If you're like me and the extent of your Norse history comes from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, then you might benefit from attending Let's Vike It, the region's first Viking-themed festival.
Bringing Norse legacies to life through engaging exhibits and hands-on history, the fair aims to showcase a more realistic depiction of the oft-mythologized Viking Age, spanning from about 800 to 1050.
Kari Thompson, who also goes by the Old Norse name Hrafn Songr, is the founder and coordinator for Let's Vike It and a member of Aasveig, a local nonprofit of experimental historians with a passion for all things Norse and educating others through "living history" demonstrations.
"We wanted to create a fair that was going to be educational and fun," Thompson says. "A safe environment for people to go to but also to be historically correct."
For those less-versed in the intricacies of immersive festivals like Renaissance fairs, Thompson says Let's Vike It differs because of its focus and commitment to education and historical accuracy, whereas a typical Renn fair may be less concerned with period facts.
"There's a lot of fairs out there, this one is geared more towards the educational aspect of who the Viking people were and what they did," she says. "There's more things for people to do, hands-on, where they're actually going to learn something. We're excited about bringing history to life in a very different way."
Among those immersive attractions is a traveling museum tent called the Fregna Tjald, which means "history canopy" in Norse. Equipped with artifacts used from the 700s to 1100s, the tent puts daily life for the Norse people on display through textiles, jewelry, items used for personal hygiene and more.
Visitors can experience many other demonstrations during the one-day festival, such as how beekeeping was done in the Viking Age and how blacksmiths created weapons and armor. The Pend Oreille Noxious Weed Control Board is also teaching how Vikings and medieval people used plants for medicinal and other purposes. Thompson hopes sessions like these help visitors gain a more holistic understanding of the Norse people as they wander through the fair's recreated Viking village.
Thompson explains that the Vikings were not a race, but an occupation. She and other fair organizers hope to dispel the common assumption that Vikings were only pillage-obsessed barbarians.
"Yes, that was a part of it," she says. "But they were not the only people during that time engaged in warfare. They have been portrayed as barbarians, but if you look at who they really were, they wanted to establish more land to farm and grow crops for their family. Their roots are very family-oriented."
Like the Vikings themselves, the event is also family-oriented, with many activities for children like a shield-making class. Kids can learn what shields were used for and how they were made.
Besides its museum-like attractions, the event offers Viking Age games, and a plethora of vendors selling clothing, jewelry and handmade crafts like wood-burned items. Fighters will demonstrate Viking combat, and many will be dressed up in traditional Norse clothing.
Thompson emphasizes the fair's goal is to present Norse and Viking history in a fresh and engaging way. Attention to detail and a chance to explore the complexities of Viking and Norse culture make the event unique. And while the fair is not explicitly spiritual, there will be an incorporation of Norse spirituality.
"We're opening our festival with a traditional Nordic blessing, and we will be closing the fair with a traditional Nordic closing that sends everybody off with blessings and safe travels," she says. "We're gearing this towards the way people lived during that time, what was important to people during that time. We want everybody to have the feel of who these people were and how they lived."
Thompson hopes Let's Vike It becomes an annual event, uniting the community through a passion for learning and history.
"You can put the world on hold for a couple of hours, and you can step into a time where things were very different and different things mattered." ♦
Let's Vike It Viking Age Faire • Sat, Sept. 14 from 10 am-5 pm • Free • All ages • Newport City Park • 1020 W. First St. • 208-217-0793
