Living History

Living history (or LHE - Living History Exhibit) is the re-enactment term coined to cover a presentation of some aspects of the life of the period. It's the opposite to "show and tell", where re-enactors simply lay out a stall of objects and talk about them. A LHE also infers a certain level of authentic camping .

Within Vinland, our aim is to try and re-create a small part of Viking Age settlement with temporary structures that are used to both house the occupants and to sell, or provide, some sort of service or craft to the masses. We're going for that ethnic "viking on the move" look with as much of our encampment under awnings as possible.

The group will always come with it's compliment of tents, workshelters and awnings.

Military/Combat Endeavours

We are one of the few groups in North America to stage competitive combat between our members with blunted metal weapons and minimal armour.  Our members spend considerable time and energy training and learning to fight safely.  All members, regardless of previous experience, must be assessed for safety and proficiency prior to participating in a public show.  We enhance this further through our range of training weekends and events. (see Events for details).

Some in the group don't possess an LHE activity and are purely there as warrior folk.

We will not try to kid you that our fighting is "real". We are hardly fighting to the "death" or to maim each other.

At the end of the day we are 21st century people who have jobs and families.

That said, we do operate a competitive combat system which is about as close as you will get.

Training is a big part of our activities and everyone wanting to fight must undergo training practice and assessments.

At an event, we pride ourselves on being able to perform a number of different arena presentations. These include:

Missile Weapons - demonstrating the effectiveness and range of bows, slings and javelins

Combat Weapons - actual hand to hand combat between Vikings with swords, spears, axes, knives and shields

Get Dressed for Battle - see how the Vikings are armed and armoured

Fashion Show - the clothes worn by the Vikings, Saxons, Normans and Celts

Kiddie Vike- see the kids use pool noodles and fight the Viking warriors.

Sharp weapon display - showing the cutting power of sharp hand weapons.

We can also perform scripted skits.