Julfirande i norra Nordmark

First I attended Reengarda’s Lucia Fest, held this year on Sunday, 8 December. The site opened at 10:00 for crafts day, but we had some errands to run first, so it was well after 11:00 before we arrived. Pretty much directly after we got on site Fru Rana said that she was going to head over to the Winter Market, and did anyone want to come along? That sounded fun, so I joined her. The market was so well attended that it was hard to see what was for sale in the booths through the dense crowdes, but we managed to get close enough to most booths see your usual assortment of Christmas market stuff, like knit hats and gloves, candles, Christmas themed goods, and, interspersed between the others, the occasional something interesting. One of our shire members was selling handmade glass beads (Viking style), cute little glass birds and little glass goddess figures.

Another couple of shire members, Fru Martina and Fru Eria, were selling candied almonds. We passed them as Eria was taking samples into the crowd, offering single almond tastes (and mentioning the opportunity to buy more in the booth).

There was also a guy selling knives and kosa, the cute little traditional wooden scoops, both of which have decorated horn handles, and all of which are lovely.

After the market we returned to the site and I settled into working on my sewing project. I also served the pound cake I had baked to celebrate my upcoming birthday (the following Tuesday). Around 16:00 we set up a table and arranged the potluck food contributions nicely on the nearby counter, and had a small feast, with plenty of good conversation.

I was so enjoying the evening that I completely forgot that it was a Sunday, so I was a bit surprised when people started packing up to go. It turns out that it was later than I thought, so it was after 22:00 before we went home.

The following weekend was Frostheim’s Julgille. Therefore, on Saturday morning I got up early and baked a pear, pecan, cheese and carrot crumble as my potluck contribution, and packed everything that should have been packed the night before, if I hadn’t been busy. Then we drove north to Frostheim, arriving early enough to go visit my beloved apprentice, Ena, and her partner Johan. She had baked fresh bread, and also offered cheese, tomato, and lunchmeat to go with it, so we had a delightful couple of hours hanging out, drinking tea and eating yummy food and talking with them before we took our leave and headed over to the Gillestuga for Frostheim Jul. It would have been nice to take them with us, but this was not their year for it. But it was so wonderful to see them, they are such delightful people.

We arrived at the event just on time for the dancing at 16:00, and I happily danced (long dances plus a little Swedish folk dance) till 17:00, when it was time to set up the tables for the feast.

It was so good to see everyone. I think we had around 30 people on site, ranging from very long time Frostheim members, to people who are quite new to the group, and it made me happy to see everyone. As much as I enjoy living in Lövånger, I really also miss living in Luleå and my friends and regular activities there.

After the feast we were among the last to leave site after cleaning up, and a small group of us went over to Styrmir and Kakwkylla’s house (where we three who had come up from Reengarda were staying). There we sat up talking for a few more hours. I finally got so tired that did my yoga and got ready to sleep a bit after midnight, but then got to talking again, and didn’t actually get to bed till well after 01:00.

Sunday morning I slept in (and needed it!), and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with the others. Around noon we went over to the archery hall and started setting up for the day’s event: Jakt för Julbocken. They had many holiday themed archery contests planned. The first was to shoot at some Christmas wrapping paper, without hitting any of the Santas (but it was ok to hit the angels and children).

It has been so long since I have tried archery at all (and I have never really practiced much) so I was pleased that I could hit the paper at all, and laughed to see that I failed in my mission to spare Santa–in fact, my arrow gave him a lobotomy.

We also shot at balloons, and at gift wrapped packs of candy, and at weird holiday themed AI art showing “monsters”: dragons, christmas goats (this is a thing in Sweden) octopuses, gryphons, demons, and hamsters, all doing battle with guys in armour. The “monsters” all had little red Santa hats on. For that round the person in charge would announce which sort of monster we should shoot, and everyone fired at once, gaining points for hitting the correct type of monster, but minus points if they hit any of the guys fighting the monsters.

We shot at little gnomes and forest creatures that rolled past the narrow archery windows in the “castle walls”.

We also had an all-important fika pause, with fresh baked rolls and other snacks.

It was a fun afternoon, and some of our friends who couldn’t make it to the feast the night before were able to attend on Sunday, so it was good to see them. Around 16:00 we helped with cleaning the site, and then headed south to Antnäs to pick up a 3D printed dragon that Peter had made so that Keldor can try using the form to make steel dragons in a contrasting colour from the background (two different steel powders with different carbon content). It will be interesting to see how that goes. Then we continued on to Skellefteå, dropped Vyria off at home, did our grocery shopping (where we ran into a friend), and then went home, please and tired from another delightful weekend with SCA friends.

Photo credits: Rana, Styrmir, Kakwkylla, and Keldor

Kareina