Sunny Venetian prettiness at Spring Crown

Last  weekend - the 10th to 12th of April - I made the nine hour train trip down to Hamburg for Drachenwald's Spring Crown. I planned this as sson that I realised that it was only nine hour on train from Gothenburg where I live. I want to go to events in outher countries that are opartof Drtachenwald, but I also want to avoid flying forenvinronmentla reasons. I DO fly occaisonally, but if I can, in a reasonable amountof time, I take the train or carpool.

Then I got this honour of being an opponent on a PhD viva in Iceland in late March, and held (with a colleague)  a workshop at Lund University about clothing and textiles in probate inventories yesterday, the 18th of April. So there has been  a LOT of travelling. But now I am staying home for three weeks before the one week camping event that is Double Wars.

I am busy now too, but at least at home, or close to home. But enough of that, here are some photos of me in my new Venetian, and of the tournament. Which was won by my good friends Sir Padraig and Master Elsa.

Tri-Kingdom University and Scandinavian Sumptuary Laws

 Last weekend was the Tri-Kingdom University, a combined online university by the SCA kingdoms of Drachenwald (Europe), Atlantia (US) and Lochac (Australia and New Zealand).

It is nice to be able to both teach, and learn new things from your own home. I'm at my work space in the kitchen, wearing 14th century clothign, drinking tea from a 13th century replica mug. It is not an immerisive experience, like going to an event, but you can listen to teacher's from all over the world. 

I listened to classes about necromancy, the clothing of Queen Catherine Jagiellon of Sweden (16th century), and Bronze Age Aegean incense, potions and perfumery.

I taught a class about Scandinavian sumptuary laws before 1600.This is a subject that I have published about, so I thought that I'd add a list of my articles that discuss sumptuary laws here.

"Dangerous Fashions in Swedish Sumptuary Law" in The Right to Dress: Sumptuary Laws in a Global Perspective c. 1200-1800 edited by Giorgio Riello and Ulinka Rublack - 2019

"Foreign Seductions: Sumptuary laws, consumption and national identity in early modern Sweden" in Fashionable encounters: perspectives and trends in textile and dress in the Early modern nordic world edited by Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen, Marie-Louise Nosch, Maj Ringgaard, Kirsten Toftegaard and Mikkel Venborg Pedersen - 2014

"Inget scharlakan för dåliga fruntimmer: Dräktregleringar och sexuella normbrytare i medeltidens Skandinavien" i Det våras för medeltiden. Vänbok till Thomas Lindkvist, Auður Magnúsdóttir, Henric Bagerius och Lars Hermanson (red.) - 2014

 

Medieval week Friday and Saturday

 I got busy moving around thigns in our flat, plus visting my sister and her family on Friday, and my mum on Saturday, but here, finally, are photos from Friday and Saturday.

On Frday Sara and I went to have a look at the Battle of Wisby camp. Battel of Wisby is a large re-enactment of a battle from 1361, which takes place every three years. They also have an open camp, and on Friday it was market day.

Some photos from that visit.

Then I went for a swim. No surprise there.

Italian cotton dress and reed hat.

And in my supportive linen shift after the swim.

Then we had dinner and I decided to go out and see if I would run into friends. The sun was strong and we had spent a lot of time outdoors in the middle of the day, so my skin felt hot, and I decided that it would be nice to wear some cool, soft silk.

I also thought that it would be nice to actually wear all the clothes that I had brought with me. So I wore a blue ca 1320-1330 gown that I made in 2006. I  wore it to the medieval week that summer, but I also wore it to my viva party that year , after I had defeneded my PhD thesis, and spilled gravy on it. I twas possible to hand wash but the colour got a little unven after that. To hide that I printed a pattern on it with "gold" textile paint.

I went to the market and had a beer with Hans Gunnar, and ran into some people that I know from the early 16th century group ProKnekt. Then I went down to the sea. It was magical.

And I took a really good selfie.

Well, actually, more than one.

Here you can see the whole dress. In the dark, woth the phone perched on a ruined church wall.

Then bed and a good night's sleep.

Next morning I Sara, her partner, and their other partner went to Kapitelhusgården and the market for some last day shopping.

Sara and I looked silly together at Kapitelhusgården.

And she looked rather regal in her Germanic Iron age peplos, when on her own.

More market. This is the Polish folk group Daj Ognia playing on the market.

And more swimming, more walking, more market beer, and then to bed for the trip home to Gotheburg.

Home is nice too.

Medieval week Wednesday and Thursday

 Another image heavy post from my recent visit to the Medieval week on Gotland. Wednesday started with a lovely morning concert and presentation of the history of the medeival Celtic harp. Held in a ruin. Of course. Very relaxing and full of atmosphere. The harpist was Ell, one of the few people these days who play the medieval Celtic harp with metal strings: gold, silver and brass.

    

Then it was time for the Great Visby Tournament, a traditional SCA tournamnet held since the 1980s. Sara isn't keen on that kind of thing, but my friend Erika, who saw it for the first time enjoyed it a lot. It helped that they had a good presenter, telling what was going on. And probably me giving explanations too. It was also a reasonable short tournament with only really good fighters. We started it all with a procession from the medieval Chapter House - Kapitelhusgården - to the old,dried up moats, outside the city walls. The King and Queen of Drachenwald in the lead. But I have no photos of that, I was busy walking,

Me and Erika 

My veil had blown back, that is not how it was supposed to look. More like this.

The finals - between Sir, Duke Padraig, and Sir, Viscount Ludwig. Ludwig won, and got the coveted lambskin.

Then their Majesties, his excellency the Prince of Nordmark (SCA Sweden) and their excellencies the Baronesses of Styringheim (SCA Gotland) held court.

Then Sara and I had dinner at the B&B, which also had a kitchen where we could cook our own food.

That evening was the free fre show by the group TriX, and I made an honest attempt to attend. But it was too much people and I got overwhelmed. So I took a late evening walk, and then went to bed.

Thursday I has slept really badly, so I started the day with a morning swim in the sea. The waves were fabulous.

Then I went and bought some bubbly, before exploring the various medieval camps while looking for people that I might know. The camps are all situated just outside the medieval city walls.

Then market again, where I shared some bubbly with Hans Gunnar, and Marketa, a Czech expert in medieval book painting and calligraphy. 

Not everybody dresses in medieval clothing, there's quite a lot of fantasy stuff too (and 16th century, and fatnasy pirate style). I thought this was cool.

Home for dinner, and amother swim to keep me awake. We lived almost at the highest point from the sea, so there was lots of climbing up and down the cobblestone roads, and stairs.

After the swim in my 13th century wool gown. It wasn't particluarly warm, but the water was still lovely.

Despite being sleep deprived I went to the the Chapter House to see Medeltidsbandet Själ . I like authentic medeival music more than medeival rock with gigantic drums and bagpipes, and half naked men, so this was a treat for me. They are both very good, and lots of fun.

The Chapter House is also a very nice place to just hang out, even if I got stung by a wasp that enjoyed the lavender as much as I did.

I also got to hang out with the three Black Metal Sisters, as I call them. One is obviously missing in this photo.

Rabbit to the left, fox to teh right. The snake turned up later.

Sing-along to one of the Cantigas de Santa Maria.

Then it was bedtime. Next post will show the Battle of Wisby camp. And some really pretty photos of yours truly.

Photos from the Medieval Week: Sunday to Tuesday.

 This was my first medival week on Gotland since 2016, when I was over for three days. My last whole medieval week was in 2010. I used to go (almost) every year between 1993 and 2010, and we always camped. And often brought our children. So this was a very different week: The first time I stayed at a B&B, The first time since 2003 (except for those three days in 2016) without children. They are now 30 and 21, so they have their own lives.

I had a marvellous time. I have not yet decided if I miss camping at Visby. I can camp at Double Wars, which doesn't require bringing a car and trailer on a ferry. There is also much less stuff to take care of afterwards. I have washed the linens, spot cleaned or hand washed the wool and silk gowns, cleaned the shoes and greased them. No big tent to dry,

Anyway: Photos!

Sunday: Arrival by plane, and getting to the B&B. Took a walk down to the market, where I met Hans Gunnar from Eikthyrnir , got a nice  beer, and bought some seriously pretty shoes. With a rubber sole attached so I won't slip on the cobblestones and die. Or at least hurt myself.

Wearing my 13th century wool cotte, that I made in 2004. And have worn at practically every camping event since then. 

Look at the pretty fringe that I sewed to the bottom of the new striped gown. And the sexy red shoes. The hose are my very patched linen hose from 2005. Also used A LOT. I might have to make new ones, because they are falling to pieces.

Early bed time, because I had fallen asleep at 1 am that morning, and woken up at 3 am.

Monday: Sara and I went to the market. Which is quite fabulous. Some not so period trinkets and fantasy clothing, but also awesome things like fabrics from Historiska Rum, The Historical Fabric Store, Medeltidsmode, and Korps/Ravencraft. The two former are all about reproduction fabrics, while the two latter are cheaper, and you can still find really good stuff. And reproduction pottery from Krohns Krukmakeri etc etc. There were sellers of plantdyed fabric and yarn, of armour, of musical instruments, of black smith work, and of many other things. And entertainment. This is Arkadia.

I wore the striped gown, and Sara took a photo of me in the botanical garden.

The bwlt is tied high, early 14th century Italian style, and the knitted cap is also Italian from this period. I made a post with both documentation for the style, and a knitting pattern. it is here.

Hollyhocks.

Then Sara and I went to watch what turned out to be one of the absolute highlights of the week: "Sveriges medeltida landskapslagar - the musical". Yes. It is a musical about the Swedish medieval county laws. Yes, it is fabulous. 

* Note: If you for some reason have a need to read the Nordic medieval laws, but don't read the Scandinavian languages, there is a quite new series of scholarly translations published by Routledge. You can probably access them through a university library, at least through ILL. My old supervisor Prof. Thomas Lindkvist did the one on the oldest Swedish one: The Västgöta law.

After dinner made by Sara she had a lie down, and I went swimming in the sea, and for an evening walk.

Tuesday: Tuesday meant mimosa breakfast at Hans Gunnar's market tent. There were lots of us, both from the SCA, and other people. A great time was had.

This was before the market opened, so we could have our orange juice and bubbly bottles on the table.

I wore my printed wool gown from the early 14th century.

And afterwards I bought three metres of striped wool from Historiska Rum (link above)  that I have lusted after for months. It might have been the mimosa, but I am happy anyway.

Then I went to a three hour workshop in high medieval music ( I sing, I don't play anything well enough for this) with dr Karin Lagergren and Gustav Näsman Olai , who also plays in the medieval ensemble "Medeltidsbandet Själ". It was so much fun. I really miss singing medieval and renaissance music. Of course the workshop was held in a medieval building.

Then we had dinner, and it was evening, and I went swimming and walking again. It was windy and fun waves.

Here I am wearing my handspun, handwoven cotton dress. It ought to be a half linen/half cotton weave, but I couldn't get both that and handspun and hand woven. It is an Italian style from c 1300, where half cottons was used a lot for lower class clothing. You can read about the dress here. Because, if you didn't know this already: I rarely make anything without documenting the shit out of it.

Wednesday and Thursday will be the next post.