Vikingskipshuset på Bygdøy, Oslo

Lowry visited the Vikingskipshuset på Bygdøy (The Viking Ship Museum) with Nordahl Grieg on his 1931 trip to Norway.


Lowry refers to the visit in his novel Ultramarine transposing it to a visit by the novel's protagonist Dana Hilliot  with his girl friend Janet Travena; "I thought that - after we had dined at Jacques' Bagatelle in the Bygdø Allé, that day we saw the Viking ship..." (Pg. 52).

Located at Bygdøy in Oslo, Norway. It is part of theMuseum of Cultural History of the University of Oslo, and houses archaeological finds from Tune, Gokstad (Sandefjord), Oseberg (Tønsberg) and the Borre mound cemetery.


The main attractions at the Viking Ship Museum are the Oseberg ship, Gokstad ship and Tune ship. Additionally, the Viking Age display includes sledges, beds, a horse cart, wood carving, tent components, buckets and other grave goods. Many fully or nearly fully intact Viking ships are on display. Its most famous ship is the completely whole Oseberg ship.

When Lowry visited the museum in 1931 it had not been completed and only the Oseberg ship was on display. Lowry recommends to his wife Jan Gabrial to visit the ship in a letter dated Summer 1933; " And I should visit Bygdø itself & see the Viking ship & drink wine & look out on the fjord. (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 130).

In 1913, Swedish professor Gabriel Gustafson proposed a specific building to house Viking Age finds that were discovered at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The Gokstad and Oseberg ships had been stored in temporary shelters at the University of Oslo. An architectural contest was held, and Arnstein Arneberg won.

The hall for the Oseberg ship was built with funding from the Parliament of Norway, and the ship was moved from the University shelters in 1926. The halls for the ships from Gokstad and Tune were completed in 1932. Building of the last hall was delayed, partly due to theSecond World War, and this hall was completed in 1957. It houses most of the other finds, mostly from Oseberg.

The Oseberg ship (Norwegian: Osebergskipet) is a well-preserved Viking ship discovered in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold county, Norway.

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