Ulfhrafnar

Vivat Athelstan Rex! Saturday's adventure was to welcome visitors to The Rest Is History festival at Hampton court.

Hwæt! We have heard of the spear-Danes, in the days of old - and we would likely have heard of their deeds accompanied by the playing of a lyre, like the one played by Eadwin. We think that bards (“scops” in Old English, or “skalds” in Old Norse) would accompany their storytelling with the lyre, and Bede’s story of Cædmon refers to the community of Whitby Abbey passing round a lyre while talking and singing after dinner. Eadwin particularly enjoys reciting The Dream of the Rood.

Eadwin’s lyre is based on one that was interred in the ornate chamber burial of Seaxa, 6th-century prince of Essex, at Prittlewell. Befitting a prince, Seaxa’s lyre was decorated with two gilt discs inlaid with garnets. The other famous find of an early medieval English lyre is the one buried with King Rædwald of East Anglia at Sutton Hoo, and that instrument was also decorated with gilded and jewelled plates. Finds of instruments are very rare, so we are incredibly luck that these two high-status men, who died in the era of furnished burials, were laid to rest with their lyres.

You can explore the Prittlewell burial chamber here: https://prittlewellprincelyburial.org/

And these photos were taken at an event where we were the guests of our friends in the Dark Ages Society.

We’re at Bloxham Steam Rally near Banbury this weekend - we’ll be having a weapons display and skirmish today and tomorrow.

This weekend, we’re having a crafting get-together - chilling out with a mix of authentic and inauthentic tools to make and maintain our kit.

Who lives in a house like this? Snazzily-dressed early medieval English people, that’s who!

This weekend, some of our group were invited to spend the weekend at West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village by our friends the Dark Ages Society.

The team at West Stow have recreated a number of early medieval buildings - not just to create an open-air museum, but also as experimental archaeology projects. Their experiments have gone as far as deliberately burning down structures to see how this affects future archaeological traces.

That's the silver fittings finished on my type L Anglo-Saxon sword. The next stage is a final adjustment to get the fit perfect, and then final polish and then fitting it all together!

Examples of high-status female costume from two group members, and one very welcome guest. Ragnhild is a Danish lady, resplendent in brocaded silk from the east and gilded/silvered tortoise brooches. English ladies Eanswith and Wulfhild are wearing dresses that may not look so flashy, but would have been very expensive due to the amount of madder needed to dye the linen. Wulfhild is also wearing a silk cap, while Eanswith’s wimple is incredibly fine wool

Cakes and ale in Abingdon town square to celebrate the 850th anniversary of St Edmund! Thanks to the Oxford Mail for a lovely write-up: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/26113990.vikings-join-historic-towns-cakes-ale-festival/

(Note to potential clients: we will always take an offer of cakes and/or ale into serious consideration when negotiating a public appearance).

We’re very proud to be awarded The Vikings’ award for combat group of the year! ⚔️