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Random Heathen Ramblings: S6, EP10 - Recapping My Time At The Viking Experience · Random Heathen Ramblings

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Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Even Ramblings
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3:14
But I do come on here every week and talk about various things
3:17
this week after a after a week off.
3:21
So you guys, you know, haven't heard from me since before the
3:25
Viking experience and then or yeah, since after the Viking
3:31
experience. Sorry.
3:32
You heard, you heard from me before going out to North
3:35
Carolina for TVE, but you haven't heard from me since
3:39
getting back, at least not on the podcast.
3:43
So I'm here today to kind of recap things and, and give you
3:46
guys a bit of a synopsis of the show or of the experience, I
3:50
should say, and what an experience it was.
3:54
You know, I've, I've not gone to a lot of bigger medieval
4:06
Renaissance events, like there's the the Tennessee Renaissance
4:09
Fair that I got that I've gone to a few times.
4:11
And I've never, I've never quite looked at the way that you know,
4:16
or, or, or taken the view of, of the, what vendors do like I have
4:20
after or, or, or, you know, I've never looked at it quite that
4:23
way before going to TV and going there as a vendor.
4:28
There's a lot of work that goes into it.
4:30
I don't know. And if you all you guys realize
4:33
just the kind of toil that it takes, you know, and, and we're
4:41
sure, I'm sure that, you know, my wife and I, we aren't the
4:43
ones, we aren't the only ones who traveled a great distance to
4:47
get there. Coming from Middle Tennessee to
4:51
Oxford, NC, it's about an 8 hour straight shot if you were to
4:55
just, you know, get in your car and drive there from where we
5:03
are in Tennessee. So I'm sure there's people that
5:04
have gone that distance or even further.
5:09
I know there's people there that come from all over the world.
5:13
So let me just say this for all of you folks that do vend at
5:19
events like TVE or Norse forged or Renaissance fairs or anything
5:25
like that, and you do this, you know, throughout the year, it is
5:31
amazing. Yeah.
5:32
You guys are, are it's you know what?
5:35
And it doesn't really matter what you're doing, but you know,
5:37
the, the, the travel, the, the, the, the setting up and then the
5:42
tearing down and then the setting up again.
5:43
If you're doing it multiple days, and especially if it's
5:48
like a new place, you know, we've never been there before,
5:50
which for, for all of us that were vending at TVE this year,
5:58
this location in Oxford was their new location.
6:02
So I understand the the last, you know, few years or whatever
6:06
have have been at a different location and this is their new
6:10
location for this and future events.
6:14
And they did a lot. I I learned they did a lot to
6:21
prepare the grounds. And I honestly don't even know
6:27
exactly how many acres we're talking about, but it's no small
6:32
spit of land to say, you know, to say the least, it is, it is
6:36
spread across probably, you know, dozens, if not maybe even
6:42
hundreds of acres. The, the, the vending area, like
6:48
when you first pull up to the property, it's, you know, a, a,
6:51
a driveway or an, or an axis driveway, kind of gravel Rd.
6:55
Where in the field is, is all the, the vehicles for parking,
6:59
You know, so all of the patrons, some of the folks, I think that
7:07
might have been working there, staff parking.
7:09
That's all down close to the, to the main entrance.
7:12
But then you get up closer to where like the festival grounds
7:17
are further up the hill and, and into that space.
7:20
It's there was a whole like village of, of like period
7:27
accurate looking tents and and huts and you know, temporary
7:34
structures. They had a stage there for for
7:37
performances. The whole vendor area further up
7:42
in, in, in the, in the big field area up there.
7:47
Impressive, just just super impressive.
7:51
And again, I have nothing really to measure it up against.
7:53
I don't have anything to else to compare it to.
7:57
But I would say that in terms of communicating the way, the way
8:03
that the organizers, the the hosts of, of the Viking
8:06
experience were communicating to us as vendors, I, I, you know,
8:14
the only difficulties that I had were of my own cause or my own,
8:20
you know, reason. I, I can't say that anything
8:24
that they did call, you know, what was the cause of anything
8:29
difficulty that for, for, for me.
8:32
So, you know, finding my spot. They had a map.
8:35
They had, you know, emails going back and forth to, to, to
8:38
vendors and, or going out to vendors and we had points of
8:41
contact if we had questions. But like I said, you know,
8:45
knowing where you were was very clear.
8:51
So, and then when we arrived, because so like my wife and I,
8:56
the, the, the, the event was, was 2 weekends.
9:00
It was the 22nd and the 23rd and then the next weekend after
9:04
that, the 29th and the 20, the 29th and the 30th.
9:09
My wife and I only did the vending on the 22nd and the
9:12
23rd. So we which is a Saturday and
9:14
Sunday. So we got up there Friday to
9:19
check in and get our event space where we were vending set up,
9:25
which was just a A10 by 10 area. But with all the vendors that
9:29
are there, you know, they have everything marked off with
9:31
little flags. Your, your section was, you
9:36
know, alphanumeric. So it was, excuse me, letters
9:41
and numbers. And we our our, our spot, we had
9:51
a really easily accessible spot, you know, for being a very
9:56
primitive vending and vending camping event.
10:00
If you were able to camp there, I think they're they're camping
10:02
was limited to vendors. If you wanted to security right
10:08
event staff. They didn't have it really
10:12
opened up to to patron camping, except for this one smaller area
10:18
a bit away from the festival grounds.
10:22
So it was, you know, a walk to get from your campsite if you
10:26
were camping. And it was a it was a small area
10:27
and it was limited. But I do have to say, like the,
10:31
the vending spot where we were, it was, it was great for being
10:33
first time vendors. We were, you know, close to the
10:36
service road. We were able to park nearby to,
10:41
to, to get our stuff in and out when it as we needed to.
10:46
We were near restroom facilities or you know, the, the Porta John
10:50
things, we were near food. So in terms of ease of access to
10:59
everything that we needed to have access to while we were
11:03
there, we were in a prime, prime location.
11:07
But again, getting there Friday evening with a couple of hours
11:11
of daylight left, just getting acclimated and, and finding our
11:16
spot was a bit of a challenge because again, first time
11:19
attendees, but what was great is the event staff that were there.
11:23
We're, we're very vigilant and we're like, hey, you need to be
11:26
over there. You know, what's your vending
11:30
number? What's your plot number?
11:32
What's your spot number? And they helped us very quickly
11:35
get us located so we could get our, get our stuff set up.
11:41
So we got there Friday, met a couple of our close friends,
11:46
like the Olive sense of, of Pialvetir workshop.
11:50
They were, they were getting set up in their event space that
11:54
Friday evening as well. So got to be reunited with them,
11:59
got to meet their newborn, newborn baby boy, which was
12:02
awesome. And then we got everything that
12:07
we could set up for us because, you know, we weren't, I was
12:09
there to just be the only one that was providing divination or
12:14
rune readings. So I didn't have a lot of
12:17
physical product to, you know, unload, unlike a lot of the
12:22
other vendors who were, you know, unloading physical
12:26
merchandise, you know, products, things that they make, crafted,
12:31
whatever. So they had a lot of, they had a
12:35
lot more work to do with with, with, with with regards to that.
12:39
All we had to do was, you know, get our canopy up our table set
12:42
up. It did have a few crafted items
12:45
that we were selling, but they were small things.
12:49
You know, it was, it was jewelry boxes, room sets, you know,
12:52
things that were very small that, that fit into totes or
12:55
boxes that we could carry. We, we did, once we got all that
12:59
stuff set up and, and reconnected with the Olivesons
13:02
at, at the Fialva tier tent. We, we, we drove about 20
13:09
minutes back into town to our hotel and then got right back up
13:17
first thing the next morning pretty early.
13:21
Because again, it was about a 20 minute drive from the hotel
13:24
room, 1520 minute drive from the hotel room in Oxford to our, you
13:28
know, to, to the, to the festival grounds or to the TVE
13:33
event space. And we had to be there at 8:30
13:36
in the morning to get our stuff set up and get ready for the
13:42
gates to open to the public at 10:00 AM.
13:47
So we, we get everything set up Saturday morning.
13:51
It's a beautiful day, Not a cloud in the sky.
13:53
It's, it's, it's cool, but not cold, you know, just a perfect
14:01
spring day. And 10:00 rolls around, you
14:06
know, we get our stuff set up and then it's just basically
14:08
like, all right, let's, let's mingle.
14:10
Let's say hello to friends and people that we knew there.
14:12
Got to see the folks from the Norse fox creations, Josh and
14:16
Tanya. They were there too.
14:18
And what was really cool is like everybody that I knew
14:20
personally, we were all like, I could, you know, turn around and
14:25
see the Fialvatier tent kind of behind me and around the corner
14:29
a bit from this other tent that was beside us.
14:31
So they were within almost within arm's reach.
14:35
Next to them was my buddy Zeb from Skolarmore, who had a
14:40
performance Saturday night, which I'll be talking to or
14:43
talking about here in just a minute.
14:45
But so they were, you know, if y'all went here in Skoga more,
14:47
they were right next to each other.
14:48
I'm a couple of tents over and then further on down the vendor
14:52
row a little bit inward because the way that they had the vendor
14:55
set up was like in this kind of you or horseshoe shaped area in
15:02
and around this. So like the service road was,
15:04
was, was what was shaping the EU formation for vendors to pull in
15:09
and then come back out and then go down the main road to, to get
15:13
out to the, to the, to the highway or to the main road that
15:17
leads in, but where, where all the vendors and stuff are.
15:20
So, so further into like the center of that U closer to the
15:23
center was where Norse fox creations are where they were
15:26
set up. So it was just, it was just a
15:29
short stroll, you know, away and got to see them.
15:33
So we got to see all those folks there Saturday morning before
15:36
the gates open to the public before 10:00 AM.
15:39
So we said our hellos got reacquainted, got our hugs in
15:41
and stuff. And it was like, all right,
15:42
let's, let's, let's rock'n'roll. Let's see what this is all
15:45
about, right. So again, having nothing of an,
15:48
of an experience like this, the only thing that I can compare it
15:51
to that would be close would be like the, the Nashville Pagan
15:54
Pride Day event, which in comparison is a much smaller
16:02
event. And I have only vended there one
16:06
year and that was like back in 2017, maybe, you know, so like
16:14
878 years ago. And so that, so we're, we're
16:23
people are coming in, you know, and they're, they're checking
16:28
everything out and it's a, it's a slow morning for me, at least
16:32
business wise. I guess you could say, like I
16:34
wasn't getting a lot of people coming up to get any room
16:38
readings done the first, you know, couple hours of that of
16:43
the morning. But then like once the once
16:45
lunchtime hit, because again, we were kind of close to where the,
16:50
the, the food trucks are, where the food vendors and all that
16:53
are, are located. Once, once lunchtime kind of hit
16:59
and people were heading over that way and they were looking
17:02
at everything that was over there.
17:03
That's when I started to, to pick up, you know what?
17:05
I'm getting people coming by and asking, what's, what are you
17:07
doing here? And, and it was, it was
17:09
refreshing because, you know, a lot of people that were at this
17:12
event had never heard of, you know, what I do or, or, you
17:16
know, Midgard musings or, or anything like that.
17:19
And they also hadn't heard of what rune readings are, you
17:23
know, Oh, so what's, you know, what's rune readings?
17:27
So I got to, you know, provide some knowledge and, and share
17:33
basically, well, this is this is what it is.
17:35
And what little history we know of, of it being possibly
17:38
something that, you know, the, the, the Nordic or, you know,
17:42
Scandinavian dramatic people's may have incorporated into their
17:46
spirituality when it comes to divination, you know, and, and
17:52
educating people in that way, turning them on to the brand of
17:55
the Random Heathen Ramblings podcast to that brand, getting
17:59
them familiar with that. And it was, it was a very
18:02
fruitful afternoon. The, the event hours are from
18:08
5:50 on Saturday and then 4:50 on Sunday.
18:13
So again, my wife and I had been up since, you know, about 6.
18:19
She got up a little earlier than I did, you know, but I was, I
18:21
was awake when she was awake. So you know, 6:00 in the morning
18:23
until I think we didn't leave until it was like 10:00 that
18:27
night because there's an after party performance, which I'm
18:31
going to be talking about here shortly, but all day.
18:37
And the other thing too is again, with the weather being as
18:40
nice as it was, it brought out a lot of people.
18:42
So we had that. We had it basically is is that's
18:46
the perfect conditions, you know, for, for maximize exposure
18:54
and get the most amount of of people out to the event as, as
18:58
as possible. It did get a little windy, but I
19:07
think one one person's canopy, it's not like it blew over.
19:14
There was some product or things that got like knocked over by
19:16
one good gust that came through. I didn't have any real problems.
19:20
There was a couple of times or like one of my picture frames
19:23
and it kind of got tipped over, but nothing got damaged.
19:26
So aside from just the wind picking up a little bit in the
19:29
mid afternoon, once the sun started to go down, the wind
19:32
completely died out. You know, it got very calm,
19:37
beautiful clear skies. Again, no real light pollution
19:40
out there where the event space was.
19:42
So you look up and it's just a, the, the, the, the, the night
19:46
sky out there was, was gorgeous. And so, you know, once, once the
19:53
event was over for the day at 6:00 and they, you know, we
19:57
start tearing our, our products down, We start tearing our
20:00
canopies. I wouldn't say we're tearing
20:02
them down, but we're closing for the night, you know, putting our
20:05
stuff away, putting things up that we didn't need out that
20:08
night, still left the canopy up and all that for the next day.
20:13
But then immediately after that, starting around 7:30 or so, was
20:19
the. Evenings entertainment, there
20:24
was this, there was this fellow who was like, as they were
20:28
setting things up and, and getting ready for the, for the
20:30
main nights entertainment, some of the performances, there was
20:36
this one guy that was doing like, you know, balancing
20:39
different items, various objects like on his chin or on his
20:43
forehead. He had like a chair, a table, an
20:46
axe, you know, things of various size and weight and shape.
20:50
So it was like a little bit of a comedic performance by by them.
20:57
We get introduced to the to some of the event hosts, you know,
21:04
the people behind the scenes, you know, hearing a bit about
21:07
the history of, of TVE, knowing what went into getting the
21:12
festival grounds prepared and ready in such a short period of
21:15
time. Because as my understanding is,
21:17
you know, this, this land was, was not ready to have an event
21:21
of this size held at it when the land was, was obtained or
21:27
acquired. However it was.
21:28
So there was a lot of land clearing that needed to take
21:31
place and a lot of work that needed to happen to get it to
21:34
the, to the point of, of, of where it was for, for TVE this
21:37
year. And I got, I just got to say,
21:43
you know, if any of the event coordinators hosts, if the reeds
21:49
hear this or if anybody else from TV hears this, really just
21:53
phenomenal job. It was impressive to see how the
21:57
community comes together out there to to get things done.
22:01
So, you know, props and my hats are off to to everybody else out
22:06
there that was involved with the preparation.
22:09
That's really, really well done. The stage was, was awesome, you
22:13
know, having a stage out there with the, with the banners, with
22:16
the Valkyries and stuff on them where the performances were were
22:21
held on on on Saturday night. It's really cool, you know, So
22:27
anyways, everybody is done vending, you know, all the, all
22:30
the patrons have left the festival grounds and now it's
22:33
just vendors and event coordinators, staff, security,
22:38
law enforcement, of course, because there is, you know,
22:45
there are people that, that that will, it's, you know, the after
22:49
party, after the vendor, after the patrons and stuff leave for
22:52
the day. And the after party is a 18 and
22:54
up show. If you're of age and you're
22:57
drinking, you know, there's, it's a Viking festival, right?
22:59
So it's the Viking experience. So there's Mead and there's beer
23:02
and there's stuff. So they have to have law
23:04
enforcement around to make sure that nothing goes crazy and
23:06
nothing. Did you know people were just
23:09
having a good time. It was wholesome.
23:11
Yes, it was an 18 and up audience at that after party.
23:16
There was some, you know, you know, adult humor getting thrown
23:20
around left and right. You know, it was it was good.
23:23
It was good fun to be had. After the the guy who did was
23:29
doing like all the balancing and stuff.
23:31
There was the first act that came up and I'm, I, I can't
23:39
recall their names. Hopefully by the time this airs,
23:44
by the time you're listening to this, their, their information
23:46
will be linked below or I'll be able to credit them.
23:48
But these two ladies got up and sang with some drums.
23:54
They sang some, you know, like they sound like, you know, my
23:59
mother told me and, and some other like Nordic folk songs
24:06
and, and things just acapella, you know, with the drums.
24:10
So just their voices and the percussion instruments of the
24:12
drums. And then after, I think it was
24:20
after them, I believe it was because at that point it's, it's
24:26
the sun has, is pretty much gone down and, and it's getting dark
24:31
out. So I believe it was right after
24:32
those two ladies we're done or soon thereafter was Nordic
24:39
pyrotechnics. You can find them on Facebook
24:44
and Instagram. I'll have their stuff linked
24:46
below. But they are performers that
24:48
deal with, as you might imagine, fire.
24:52
And so, you know, this good dude comes out there and he's, you
24:57
know, he must work out because he's, he's, he's, he's a as, as
25:03
my uncle used to say, you know, he's a fine looking specimen.
25:08
And that's just a nice way of saying, you know, he's, he's, he
25:11
works out. He's put together well, you
25:12
know, and easy on the eyes for, for folks that like that sort of
25:17
thing. So he's out there, you know,
25:18
shirtless and he's got these firebrands and swords with fire
25:22
and stuff on him. He's performing.
25:24
That's pretty cool, You know, especially with the, it being
25:27
dark. And it was, you know, it was
25:30
questionable as to whether or not that was even going to be a
25:32
thing because at that time it was a, there was a what they
25:38
call a red alert. I think they call it North
25:40
Carolina. But we're basically it's a
25:42
statewide ban. You can't have campfires,
25:47
bonfires, you know, you're not supposed to have any like big
25:51
fire things because it's, there's a fire risk.
25:53
There's a risk to have, you know, wildfires and stuff spread
25:59
due to the wind and the dryness, no water, etcetera.
26:04
But however they were able to manage it, it was again, wide
26:08
open field, no trees really. I mean, the trees that were
26:11
there were big, but it wasn't like a, the grass was all
26:14
basically trodden down. It was, it was pretty well just
26:16
dirt, nothing really to catch fire.
26:21
So that got to, you know, it got to be a thing that we all
26:23
enjoyed. So after that performance was
26:25
done, there was another kind of a dark ambient performer who had
26:32
a like a very theatrical stage performance.
26:37
Again, I'm, I'm blanking on the name.
26:39
So hopefully by the time this airs, it'll be linked down below
26:43
for you. But it's like this it's, you
26:47
know, dark ambient telling of of Norse myths and, and, and on the
26:52
stage is our our 3 ladies that are representatives of
26:58
representing we're performing as the nourns, you know, Urdu,
27:01
Verdandi and school. Then they're telling US the
27:04
audience about what that, you know, what the Norns are and who
27:07
they are, what they mean in the culture and all that.
27:11
And there's there was that, you know, so they got through most
27:17
of that performance. There was a point of the
27:21
performance where they start talking about the myth where
27:27
Loki is bound and Sigin is holding the cup or the bowl to
27:33
keep the the serpent's venom from dripping onto him, to keep
27:37
him from tormenting and him. And so while they're talking
27:41
about the role of Loki in the myths, all of a sudden, the
27:46
generator that is providing the power for the lighting, the
27:50
microphone, the audio, the everything, the, the light show,
27:56
all of it, the generator cuts out and there's no sound anymore
28:00
and the lights go out and we're all sitting out there in the
28:02
dark, you know what I mean? And, and what was really cool at
28:08
that point is while the people are scrambling with flashlights
28:11
to try and fix the problem, the audience kind of engages with
28:20
each other and people start clapping like just a, a simple,
28:29
you know, 12341234, you know, and, and people are singing
28:35
like, you know, trilling with their voice and clapping and
28:41
just entertaining ourselves. But, but also there were people
28:48
there that had drums that you could hear them drumming.
28:50
So that the, the drumming is happening with the clapping from
28:55
the audience. The, the, the, the, the voices
28:57
are going up. And we're, we're just providing
29:02
a very primal form of entertainment, you know, and
29:08
bringing people together in that way.
29:10
The people were already gathered.
29:11
But, but everybody joining in at that moment.
29:15
I say everybody, but maybe not every single person, but the
29:18
majority of people that were there were, were getting
29:20
involved, whether it's clapping, stomping their feet, whatever,
29:25
with their voices singing. And so like the fact that the,
29:29
the show got kind of disrupted due to technical issues wasn't
29:36
killing people's vibes. You know, we were still able to
29:38
entertain ourselves for a few minutes.
29:41
And then sure enough, you know, after about, let's say you know,
29:46
between 5 to 10 minutes, they, they were able to get the
29:49
generator back up and running, lights come back on.
29:54
But the, the performance had had pretty much run its course.
30:01
So they, they left the stage and then the final headliner
30:06
performance of the night was getting ready to come up, which
30:10
was my buddy Zeb Skogamore. And I've seen Skogamore, you
30:17
know, I've seen his performance last year at the Brown Mountain
30:20
Lights Festival in North Carolina as well in Marion,
30:25
maybe wherever the Brown Mountain Lights Festival is.
30:30
So I've had a taste of, of what it's like to see him perform
30:34
with his music and the theatrics of his stage show and
30:37
everything, which, so I was really looking forward to it.
30:42
Well, like almost as soon as he gets on the stage, he has his
30:48
own, you know, microphone and his own tracks and everything
30:53
that he works on to, to perform his his set.
30:57
And there were issues almost from the get go where we
31:00
couldn't hear him. There was feedback or there was,
31:05
you know, crackling and there were there was just various
31:08
things one after the other. And I'm like, so I'm sitting
31:12
there and I'm like, oh, no, come on.
31:14
You know, like I know what his show is like and I know how
31:16
awesome it is. And I'm like, these people have
31:19
never that who've never seen Skoga more of a form are are
31:23
missing out on on the potentiality of what they could
31:26
be getting. But that didn't that didn't
31:28
phase Zev in the leash. You know, he muscled through it.
31:32
Some folks did end up leaving, which is understandable.
31:35
And he you know, he's like, Hey, I get it, You know, like who's
31:37
going to stick around for this? You know, me kind of just
31:40
limping my way through this through this set.
31:43
But my wife and I, we get, you know, right up front there on
31:46
this up to the stage and, you know, kind of cheering him on
31:53
and and showing our support for him.
31:57
And then basically towards the end of the set, it things kind
31:59
of mellowed out with with the technical issues, right?
32:02
Most of the technical bits were figured out at that point, but
32:07
it took most of his set for that to be for that to be squared
32:12
away. And then his last song, a bunch
32:17
of his friends and his kin or his, you know, his his nearest
32:21
and dearest, you know, like myself included, we get to come
32:25
up on stage and drum with him or on the last song.
32:30
So you might see it here in just a second.
32:36
I think I do have some some clips that I can share for you.
32:42
So, you know, if you're watching this, here you go.
32:45
If you're listening, there you go.
32:47
But if you want to watch it, come join my Patreon so you can
32:50
see and, and yeah, so there you go.
32:54
Like that was that was like the, the kind of the highlight of
33:02
things. Actually, you know, I, I just
33:08
realized if you, if you are listening to this, you, you
33:11
would not have caught that because the track is, is a video
33:15
file, not an audio file. So you'll just have to come over
33:19
to Patreon and watch it if you want to see what I'm talking
33:24
about, because that little segment of the show is not going
33:28
to be anywhere but the video platform.
33:30
So that's kind of what you get when you become a patron on
33:35
Patreon at the Carl tier. You get those special things
33:38
that maybe don't make it into the, into the audio cuts of
33:42
things. So we, we say hello to
33:46
everybody. We, we, we get our hugs after
33:49
Zeb's done with his set. And then we truck ourselves back
33:54
up to the top of the hill, get in our car and make it back to
33:57
the hotel room. We're wore out.
33:59
You know, like I say, we at that point, it's after 9:00, we
34:08
hadn't eaten anything really dinner wise because that was the
34:11
other thing we learned on Saturday is, you know, like
34:14
you've got to get the food that's available at those
34:17
vending trucks. And it was good like, you know,
34:20
for, for, for vendor for, for food vendors.
34:23
They had some really awesome selections, but I really didn't
34:27
get to try anything food wise on Saturday because it got so busy
34:33
there around lunchtime that I didn't, didn't get a chance to,
34:38
to have anybody go get in because I and I couldn't really
34:40
leave my canopy for very long throughout the day.
34:43
It's not like I could let, let somebody sit there and be like,
34:45
all right, you read the runes for me while I'm gone, while I'm
34:48
out shopping around or going to see people.
34:49
I had to just, I had to take my pick of of 5 minutes here, you
34:55
know, on a bathroom break or something to go say hi to
34:59
people. But it's very limited.
35:00
So by the time I got around to it, you know, eating anything,
35:03
it was, you know, three, 4:00 in the afternoon and most of the
35:06
food vendors had been out of, of everything.
35:10
You know, they were, they weren't stocked up on most of
35:13
their food. So I'm like, OK, you know, so
35:15
chips and jerky it is, you know, fortunately my wife thought had
35:18
the foresight to, to, to pack some snacks and, and stuff for
35:21
us. But Sunday was a different
35:25
story. Sunday I'm like, I was telling
35:26
her, I was like, make sure around, you know, 11/30/12 that
35:30
you're like, go ahead and get us some food.
35:33
That way we're not waiting around till whatever o'clock at
35:38
night to go find something because it's on Saturday.
35:40
It's what we ended up having to do.
35:41
We, you know, get back into Oxford and get something to eat,
35:46
head back to our room, clean up, shower, crash, do it again the
35:52
next day. So, you know, we get there on
35:55
Sunday and it's another again, another beautiful day.
36:01
Not nearly as windy that day, thankfully, but a little bit
36:04
warmer. But just a just a beautiful
36:07
sunny weekend. Perfect temperatures.
36:10
I think, you know, it was a little warm for that time of
36:15
year, but you know, the mornings were cool and and the days got
36:17
up into the low 70s maybe. So it was very nice and and
36:25
people were came out in full force even on Sunday too.
36:30
You know, there was one fella who came in on Saturday who came
36:37
to my tent, asked about the rune readings.
36:40
He said I'm gonna have to come by tomorrow because my, he's,
36:42
I'm not really into this thing too much, but my wife loves this
36:44
type of stuff that you're talking about.
36:46
He said I'm going to bring her back tomorrow.
36:48
And sure enough, he did. He was like one of the first,
36:50
like soon after 10:00, soon after the gates open.
36:53
I think it wasn't even 11:00 yet.
36:56
He came back and his name is Larry and brought his wife and,
37:02
and she was, she was really sweet and seemed to enjoy what
37:06
I, what I offered for the rune reading services.
37:09
And I was busy, you know, I was busy on Sunday too.
37:12
So Saturday kind of got off to a slow start there in the morning,
37:15
picked up in the afternoon. And then was Sunday was a little
37:20
bit busier, started off in the morning with more people than I
37:25
had the day before and got to see my buddy Oscar, my brother
37:30
Oscar. So Oscar, if you listen to this,
37:32
it was great to see you and Athena, the kids and everybody
37:36
that came out. Even though it wasn't for very
37:37
long, it was so great to see you get a hug and read Athena's
37:42
runes. And yeah, just it was, you know,
37:49
it's interesting, you know, like I've done rune readings at
37:52
different events locally before when I went the, the, the way
38:00
that I do it and, and how I have interpreted this, the, the
38:05
active, the action, right doing the thing and how I do it.
38:12
It has to be done in person. There's rarely ever a time where
38:17
I could do the type of readings that I do the in within the in
38:22
depth way that I do them over long distance.
38:25
You know, a single rune poll like I do for Mike Chieftain
38:28
tier patrons, you know, once a month is it is, is a bit
38:31
different because we're looking at the meaning of the rune and
38:34
what it could potentially, you know, something of, of a, of a
38:37
lesson or whatever for you there for that month.
38:39
But when we really get into the, the whole casting of the runes
38:43
and how they land, where they land, all of that becomes a part
38:48
of it. And so I need that person with
38:51
me. I need their, their contribution
38:54
to the reading as I'm receiving the message through my
38:59
ancestors, I'm, I'm needing their input as well.
39:02
I'm needing their ancestors to be there with us.
39:04
And so my point is that in, in the past and, and some of the
39:10
other local events that I've provided readings services for
39:17
has been like a, you know, different readings result in
39:22
different emotional feelings. You know, I've had people kind
39:30
of reach those moments of like amazement, you know, where
39:35
they're like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe you said that.
39:37
Or, you know, they turn to the person beside them after I say
39:40
something and they go see, you know, or, or you know, they'll,
39:44
they'll, they'll nod. You know, it's like they and
39:47
I've had people, you know, I cry, I've cried with them.
39:51
I've cried myself, you know, like there's been so many things
39:53
about ruin readings in the past that I've had happen emotionally
39:57
wise. And, and this, this event this
40:01
weekend that I was there those two days, it was a much
40:05
different sort of an experience. I didn't.
40:11
I felt, I felt much more prepared and I felt much more
40:16
capable, if that's the right way of putting it.
40:20
Of providing a service to people that needed, you know, that,
40:24
that come to a person for that purpose.
40:27
You know, they, they, they, I feel like they come expecting
40:29
something, even if they don't admit it, They don't say I'm,
40:32
you know, I've never had this done before.
40:34
I'm just curious that first time experience, you know, that that
40:38
sets a bit of an expectation, I think for, for maybe future
40:42
scenarios, right? And at the very least.
40:46
You know, you want that thing that they're coming to you for
40:49
to be meaningful. That's not how it always works.
40:53
You know, sometimes the things that are that the runes reveal
40:57
and that the reader shares, it's, it's, it's not always this
41:04
like profound and prophetic thing, You know, sometimes it's
41:09
subtle, sometimes it's a bit secretive.
41:12
Sometimes there's less to things and there are.
41:15
And it's, it's more intended for the person to figure it out
41:18
through the hints that are being left, you know, those, those
41:22
crumb trails, if as, as it were, and I don't know, like I just, I
41:27
had this, this sense and this feeling like, you know, I
41:32
didn't, I didn't, I didn't feel, if I, you know, I, I finished my
41:35
day Saturday. I felt tired, I felt exhausted,
41:39
but I didn't feel drained. You know, I got my shoes off
41:45
when I got back to the hotel after a quick shower and I got
41:47
my feet in the ground, put my feet on bare earth, kind of re
41:52
anchored myself, re recentered myself, recharged myself.
41:57
You know, kind of sat down there and just put my bare skin on the
42:00
earth and kind of contemplated and meditated on the whole day's
42:07
proceedings, prepared myself for the next day.
42:11
And then same thing when I got back to the hotel room Sunday
42:14
night. There was no after party thing
42:16
for us to do on Sunday. So once we got done once 5 O
42:22
clock hit and and patrons were ushered off of the grounds like
42:26
that was it. That was that was the end of the
42:28
weekend. So all the vendors were, you
42:30
know, tearing their their stuff down and and packing things up.
42:34
And so once we did that. We we said.
42:37
Our goodbyes to the to like the all of a tear and and Skogamore
42:41
and and Norse fox and all those all of our friends said our
42:45
goodbyes. Head back to the room or, you
42:49
know, actually went got something to eat.
42:50
Head back to the room packed up most of everything and I and I
42:53
settled in the same way as you know got cleaned up.
42:55
I bare feet on the ground slept, you know, fairly OK, I guess for
43:04
it being in a hotel room and and all that.
43:07
And then we, we got up, you know, mid morning and, and
43:13
loaded up our vehicle and then started that 8 hour drive back
43:16
to Tennessee. We did break it up a bit 'cause
43:20
there was a, not, I wouldn't say necessarily a detour, minor
43:24
detour along the way. We, we stopped in Mount Airy, NC
43:31
to, to check out like the Andy Griffith Museum.
43:33
My wife loves the Andy Griffith show and Matlock and all those
43:40
old timey shows. So she wanted to see that.
43:42
She had never been there before. So, you know, our, our, our
43:46
eight hour trip turned into probably about a 10 or 11 hour
43:48
trip, which was fine, you know, heading back home, but then, you
43:53
know, get back home, get settled in and it's like, did it, you
43:58
know, we did it. It's in the books and it made,
44:06
you know, it made me really appreciate the the work that
44:09
goes into these types of events, you know, seeing being in a
44:14
place and seeing what it takes to pull something like this off,
44:18
you know, not even knowing fully what it actually takes, but but
44:22
getting a sense of that. And then as a vendor, as a
44:27
somebody there providing a service or goods, right, having
44:30
a better appreciation. If I look and I go to any other
44:33
events now and I see people set up selling or providing a
44:36
service at an event, I, I'm like, I, I appreciate you now
44:41
more than I have before, because I know what you're going
44:43
through. I can sympathize more than just
44:46
empathize. You know, it's not like I can
44:48
imagine. I can say I know what it's like
44:50
to to pack up a canopy or two and tables and walk across the
44:54
field or walk across here and load things up and, you know,
44:57
set things up and tear things down and back and forth, You
45:00
know, and I, I have a new found appreciation for that.
45:07
And who knows, right? Who knows what else
45:10
opportunities might come as a result of this.
45:17
You know, I, I didn't know what to expect going into this.
45:20
I'm I'm happy with with the results of things.
45:23
I hope that the folks who did come out, if you do watch or
45:26
listen to this podcast and you got a chance to, to meet me at
45:31
TV this year, Thank you for coming by.
45:34
Thank you for showing your support in this way.
45:36
And I hope that the reading that I provided to you was helpful,
45:43
gave you things to think about. I, I did get a sense from
45:45
everybody that I interacted with that the things that I was
45:48
telling them were meaningful. You know, even even people who
45:56
don't believe in this type of thing, you know, there, there
45:58
were definitely people who are not believers of Norse religion
46:03
or, or dramatic heathenry or anything like that.
46:05
You know, like they they weren't Pagan, at least not in the Norse
46:09
or dramatic flavor. Or a variety.
46:14
Of things, but they definitely appreciated what was happening
46:20
and they and they they seem to get something out of it to some
46:24
degree. So again, for those of you folks
46:27
that did come out, whether you know about the show or not,
46:31
whether you knew about Midgard Musings or not, I know that
46:34
there wasn't a whole lot in my area that brand that that that
46:37
kind of gave away the brand 'cause they didn't have like a
46:41
banner with my name of the Midgard Musings binder.
46:44
And I will be getting one. That was one thing that I
46:47
thought about hindsight was like.
46:48
Well, I should. Have had that prepared and I
46:49
should have had that ready, but you live and you learn.
46:53
You know, there's that's just one other thing that I'm going
46:55
to be procuring at some point here soon.
47:02
And again, who knows, maybe I'll be at other events, maybe I'll
47:07
be back at TV next year. I don't know.
47:09
This was again, kind of one of those things that just was very
47:12
impromptu. Decided to do it at the last
47:16
minute. Glad that I did.
47:22
And to be honest, this wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been
47:26
for my wife. She was the one that really push
47:29
me for this or push me for it to do this 'cause I, you know, I
47:35
was like, Nah, you know, this is.
47:37
First of all. At the point of time that she
47:42
mentioned it to me, I'm like, it's too late, right?
47:44
They, they've, they've closed out of of all vendor
47:47
applications. It's a month and a half.
47:51
I think it was when, when we were talking about this or when
47:55
she suggested it, she's like, you know, like it's a month and
47:58
a half away. There's no way.
47:59
First of all, they, they, they, they stopped accepting vendor
48:01
applications, you know, weeks ago or months ago or whatever it
48:04
was. She said, look, just reach out.
48:08
Just send him an e-mail or, or contact him and if you hear
48:10
back, great. If you don't, then you know, at
48:15
least you tried. I'm like, OK, whatever.
48:18
So I did. And clearly I, you know, it's
48:21
like less than a week later, I got an e-mail back and they're
48:23
like, Hey, thank you for reaching out.
48:27
Vending applications are closed. But we did check and we actually
48:31
don't have a rune reader at this event.
48:33
And with this event being the Viking experience and everything
48:35
about it, you know, they're like, we would actually really
48:39
like for you to come. And, but if you do want to come,
48:41
you would have to, you know, put the application in, pay the, the
48:45
vendor fee, do all that like right away, like ASAP.
48:49
I'm like, I got it. Like where's the form where?
48:51
You know who who do I pay? How do I do it right?
48:53
So I they. Goes to show you, right, folks
48:57
like you just don't, don't, don't not do something because
49:05
you think that it's not worth it or, or just go, it can't, it's
49:07
not possible. It's not going to happen.
49:09
It's too late, ran out of time. Like, hey, no, there's, there's
49:12
that's never such a thing. Just give it a shot, try and and
49:17
look what can happen. You know, the only thing that
49:20
you have to regret is if you don't do it.
49:23
And so I don't regret doing this.
49:25
I appreciate my wife pushing me to do it.
49:28
It did pay off It, it was, it was great to see my friends and,
49:32
and extensions of my family for a weekend.
49:35
You know, people who I don't normally get to see but once a
49:39
year. And these are some of the most
49:43
genuine people you know, that are in my life.
49:46
They're like family to me. They are family to me.
49:48
I, I refer to them and they refer to me with familial
49:55
titles. So we are family and you know,
49:58
only getting to see them, you know what once or maybe twice a
50:01
year if that is, is. Our, our, our.
50:07
When we do meet it, it makes those meetings, those, those
50:10
moments so much more special as we appreciate those moments.
50:16
So if you guys want to know more, I'm sure there's a lot
50:21
more about what happened from other people's perspectives.
50:26
If you want to check more stuff out the Viking experiences on
50:30
Facebook and Instagram, I'll link their social medias in the
50:34
show notes and down in the description area of this video
50:37
for you all. You can visit
50:39
thevikingexperience.com. There's also a couple of videos
50:45
that I found of a guy who was doing like a walkthrough of the
50:48
of the festival. I make a cameo appearance at
50:51
like the four minute and something mark of one of his
50:54
videos. I'll, I'll put those.
50:55
I'll annotate those as well for you.
50:58
If you want to check him out where he kind of gives you a
51:01
walkthrough of walking in where the vendors are, you know, all
51:06
of the things. And it's more than just vendors,
51:07
you know, like there was the performances throughout the day.
51:09
There was the, the, the fighting, the, the, the, the,
51:13
the shield wall, right, like the like all of it.
51:16
It was just so much and, and I, I'm just telling you about my
51:20
experience as a vendor. You know, I didn't get the
51:22
chance really to leave and go scope everything out.
51:27
There was a lot going on there folks.
51:30
And so just do some searches online and find out if you want
51:34
to know more about everything else that they have going on
51:37
there. Again, it's the
51:38
vikingexperience.com. It's their website, but there's
51:43
my little retelling or recap of my experience at the Viking
51:49
Experience. And once again, thank you
51:52
everybody who helped make my time out there and my appearance
51:57
and the rune readings right, everything so worthwhile, such a
52:04
success. I'm glad and thankful that I got
52:08
the chance to provide this service to people.
52:12
And so who knows where else I might show up.
52:17
If any other events pop up that I'm at, I'll be sure to let you
52:20
all know. But that's all for today.
52:23
I hope you all enjoyed this this episode.
52:25
If you did share it around, I'll vote it like it.
52:29
Whatever the platform is that you catch this on, however it
52:33
encourages you to engage with this show, definitely do it's it
52:37
helps with the distribution of the content, helps with
52:42
suggesting the content to other people that like content like
52:47
this. If you're listening and you want
52:50
to watch this show, join me on patreonpatreon.com/midgard
52:54
Musings for a $1.00 pledge at the Carl tier.
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You can be credited in the end credits and get a chance to
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watch this show on the video platform.
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So once again tomorrow, my patrons, thank you so much for
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your support. To everybody that listens to
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this show, across the country, across the world, thank you for
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your support and listening to this show and we hope you
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enjoyed it. And that's all for today.
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Until we talk to each other again, may the gods continue to
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notice you and may your ancestors smile upon you.
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We'll see you in the next one.