Hey Blog! This week we’re turning the clock back even further from mediaeval history, and going back in time to the Viking period!
Last Saturday was a YAC (Young Archaeologists’ Club) day, and we were booked to go to the Viking festival near Derby, but unfortunately no one apart from us was able to make it. As the group ticket booked for YAC could not be refunded, we had the chance to invite friends, and we arranged to pick up one of my friends, and her mum, on our way there. I chose to go in Viking dress (picture at the end).
The Vikings were a group of peoples from Scandinavia, in north Europe. They were warriors, farmers, traders, raiders, settlers, seafarers, discoverers… the list just goes on and on. They lived around the end of the first millennium A.D./C.E., and roamed half around the world. They went deep into Russia (the Vikings there were known as the ‘Rus’, which is probably the source of the name) and also inhabited Iceland, Greenland, and even got to America, albeit only reaching to the very eastern edge, and became the first Europeans to do it – you lose, Columbus!
The Vikings also conquered half of England, the half that became known as the Danelaw. At this time, England was split into Saxon kingdoms, the most famous being Wessex, as that was the one over which Alfred the Great reigned. It was Alfred, in fact, that arranged the Treaty of Wedmore and Chippenham between the English and the Danes. Mercia, just to the north, was split in half when the Danelaw came into force, with Vikings controlling down to Derby and Repton, its Viking capital. As I live in the Danish half of Mercia, I have an extra period in the ground that I can dig up! Later, their descendants conquered the whole of England at the Battle of Hastings, where the Normans won. Can you see the Viking root of Nor-mans? Yes, the Norman William the Conqueror was a descendant of the North-men, some of the Vikings who invaded France. It’s said that the leader of another hoard of North-men took a small bar of silver from the city gates of Paris as a souvenir!
Entry to the festival involved a long off-road drive along a dirt track, but it was worth it, and super fun! There was a small pond, which they were floating boats on. Unfortunately, we didn’t go on the boats, but I probably could have sailed them with a few more deck hands (see Ahoy There for more information)! Then there was a battle ground, an arena for fighting, and rows upon rows of tents – I don’t think the camp of the Great Heathen Army (865) could have looked more Viking! The only difference was the unauthentic portaloos, which prevented the more traditional stinking pit of a camp, with only a few cesspits! About half of the tents were re-enactment tents, with people doing old crafts and showing how they would have lived in the Viking times. The other half were traders’ tents. These were all full of interesting things, one, for example was a metalworkers’ tent; other tents held cloth and clothing; more had trinkets, bracelets, necklaces; some food; another leather; one furniture; then yet more covering several of these things. I bought a pewter pin in the shape of a sword, which completed the Viking outfit perfectly!
At the end, we bought ice creams, and went to see the battle. It was rather fun, but I wouldn’t like to take part – the commentator said re-enacting old battles was about half as dangerous as rugby! However, watching it was incredibly exiting and rounded off a perfect day!