Over Easter 2007 and 2008, Wychwood have taken over the recreated Viking Village at Murton Park museum of farming outside York. We spend the week looking after the village, chatting to the public, sleeping in authentic buildings, eating authentic food, fighting and drinking. We drive up to York on the Thursday, are on display from Friday to Monday, and drive back to Oxford on Tuesday. It's ace fun! The Village - Crafts - Games - Food & Drink - Fighting Hauksby '08- very pretty but extremely chilly! Murton Park's Danelaw Dark Age Village is a beautiful location. It has over a dozen recreated Viking houses, in various styles. And, unlike places like West Stow, it gives off a real feel that this is actually a place where people live rather than just a museum. This is because people do live here! And, at Easter, those people are us. Wychwood invented a story about the village. We say the village was originally a Saxon farmstead called Mortun. This farmstead was conquered by a group of invading Vikings retiring from the wars against Alfred, who renamed the farmstead after their hersir, Hauk. Since then, 'Hauksby' has grown dramatically. Skilled workers have settled here from nearby Jorvic, friends of Hauk have flocked here, and merchants often pass through. The Village - Crafts - Games - Food & Drink - Fighting Spinning, sewing and tablet-weaving Most of the time in Hauksby people are working on some form of crafts. Some people sew clothes, others make tablet-woven braid to decorate their clothes, others dye material or knit string ("lucetting"). Other people might be working with wood- either preparing firewood, or creating wooden objects for us to use. Still others may be making chainmail armour, stitching leather shoes, or all sorts of other activities. People are always doing something. And, of course, we all discuss what we're doing with any members of the public who are interested. The Village - Crafts - Games - Food & Drink - Fighting Arinbjorn and Hauk teaching Hauk's daughter Freya how to gamble Or course, some people are lazy. And don't spend their time doing useful work, but instead waste their days playing games. Hauk and his brother are often to be found encouraging people to gamble with them on dice games, whilst others prefer playing tafl games- the Viking board games. They're always willing to play against visitors as well, of course! The Village - Crafts - Games - Food & Drink - Fighting Nettle stew. Lovely! All this gaming and chatting is very hungry work. And so one of the major uses of people's time is preparing food. We normally start the day with a simple spread: bread, cheese, cured meat. For lunch we often make a stew, based around beans, vegetables, nettles and other tasty things. For supper we normally cook meat over the fire, washed down with mead, cider & ales. It's a good life! Sadly, we can't let visitors try our food for health & safety reasons... The Village - Crafts - Games - Food & Drink - Fighting Boys vs Girls! The peace between the Vikings and Saxons was uneasy at best, so we do lots of weapons training. Wychwood have regular battle practices anyway, but Murton Park gives us a unique chance to fight inside a close village environment. Whilst fights through the village are a bit dangerous (lots of things to run into or trip over), fighting for the gate is a great challenge. Sadly for health & safety reasons we can't fight when the public are around. But we're always happy to talk about our weapons and show them to visitors.

Made by Hauk, DAS New Member's Rep & Wychwood Old Git - Main page: www.haukr.co.uk - Email: haukragnarsson@googlemail.com