Ulfhrafnar

26/05/2026

24/05/2026

That's the silver fittings finished on my type L Anglo-Saxon sword. The next stage is a final adjustment to get the fit perfect, and then final polish and then fitting it all together!

22/05/2026

Examples of high-status female costume from two group members, and one very welcome guest. Ragnhild is a Danish lady, resplendent in brocaded silk from the east and gilded/silvered tortoise brooches. English ladies Eanswith and Wulfhild are wearing dresses that may not look so flashy, but would have been very expensive due to the amount of madder needed to dye the linen. Wulfhild is also wearing a silk cap, while Eanswith’s wimple is incredibly fine wool

18/05/2026

Cakes and ale in Abingdon town square to celebrate the 850th anniversary of St Edmund! Thanks to the Oxford Mail for a lovely write-up: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/26113990.vikings-join-historic-towns-cakes-ale-festival/

(Note to potential clients: we will always take an offer of cakes and/or ale into serious consideration when negotiating a public appearance).

03/05/2026

We’re very proud to be awarded The Vikings’ award for combat group of the year! ⚔️

26/04/2026

We’re looking forward to our annual visit to Flag Fen Archaeology Park for an epic show of early medieval craft and combat next weekend (2-4 May). It’s a fascinating site and a lovely event. Details here: https://flagfen.org.uk/events/viking-festival

Photo credit: Flag Fen Archaeology Park

12/04/2026

06/04/2026

If you didn’t spend your Easter Sunday piloting a coracle in early medieval drag, you were missing out! Our national organisation The Vikings have just had our annual whole-society training weekend, and the wind dropped just enough to get out on the lake for a paddle.

The coracle on the left is basket work, and the one on the right is built from laths; both are covered in tarred fabric to make them watertight. Animal hides were also used to cover the framework. These very lightweight boats have been used in Britain and Ireland for thousands of years for river transport and fishing.

Cathy, on the left, is an experienced coracle pilot, but as a newbie you can see that I’m attached to a safety line with an anchorman at the other end.

31/03/2026

How we got our colours!

Haelsa! F***g here, partly donning my battle wimple to tell you a little about those wonderfully colourful shields you see on the battlefield. The Vikings Society is currently made up of 48 groups from the far west of Cornwall, through England and Wales, and up to the north to Scotland. There are also groups based in Finland, France and Italy, Canada and North America, but for these upcoming posts we’ll focus on our UK warrior bands. This week we’re going to visit Ulfhrafnar, which translates as “Wolf Ravens” and is a small, friendly group based in Wantage in Oxfordshire, where the famous King Alfred the Great (he of the burnt cakes) was born in 849AD.

When the jarl, or group leader, chose the colours they were doing some research into authentic pigments and wanted something for their shields that would have been achievable both with locally obtainable and some imported pigments. Archaeology has uncovered yellow, known as Orpiment, from from the Gokstad ship shields while red, or Cinnabar, was found on one of the Oseberg carts, also blue, or Lapis, from the Ladby ship. The more easily obtainable pigments are yellow and red Ochre from clay, and a teal Verdigris from copper acetate. They tried various designs over the first couple of years, but eventually settled on quarters of ochre red and teal blue with vibrant yellow borders.

29/03/2026