Without new volunteers, the Viking Information Center (VIC) in Den Oever has to close its doors. To prevent that doomsday scenario, they called in NH Helpt. Josien Smit receives presenter Isabella Prins in the VIC on Wieringen in a real Viking costume.
The volunteers are desperately needed, Josien Smit emphasizes. The Viking Information Museum cannot open at the moment, so they are looking for several people who want to be hosts in the museum once a month. And to someone who wants to manage social media.
During the tour of the museum, Josien Smit shows the collection with runic signs. The Vikings did not write much, so little documentation has been preserved, says Smit. They did use writing, for example, for gravestones or places that needed protection.
Further on in the museum is a scale model of a Viking ship. These ships were quite wide with a flat bottom, which made them stable at sea and had the advantage that the Vikings could also easily sail up the river. “So you weren’t actually safe from them anywhere,” says Smit.
The reason that the Viking Museum is located in Wieringen is due to the discovery of the Viking treasures in 1997. A collection consisting of silver coins from all over Europe and even Persia and a replica of another treasure, the original of which is safely housed at the Museum of Antiquities in Leiden.
Smit was still a little girl when the treasure was found and has been captivated by the Vikings ever since. Her mother already made a special Viking dress for her. The Vikings were not sweethearts, but neither were the Christians in medieval Europe, says Smit. And they had modern ideas for that time: women were allowed to divorce and they took care of the finances.
The museum is therefore desperately looking for volunteers to remain open. Look upNH Helps for the call.