Associació Cultural de Recreació Històrica Medieval Escandinava
Activities that we do
Living museum: daily life and traditions of Scandinavian people inside our camp.
Thanks to our lectures, our camp and the performance of our team, Clan Hávamál results in a living and interactive museum to all its visitors and allows them to get to know Scandinavian people just like as if they went back to the 10th - 11th century.
In our camp you will be able to see the daily life of Scandinavian higher class, pagan rituals, craftmen at work, dealing of slaves and "things" (assembly or judgement).
Handcrafted leather works: accessories and footwear
Despite being a very perishable material, there are a lot of pieces made of leather that were found recently and in good conditions.
Clan Hávamál craftmen use the same techniques and patterns to make all kind of leather objects: shoes, bracelets, bags, belts, ammong other objects.
The carving of metal, horns, wood and bones.
There are multiple objects that Scandinavian people used during 10th century in Gotland to work with wood or iron.
Countless illustrations and treatises (like the Bayeaux tapestry) from that period explain how to use them.
Multiple daily objects (which belonged to craftmen) or furniture lasted until nowadays thanks to the perfect conditions of the location of the graves.
Tent poles, trunks, carved wood and decorative horns, knife handle... are part of the reenactment inventory that we reconstruct.
Clan Hávamál members take the patterns of the textile remains that were found in archaeological diggings as a reference to make their own clothing.
Once they have made the basic structure of a clothe, they decorate it with: handmade embroideries (the designs that we can find in some of the textile remains are our guide when it comes to sewing techniques, shape and motif), using "tablet weaving" (wool braiding technique) or "lucet" to make cords.
Patterns, embroideries , knitting, "Lucet" and "Tablet Weaving".
Combats: Organization, demonstrations, Hólmgang and Einvigi
The organization of our demo combats is based on our strict security protocol/regulations.
Nordic sagas and subsequent treatise helped us to elaborate the movements and defensive/ofensive techniques similar to the ones that were used during 10th and 11th centuries.
The combats that our warriors do, are real combats, that is to say, there is no choreography in them.
We perform two kind of duels: Hólmgang ( a kind of combat in which a referee will make sure that the rules are not broken and that the combat takes place in a determinated place) and Einvigi (free style combat. There are no rules nor referee ).
Techniques and combat formation of 10th and 11th century
10th and 11th century chronicles and documents helped us to reenact the techniques and the combat movements of Scandinavian people.
Despite they were known for their quick, unexpected and massive attacs to fairly protected villages, they also laid siege in Paris, Byzantium and England.
Thanks to the croniciers, we have had access to specific information about this period of time, and this allowed us to reenact military techniques and troops organization in combats: wall of shields, positioning of the leader or flying wedge formation , which is also known as "boar's snout" formation.
Study of Scandinavian food and cooking reenactment
Bread (Knäckebröd, very similar to nowadays whole wheat bread), salty butter, sauces for all kind of food, fresh or dried fish (Skreid), roasted meat either from wild or farm animals (Slátr), beans, milk products (like dessert cheese or Skyr; or goat's cheese, that is to say Ostr), eggs, semolina (Graunt), honey, nuts, bier fruits secs (Öl), imported wine or berries wine (Berjavín) and mead (Mjödr) are some of the ingredients that they used for Scandinavian people during viking period.
Aideen, our cooker, can cook excelent roasted boar and deer.
Pagan religious ceremonies
Clan Hávamál does not follow any politic tendency, nor asks to any member of our clan to follow a certain religion.
Some members of our clan do believe in old beliefs and traditions of old Nordic people.
In every ceremony or ritual that we reenact, we do it with our outmost respect and we also ask our public to be as respectful as we are.
We reemact summer (Midsommar) and winter (Yule) solstices ammong other celebrations.
Entertainment: typical Scandinavian games
Under the warm sun of summer or in the neverending days of winter no matter if they were away from their farms or in a celebration after a prosperous siege, nordic people also liked to have fun during their free time.
They played board games (Hnefatafl), which is similar to nowadays chess, and other games with a ball (Knattleikr), in which two teams try to score using a ball, a club and even aggressive techniques to win the other team.
Educational expositions and social reenactment
Unluckily not all the events where we go allow us to set up our whole camp or to reenact a story.
In those cases we prepare educational expositions with our material (artifacts, helmets, etc...) and our historians and archaeologists tell people the truth and how was the life of Scandinavian people during 10th and 11th century.
Sometimes they have to go against some myths that TV shows and other media spreaded out about Scandinavian culture and that made people have a wrong idea of how really were Scandinavian people.
Archery
We have incorporated this activity recently in our clan's routine.
Despite some of our members have a basic knowledge of archery and they practised in some reenactment events, we are still working hard to learn it in a professional way.
