Friday, 6 July 2012
Borre Viking Marked, Borre, Norway

A startled rising, Sir Thomas Leaf was up around 9′ish as Sir Rob Wildwood was knocking on the vardo’s door. The adventurers then packed up their gear, unplugged, and headed off to Borre, for the Borre Viking Marked. This was soon to be Sir Leaf’s virginal entrance to Viking culture as he would walk back into time amongst these warriors who shared bloodlines with him. The explorers made a pitstop along the way for some grub, which equated to some sausage and fries (which Sir Rob graciously treated the penniless bard to as they were well over 150 kronos each), then on to the Market. Down the road to the seaside marina, just past the Viking museum, Our delvers pulled into a small parking lot as the bustle of Viking merchants were running around gathering up their gear to bring to Market. Sir Rob was able to find an ideal spot for his caravan, close to the gate, though had a hard time finding where to check-in with the village guardians. First stop was over to Sir Rob’s tribe who had an “Invite” for Sir Leaf’s presence at the market as well as for the Saturday feast. Sir Leaf then settled into a place to lay his blanket in order to do bodypainting Viking style .. Beautiful shaded forested park at the foot of some Viking burial mounds was the setting for this festival. The ‘plastic’ tent camping area was out of the village just near the mounds, so Sir Leaf settled himself in Sir Rob’s loaner tent, and started making up his painting palette in seashells as paint holders and sticking with traditional colors based on Woad, madder, indigo, onion, charcoal, clay, etc. based on his research of Viking era paints. The Color spectrum the best he could deduce in Viking times was essentially red, yellow, grey, white, black, blue, green, and purple. He made up leather wrapped paint brushes that were more “period” looking. Sir Rob Wildwood lent the penniless artisan a tunic, patched pants, and leather shoes (which strongly reminded Sir Leaf of Native American moccasins), and a claw tooth knecklace with a Thor’s hammer in its middle. One thing Sir Leaf noticed immediately with the drumming in the village, chanting, tents, clothing, style, etc. was that “Viking Culture” looked almost identical to Northern/Northeastern Native American culture. He was quite shocked. He had always heard of the similarities, but that idea and imagery never really sunk in until now.

With no kronos, The adventurers headed off to the town centre to get some currency exchanged so Sir Rob would have some buying power and Sir Leaf some change to give to his customers. Currency exchange was expensive (or seemed as such), as he only got 59 krones for 15 Euro. That was all he had to my name at the moment, so exchanged it as would need to give some change while face painting he thought. Back to the festival, all in Viking gear and dress, Sir Leaf wandered with Sir Rob into the village market, and Sir Rob settled him into his place to vend next to his friend’s tent. Sir Rob found Sir Leaf a great log upon which to draw a sign on, and got him the translation in Norwegian for face painting, runes (runer), and bodypainting. Sir Leaf Basically charged 20 krona for simple runes on the cheek or hand, 50 krones for face painting or designs, and 150+ for body painting. Absolutely no bodypainting requests all weekend (could only gather that was because Norway was too cold (even for mid-summer), Norwegians were too conservative of a culture to undress for fashion and the event today was too rainy was Sir Leaf’s thoughts). The weather relatively bounced from overcast to sunny with light rain showers (misting) during the day on into eve. The skies never turned dark so Sir Leaf wound up vending to almost 9 pm as the market was open very late. Sir Leaf made roughly 620 krones for the day. His clients were primarily kids wanting face painting or runes, especially as the public came in and made their requests for their kids. Sir Leaf did paint A couple of adults who ventured over. He tried sticking to Viking designs and runes, though a few in the course of the weekend wanted tigers, cats, and butterflies as they are popular requests in the modern world. No one really knows fully the designs the Vikings used as we barely know what paints/dyes they used on the skin – we just know they used face/body paint for ritual, ceremony, and warfare. Archaeologically they have found some dyes such as madder and woad that are assumed to be the dyes used for the skin, but no one knows for sure. The assumption is they would have used their typical designs and symbols for that painting. Sir Leaf tried to stick as close as possible to the archaeological hypotheses that exist out there in this realm of Viking culture.

With the water so nearby, Sir Leaf was incredibly tempted with the desire to go for a swim. Even with the rains, he was savoring the idea of jumping into the Fjord … as many others were swimming. However, after feeling the water temperature with his hand, even though it wasn’t too bad it was still very cold, and since this is a “family event” whilst nudity is not so commonplace, he did not have his suit on, and the birthday suit wasn’t a swimming “suit” option. Sir Leaf prefers to swim in his birthday suit. “Hmmmpppfff … . blah on conservativism. Conservatism and one mainstream’s sub-cultural lens of what is decent or indecent is an infection that devastates the “morale” of the world” Sir leaf thought to himself.

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Sir Leaf scored some cheap good gourmet soup from the shop in England, so later that evening Sir Rob blessed him with the favor of the use of his vardo’s stove so he could heat it up for dinner. Always wonderful to have a hot dinner Sir leaf believed. After dinner, the delvers headed off to find some of Sir Rob’s tribe and clans to go socialize with. They were blessed with good company, yummy honey mead from Poland, honey flavored vodka from Russia, and whisky shots that were passed around accompanying interesting conversations. Lots of conversation about trolls, gnomes, Icelandic elves, and Viking boats. Sir Leaf met one of Rob’s friends who had sailed before and discussed with him the Viking Project of Pirate Relief. Sir Leaf was really impressed with the simplicity and style of the “A” frame tents that the Vikings used … definitely wanting one in the near future. They are held together with pegs and boards for the frame, straw mats for floors, beds that pegged together too for a beautiful sleeping cabin. Festivity around the fire and table as the rain began to pour down from the skies. As others started to wander off to sleep as the rains came down pretty heavily, Sir Leaf and Sir Rob went off to their sleeping areas – Sir Rob to his vardo, Sir Leaf to his tent, tromping and slipping in the mud with the leather moccasins adorning his feet. Slugs galore and an anthill upon which his tent rested … it was a tricky night to keep the critters out of the tent, but somehow miraculously he was successful. A good night sleep at the base of the burial mounds with not a single haunting visit from any Viking ghost. Though Sir Leaf had wished the spirits of which would have visited him in at least in his dream sleep …

Borre Viking Marked

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