March
09
/ 2025
Humans and animals have lived together or side by side throughout the ages. Modern human society is largely organized on the principle that people are separate from animals and have a unique existence, but this has not always been the case, especially in Scandinavian culture. During the Viking Age, the relationship between animals and humans was more complex than what is reflected in the modern viewpoint. “The hierarchy we see today, where people dominate animals, did not exist,” explained Hanne Lovise Aannestad, an archaeologist and researcher at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, in an interview published by Science Norway. Transformations into Wolves and Bears According to Aannestad, the Vikings believed in metamorphosis, a concept where humans and gods
