The 'Norse Encampment' is the collective name given to a series of living history programs, which illustrate daily life in the Viking Age. Historic interpreters, employing replica objects, bring the past to life through typical activities of the Norse, and portraying historic styled characters. Throughout the series exceptional care was taken to ensure everything involved in a presentation was reflective of current archaeological research. One cornerstone of all the presentations was reference to the Vinland voyages by the Norse, circa 1000 AD.

Links to the Viking Age Selected Internet Resources

This is only a very few of the large number information sources about the Norse available over the internet.
Great care has to be taken with material gathered over the web! Although there is considerable material available from serious amateur researchers, the author's references should be examined carefully. (Special care should be taken with any information presented referring to Norse religious practices.)

Loosely grouped by subject. Note that there is likely to be some duplication from the main Wareham Forge links page.
An attempt has been made to ensure accurate information, but be aware that revisions to this page are only made on an irregular basis.

The World of the Norse was a major project undertaken from April to October 2003. This 1000 square foot exhibit was commissioned by the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills MI. It consisted of three realistic room settings containing about 175 individual replica objects that portray daily life in the Viking Age. It was installed to accompany the presentation there of Full Circle - First Contact, to better put the artifacts into living context.

A separate sheet of information and links concerning upcoming museum events to mark the 1000 years since the Norse first traveled to Vinland can be found here.

They have recently updated the site with a section on the Viking Encampment program (summer 2003). The text used there was taken from the handout materials I wrote for the 1997 presentation. It should be noted that the characterizations listed are the orginal ones - these have been altered, and describes the orginal staff members (only 'Bjorn' still remains). The photographs used are actually from the 1996 demonstration. (The bearded fellow you see so much is me.)

This is the information from the Canadian Museum of Civilisation in Hull, PQ (Ottawa). In their 'history hall' the sequence on the exploration of Canda starts with the Norse in Vinland.

In York, England the remains of the Viking Age city of York (Yorvik) were unearthed while constructing a shopping centre. Due to the waterlogged soil, a wealth of everyday objects of wood and leather were discovered. The Yorvik Centre displays this information.

Despite the title, this series of articles details Norse clothing construction, from both a scholarly and practical viewpoint. Home page author is Carolyn Priest-Dorman. The work here is top notch, and represents the quality of work possible by 'serious amateurs'. Carolyn provided the 'Norse Textiles' section for the staff training manual for the Viking Encampment.

This series of articles by Marc Carlson details construction and pattern of a large number of shoes based on a number of archaeological finds. About a dozen from the Norse and Anglo Saxon period (including the Oseberg shoes used in the Encampment).

This set of information by Neil Peterson covers gaming and aspects of drink. Several solid articles. Neil was one of the interpreters for the 1996 demonstration of the Encampment at LAM. He also provided the research inot the rules for the Viking Game project. Neil is one of the driving members of our own Dark Ages Re-creation Company.

This is an excellent series - providing considerable information about Migration era swords. Has expandable photos of the artifacts, information on construction and embellishment, various commentaries. This page is designed primarily for collectors, but will be of great interest to both sword makers and students of history.

An excellent collection of links to other related pages, including museums, academic sources and reenactment groups. This site is operated by Past Forward, the company that markets 'the World of the Vikings' CD ROM.

Regia Anglorum from England is perhaps the largest re-creation group centred on the Early Middle Ages. Not only excellent links, there is considerable information available here on a wide number of subjects.

This is another excellent page from a British re-creation group, in this case centred on the Anglo Saxons, mainly from the period just before the start of the Viking Age.

This group - who maintain two Viking ship reproductions, are located in the Maryland USA area. They have the full sized Fyrdraca (32 feet), as well as the smaller faering Gyrfalcon. The group is a special arm of the Markland Medieval Militia, a re-creation group centred on the Early Medieval Period.

Museums / Excavations

Arts & Crafts

Norse / Early Medieval Re-Enacting

Teaching

General Research

Other Materials

The Icelandic Festival of Manitoba
The Viking Network Web
Index of Images !
BBC - Viking Quest Game

---

Readers are also referred to: Hammered Out Bits This ongoing blog collection contains many shorter 'articles in progress' discussing aspects of both iron smelting and metalworking from the Viking Age, as well as topics of interest to historic re-enactors in general. A separate index is also available (updated quarterly).