The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/heritage)
There is a question that I’ve asked myself sometimes and that I haven’t had an answer to for a long time: What do I get from working with the ancestors? From all the spirits and all the entities that I could work with – the deities, the fae, spirits of the land, egregores – why should I work with the departed specifically?
Exhausted, sweaty, and painfully hungry, I take my back into the gravel road of what must be Sōdra Ugglarp. On the horizon a long earthen-colored brick building stands against the deep blue sky, like a wall. In front of it, I notice a concrete-pit filled with horse manure. Closest to me, nearly as long as the barn, lies the stone ship, shaped by dozens of massive standing stones, like teeth of a giant rising from the green earth.
“What is this?” I ask the receptionist. “Oh,” she replies, “we just opened the exhibit earlier today. It is the world’s oldest runestone.”
Lyonel Perabo reviews “The Museum of Other People” by Adam Kuper and uses his experiences as a museum guide to consider the problems of repatriating artifacts and artworks.
As my wife takes our daughter to bed for a well-deserved nap, Hanne takes her bicycle out of the shed, hands me the map, a helmet, and a bottle of water. In less time than it takes to recite the runes of the elder futhark, I am out adventuring.