Viking wedding to feature at Norsewood festival

Eva Renbjor with a fjord horse. The Norwegian horses will be at the Viking Festival. Photo / Leanne Warr

This weekend’s Viking Festival in Norsewood is going to include something a little different.

Organisers Eva Renbjor and Jamie Hughes have planned a traditional Viking wedding to go along with the rest of the festivities.

A traditional handfasting ceremony. The Viking tradition is similar. Photo / Getty Images.

“This is a handfasting ceremony,” Renbjor said.

She said the ceremony would follow the way they were done in Gudvangen, the location of a Viking village in Norway.

In the ceremony, participants would make a circle and they would welcome three gods, Thor, Freyja and Odin, representing power, love and strength respectively.

“Normally there should be a couple more,” Renbjor said.

Jamie, with the fjord horses, will be officiating at the Viking wedding ceremony on Saturday. Photo / Leanne Warr

In the ceremony, the couple would each place their hands inside an iron ring and the officiator would ask them similar things as in any other wedding ceremony.

Handfasting usually included fabric tied around the couple’s hands in a loose knot, which was where the expression ‘tying the knot’ came from.

“It’s a nice ceremony.”

Renbjor said interest in such ceremonies was growing as people became more interested in learning about Viking history.

She said while this was the first time a Viking wedding was being held at the festival, she had been asked to do one before, although that never eventuated.

The couple taking part in the ceremony on Saturday afternoon are from Hawke’s Bay and had contacted Renbjor to see if she would help organise it.

Renbjor said she would like to work on doing more traditional Viking things for the festival, and the wedding would be the new thing for this year.

A music group from Christchurch, SonVanger, would also be performing at the festival.

This year’s festival will be the fourth and Renbjor hopes it would get bigger and better each year.

It’s a labour of love for Norwegian-born Renbjor who first came to New Zealand in 1998 and spent much of the past 20 or so years dividing her time between her homeland and New Zealand.

Both she and Hughes give up their time freely to organise the festival to provide a look into how Vikings lived.

Renbjor said people were becoming more interested in Viking history and traditions, because of Viking movies and television programmes and the desire for authenticity.

The festival, which was first held at Mathew’s Park in Norsewood in February 2020 has grown each year, attracting visitors from all over New Zealand and also from overseas.

Engaging in combat at last year's Viking Festival. Photo / Leanne Warr

There will be music performances, fjord horses, a tug of war competition, archery, combat, stalls and traditional food.

Darren Ormandy with Jess Robbie in costume at last year's festival. Eva is hoping people will dress up again this year. Photo / Leanne Warr

“I’m sure it’ll be a great weekend,” Renbjor said.

The festival will run from 10am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday, with the Viking wedding planned for Saturday at 3pm.