The ‘We Vikings’ exhibition, at the Fries Museum in the Netherlands, presents a new outlook on Viking culture and is spread across six exhibition spaces. While the term ‘Viking’ traditionally evokes images of ‘ferocious, blonde Scandinavian warriors who went on raids along the coasts of Europe with big ships,’ recent scientific research has concluded that this vision needed nuancing. The exhibition shifts the classic image of ‘Vikings as invaders’ and instead presents how the close contacts between Frisians and Vikings resulted in a shared North Sea culture.

Britain’s Queen Victoria is probably the best-known female monarch in European history. Her name evokes the image of a dour, black-clad queen who inspired an era. But there was another side to Victoria: a young, romantic woman with an extraordinary destiny, who married her great love, Prince Albert, and had nine children. When she was 42, tragedy struck when Albert died suddenly, and her life turned to darkness.