Gullinkambi - Combat and Living History

After packing down, driving home and 24 hours of being almost comatose, it's finally sunk in that our first edition of Hrafnsauga has been and gone!

All the prep, DIY, meetings, late nights and so on paid off, because we had an absolutely amazing weekend!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone in Gullinkambi who helped get this off the ground! Whether it's in the planning, set up, pack down or by being helpful in camp! But specifically, I could not have done this without Leah and her amazing organisational skills! As well as her great presence in camp! It is thanks to her that some of our friends were able to attend at more favourable insurance rates as guests of ours and others were able to attend as part of The Vikings UK. Absolutely amazing work! Not to mention her awesome dyeing display, which resulted in her being partially blue for a lot of it!

Second, I would like to thank Dave and Sam for their help, suggestions and organising their Viking Games that they ran on Saturday night. It was great craic!

Thirdly, massive thanks to Sarah for her awesome textile stall and Sara for her great cooking display, which kept Gullinkambi fed on the Sunday with delicious historical food! We normally have more living historians present, but due to some bad luck, the girls ended up holding down the fort for most of the weekend. They did an incredible job and the public loved them, so we couldn't be more proud.

Another special thanks goes to Pascal for helping us with lifts for day-trippers, as well as running the impromptu wargames on the Saturday afternoon! I think we can all agree it was great craic and we'd love to do it again next year!

Lastly, but by no means least: Thank you to everyone who showed up and made this the amazing success that it was! We're proud to have hosted friends old and new from Valhalla Ulfhednar - Dark Age Reenactment, Fingal Living History Society, Déise Medieval Jotunns Wrathh, Hrafnsdale Vikings, , Blaeddau Du, Acle, Storrada Hird - Drużyna Wojów Świętosławy and Jomsborg South Storm! Overall, we fielded 30 Western fighters and 10 Eastern fighters. Our village had 15 living history structures displaying a variety of things such as plant dyeing, jewellery casting, tablet weaving, cooking and skins/furs! We really couldn't do the event without the support of other groups and we're so grateful that folk were willing to make the trip- some travelling for 5+ hours or more from southern England, from Scotland and even from Ireland.

All that being said, we are all well aware that there were teething issues here and there, things we could've done better as well as all the hurdles that come with running an event for the first time (and with a small team). But rest assured that we have taken note of all of it and will be ironing out those kinks. On that note, we would LOVE for everyone who attended to give us your own feedback! We will send a proper feedback form in the next few days, but feel free to comment below as well (but please re-iterate the feedback in your comment in the feedback form as well).

On a positive note, I can confirm: Fort Paull officially want us back next year! I have already done so, but would like to thank the two Nicks (the site managers) again for being so helpful and having enough faith in us and our event to let us use their awesome site! They manned the bar all weekend for us, made sure we had everything we needed and even played all our requests in the bar (including all the Irish rebel songs.) We're looking forward to working with them in the future for more editions of Hrafnsauga and maybe a cheeky training weekend or two. 😉

Once we have a date for next year we will immediately put the word out and start planning! But for now...resting and prepping for Sletten! We'll see some of you there!

Thanks again!

-Eric

A little training sesh before our show Hrafnsauga Viking Festival at Fort Paull Battery Heritage Site this weekend!

Tonight we're training International Western Style, but we look forward to a little Eastern too on the weekend! Not pictured is the last minute sewing going on- a living historian's job is never done. 😉

🌈 York Pride 2026 🌈

We had the pleasure of marching alongside our fellow Yorkies in this year's York Pride parade. Going from the city centre all the way to the Racecourse, it was a glorious day full of fun, music and laughter with folks of all ages. We love our hometown and are proud to stand in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ siblings, even if it does mean melting in multiple layers of wool. 😉

Love to our dearest fellow nerds Vanaheim Vikings York and Eburakon 🌞 "10th century fashion, not 10th century values."

⚔️ Meet our members ⚔️

After some brief radio silence on our part due to us planning our Hrafnsauga Viking Festival at Fort Paull on June 7th; we’d like to introduce another of our members (and Hull native) Dave AKA Ulfric Hvítabjornsson

How long have you been a Viking? 4 years

How did you first get involved? I was trying to do some research on Viking combat for my dissertation at university so I reached out to a local group and decided to have a go

Favourite Viking memory? Sletten 2024, my second ever event as a member of Gullinkambi; just the experience of meeting reenactors from all over the world and the intensity of the fighting was amazing

Favourite event? Either Sletten or Niðhug Wargames

Why should someone join Gullinkambi? Echoing what Sam said; join Gullinkambi if you want to travel to events in Europe, spend your nights drinking and singing around a fire then wake up in the morning to fight a battle and do it all again. But also join if you want to present a part of history that is criminally misinterpreted, or if you want the chance to present the identity of other cultures from the time period

If you could meet anyone from the Viking Age who would it be and why?
I’d love to speak to a shipwright or a smith and just learn about their craft. Also Harald “Bluetooth” seems like he’d be a pretty interesting guy to speak to

We have a BRAND NEW event coming up in just over a month!

Hrafnsauga Viking Festival is a collaboration between Gullinkambi and the fine folks at Fort Paull Battery Heritage Site. Come visit us on Sunday 7th of June for a full day of Viking combat displays, heritage crafts and history being brought to life by Vikings from across Europe.

Tickets are available on the door OR online- follow Fort Paull on FB for details.

What's Farkle without a dick on the score sheet eh?!

A great night at the pub with drinks and historical games ❤️ We played hnefertafl, dice games and (less Viking, more ancient) the royal board game of Ur.

(Increasing amounts of coins on Peanut's head as a bonus ❤️)

Gullinkambi would like to inform all of our followers that we have decided to no longer continue as an early medieval combat and living history group. Instead we are transitioning to a cosplay group based around the films of John Candy; as such we shall be rebranding to Gullin-Candy. We’d like to thank our followers and members for their continued support throughout this transitionary period 😉

Jorvik post-skirmish posing & battlefield frame-mogging...

Big thanks to Regia Anglorum for allowing us to guest with them for the fights! It was an honour to fight alongside you!

(Note to selves: make bigger and more obnoxious banner and golden cockerel)

Pics by The Eoforwic Project

A year ago we attended our first Ask Vikingekampgruppe International training weekend as a group. We had a great time attending again this year but unfortunately we all forgot to get photos. We’ll do better next year 😂

- Dave