and historical sources to learn about the past.
• The pupils become familiar with their own place in history and experience their own democratic society mirrored in a non-democratic period in Denmark’s history – the Viking Age.