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Haffenreffer Museum, Brown University - Bristol RI

September 16 / 17 / 18 / 19, 2004

Following the success of last year's presentation, DARC received an invitation to come back for a second display at the Haffenreffer Museum at Brown University. This time we made time for sight seeing, including a look at the Newport tower, which used to be reputed to be built by "Vikings". Thankfully, that theory has been disproven. The newest local theories that we heard were divided between drugs and the "templar" theory. It's hard to tell which theory is funnier.

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Considering the tower Newport tower

This year's exhibit was bigger than last year. We added two more to the crew, and Brown added more lectures. Kevin Smith (Haffenreffer Museum, Brown University) spoke again on Norse culture, Dr. Michèle Hayeur Smith (Rhode Island School of Design) spoke about dress & adornment, Dr. Neil Price (Uppsala University, Sweden) spoke on sorcery in the Viking Age, Dr. Geoffrey Russom (Brown University) spoke on sport and status, and DARC's own Darrell Markewitz spoke on re-creating the Norse world. In addition, there were Icelandic horses and sheep on site.

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Sheep Horse

The down side to this year was Hurricane Ivan, who decided to spawn off a really nasty little storm on Saturday. We moved the presentations inside but that meant that some of our people couldn't display their primary skills - metal smithing, bronze casting, cooking and dyeing. Thankfully, Sunday's weather, although a tad chilly, was clear and sunny. The crowds just bloomed and we could all go back to the camp, where we function best. It's a good thing when a museum sees almost 10 times their usual weekend attendance in a single day!

Some of the flyers from that day

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We were again joined in this presentation by Michéle Hayeur Smith, a friend we had met at the Viking Millenium Conference in Newfoundland in 2000. Michele donned the role of Þorgrimma, a metalsmith.

Press coverage for this presentation is available here.

The Haffenreffer website for this presentation is available here.

Unn and Bera, taking care of the cook and dye fires.


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Bera's kitchen Kitchen Dye pot simmering Busy kitchen

 

Grimbold carving, and caring for his little one.

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Bronwyn Carving tools Grimbold Grim carving

Ragnarr's trade and try-on space, some indoor photos, and more

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Shieldwork Trading group Kjarval Gudrun spinning
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Kaðlín weaving

Bronze-casting area.

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Talking casting Casting bellows Mould Small castings
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Casting tools Moulds Broaches Moulds and underpiece


Ketill and the blacksmith's space.

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Forge table Forged tools Packing up Ketill working

A look around the grounds.

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A bed Another bed Low status tent The Smiths
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Carvering tent Education centre Simple tent Background sign
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Debriefing Trade goods Camp layout Quick drink
      Updated: 4 Dec, 2007
Text © Neil Peterson, 2004
Photographs © Individual artists
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