The beast I can't control
For years I have been fighting an uphill battle. Repeatedly, in national and international media, on social media, in podcasts and on my blogs and vlogs I have been trying my very best to give Viking re-enactment a tidy and serious reputation. Because let’s face the truth: historically the Vikings do have a shady reputation, and events in modern times has not made that easier to get past. You know, the Nazis and all that.
My battle has now come to an end. I’m done pretending and I’m done defending. And since I am no longer the leader of a Viking re-enactment group, the organizer of any event nor the co-owner of a re-enactment company I can speak my mind and I can step on toes.
A propaganda poster
I’m a 5,9 feet tall, blond, blue eyed woman with reasonably large tits and an even bigger smile. If someone was looking for a model for a certain kind of propaganda poster during the second world war – I would be asked to be on it. Not to sound full of myself, but I kind of fit the aesthetics. Which is also probably why many of my photos posing in heroic, epic postures, gazing out into the fjords, wearing my Viking outfits have been stolen, over and over again, by dubious sites promoting political views far from my own.
Over the years my friends and I have tried our best to get the pictures with attached slogans as “Europe for whites” and “Immigrants go home” removed, but somehow, they just keep popping back up.
In the end I figured there was little I could to about it and that I must spend my energy elsewhere. After all: I did take the photos and I did post them online, aware of what kind of aesthetic I was feeding into and the associations these images might give. Aware that there were several ways to interpret these photos, or rather: the person in them and her agenda. I knew some right-wing weirdo would probably jerk of to them – finding political inspiration in them - but I put them out there regardless. Maybe I kind of enjoyed that people who didn’t really know me wondered a little about who I really was, where I stand politically and what my values truly are.
This used to have an interesting nerve to it.
Being idolized, whatever the reason, was quite flattering to me. And to be bluntly honest: Taking a clear stand will always push some people away. I’m not the first “artist” to keep an opinion a bit blurred in fear of losing followers. I’m not the first leader or organizer to look the other way so my group or event won’t lose participants. And I’m certainly not the first business owner to forsake political cause for a sale.
Personally, I have always been a bit afraid to make myself unpopular, even if it entailed sustaining popularity among those, I don’t have any respect for. I would not say I lied; I just didn’t voice my opinion. My motivations and agendas lay elsewhere, and politics just didn’t fit into my Viking hobby at the time.
Motivation and agenda
For those of you who have ever heard one of my talks, I often try to explain the many motivations and agendas behind participating in Viking re-enactment. Why do people from all over the world chose to devote their time and money towards this modern Viking life?
There could be several reasons aka motivations, hence also several agendas. When doing a talk on this I usually mention the following:
Crafting. Agenda: to sell or trade crafts, to show off self-made crafts, learning, teaching.
Money. Agenda: to sell Viking equipment and/or other to other Vikings or tourists.
Social. Agenda: to make friends, to be part of a community, to get laid, to acquire status within the scene.
Battle/sword fighting. Agenda: play, sports, to be the best fighter, alcohol, to get laid.
Attention/PR. Agenda: me, me, me, me, me, me. Me. In fancy gear. Me. Getting laid.
And so forth and so on ….
There is however one motivation that I have been giving way too little attention. Maybe because I thought not talking about it would make it go away.
Politics/ideology. Agenda: To use the re-enactment scene to openly or secretly outlive or promote political views and values.
This applies whether you are on the right or left side of politics.
Let me give you a couple of examples:
Hiking with a white supremacist and refusing to wear a t-shirt
A few years ago, me and some other nerds organized a Viking Hike in the mountains. Participants had to apply to join and there was an interview process to get the spot. You were asked questions about your physical health, motivations for joining and some not so direct questions about your mental health. We had to make sure that the participants were physically and mentally fit for the hike, and that everyone would work together as a group. But there was also the motive of singling out the applicants who were nutcases. Like people who think they live in LOTR and that this hike was some fantasy travel into a different realm. Or the people with darker intent. We had to make sure that a participant would not use the hike to further nourish or fuel white supremacist ideology.
Why? In both cases: that is something we did not want to contribute to.
We ended up with a handful of participants and set out to explore the mountains. After a few hours it became clear that we had failed in our screening process. One of the participants turned out to be a homophobic, white supremacist with a huge Odin-complex. A handsome young man with short hair and a full bank account. Not brutal, but very blunt and uncharming. Surprisingly dense considering his level of education and occupation.
All the way he tried to make the hike about something it was not. A self-deprecation experience to prove that we as white Vikings were better than “others”.
This group of participants ALL SHARED most of the same motivations. They were all into Norway, nature, survival, crafts, historical food, bonfires… and Vikings. They were all into Vikings. But not for the same reasons. Yes, I think they all though of the Vikings as brave, strong and adventurous. And they all probably felt a little bit of that “I’m going to test myself to see if I could do something the Vikings might have done”. But where is the real difference in motivation and agenda for the white supremacist and the more political neutral participant?
The white supremacist READS something political into the setting. He fantasizes about the bold Viking, identifying with him, not on a human level, but on a political level. The fearless heterosexual barbarian who speaks his mind. He who fights for honor and family. The alpha testosterone bomb with his fur, tattoos and horned helmet.
Yeah, that f***** horned helmet.
I’m not going to devote much time for the Viking re-enactors with a very outspoken left-wing political agenda. They always also manage to read something political into the scene, making their political agenda known to the world, especially on Facebook. I’m sorry to say but I find this almost as annoying, but way more acceptable.
A few years back some Norwegian Viking re-enactors initiated a campaign against racism. They wanted to print t-shirts for all the chiefs to wear and to hand out to their members. I «cringed», as my 11-year-old son would say. No matter how many times you ask me I will never wear a t-shirt with “Vikings against racism” on it. That’s reading way too much politics into the scene, using the scene to push values. If you however offer me a t-shirt labeled “Ingrid against racism» I will gladly wear it. Every day.
I might as well be wearing a reindeer pelt
As I mentioned in the introduction, I have devoted over 15 years of my life to giving Viking reenactment a slightly more serious reputation. I have tried an academic approach referring to sources and research when publishing work and theories, I have initiated international culture and tourism projects where cooperation’s between re-enactors and museum institutions were at the core, I have organized numerous events where re-enactors and the public come together, I have spent hours and hours writing and explaining, taking photos and making videos, both about the scene, the crafts and the food. Why?
All because I felt that my passion and hobby was misunderstood and labeled as something a bit tacky (or “harry” as we would say in Norwegian). All because I’m tired of people not understanding what it’s all about and that it’s not just about dressing up in some costume.
And, because I was a bit afraid that we would be confused with the wrong kind of people.
For years I have been trying to learn “most people” the difference between my hand sewn, plant dyed reconstructions of garments and the half as Viking-costume you can buy down the street or the costume your mom made from old carpets.
The problem is that “most people” don’t see the difference. Nor do they care.
They see some kind of Viking costume and that’s it. Sure, if they really took a closer look and maybe had a conversation about it, they would be able to see the difference. But, to “most people”, what I’m wearing might as well be this:
And that is exactly what happened.
I know it was a joke, but a friend of mine sent me a picture of the howling QAnon-shaman (Jake Angeli) in his “horned costume” and Viking-tattoos, storming the US congress. He had stuck the logo of my former re-enactment company, Hands on History, on it.
And I realized, this is what “most people” think I’m doing. Oh, the shame.
My reaction was to laugh.
I forwarded to picture to Maria (Heilung) and offered to slap a Heilung logo on (funny me). She got annoyed at me, explaining that this was the fifth time someone sent her a similar bad joke that day, and that the band didn’t want to be associated with this idiot just because he is wearing a fur-horn-thingy on his head. The band is not a political project. Point taken (sorry Maria).
So why did I laugh? A few years ago, I would have been angry too.
Because I just can’t take another round. I just can’t cope with the fact that these are the associations «most people» have. I see my friends point clearly.
“Man dressed in Viking costume”
After the storming of congress several of the Viking re-enactors I know took on the challenge of so-called damage control. They e-mailed the national broadcaster when they referred to the Q-shamans outfit as a “Viking costume” - telling them that this wording would damage the re-enactment scene. They made both funny and angry memes stating that the Q-shaman was nothing, but a weird nerd lost on his way to a Live Action Role Play (LARP). Others went far on Social media showing their discontent shouting “Vikings did not even have horn on their helmets”.
We have been through this before. The constant struggle to have the wrong people stop abusing «Viking symbols», to take certain symbols back, to prove that we are NOT just a bunch of nerds lost on our way to a LARP, eating only organic food and practicing weird new-age religion. To me, at least at this point, all this effort seems as useless as launching the attitude campaign: “Ibiza - a sober, family friendly holiday destination”.
I’m sorry Ibiza, but you will never be able to shake that reputation of.
Why? Because Ibiza is a party place, filled with drunk 20-somethings in thongs! Sure, there are decent people in Ibiza too, but the party reputation kind of surpasses that. And how is this comparable to the Viking re-enactment scene? Because the Viking re-enactment scene is political. It has homophobes, white supremacist and neo-Nazis! It’s also full of left-wing activists, weirdoes and LARPers. Hell, I used to be a LARPer to!
It’s not just the weight of a historical burden. The scene ATTRACTS people with strong political agendas, loners and geeks.
And they will keep on coming.
Especially now that the Viking scene has experienced massive growth in the last decade due to pop-culture and globalization. We are no longer the small click of friends, there are thousands upon thousands.
Rotten eggs are the responsibility of the organizer
Most Viking re-enactors are kind and respectful, regardless of their level of geekiness. However, every basket has some rotten eggs. And some of these rotten eggs don’t even try to disguise their white supremacist smell.
I’ve organized many Viking events in my life, and I have often been referred to as elitist. I guess the reason for this is because me and my teams always hand-picked participants. This was a strategy to ensure a high level of quality in crafts and costume. It was also a strategy to keep the more suspicious people out.
Once, I refused to book a «war lord» and his crew of monkeys to our event. I didn’t like their suspicious attitude and vulgar appearance even though they were quite famous and «looked great» in pictures. Also, I knew from talking privately to him that he was in fact a white supremacist. I felt they would put the events atmosphere and safety at risk.
He responded by straight out threatening me.
Groups like these are invited in great numbers to Scandinavian Viking events, camping among families. They are in positions of power and their political views are therefore ignored. Maybe it’s also because they dress the part and are to intimidating to confront. They certainly don’t possess some indispensable skill. There are plenty of fighting groups to pick from.
While Mr. Horn Moron might ruin the Vikings reputation from outside the scene, destruction is way worse when it comes from within.
I takes one journalist and the wrong comment to make headlines.
I’m not going to mention any names here. But if you’re a Viking re-enactor reading this, I’m sure you can think of at least a couple of names. And there are many, many more. I know because they write me, thinking I’m the same.
Being the organizer comes with great responsibility. You are the curator and the gate keeper, and you should never be blinded by photo ops and the hunger for attention and PR. There is a horrifying example from a famous Norwegian Viking event, where the organizer – who was supposed to be the gate keeper – struck a deal with a so-called documentary filmmaker. Dazzled by the camera’s mere presence he let them in, no questions asked. The participants at the event trusted the organizer and agreed to being in the film.
It turned out the film was political propaganda. The participants felt mislead and tried their best to stop the series. When that failed, they tried their best to discredit it, saying they were tricked into joining. But the damage was already done. Viking re-enactors participating in a right-wing film about Vikings.
My point being that as the organizer you have a responsibility regarding who you invite or let into your event.
Reproducing stereotypes
I was asked once by the national broadcaster to participate in a debate about how Vikings are used to promote Norway in tourism.
A pretty angry journalist had written an article about how offensive he found it that Vikings, who were violent rapists, where used as kids’ entertainment. How absurd he found the glorification of swords, blood and decapitation. The broadcaster called me hoping I would represent the antagonist in the debate – the one who said that this was all fun and games and that the journalist was way to touchy.
I had to disappoint her. “I agree with him”, I said. Explaining that this image of the Vikings is what I have been fighting my whole Viking-life, that I find this kind of brutalized entertainment tacky and straight up damaging to the Viking scene. Particularly when there are so many other aspects of the Viking age that could be mediated.
But unfortunately, blood and swords sell more tickets than cooking and spinning wool. Better keep it speculative, cheap and easy - reproducing the stereotypes making sure that «most people» won’t see the difference between you and the Q-shaman.
In the struggle to give Viking re-enactment a more serious reputation I’m afraid I’ve sacrificed my own.
And I’m no longer comfortable being in this role. I’m done educating people trying to prove them wrong when they assume, because there are some elements of truth to their assumptions. Mr. Horn Moron, the LARPers and groups like “White heritage” can’t take all the blame for the shady reputation of the Viking re-enactor. Some prejudices are caused by actions and individuals within, which makes it hard to prove “most people” wrong.
What I did when posting my epic pictures online was reproducing stereotypes feeding into supremacist aesthetics’. I know it’s not the rape victims fault she was raped, even though she was wearing a short skirt and high heels to town.
I know I should be allowed to post any pictures I like without them being abused. But sadly, reality is different now and we should be aware of the consequences.
What I did when blurring my political views allowed interpretations to grow. Being political in one direction or the other is one thing, naively feeding into the political by having blurred opinions is another.
There is way too much double communication going on.
I’m letting go of a beast I can’t control. And from now on I’m choosing to laugh instead of getting angry. Sorry guys, I’m out!
Edit: After posting this article on Facebook I got massive response with over 4.000 reads in a few hours. With permission from the writer, I want to share one of the comments on my FB-post, before I silently lean back and rest my f*** case:
XoXo Ingrid Galadriel
