Norse Myth in the Space Age: from Viking to Valhalla (Dr Dale Kedwards)

When NASA named their Mars mission the Viking program, they established the Viking voyages of exploration and settlement as a new metaphor for the exploration of our solar system.

This talk asks why the Middle Ages have been so appealing to the scientists whose work it is to understand the cosmos. It shows how medieval imagery has penetrated the deepest reaches of our solar system. On Jupiter’s moon Callisto, we will visit the largest impact crater in the solar system, Valhalla, which takes its name from the hall of the Norse god Óðinn, its air is sweet with the scent of mead and woodsmoke. On Jupiter's moon Io, we will encounter Surtr, a volcano named for a giant in Norse myth who wields fire, poetically described in Old Norse poetry as 'the harm of branches', against the gods at Ragnarök. And in the Earth's own ionosphere, we will meet a Norse god of the dawn, put there by space scientists to study the Sun's effects on the upper atmosphere.

In this talk, a specialist in Old Norse literature seeks to understand why planetary scientists and international space agencies use the Middle Ages to think about space and its exploration, and what this reveals about our cosmic imagination.