Is there such a thing as a professional re-enactor?

Professional re-enactor? Is that something like a professional sea kayaker? Who pays me to do these things?

After many years of participating in Living History events and reenactments I had wandered away. Sea kayaking drew my attention after I was told I should no longer stick fight in 2009. I phased out of the eventing scene and traded my armor for a sea kayaker's kit. Then, quite unnoticed by me, eventing crept back into my life.

In the endless scramble for income, I realized I have something useful to offer the Living History community: sewing skills. Time, I also have time. Especially during the cold months when there is less paddling to be done overall. I had started the etsy store Vikings At Your Door, www.vikingsatyourdoor.etsy.com earlier this year. By now I have passed the 30 sales mark. This was a banner moment for me. My potential customers can read real reviews of my products and great customer service, and having 30 plus sales puts me in the "real store" category.

My dear reader may remember that I am a painter and crafter. I do so love quilting and making little quilted hand bags. I also use quilting skills to make 3 and 4 panel hats. I call the 3 panel hats "Triple Goddess" hats, in a nod to my dear Uncle Steeleye. The 4 panel hats may be either Viking, Rus, Saxon, or Sami. The Sami are the reindeer herders of far northern Europe. They are sometimes called Finns or (an ethnic slur) Laps, hence references to "Lapland." Myself, as a re-enactor I portray an early Finn, a proto-Sami. A reindeer herder from about the 5th Century CE.

I call this photo "Ondraedan the Pompous"

In real life we live on the East Coast of the US. But the island of Anglesey, in Wales, is the make believe "home" of the club I grew up in. Officially we are called the "Free Company of Anglesey," a mercenary band in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Over time I branched out and joined another club that was more helpful to lady fighters. But Anglesey was always my "home." How does a Sami find herself surrounded by Celtic mercenaries? This is why it is called "creative anachronism." It does not have to make sense. After all it is make believe, we are just playing a game.


(Below my son, who grew up in our Anglesey, plays in Dagorhir)

I had left that all behind though. My husband and son still participated and were fighting. I was not going with them, generally I was paddling instead. Not being able to fight just made going to events painful. Also, I had a problem with one or two mean people in the club and I am at an age now where I choose to surround myself with kind people. In the absence of kindness, one will find me absent as well.

But what brought me "home" was, frankly, my boat. My NDK Romany Surf was made on the real island of Anglesey, Wales. Every time I looked at the Welsh dragon on my deck I was reminded of my past. To be sitting in a small boat made on the island we call "home," felt so much like the universe seeking harmony.

A couple of months ago my husband and I went to a Fall Equinox event at Uncle Steeleye's river house. We spent the daylight hours paddling and rolling on the wide choppy Potomac. That evening, with the blue water of the river lapping against the sandy shore, my beautiful ivory Surf settled in the grass behind me, and wearing my garb for the first time in a long while I realized that I never really left "home" behind. Some how Anglesey had followed me and stayed in my life even as I tried to walk away. I looked around Steeleye's circle at the many faces I have known for so long. We sang our traditional songs and held hands around the fire. And I realized "home" was still with me. I had never left it, and it had never left me.