Just back from another year at the Gudvangen viking market in Norway. Though this year had a bit of a twist; since last year, they have built an entire viking village where the market normally is. So this year, the market was interspersed throughout the village with a little overspill which really changed the dynamics of the market, both for us traders and the public/tourists.
As usual i spent a few days helping out on my friends farm, and also had time to make myself another table to go with the new tent i got for this year as my previous tent just wasn't up to scratch. It's not easy setting up a full iron age stall when you have to take pretty much everything over on a plane, a lot of good kit gets left behind due to it's weight so im lucky i can make and store furniture at my friends at least
Some shots of the village
The Half-Goat stall
nice backdrop to my tent
Teaching leather tankard workshops
nice chilled evenings in the tent
multi national storytelling. I usually step in as the Scot with a bit of Doric
Some firesteel pouches I made based on a 6th century saxon find. the firesteels have a buckle rivetted on to keep the steel attached to the pouch so it can't get lost. Sadly i only snapped this pic before i sold them all so i need to make some more and photograph them properly!
The Loki Run. A bit of harmful fun. volunteers are called for, usually young lads. rope is tied to a log, and the other end to the volunteers ahem...shall we say tinder pouches?... Not a race I particularly fancied running! especially after seeing them all limping the next day. But hillarious to watch
The best thing about these kinds of markets is meeting and making new friends. I met Engebret the hunter one evening and we got to chatting about skins. He had a pine marten he had trapped and tanned, and turns out he had been looking for a new wallet. Always keen for a barter we both ended up happy, and his wife took this picture of our trade which was a lovely sentiment.
As usual there were so many magic moments that just never get caught on camera, as it's more fun to just be in the moment. Met some truly amazing people this year as always, made some good trades and treated myself and the missus to a few precious things. As always it goes too fast, and i'm already thinking ahead to next year
Thanks for reading. Hamish
As usual i spent a few days helping out on my friends farm, and also had time to make myself another table to go with the new tent i got for this year as my previous tent just wasn't up to scratch. It's not easy setting up a full iron age stall when you have to take pretty much everything over on a plane, a lot of good kit gets left behind due to it's weight so im lucky i can make and store furniture at my friends at least
Some shots of the village
The Half-Goat stall
nice backdrop to my tent
Teaching leather tankard workshops
nice chilled evenings in the tent
multi national storytelling. I usually step in as the Scot with a bit of Doric
Some firesteel pouches I made based on a 6th century saxon find. the firesteels have a buckle rivetted on to keep the steel attached to the pouch so it can't get lost. Sadly i only snapped this pic before i sold them all so i need to make some more and photograph them properly!
The Loki Run. A bit of harmful fun. volunteers are called for, usually young lads. rope is tied to a log, and the other end to the volunteers ahem...shall we say tinder pouches?... Not a race I particularly fancied running! especially after seeing them all limping the next day. But hillarious to watch
The best thing about these kinds of markets is meeting and making new friends. I met Engebret the hunter one evening and we got to chatting about skins. He had a pine marten he had trapped and tanned, and turns out he had been looking for a new wallet. Always keen for a barter we both ended up happy, and his wife took this picture of our trade which was a lovely sentiment.
As usual there were so many magic moments that just never get caught on camera, as it's more fun to just be in the moment. Met some truly amazing people this year as always, made some good trades and treated myself and the missus to a few precious things. As always it goes too fast, and i'm already thinking ahead to next year
Thanks for reading. Hamish
