Vikings are set to descend on Cumbria next month.
Moorforge Viking Settlement, in Gilcrux, near Cockermouth, will be filled with more than 100 Viking reenactors from Friday September 2 to Sunday September 4.
Organised by history groups Storrada Hird, Òdr Hird and Hrafni Vaeringi, who are based in Edinburgh, Manchester and the West Midlands respectively, the reenactors will converge on Cumbria’s own Viking site for three days to hold the Althing, a Viking term for a meeting to set laws at a national level. In fact, the Icelandic parliament is still called the Althingi. In Medieval times, games tournaments and trading would have accompanied the legal business.
Storrada Hird was started by five Polish friends with a common passion for early Medieval history and combat. As such, their style of combat is different to that usually practised by British based reenactors, with the ‘Eastern’ style being much more intense and entertaining for onlookers.
The group have also been helping Moorforge owner and Gilcrux village blacksmith, David Watson, to develop the Moorforge site by laying paths and erecting timber structures. Already hosting school visits, craft workshops and monthly folk music sessions, this will be the biggest event yet at Moorforge.
The organisers will be joined by combat groups Blodorns, Wolves of Midgard, Golden Ravens and Comitatus for several rounds of fighting, as well as traders, craftspeople, a fire dancer and Preston-based, Viking-inspired caterers Scrandinavia.
For more information, visit the Moorforge Althing Festival Facebook page.
