Viking Camp Bushcraft


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craigr

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On a recent trip to Norway I was very fortunate to come across a group re-enacting Viking camp skills. I took photos of their iron works, tents, forges, etc. and thought people here would be interested. The ironware was very cool looking and functional. I was there when they were making their viking breakfasts and it appeared to work really well. The A-Frame tents were also really smartly done. The top ridge poll served as a hinge point for the rest of the tent frame.

I have the full album posted here:

http://crawlingroad.com/blog/2011/12/26/a-viking-camp/

Here are some photos as well:

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WOW! I bet you had a great time. Wish they had thing like that around here. I would be at every one of them. Did you buy anything?
 
I love those carved horsehead cottage/tent support faces, beautiful:)

A lot of buildings were done in that style...
PMZ
 
Keepntime said:
WOW! I bet you had a great time. Wish they had thing like that around here. I would be at every one of them. Did you buy anything?
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It was awesome. It was just sheer luck I found it. I drove by the place and they were closing, but went back the next day. It's an annual event there.

I bought a Thor's Hammer amulet and a few other things. Sadly, they didn't have a wide selection of decent blades or I certainly would have walked away with one.

It was almost what we'd call a Renaissance Fair on our side of the ocean. Except it was exclusively Nordic traditional focused.
 
Here's one of their portable forges. They would use these to make simple iron pieces on the spot. The handle up top moved the bellows. The coal was placed between the bricks.

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Here's more of that very cool iron cooking ware I saw. The grill and round plate were being used all over the camp and really was a slick idea I had not seen before.

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The would also use these iron bowls to hold the wood to keep the fire contained:

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That looks like a great experience you had, craigr. I really like the mega-frying pans and fire pit woks. That sheepskin chair looks like a campsite must! LOL. Thanks for sharing.
 
That looks like some first rate camping. Love that curved axe handle.
 
Just wow, that's really cool, the scenery is awesome as well.

Love the looks of those tents, and the portable forge is really nice.

It doesn't get much better than this.

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Croatoan said:
Just wow, that's really cool, the scenery is awesome as well.

Love the looks of those tents, and the portable forge is really nice.

It doesn't get much better than this.

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That guy had an awesome spread. I should have asked to stay there overnight. It was probably better than the hotel where I stayed!
 
LMT66 said:
That is really cool! Very interesting set of photo's.

Not to sidetrack but that YT video of your trip to the Gransfors Bruk museum is awesome. Last minute or so is very funny!
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I had to get special Swedish government security clearance to see that part of Gransfors. Very secret axe prototype work is going on there.
 
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Very nice and thanks for posting
Any idea what the curly cue deals and the little hammer like things are and use? ?(on the left side of the table)
Dan'l
 
dboles said:
Very nice and thanks for posting
Any idea what the curly cue deals and the little hammer like things are and use? ?(on the left side of the table)
Dan'l
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I will go over the photo below:

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The little hammers on the left are Thor's hammers. You wear them around your neck to ask for the protection of the Norse mythology God Thor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mjölnir

They are often made of iron because wearing iron was seen as good luck.

The curly things to the right of the hammers are other amulets. But I forgot what they were.

The three legged spiked thing on the far left is a pot support. Probably to keep a fire kettle off the ground or to set a kettle over a bed of coals.

The S-Shaped pieces are hooks you use to hang pots above the fire or other utensils. You can put several of them together to get different lengths to control the heat to your cooking. There is an entire set of them fanned out on the table of different lengths to get better temp control.

The blades top center are just simple steel blades. Nothing special about them.

The rings with needles in the top right corner are to fasten your cloak around you neck.

The straight spikes on the lower right are eating utensils. Forks were invented in Roman or possibly Greek regions. In the Nordic area they used a straight spike as you see here. Sadly, I did not buy them and I wish I had because I would have used them instead of forks for holiday dinners with guests. :)
 
that is so much cooler than a renaissance fair haha. awesome photos man.. the picture of hte mountain side is Awesome.. beautiful area
 
Man, that is fantastic!

I love things like that!!
 
Very cool indeed. That would have been really nice to attend. Gld you shared the pics. Thank you.
 
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