GREEN BAY – When Heidi Sherman mentioned to her cab driver she was having a Viking Festival this weekend, the response from behind the wheel was something along the lines of, “Oh, I thought the Pittsburgh Steelers were coming to town.”
Common mistake, especially in Green Bay.
Bring up the V-word in a city full of Packers fans and the Minnesota variety with purple helmets, a history of NFC North battles and one really loud horn immediately comes to mind. That’s not the kind Sherman and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will be welcoming on Saturday for the inaugural Viking Festival.
“No, ours are not purple,” said Sherman, an associate professor of history at UWGB who teaches Vikings history. “We’ve tried not to get involved in any football rivalries.”
These Vikings are more interested in an authentic celebration of Scandinavian history and culture. Twenty-five costumed re-enactors from around the country will gather near the Viking House on campus to offer a snapshot of Viking-era life with weaving, woodcarving, blacksmithing, silversmithing, singing, cooking, storytelling, children’s activities and battle re-enactments. The free event runs from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
It’s the first such fest of its kind in Wisconsin, but Sherman said Viking festivals have become increasingly popular in the last five years in the Upper Midwest in states with Scandinavian populations, including Minnesota and Iowa. “Vikings,” the TV drama that ran for six seasons on History, and HBO’s massively popular “Game of Thrones” helped fuel interest, Sherman said.
“Even though the Vikings are not like what you would see in ‘Game of Thrones,’ I think people get interested in this whole fantasy world, and they think the past is a fantasy world,” she said. “It’s fun. That’s another thing.”
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Sherman got involved about four years ago with a group out of Moorhead, Minnesota, called Viking Connection that teaches people how to specialize in Viking crafts and skills just for such festivals. They’re committed to taking a scholarly approach to the Norsemen who came from Scandinavia between the eighth and 11th centuries, which means their Vikings might not look like the ones people know from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and pop culture.
“We try to be as authentic as we can, so you won’t have any horn helmets. No horn helmets, no fur leggings, no miniskirts. Nothing that you might see in a 1950s Hollywood movie,” Sherman said.
Their dress isn’t all that’s often misunderstood about Vikings.
“I think people assume Vikings are all about rape, pillage and plunder — we call it RPP — but no, that’s not true,” Sherman said. “Most of the time Vikings weren’t doing those things. They were just at home with their families making cloth or cooking food … They were like pioneers were inthe 19th century where they were just trying to get by and survive.”
Saturday’s Viking Fest will offer more of a snapshot of daily life than epic battles, although there will be swords and shields. Visitors will be able to watch re-enactors stuff sausage casings with lamb and herbs using a special horn. They’ll also make Viking bread in a clay oven and cook kale stew and roasted heart, a ceremonial dish with a pig heart stuffed with juniper berries and other rustic goodies, over an open fire.
The centerpiece of the event will be the Viking House, located near Wood Hall on campus. Viking re-enactors Owen and Elspeth Christianson built the structure in 2011 out of Wisconsin white pine and designed it based on meticulous research of building traditions in Norway from the era. It stood on their property in Stratford, where they used it for Vikings-related events and education, including hosting Viking camp weekends each fall with Sherman and her students. When the couple retired and moved, they donated the house to UWGB in 2017.
It had to be taken apart and rebuilt on campus. The Christiansons are traveling from Virginia for Saturday’s festival to offer tours of the house, which features simple benches, a bed and loom. It will be one of the few chances for the public to get a look inside the house since it was moved.
Sherman is expecting several hundred people on Saturday and hopes the fest can become an annual event that grows each year. This first one is in honor of her late husband Adrian Spendlow, who died in the last year. A native of Britain, he began as a performance poet and eventually made his living as Viking storyteller, spending 15 years in Norway participating in its many festivals.
“Everybody loved his storytelling so he’s going to be missed,” Sherman said. “This is his thing. He definitely would love this.”
Contact Kendra Meinert at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.
