We are a Viking and Anglo Saxon re-enactment group, one of the York-based chapters of the educational charity The Vikings. We also work in conjunction with University of York Re-Enactment Society. There are other Viking groups in York (Volsung and Jormungandr, etc) but we created Vanaheim in order to act as an active and accessible option for both students and professionals living in the city. Our
main aims are to accurately portray daily and military life in Anglo Scandinavian York throughout the Viking Age, focusing especially on the period of the mid 10th century to mid 11th century. We also provide school visits, entertainment for minor events (combat displays and increasing amounts of Living History). POTENTIAL MEMBERS:
Should you wish to join, be aware that it is a costly hobby. Basic soft kit, aka no armour or weapons, will set you back up to 100£ (depending on what you want to portray) should you wish to make most of it yourself. Membership costs 18£ +5£ membership for the medieval society. This involves access to training and possibly society kit as well as all minor, medium and major shows across the country which involves The Vikings (Scarborough Castle, Stamford Bridge, Hastings, Corfe Castle...to name a few.). Training takes place once a week. At the moment it's on a Sunday roughly from 1/2-4/5pm. This however will change as soon as term starts as those will be the times of regular Re-Enactment Society training which we heavily encourage every member to attend. The basic requirements to attend are to possess or have access to padded gloves, a helmet, a weapon and a shield. Older members are more than happy to lend out their equipment for the first few sessions so that unnecessary investments can be avoided. SHOW/DISPLAY HIRE:
As mentioned above we provide combat displays and an evergrowing amount of Living History for all sorts of events. We are fully insured by The Vikings and can provide our own risk assessment. As we speak only one of our members is fully DBS checked by The Vikings, however three of us (him included) are otherwise DBS checked. Once we have more people checked by The Vikings we will be open to fully fledged school visits etc. Should you wish to hire us, please consider that we operate on a scale of three:
-Minor shows: which we would be able to handle as a single group. (combat display, weapons display, minimal amount of LH)
-Medium: which we COULD handle ourselves but we are likely to call in other groups or individual members of other groups to help.
-Major: which involves a full scale LH camp and/or battle. This tier would require payment and compensation for the journeys of other groups. We hope that whether you are a member of the public, a potential member of Vanaheim or someone who wishes to/has already hired us that you enjoy what we do and our company.
