ABSTRACT
The understanding of the history of Vikings in the Scandinavian countries is much different from what is commonly known outside of Scandinavia. To address this, one of the authors of this paper met the leaders of the Viking Village, a reproduction Village that uses its natural environment and cultural landscape to tell the story of Vikings. During these discussions with these leaders, they explored the potential of the Village to utilize the ecotourism design to influence cultural awareness of Viking life that is contrary to popular lore. The leader invited the author and her students to visit the Village, work with the Village residents and volunteers, and spend 3 days and two nights living the Viking life. Cultural understanding of any ethnic group can be best studied using ethnographic method of research. Thus, to better understand the life of the Vikings as recreated in the Viking Village, an ethnographic method of investigation was found to be most appropriate. One of the authors is a qualified researcher in ethnography.
