When a 1200-year-old ship moves house

The pages of Norse mythology say that the corpse of the god Baldr—the gods also died—was placed in a boat, set on fire, and pushed out to sea. The god's spirit would ascend to Vallahala, the afterlife, along with the smoke.

But mythology is one thing, and history is another. Although the beautiful image of the burning ship illuminating the night became popular, it was much more common for Viking chiefs to be buried on ships—yes, but on land.

One such grave was found in 1904 on a farm near Tønsberg, Norway. Today, this longship, named Oseberg, is housed in the Viking Ship Museum in Bygdøy, Oslo. But it is about to move to the newly built Viking Age Museum.

Moving a 1,200-year-old ship is no easy task—even if the distance from the old to the new location is a mere hundred meters—and for this purpose, a steel structure was built where the ship will travel, with the help of a crane. We'll learn how the operation went on September 10th.