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Gudvangen Viking market is always one of the highlights of the year, located at the end of the stunningly beautiful Nærøyfjord in West Norway. We travelled there with the rest of our Folkvangr-group and enjoyed a week in our camp of Oseberg tents, went for walks in the area, swam in the fjord, and enjoyed nights with great company, good food and mead... 
The construction of a permanent Viking village in Gudvangen started two years ago, with a goal of forty buildings based on traditional Viking Age styles, with authentic decorations, paint and ironwork. The second of three building stages is currently ongoing, and the village (called Njardarheimr) is growing by the day. It feels lovely to walk around on the paths between the houses and be surrounded by spectacular nature and historical artwork everywhere you look. ^^ 
Mirek and Dorota gave me these two bottles of their 18-year-old wedding mead! We will be saving them for Yule :) 
Christian had a birthday during the market, and we had a nice birthday breakfast in the camp. ♥ I gave him a puzzle with a binary code to solve—not very Viking I grant you, but perhaps it could be considered a modern form of a runic riddle? When he had figured it out he could read the words "We are going to Rome". We will be taking a trip there in October! 
I met the sweet Mathilde Brandt at the market, and we made sure to get a photo together :) I also met some other fellow bloggers and instagrammers, and I really wish that the week would had been longer so that I would have had time to get to know people more. That will be a goal for future summers! 
I had made several new pieces of clothing before the market, a blue linen tunic decorated with tablet-weave for Christian, a natural colored linen underdress for me (pictured above), and the red woolen Hedeby aprondress below which was also handsewn with wool thread in the same style as my recent blue one, only with a longer train as well as red and brown braids along the decorative darts on the back of the dress. 
Every summer there is a glÃma championship in Gudvangen. GlÃma is a Scandinavian martial art which was practiced in the Viking Age, and as well as being the most widespread sport, it was also used for entertainment during gatherings such as the Þing. GlÃma is mentioned in several medieval texts, for example in Gylfaginning where we can read about the Norse God Þór's journey to Útgarða-Loki, where he looses a glÃma-match to an old woman whose name is Elli (the personification of old age)... There may not have been any old women attending this time, but I got some nice action shots of this year's contestants. :) 
The European historical martial arts instructor Colin Richards gave daily lessons in Viking style swordsmanship. 
Einar Selvik had a concert in the camp on Friday night, where he talked about the background of his various songs and performed them on his tagelharpe, Kravik-lyre and goat horn, accompanied by his chillingly beautiful voice. 🌿🎻 
A walk along the fjord... 
And, as always, the week flew by and all of a sudden the market was over and it was time to pack up the camp and head back home... I am left with a lot of good memories and summer feelings, and we will definitely be back again next year. Thank you once again for a wonderful time, Gudvangen! ♥ # Comments |
 
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