Myra put me in touch with a lovely lady called Beryl Partridge, who is part of the Glasshouse, and The Dee Valley Community Partnership, and we agreed that I would attend the two day event, over the Jubilee weekend, and try and get as many images as I could, to document it, and capture the atmosphere.
So - The first day dawned - and typical of Wales, the heaven's had opened, and it was pouring down. Nothing daunted, off I set with my 11 year old in tow, arriving at about 9.45 am. I met up with Beryl, and Penny, who I believe is Chairwoman of The Glasshouse, and they both made me very welcome. I was given a gillet to identify me as part of the 'team', and a stack of consent forms, to cover the use of any images of children that I took. And then it was Off to meet the Vikings. I met first Ian Grant, who leads the Welsh Branch of the Viking Society, Cwmwd Ial, who was quite happy for me to take photographs, though he also wanted to look over the images before they were published anywhere - it was clear that he puts a lot of time and effort into the society, and was very keen that any image taken reflects the work that goes into his, and the rest of the groups efforts at maintaining authenticity and realism. Neither Beryl, Penny or myself had any problem with this, so it was time to get to work with the camera.
Two settlements had been erected at the park -one for the Welsh/Saxon families, and one for the Vikings. Immediately apparent was the attention to detail - in the camps as a whole, in the clothes, in the utensils and tools, the weapons - and at this point, I need to thank the assorted Vikings, Saxons and Welsh participants, who without exception, were friendly, informative and were quite happy to have me wander round and point my camera at everything.
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| Incidentally, one of the many things I learnt was that its a myth that Vikings had horns on their helmets - that piece of information is down to a mistake made by early Victorian archaeologists - as is the belief that they had 'wings' on the side of the helmets! |
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| In the foreground, the Viking encampment, and in the background, part of the Saxon/Welsh camp. |
The camps gave such a fantastic insight into life during those times - as well as entertaining, everything about this was educational - but in an incredibly fun way !
Then it was time for the first of two re-enactments - Ian introduces and explains to the audience. As you can see, it was still raining - but this didn't stop the fun, and the following are a selection of images from the two battles that day.
And despite the pouring rain, the whole 'battle' was amazing . Due to the weather, the audience was small this first day - but they still seemed to really enjoy it. As for me - I was in my element :) I soon ended up mud covered and I was completely soaked - but, if I will go and photograph outdoor events in Wales, that's just part and parcel of the whole experience, on occasion!
It was a little funny though, to see how many brave warriors 'died ' on their shields, rather than directly onto the wet grass
Sometime after 4pm, when the event ended for the day, I left, got home, wrung about 2 pints of rainwater from my underwear alone, enjoyed a hot bath, and selected 20 or so of the images to hand over the next day, as they were wanted as soon as possible, for press releases, by The Glasshouse and Ty Mawr. And the next morning, I was up and ready to go again.
The difference in the weather was amazing - blue skies and sunshine, all day - which meant a lot more visitors, including a lot of youngsters who were obviously having a fantastic time:)
Wandering around the two camps, I was struck again at how 'authentic' it all was, and I was really happy with some of the images I got
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| Even the clothes of the tiniest Viking, Saxon and Welsh children were incredibly authentic |
Then the first 'battle' of the day, and the crowds started to move towards the battle field
These staged battles were amazing - skilful and dramatic, fought with real weapons . . .
Time and again, Vikings, Saxon's and the Welsh met their 'deaths' - and then the 'Gods' would be called upon to bring them back to life, to fight again.
At the end of the main battle, it was one on one combat - turning to fight each other, one on one, until just one warrior was left standing - and in honour of the Jubilee, on this occasion, the winner was presented with a McDonalds Crown and a souvenir mug !
Then, it was back to the camps, where I grabbed some more shots
And then - a special event, for the children amongst the visitors. They were invited to come and train as 'Young Vikings' . The parents were promised that no matter how sweet and well behaved their children were, after training, they would get back completely hyped little savages instead - and that was so true ! The kids loved it - and it gave me some of my very favourite images of the two days .
I think that the enjoyment all the children got from this is so evident in the photographs ! And at this point, I have to thank all the marshal's, who stepped in and helped me get all the many necessary consent forms signed by the parents .
Then, a couple of last snaps from the camps . . .
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| The Viking and Welsh leaders go head to head |
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| True to history, just as some Vikings chose to abandon their shield in favour of a second sword, so did this warrior - and the skill with which he used the two swords was amazing ! |
Judging by the smiles, I think the warriors all had a blast too !
Before I left, I grabbed a snap or two of some of the lovely people who had also contributed to the event
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| The Scouts did a great job of providing Burgers to the visitors |
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| And these lovely ladies provided tea and (very welcome) coffee and cakes too! |
Ian looked over the images from the previous day, that I had brought in as potential press releases, and said he was quite happy for them to be used - Penny and Beryl had already expressed that they were more than happy with them.
And that was my Viking adventure over - sadly. I really enjoyed it, and again, as well as it being an amazing learning experience, I had the pleasure of meeting some really nice people and hopefully, building a few more contacts too.
After editing, I had several hundred images that have been handed over to Penny and Beryl, and hopefully, some of them at least will feature in displays or exhibitions at The Glasshouse and Ty Mawr, and hopefully on web sites and pages. Some were sent out as press releases, and both the Wrexham and Friday Leader printed them, with myself being credited as the photographer -
And I am currently waiting to hear if the Viking Society are going to perhaps use some of the images on their web site too - I'll update when I have confirmation and links .
Thank you to Penny and Beryl - and to Myra, for setting up the contact in the first place. It was an absolutely brilliant experience !
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