Crafts
Costume
Historical facts are difficult to pinpoint, and our understanding constantly changes, so our Viking kit is prepared using the techniques and materials that are presently known to have been around in the Viking Age.
Wool was used to make many things as it was and still is a very versatile material that was readily available. In our living history display, you can expect to see tablet weaving, lucet, ring braiding, naalbinding, embroidery and felting - all of which are techniques currently used by the group.
Crafts
We do a variety of textile crafts round the campfire, from easy-to-learn trollen-weaving, to the more challenging tablet-weaving. Another campfire craft is naalbinding, using a single bone needle to make woollen socks and mittens. Embroidery using fine wool or silk was also very popular in our period and can transform a basic piece of clothing into a work of art. All these activities are fun to learn, easy to demonstrate to the public, and are a good excuse for sitting in the warm and having a gossip!
Ring binding is a technique used to make long lengths of binding. The uses would have included: laces (for both hair and footwear), belts, ties for bags etc - and the beautiful thing with braids it that as the person grows the braid is used in a different way to prevent waste. If it becomes worn out then it is mended and used again. All scraps of material and wood could and probably would have been reused.
Leatherwork is a skill increasingly common in the group and can be seen on the living history site as shoes, bags, belts, weapons carriage and more. Although many Vikings went barefoot, shoes are a necessary addition to winter-weather kit. As part of our display, you will see a number of different shoes including turn-shoes and an early Celtic shoe that grows to hold straw or fleece during cold wet weather - or simply to expand as children grow.
Guidance
Herbs were the medicines of the day for Dark Age people, and much of their usage was based on folklore and trial and error. Saxons and Vikings believed illnesses came from being possessed by the Devil (best left to the Church to deal with), being attacked by elf-shot, or venoms blown on the wind from serpents - these latter two being the realm of the herbalist who trod a fine line between witch and doctor.
Many herbal remedies were to protect against elf-shot (literally: illnesses thrown at humans and animals by elves), and the "nine-herbs charm" gives advice for dealing with the wind-born serpent venom, although only eight herbs have been identified with confidence as modern-day herbs. Battle-injuries were not always treated by the herbalist - they would check first to see if the wounded was likely to die anyway before wasting precious herbs on a lost cause.
