Update 2020: Based on abuse covered up by local SCA groups, I can no longer recommend the SCA, Inc as a healthy friendly family oriented activity. The SCA here decided it was more important to cover up abuse than to deal with it internally. That was second time I have witnessed this behavior. No more.
Our household has always had a deep interest in all things Norse, and over the years we have had opportunities to be involved in many cool activities and related organizations.
Sometime when I mention some of them in passing I get a lot of disbelief, so maintaining a web presence to document our past and current activities appeals.Currently on extended raid on the east coast. More to follow.
 They needed a bunch of shields for the ship. More importantly I needed THEM to know how to make that many shields. | Some bastard sniped our web domain some 20 years ago and wanted waaaay to much to buy it back. So I stubborned him out, and now we rebuild. Google sites for now, cause simple, free, and stable. Some limitations, but whatever. In the meantime email me at Mikhail@Heimdallson.net or Mikhail@HouseRavenspeak.com |
More Following, by Freydis
Last updated Dec. 31st, 2017/A.S. LII
But they still sometimes missed it.
They had been helping out with the Burnaby Scandinavian Centre's Midsummer Festival, as part of their Viking Village, for a few years, though, which is where they first heard about the British Columbia Viking Ship Project, a plan to build the Munin, a half-scale, forty-foot working replica of the Gokstad. As well as helping with the ship herself, they also built the shields for it, and sewed tunics. In 2002 they borrowed the Munin and were married on it.
They are also both founding members of the Heathen Freehold Society of British Columbia, for whom Freydis sewed the Sleipnir banner, and carved the banner pole. She also illustrated and edited their two books of Heathen children stories, Kindertales and Kindertales II, and contributed stories; Mikhail was instrumental to the cover design and layout.
In 2014, having moved to the East Coast the previous year thanks to Mikhail's work, they all (Mikhail, Freydis, and the kids) spent a week in L'anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, visiting the Norse site, the replica Viking-era trading town down the road at Norstead, and attending a feast in a sod-roofed Viking hall in nearby Saint Anthony's. Freydis now has far more photos of Norse-era hinges and latches than she ever expected to have.
Freydis ran into Nova Scotia's largest SCA group (the Barony of Ruantallan) at a convention in Halifax, in 2015 (A.S. L), and, happy to find that there was a new group forming in the Annapolis Valley (the Stronghold of Ravensdale) where they currently reside (as of New Year's, A.S. LLII /2017 CE), they rejoined and started to rebuild their encampment. Over the years and moves, many pieces were either irreparably damaged, or lost, or simply left behind in An Tir when Mikhail's job moved the family to the Kingdom of the East. Luckily, however, the great big Norse tent came along! Along with most of the garb, and a few other key pieces. But no tourney furniture.
Their encampment (both old and new) is a combination of their talents, Mikhail having been a metalworker professionally, and an armourer since he learned to make his own helmet as a new fighter years ago in Hartwood; and Freydis having a knack for drawing and a background in set design and construction. They have since amassed a pretty good collection of tools and experience, and work together to design and build everything from shields to chests, although Mikhail executes most of the leatherwork and metalwork (these days, with their son Karl's help) and Freydis does the textiles and most of the personal accessories.
Karl, about to hit his thirteenth birthday (and already taller than Freydis) has been a great help with construction as well, and is currently starting a new project to turn dowelling for target archery arrows, him and his little sister, Astrid, having been gifted their own bows by Lord Ulrich von Spandau, the local bowyer.
Much to their delight, an old filk of Mikhail and Freydis's, "Row, Boys, Row" (to the tune of Great Big Sea's "The Chemical Worker's Song") preceded them east, where they stumbled across it in a friend's copy of an East Kingdom songbook. Ends up it's in Avacal's songbook, too; Freydis suspects that's thanks to Angar Ninefingers and the Lost Vikings. We'll share how we met on another page, eventually.
Currently, House Ravenspeak consists of their family of four and their dog, Erik, although they consider the son of their former member Verner the Swede an honorary member as part of his inheritance from his father, as is Mairghead, his mother, and Verner's good lady wife.
| Lord Mikhail Heimdallson Mikhail is a Norseman. We've finally pinned him down to probably the tenth century, since he likes Borre style knotwork and uses it on his shield. More of a raider than a trader; but will trade as well if you give him a decent deal. Probably. Karl Skullsplitter was named for his prowess with an axe during a tanning project involving fresh sheepskins, sheep heads, and our first attempt at brain tanning. |
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Lady Freydis Egilsdottir Freydis is a late 10th Century Norsewoman, born in the trading town of Kaupang, in Norway, and later moving to Greenland. In Ravensdale she is primarily known for getting carried away. If she starts saying, "Hey, you know what would be really cool, though?!" be concerned. On the other hand, her slightly manic enthusiasm at least is generally productive. Astrid Freydisdottir is still looking for a nickname. So far the prime contender is Sagakoenigur. No one tell her it's our best rendering of "Drama Queen" or she'll refuse it. |
Clockwise around table: Friend Zofya; Astrid; Freydis; Mikhail; and Karl. At the Stronghold of Ravensdale's Christmas feast, January, A.S. LI.
Update 2020:
Based on abuse covered up by local SCA groups, I can no longer
recommend the SCA, Inc as a healthy friendly family oriented activity. The SCA
here decided it was more important to cover up abuse than to deal with
it internally. That was second time I have witnessed this behavior. No more.