Vikings of Bjornstad - Saint Mary's College

Each year, Professor Costanza Dopfel of Saint Mary's College in Moraga, California, opens her classroom to the Vikings of Bjornstad. We spend five hours with the students, covering the full range of Viking era subjects with her class. In addition to a PowerPoint presentation on the events, people and culture, we display tables full of our gear. Then, we provide the students with hand-on interaction with our stations of Viking skills. They learn to use sword and shield, bows and arrows, flint and steel for fire-making, trading for the goods of the period and more.

A beautiful day in January on the Saint Mary's campus	Hagerty Hall - before the Vikings arrive
The Vikings of Bjornstad are here!	Bjornstad - joined by one of the Roman re-enactors
We have a lot of Viking goods to display	Weapons, jewelry, leather goods, mail shirts...
Scales for trading with the locals, maps,...	Professor Dopfel turns the day over to Jack and the Vikings
And we get to talk about the people, events, art and culture of the Viking Age	Will covers Norse mythology
Henrik trains the students with sword and shield	Henrik and his student Vikings
Henrik holds their attention	Not all the gear was authentic Viking
Bear with spear and shield	Deadly - with a few more lessons
Breaking out the Hunkerhauser (Viking tug-of-war) gear	...while some frenzied trading of Viking age goods is underway inside
Professor Dopfel encourages students and visitors	Our master of Viking cooking for the day
And Viking food is good!	Brian joins the discussion
Ed shows how it's done - with rubber-tipped arrows	The arrow bounces off after a dead shot
Brian looses an arrow	And the students get their turn
Douglas demonstrates flint and steel for making fires. Professor Dopfel is at left.	Sparks come later
Rick waits with the next group	Kay demonstrates a little Viking magic - and then Bjornstad disappears...