Latest / Random Heathen Ramblings / From Myth To Midwest: feat. Inga & Nate of the Great Northern Viking Festival. [RHR S6, EP37]

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From Myth To Midwest: feat. Inga & Nate of the Great Northern Viking Festival. [RHR S6, EP37] · Random Heathen Ramblings

• 0:02
  Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
• 0:05
  podcast where we discuss all sorts of things dramatic
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  Heathenry related. My name is Jesse and I am your
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  host. Let's get into it.
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  Welcome back everybody. Thank you for tuning into this
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  week's episode of the podcast. Hope you're all doing well,
• 1:13
  staying safe, ready for this cool weather to start.
• 1:16
  I don't know about you where you're listening or watching
• 1:18
  this from, but I know that I'm ready here in Middle Tennessee
• 1:20
  for this hot humid weather to go the ways of the Yotnar to
• 1:26
  Niflheim to to municipal Heim to wherever the Helheim it it it's
• 1:30
  from. I'm ready for the cool weather.
• 1:33
  Hopefully we get it here soon. It's been a long, hot and wet
• 1:36
  summer, so I'm ready for this to be over with.
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  Speaking of getting things over with, just wrapped up the
• 1:44
  Nashville Pagan Pride Day event last week.
• 1:47
  Hopefully if you came around you got a chance to see me.
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  I remember one person came by, they were getting some of the
• 1:53
  things that my wife was selling and they looked at me and they
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  go, hey, you're the guy from Big Guard Musings, aren't you?
• 1:56
  And I thought that was pretty cool.
• 1:57
  So I think your name was William.
• 1:59
  If you're out here listening or watching, thank you so much for
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  coming by and saying hello. Hope you got a chance to enjoy
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  So follow me on Facebook and Instagram, subscribe to me on
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  know, event somewhere. I'm not doing too many public
• 3:10
  events much anymore for various reasons, but hey, you never
• 3:14
  know. So Speaking of events, we're
• 3:17
  going to be talking about an event coming up here in just a
• 3:19
  couple of weeks up in the Great white north of Minnesota.
• 3:23
  Mankato, I believe is the pronunciation of the city or the
• 3:26
  town. We're talking about the Great
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  Northern Viking Festival, and I believe this is it's going to be
• 3:32
  its second or third year. We're going to find out here in
• 3:33
  just a minute because we're joining me today, coming from
• 3:37
  Minnesota, are the founders of the Great Northern Viking
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  Festival. We have Inga and Nate joining us
• 3:45
  today. Welcome to the show, folks.
• 3:47
  Thanks for being here. Thank you for having us.
• 3:49
  Yeah. Thank you for having us both
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  very much. All right, great.
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  And I did I say, is it Mankato? Yes.
• 3:55
  Good job. All right, I got you know,
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  there's there's some places that are it's you know, it's obvious,
• 4:01
  right, Like that, that that seems pretty obvious, but I'm
• 4:04
  like man, no in my luck. I just said, and it's supposed
• 4:06
  to be like Mankato or something, you know, so.
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  We have a handful of cities here in Minnesota that you definitely
• 4:13
  know whether you're from here or not based on the way you say it.
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  Oh yeah, don't you know that kind of thing?
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  Now are you both from Minnesota or is that is this your
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  homeland, home state? Yeah, both of us are are.
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  No, I'm sorry, but. You started it.
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  Both of us are from Minnesota. We're locals in the area where
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  we're going to be doing the Festival of Mankato.
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  Actually both from St. Peter, MN, but we haven't always
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  been just in this area. Both of us have also lived out
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  of state, but but we like Minnesota.
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  And Speaking of the weather, I like the cold weather.
• 4:53
  Good SO. Hopefully here we're going to
• 4:55
  have some nice cool fall weather pretty soon coming up.
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  Festival crossing fingers. It looks like it might be even
• 5:00
  in the 60s, which I enjoy. Yes, yeah, You know, when, when
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  it gets like, you know, I'm from new.
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  I'm from New York originally and growing up as a kid and even in
• 5:08
  my younger, you know, teenage years, the winters, you know, 30
• 5:13
  years ago were they were harsh. And I don't know, it seems just
• 5:17
  like almost anywhere nowadays, like the, the winters are, are
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  not as wintry unless you get really further up north, you
• 5:23
  know, maybe close to where you guys are at.
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  But even back home where I'm from, like it's, it's you know,
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  the summers weren't very, very hot when I was growing up.
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  We'd get some 8090° days. But like I was up there earlier
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  this year and it was like in the 90s feeling humid.
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  And I'm like, I left Tennessee for the weekend to like
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  hopefully get some cooler weather.
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  And I'm like, I think I brought that Southern heat with me, so
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  I'd like to. Make the drive up here to
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  Minnesota in a couple weeks. You'll find some cooler, more
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  comfortable weather. You can throw on some of your
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  best garb and feel like you don't have to break out in
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  sweats. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  See, I used to travel a lot for work years ago, and I've been to
• 6:05
  one of my favorite places to stay overnight.
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  Sometimes we'd get like our route that we were, that we were
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  put on. I've stayed a few times in Blue
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  Earth. I don't know where that is.
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  Respect to where you are, but no, no.
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  OK. So I like that area.
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  I feel you know how far it is from you.
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  But and then every now and then we'd have to, you know, make the
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  trek up to the UP. And that was always a crazy
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  time, especially in the winter, because it was, it was brutal.
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  Yeah. Those roads get crazy, but you
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  are Minnesota natives. You are.
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  Are you heathen? Pagan you can adjacent whatever.
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  Yeah, it's. It's hard with you know, like
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  terms, but I would say, I guess the closest I would say is Norse
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  Pagan. But culturally, you know, my
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  ancestors are from Germanic region as well as Scandinavia.
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  So really I could say either. But yes, even Pagan.
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  All of the above. OK.
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  Great. Yeah.
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  I found my way into paganism or Norse paganism.
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  I was born and raised Christian. I went to a private Christian
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  School growing up and family life kind of split off and I
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  found my way into the military, experienced life.
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  And I, well, I guess what I, what I found losing in those
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  situations, I found kind of through Heathenry and I was in
• 7:44
  the military and getting out of the military.
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  I found a lot of brotherhood that I missed in the service
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  within the heathen community, not just the community itself,
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  but in the, the readings, the findings.
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  And it's just, it's, it resonated with me in a way where
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  like I felt that it was stuff that I believed in well before I
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  knew it existed in reality. Gotcha.
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  Yeah, And how did you both meet, if you don't mind me asking?
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  Well, we, we both met online dating, we let me see here.
• 8:24
  We, we, we went to, we're both from the, from the same, from
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  the same town. We both graduated from the same
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  high school. However, there's about a 10 year
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  difference. We, as we said earlier, we kind
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  of both went our ways outside of Minnesota and both found our way
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  back to our hometown. We've.
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  Had previous, previous families and previous lives and you know,
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  here we are coming back home. We just crossed paths.
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  Turns out that we've actually crossed paths a lot more without
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  even knowing. We've just kind of like, bumped
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  into each other for the past decade almost until we were able
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  to actually meet each other. And yeah, I just took a liking
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  to her passions, especially with, you know, this festival.
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  I was kind of in the midst of her creating it when I came into
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  her life. And I jumped on board right away
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  because I could feel that it wasn't just, you know, some
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  little ideas was like her dream and she was building it.
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  So. Oh wow.
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  Yeah, well, I would love to, I would love to really hear the
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  kind of the origin story of the Great Northern Viking Festival.
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  It sounds like, you know, if I misspoke earlier, I I wanted, I
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  thought I said this is either it's second or it's third year,
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  so maybe keep me honest as we go through this for people.
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  But yeah, I would love to hear like, where did this this
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  festival start? You know, what were the the
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  things that kind of sparked it to become what it is now and,
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  and how did that all originate? So it's like, how far back do we
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  want to go? Because we're talking that might
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  be full of heathens. It's probably best to kind of go
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  back because I think the path that led me to where I am now,
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  which is our second year for this particular festival, has
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  kind of a, a, a long, I guess a long story.
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  I'm a pretty spiritual person. So I practice shamanism and
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  things like that. And I had a teacher many years
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  ago from the Yucatan in Mexico, and he would say to me, OK, when
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  you call your ancestors, who's coming?
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  And I would stop and think about that.
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  And, you know, generally I'm like, well, sure, I know.
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  But did I really? That was the real question.
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  So it it really set me on a path to say, OK, I understand his
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  teachings. I studied with him for many,
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  many years and him saying that was like that aha moment.
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  And. I need to go down the path of of
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  my ancestors and where they come from and what that looks like.
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  And because, you know, mother cultures are simply pretty
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  similar in a lot of different ways.
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  And so the things that I had learned from him, you know,
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  going through the years and kind of going down this path, I kept
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  thinking, well, that's all of it's so similar, you know, at
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  the, at the core, at the core of it.
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  So I ended up, you know, kind of doing a bunch of genealogy work
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  1st and I kind of just went dove into that head, the head, you
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  know, heading going into the genealogy meeting some people
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  that knew a bit about kind of North shamanism and what that
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  looked like. I was able to, you know, learn
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  those pieces and put them together with what I already had
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  known, you know, from my teachers before.
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  And it was more of a remembrance.
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  That's what I would say, like remembering things like, OK, I
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  think I know how this works. So going through all those
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  paths, many years, I I wanted to build something that would pull
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  people together in a way that was different than is currently
• 12:31
  out there. So a festival sounded like a
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  good idea, a big undertaking, considering it's just one person
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  doing it and then bringing in, you know, Nate and some other
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  people that I knew. But kind of how could I make
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  this happen at a bigger scale, a bigger way without copying
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  what's already been out there? I, I wasn't looking to create
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  another festival, you know, with the row of vendors and it just
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  this historical piece over here and this over here.
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  I wanted to mix everything together so it would build an
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  energy, a feeling, right? And that energy that you create
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  and you build will, will bring the people in.
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  And it really has in ways that we didn't even expect.
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  So imagine coming to this festival or this place and you
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  have all of these very unique individuals from very different
• 13:29
  paths in one spot that wouldn't hang out otherwise, right?
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  So I, an example would be maybe you have somebody that's
• 13:37
  interested in cosplay and you know, they watch the Vikings on
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  TV and they want to come and they want to dress up.
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  And then you may have somebody over here that's really into
• 13:47
  reenactment and that's their thing.
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  And then you have people over here that are historians and
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  then you have people over here, surprise, surprise veterans.
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  We didn't advertise for that, but that happened.
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  And you, you just kind of put the energy out and all these
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  people came to this place. And that was pretty amazing to
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  see because that's what I was looking to do.
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  And it just kind of naturally occurred the more I spent time
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  thinking about the energy and what that would look like just.
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  Yeah, so you manifested this first in your mind through your
• 14:24
  spirit, through the communication with your
• 14:27
  ancestors and actually identifying them and verify
• 14:30
  like, you know, giving them, giving them existence, right,
• 14:33
  putting putting them just out of your from your mind to reality.
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  And then everything else kind of came into place, huh?
• 14:41
  Yeah. And it, a lot of it was also
• 14:45
  just transforming energy thinking like you're an
• 14:47
  alchemist, right? So stuff that comes in that may
• 14:51
  not fit, it would just naturally flow away.
• 14:55
  Right. Well, I think it's I keyed in on
• 14:58
  something that you said before where you said something like
• 15:01
  that. This felt like a remembrance,
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  you know, and I was, I was thinking about this recently
• 15:08
  with some other folks I was talking to and they, and it was
• 15:11
  the idea that what we, I was telling you a bit offline before
• 15:18
  about this men's retreat, this, this holistic retreat of men's
• 15:22
  Wellness retreat for physical health, mental health, spiritual
• 15:25
  health, health, all these things that are combined for men
• 15:28
  specifically. But it was that the, the, the
• 15:31
  idea behind the institution was that it's, it's a return to
• 15:37
  something, right? And one of the things that had
• 15:39
  come out and that we realized when we say that when we, when
• 15:42
  we is, is you can't return to a place that you've never been.
• 15:48
  So it's you've, you were there. You, you are from that source in
• 15:52
  returning it like you're saying, like remembering, you can't
• 15:55
  remember things that you've never done before.
• 15:57
  So that remembrance, that return is like, this is home to me.
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  This is where I'm from. This is the source that I come
• 16:03
  from. When you really tap into that,
• 16:06
  when you connect with that energy, with that power, it it
• 16:09
  great things can happen as a result.
• 16:12
  Absolutely. I think for a lot of people I've
• 16:18
  I've noticed a lack of of understanding.
• 16:22
  What's my purpose? That seems to be they don't.
• 16:26
  Have a belonging. Yeah.
• 16:29
  They're looking for it too, right?
• 16:31
  Absolutely. They're looking for like you
• 16:33
  know that that most shared myths or shared lores sagas that you
• 16:39
  you can find purpose. Sometimes things are too large
• 16:43
  to be able to comprehend in life, and you rely on those
• 16:49
  ancestors and those stories and sagas that are handed down to
• 16:54
  rationalize them until you can dissect them into a point where
• 16:58
  your reality is OK with it. Yeah.
• 17:02
  And that's one of the big kind of missions, you know, earlier
• 17:07
  asking kind of if that was offline about kind of the
• 17:10
  mission too. It's about building community
• 17:13
  and, and really doing the work, not just talking about it.
• 17:17
  I don't spend a lot of time on social media building a
• 17:23
  following or, you know, saying I'm doing things.
• 17:27
  I just go do them. And, and you have to create a
• 17:30
  physical place for people to do that.
• 17:33
  You can talk, you know, like we are right now online, but it, it
• 17:36
  is something to be in the presence of other people.
• 17:39
  It it buzz, builds that collective energy and if you're
• 17:45
  already manifesting and pulling people there, it just becomes
• 17:48
  bigger and it grows. So community building was huge
• 17:51
  for us. Yeah, speaking on, you know,
• 17:54
  that collective aspect, I'm a a combat veteran and I deployed
• 17:59
  overseas and I have some of the kind of greatest moments and
• 18:05
  worst moments in my life that all occurred at the exact same
• 18:07
  time. And I had friends who were going
• 18:11
  on spring breaks and my spring break was in the middle of the
• 18:15
  Middle East. I ended up getting injured over
• 18:19
  there and I was retired out of the military.
• 18:24
  And Long story short, I, you know, experienced my struggles
• 18:31
  with mental health. I saw friends and people was
• 18:36
  very close to. I looked at them as brothers
• 18:40
  come and go, and I got to a point where I had more of more
• 18:45
  people that I knew that have kind of lost their struggles
• 18:49
  with mental health than ones that were actually still here.
• 18:57
  I and that went through a major life transformation.
• 19:01
  And through that transformation, I had these moments that were
• 19:05
  really only explainable in like a spiritual way and it not from
• 19:12
  like a Lutheran Christian aspect, but something that isn't
• 19:16
  really found in the mainstream church and mortar options that
• 19:23
  are given to us, at least that I was exposed to.
• 19:26
  And I think it's guidance is guidance, however you find what
• 19:31
  speaks true to you. And I found more truth through
• 19:35
  those struggles and finding myself that led me towards, you
• 19:39
  know, this, this direction that led me back home, as you were
• 19:42
  saying, into a a web or a line of I guess a time frame where I
• 19:55
  went from feeling I lost myself from a collective in the
• 19:58
  military to. Finding another collective
• 20:02
  through paganism, through the Great Northern Viking Festival
• 20:07
  and it wasn't through reaching out there and saying, hey, I'm a
• 20:11
  veteran, I need some help. All of a sudden it, it was just
• 20:15
  there is a bunch of people who understood what I've been
• 20:17
  through and we were all there together like, oh, wait, I'm a
• 20:19
  vet, you're a vet, I'm a vet, you're a vet.
• 20:22
  And we're all there and we were all too heavy headed to say we
• 20:26
  would ever get together and, you know, try to make friends again
• 20:30
  because, you know, we isolate. We're, you know, stuck in that,
• 20:34
  that situation. I had this dream that I shared
• 20:39
  with Inga as as she's kind of built with hers and wanting to
• 20:44
  really build something that caters to that aspect.
• 20:48
  Men's mental health. You speak of retreats.
• 20:52
  It's again synchronistic. And here we are, web crossing.
• 20:57
  It seems like there's a lot of synchronicities into.
• 21:00
  Your story? Yes, Sir, not.
• 21:03
  Necessarily the same experiences, but was, you know,
• 21:07
  experience is felt the same on every level.
• 21:10
  And yeah, just without having the blatant intent to say we
• 21:20
  want these things, we just put the energy and the feeling out
• 21:23
  there and it's kind of came to us and it's been a amazing
• 21:28
  experience so far. Yeah, it's a vibration, right?
• 21:32
  Like when you vibrate goodness, when you vibrate joy, when you
• 21:36
  vibrate positivity, the universe is gonna respond to what we
• 21:40
  vibrate at 'cause that's what, what, what we come out of this,
• 21:44
  this, this intricate web, like, you know, like the, the, the
• 21:46
  Norse or the dramatic people. Like they had this concept,
• 21:48
  probably of it being this, this world tree, right, where
• 21:51
  everything is connected through this web and, and, and roots
• 21:55
  and, and, you know, networks that you see in nature, it's
• 21:58
  very nature adjacent. You know what I mean?
• 22:01
  Like it's clear that that's where they understood the, how
• 22:05
  things worked locally and also cosmically.
• 22:10
  So to, to understand like, well, that's what we come out of.
• 22:14
  So when, when we put out that by when we vibrate that way.
• 22:20
  And what's funny is like, you know, the more, the more I've
• 22:22
  grown as a heat and the more animistic I've become.
• 22:26
  And I've, I've, I've really found my peace and my place in
• 22:30
  my spirituality as an animist and connecting with spirit in
• 22:36
  all things that are around me and realizing that this is this
• 22:40
  is a shared existence. This is a shared experience.
• 22:43
  We're all here together doing our own separate things, but
• 22:45
  having a shared experience and some people that maybe haven't
• 22:52
  arrived at that point yet or that's not their job, right?
• 22:55
  They're not they're not doing that sort of thing.
• 22:57
  Sounds kind of sounds really like hippy, dippy woo woo
• 23:00
  nonsense, right. Whatever vibrate with me.
• 23:02
  I mean, like, look, it, it sounds that way, but trust me,
• 23:04
  like that's the closest thing that you can put to to words to
• 23:08
  say like that's how that's how this whole thing works.
• 23:12
  It's all vibrations. Well, that's.
• 23:15
  You know, me growing up and my, my experience of those
• 23:21
  vibrations and all that aspect, like you said, it was the, the
• 23:24
  hippie movement and everything. It didn't quite sit with me.
• 23:28
  It just didn't make sense. But hearing it spoken from a
• 23:32
  different tongue and a different dialect, it resonated with me.
• 23:36
  And all of a sudden I'm like, Oh, I get it.
• 23:37
  I see the the the way things are, you know, inter interlocked
• 23:44
  and very much just they mirror and shadow each other.
• 23:51
  But you know, when you find something you believe in, you
• 23:54
  end up finding people who believe in the same thing.
• 23:56
  It's a crazy thought, right? Well, to, yeah, to, to to the
• 24:00
  exact point that I think both of you has said, you know, when
• 24:02
  you, when you do the work and, and you put the work in and,
• 24:06
  and, and you're not worried about garnering attention or
• 24:09
  building a following. Kind recognizes kind, right?
• 24:14
  Fire Kindles fire, iron sharpens iron, right However you want to
• 24:18
  whatever proverb from whatever faith way you want to pull from
• 24:21
  like it. There's there's this shared idea
• 24:24
  that you know, you ever watch? You ever see Field of Dreams?
• 24:29
  Oh. Yeah, yeah.
• 24:30
  If you build it, they will come. It's you don't have to really do
• 24:35
  anything else other than that. I've heard people say, you know,
• 24:39
  like worry about being the change that you want to see in
• 24:42
  the world. And then those like minded
• 24:46
  individuals, those shared people that, that have that shared
• 24:50
  vision will align with you on that and it'll become something
• 24:53
  that is a shared experience, right?
• 24:55
  Like you don't have to go recruit people or look for
• 24:59
  people to do it. It'll they'll come naturally to
• 25:01
  that. They'll they'll be drawn to that
• 25:03
  energy. Yeah, that's exactly what's
• 25:06
  happened. Yeah, it's, it's almost as the
• 25:09
  my my experiences or our experiences in life have very
• 25:15
  much transpired into a point where they're all met here in
• 25:20
  the presence and everything's more rationally explained from a
• 25:25
  spiritual point of view as opposed to just trying to say
• 25:28
  this is what happened to me within the last.
• 25:30
  Year right well, I do just want to say like as a as a as a
• 25:37
  addition to everything that I'm hearing, you know, Nate, first
• 25:40
  of all, thank you for your service and and thank you for
• 25:43
  the for the sacrifice of your service for the country and for
• 25:46
  for your life and all that. And it's really interesting for
• 25:50
  me to hear about your two like the two of yours connection and
• 25:55
  how it all came to be. You know, mate, you came from a,
• 25:58
  a military background where this the war ban as a, as a combat
• 26:04
  veteran, you know what I mean? Specifically one of the
• 26:06
  interesting things that I hear that I, that I think about, you
• 26:09
  know, when it comes to like the, the Norse and the dramatic, you
• 26:11
  know, a lot of people nowadays or even over time have thought,
• 26:14
  you know, that, that it's all about warrior cults and, and the
• 26:19
  war band. And yeah, sure, that's a big
• 26:22
  part of some of the culture. But I mean, most of the time,
• 26:26
  most of heathens, you know, the back then that you, you know,
• 26:29
  they were just country folk, man.
• 26:30
  Like they weren't going to war. They were, they were maybe going
• 26:33
  on seasonal raids to get stuff that they couldn't grow or, or,
• 26:36
  you know, raid places and get things for their riches or
• 26:40
  whatever, right? Make, make something of
• 26:41
  themselves that way. But in, in some of the sagas,
• 26:45
  right, you hear the heroes, they were warriors.
• 26:49
  They were, they were warrior kings or they were, you know,
• 26:52
  Beowulf, for example, right? I mean that this, this, this
• 26:54
  great warrior and, and, and the connection that the, the, the,
• 26:59
  the warriors and, and the, The Chieftains and their thanes and
• 27:01
  all these people had that, that, that kinship connection, right?
• 27:07
  Even without that, I, I, you're not the first military veteran
• 27:11
  or combat veteran that I've talked to or spoken to because I
• 27:14
  live in the part of Tennessee that's very close to Fort
• 27:16
  Campbell, right? Clarksville.
• 27:19
  And so there's a lot of, there's a, there's a very heavily, you
• 27:23
  know, military presence in the area.
• 27:26
  So a lot of the heathens in our area are military veterans too,
• 27:30
  or either currently or, or previously serving.
• 27:34
  So I hear the same thing, right? They left the military having
• 27:38
  had this sense of family and brotherhood and kinship.
• 27:42
  And then when they were out for whatever reason, like where is
• 27:46
  that, you know, and they found it in, in heathen spaces, right?
• 27:52
  Yeah, you know, I. Cool.
• 27:54
  I, I like throughout all of my experiences, I really, I guess I
• 27:59
  got to challenge my beliefs and then realign them into something
• 28:04
  that really made sense. And I think a lot of people
• 28:11
  who've gone through similar experiences, whether it's combat
• 28:14
  or, you know, anything that could induce you to a traumatic
• 28:17
  event, I suppose, you know, goes through a point in their life
• 28:21
  where they isolate and they have to self reflect.
• 28:24
  And well, that's it's, it's the moment where you're most exposed
• 28:28
  to vulnerable aspects of your life, the mental health crisis
• 28:36
  aspects and places. And I think, you know, from my
• 28:41
  upbringing, the things that I were taught made me search more
• 28:44
  for forgiveness as opposed to like understanding.
• 28:48
  And I found that understanding in, you know, that heathen
• 28:51
  reside and seemed like a lot of, a lot of the, my veteran friends
• 28:55
  I know are in the same aspect, You know, like, there's a reason
• 28:59
  why until Valhalla resonates with the veteran community.
• 29:05
  And it's, it's, it's a little bit of a, a lighthouse or a
• 29:12
  shimmer of guidance when you're in that isolated position in
• 29:18
  life where odds are against you. But you got to pull yourself
• 29:21
  through it to, I guess, shine yourself through as that hero or
• 29:25
  Beowulf or whatever it is. Yeah.
• 29:29
  And I mean, that's a it's, it's, I think it's braver there,
• 29:32
  there, there is a, there's a degree of, of real bravery that
• 29:35
  that it takes to to confront and face those that, that darkness,
• 29:39
  you know what I mean? That that that can consume and
• 29:42
  has consumed so many others. It is, it's, it's, it's I, I
• 29:47
  can't, I cannot relate and I'm not going to try to relate with
• 29:50
  the type of struggle that going through what you you're talking
• 29:55
  about can, can have. I just I've heard from others
• 30:00
  and and understand, you know, I can, I can't sympathize.
• 30:03
  I can empathize that you know, you, you are a brave person to
• 30:09
  have withstood that darkness and confronted it and done the work
• 30:14
  to sit with it and give it space and now be a part of something
• 30:20
  that really seems to be inclusive.
• 30:23
  It's a community driven endeavor and it's cool how it all
• 30:29
  happened. You know what I mean?
• 30:30
  Like I said, you, you're telling me about it and telling all the
• 30:33
  audience, right? Like it's, it wasn't something
• 30:34
  that you had to go and force to happen.
• 30:37
  It just happened organically. Had to open our eyes.
• 30:40
  It's really it's. It was there.
• 30:42
  Yeah. Yeah, it's when you were saying
• 30:45
  something, I was thinking of this.
• 30:51
  I was just kind of saying that I saw it recently and it said so I
• 30:57
  do a lot of healing work and it said every healer needs a
• 31:01
  warrior, like a protector. And so that I, I kind of look at
• 31:05
  Nate and I that way, you know, or different roles, but it's
• 31:08
  needed. It's balance would be the the
• 31:12
  right word for it. So even on the festival, we
• 31:14
  create, try to create that balance.
• 31:17
  We're we're bringing people from very different walks of life
• 31:21
  into the same space. Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful.
• 31:26
  That's so beautiful. Yeah, I think what we found last
• 31:28
  year is like a spirit resonates to the what we're kind of
• 31:34
  talking about right now. But we we didn't have to go out
• 31:41
  there and advertise to a specific demographic, to
• 31:44
  specific area code, a specific type of person in a world where
• 31:48
  you can, you know, select the exact person you want to see
• 31:53
  this ad. Well, that doesn't that doesn't
• 31:57
  sound like that's we're going to just attract a whole bunch of
• 32:00
  people who are just there because, well, that's what came
• 32:03
  across their feed. We did something a little harder
• 32:06
  and we just put out again what we wanted it to be in resonated
• 32:12
  and people showed up, showed up, and it's turned out to be a lot
• 32:15
  more genuine, a lot more authentic and intertwined with
• 32:19
  nature. Kind of a lot more of a symbol
• 32:23
  of resilience than you could create with something that is
• 32:28
  catered to a specific audience, I suppose.
• 32:32
  I gotcha. Well, I would love to hear a
• 32:34
  little bit about just, you know, what people could expect to.
• 32:38
  So for, you know, for those of the, of the audience that are
• 32:41
  hearing about the Great Northern Viking Festival for the first
• 32:44
  time, they know that, you know, Inga is the founder and Nate's a
• 32:48
  part of the, the process. And this is your second year.
• 32:51
  So it's a relatively new thing and it's for it.
• 32:57
  So then this year it it is happening October 18th and 19th.
• 33:00
  So it's a 2 day long affair. What can you tell us about what
• 33:06
  people can expect if they decide to come?
• 33:10
  Like what is it like to arrive to attend at a camp, get a
• 33:14
  hotel? Like what?
• 33:14
  What is it all like for for folks that are interested in
• 33:17
  coming like? Do you want to go?
• 33:20
  I would love to have you, Sir. Yeah.
• 33:24
  And like I said before, I didn't want to create what what was
• 33:26
  already existing, right? Because that makes no sense.
• 33:30
  Want to do something different? First of all, it's about
• 33:32
  location. Where where we are, we are
• 33:38
  spiritually, the land we're on is sacred.
• 33:40
  It's between two rivers where they merge outside of Mankato in
• 33:45
  a wooded environment. So when you pull up the, I guess
• 33:50
  you could even say road or driveway, it takes a good mile
• 33:54
  to even get into the festival where you have to go through up
• 33:57
  a big ravine and through a big field and kind of down into it.
• 34:02
  It creates an ambience, you know, So the location is
• 34:08
  important to us. The land is important to us
• 34:11
  there. And so when you arrive, you're
• 34:14
  going to not be in a sterile kind of environment.
• 34:19
  You're gonna, yeah, you're gonna be in the woods, so.
• 34:23
  Off the beaten path kind of thing.
• 34:25
  Exactly. It's, it's, it's a, it's a very
• 34:28
  immersive event starting from that location and it's, it truly
• 34:35
  branches off of that every aspect of what we've built from,
• 34:41
  you know, the decor to the tents.
• 34:45
  Then we put a lot of work into just building this festival out,
• 34:49
  recruiting people who are like minded.
• 34:52
  Everything is done to basically establish an, an, an ambience
• 34:58
  that again, kind of just naturally attracts the people
• 35:03
  who are going to be immersed in that event.
• 35:08
  It's not a fully immersive event where you have to come and garb.
• 35:14
  However, when you when you show up, you're feeling like you're
• 35:17
  stepping into a story. You feeling like you're stepping
• 35:20
  into something other than something confined within some
• 35:24
  chain link fences and some tin buildings.
• 35:29
  We we've travelled around to a lot of festivals here within the
• 35:32
  Midwest and look for talents not just here in the US, but outside
• 35:38
  of the US that we're able to kind of say, hey, I think these
• 35:43
  people are able to resonate with Inga's dream.
• 35:49
  They're they're Craftsman, they're tailored, they have
• 35:52
  artisan creations, They're people who are they have music
• 35:59
  that you know, resonates on a spiritual level from, you know,
• 36:05
  every aspect of their life. It's we're looking for people
• 36:09
  who can help. Let's see, show that energy the
• 36:14
  way Inga dreamed of it. And yeah.
• 36:17
  Yeah, Yeah. So I mean, if you look at it
• 36:20
  overall, you're coming into this is immersive experience, but it
• 36:25
  is not OK. I'm just entering a Viking
• 36:28
  village as it was as a historical aspect.
• 36:31
  So I know on your podcast it says, you know, what is it old
• 36:36
  ways in modern times? Yeah, practicing old ways in
• 36:39
  modern times, it's kind. Of it's kind of it's that it's
• 36:42
  bringing the old with the new and merging it together between
• 36:46
  entertainment, immersion and so we have aspects of a lot of
• 36:52
  educational pieces, but we didn't want them to be the same.
• 36:55
  That I don't necessarily want to go to something and, and as my
• 37:00
  free time, you know, looking to have a good time thinking
• 37:04
  festival and then being bored and have to listen to, you know,
• 37:08
  something that I could have just read at home per SE.
• 37:11
  So I wanted it to be where you're being educated.
• 37:13
  You don't even really know it, right, Because you're like,
• 37:17
  you're so grounded in the experience and you're so present
• 37:20
  in the experience that that you're just kind of unaware of
• 37:23
  that. And we're also mixing, you know,
• 37:26
  there's, there's a lot of people, yeah, they come in
• 37:29
  Viking garb because it's fun. They are trying to leave their
• 37:32
  daily life. You know, they're just looking
• 37:35
  to be like, OK, you know, I, I want to.
• 37:38
  And we don't, we don't care if it's historical or fantasy, as
• 37:42
  long as it's kind of Viking Age. That's what we're focused on.
• 37:47
  And, and the different aspects, even down to the entertainment,
• 37:51
  we're not looking to create, let's just say for an example,
• 37:55
  like a Renaissance festival or some other kind of a hodgepodge
• 37:58
  of fairies and mermaids and whatever.
• 38:00
  And that's cool, not saying anything wrong with it, but we
• 38:03
  want to keep it kind of a theme of throughout.
• 38:07
  So when you enter, you see that, you feel that.
• 38:11
  And we say that it's not a festival, it's a feeling.
• 38:15
  And that's something you have to experience for yourself.
• 38:17
  You have to come because you know other wives.
• 38:23
  I love how where you have it, where they've given me the
• 38:25
  description of it and I'm, I'm picturing, you know, going down
• 38:28
  this kind of rural, you know, you know, off grid kind of road
• 38:33
  and I'm, I'm it, it's almost like, you know, traveling back
• 38:35
  in time in a way without, you know, sacrificing too much.
• 38:43
  It's, it's, it's, it's got that feel from what you're
• 38:45
  describing. And I love that.
• 38:47
  I love, I love, you know, 'cause I'm, I'm the same way.
• 38:49
  You know, any chance or any opportunity that I can have to
• 38:54
  put on my tunic and, you know, various other accoutrements and,
• 39:00
  and trappings to really put myself into that state of mind
• 39:04
  because, you know, it, it does like one of the things that
• 39:08
  really helps, at least it has with me in my growth as a
• 39:13
  heathen is to, you know, look at some of those things and, and
• 39:16
  then putting on the historically accurate clothing or a linen
• 39:20
  tunic, whether it's, you know, whatever it, it's like, it helps
• 39:24
  me enter that headspace of what I'm about to do.
• 39:29
  This goes into some other aspects of our spirituality
• 39:32
  right When it comes like ritual for, for example, I'm, I'm a big
• 39:38
  proponent for, for entering into ritual, understanding that you
• 39:43
  are about to engage with divinity, with the holy, with,
• 39:49
  with spirits that are outside of our normal existence.
• 39:53
  So to put on these clothes, to put on these garbs to to, to
• 39:57
  cover our eyes, to do these various things allows us to
• 40:01
  enter into that headspace, into that mind space, heart space a
• 40:06
  bit easier. I think it helps with that
• 40:08
  transformation. That we are now engaging with
• 40:11
  the sacred. We are in sacred space, not
• 40:13
  profane space. So giving this like hearing you
• 40:17
  talk about it is like it's a touch of that.
• 40:19
  It feels like, OK, we're, we're doing this thing.
• 40:21
  It's a festival, yes. But really what we're doing is
• 40:23
  we're trying to create this space, this feeling that you are
• 40:28
  outside of normal space. Yeah, Earlier you talked about
• 40:33
  the reference to feel the dreams that if you build that they will
• 40:36
  come and, you know, putting on your garb.
• 40:39
  It's very reminiscent of, you know, I remember growing up
• 40:45
  getting a ride on the way to the baseball field and, you know,
• 40:48
  tying up my shoes and putting on my my baseball outfit and again,
• 40:52
  getting myself into that headspace come part of that
• 40:56
  collective, I suppose. And, you know, playing out that
• 41:01
  sport, paying out that game and just kind of losing track of
• 41:04
  everything in life other than what's going on in that field.
• 41:08
  It kind of just resonated very much what you're saying when
• 41:10
  you're sitting, you're putting that garb on.
• 41:12
  And, you know, the great thing with the festival is that, you
• 41:16
  know, yeah, we're saying, hey, you know, you can come play, you
• 41:18
  know, baseball with us. It's we're not we're not pros.
• 41:23
  You know, we're learning and we're getting better, but we
• 41:27
  built it for for the community and it's open to play.
• 41:32
  And, you know, that really transitions into the other
• 41:36
  aspect of the festival, which is a night in Valhalla.
• 41:40
  Oh yeah. And.
• 41:41
  Good, because I was going to ask about that.
• 41:43
  Yeah, go ahead. Night in Valhalla is kind of
• 41:49
  the, the difference between T-ball and baseball.
• 41:54
  It starts off with, you know, an, an opening ceremony and we
• 41:58
  get to the, the, the spiritual, ceremonious aspects of it.
• 42:03
  And we get a lot more information from some very, very
• 42:09
  well renowned experts about, you know, Norse paganism and
• 42:13
  Vikings. And it's kind of the full
• 42:15
  immersive experience where you're just going to get a, a
• 42:20
  full, a full experience. I'll let you hand.
• 42:22
  Out. It's 21 plus.
• 42:24
  That says it all as well, because sometimes adults just
• 42:28
  won't be adults. Yeah, right.
• 42:30
  So, I mean, Valhalla ain't, ain't for the children because
• 42:34
  you know, and, and I don't know how you feel about it, but, but
• 42:36
  like I've, I've, I've seen over the years, right where, where
• 42:39
  people like, and I know their intentions are good, right?
• 42:42
  It comes from a place of wholesomeness and, and, and feel
• 42:46
  good, you know, right where they're like, you know, a child
• 42:49
  walks into Valhalla and Odin greets them, blah, blah, blah.
• 42:52
  And I'm like, that's cute. I get where you're coming from,
• 42:55
  but also knock it off. This is Valhalla is not for the
• 43:00
  kiddies. It's not for children.
• 43:01
  This is this is, this is for the big boys and girls, right?
• 43:05
  This is, this is adult time. This is, you know.
• 43:08
  Yeah, exactly. We wanted to do something that
• 43:11
  was a little bit more fun and flowing with entertainment.
• 43:16
  So kind of from the time that the gates open, we say
• 43:19
  Valhalla's gates open for one night only, and the living can
• 43:23
  enter for the night to be among the fallen.
• 43:27
  And so, yeah, so this year we're going to do a toast to the
• 43:30
  fallen, which we're pretty excited about.
• 43:33
  We figured we're in Valhalla. And when I was talking to Nate,
• 43:37
  it just kind of naturally came to be.
• 43:39
  It wasn't something that we originally planned, just ended
• 43:44
  up that way. We did, yeah.
• 43:46
  Talk about the challenge. Going yeah, so, so again, this
• 43:50
  is going back to that whole everything just kind of crossing
• 43:52
  paths and being so synchronistic, you know?
• 43:56
  Yeah, we're going to be doing a toast to the fallen and bringing
• 44:01
  in the veteran aspect of it. We're going to be providing,
• 44:08
  we're going to be offering a challenge coins where you bring
• 44:11
  your challenge coin and you place it down as an offering to
• 44:14
  the fallen, kind of as an ode to whoever it is you're coming to
• 44:20
  Valhalla to, to be with. And the intent is to kind of
• 44:27
  show that community, build it into a shield wall per SE, where
• 44:31
  you have something that those isolated veterans or men who
• 44:38
  lost themselves from that collective and they're trying to
• 44:40
  see if there's another collective out there.
• 44:42
  They see this shield wall, these challenge coins that resonate in
• 44:45
  a personal ad for a personal level.
• 44:47
  And or maybe that's something to get them to step out.
• 44:52
  And I just find whatever it is, they need to discover that light
• 44:57
  to bring them back. I know it was something that
• 45:03
  like I was thinking of and we brought it up to the rest of the
• 45:06
  veterans in our group and they all thought it was a really good
• 45:08
  idea. And one of the big reasons why
• 45:10
  is because going through loss and whatnot, when we were closer
• 45:16
  to this times of combat, we really became weathered and we
• 45:21
  lost the ability to express our true emotions.
• 45:24
  We suppressed it all and whether regardless of who it was or what
• 45:28
  happened, we were saying goodbye to them with a cold face and a
• 45:32
  blank stare. And we never had a time to, to,
• 45:38
  to, to process those emotions, to process what it meant to say
• 45:41
  goodbye to a friend or a brother.
• 45:43
  I'm in a time of a definitive time where what we know will
• 45:47
  this person put his life down for me?
• 45:49
  Well, you just saw that answer. And I, it's a everything again,
• 45:55
  just kind of tied together. And I was like, Hey, I think I'm
• 45:57
  ready to do that. I, I should offer that as an
• 46:01
  idea. And we did.
• 46:03
  Crazy aspect of that is I really realized that I shut myself off
• 46:08
  emotionally and didn't, didn't really realize where I was when
• 46:14
  I lost one of my best friends And I went down to his funeral
• 46:18
  and said goodbye to him and it didn't hit me.
• 46:20
  And ironically, that was in Clarksville, TN.
• 46:25
  So I guess from where you're from.
• 46:29
  So the, the, the last time I really said goodbye to one of my
• 46:34
  friends and realized that I, I needed to work on something was
• 46:37
  in Clarksville there. And that was a very pivotal
• 46:40
  moment where I found my way into this life.
• 46:44
  And inevitably, here and again, it's that the whole web of weird
• 46:48
  everything's interlocked and here we are.
• 46:51
  Yeah. I had a question really quick.
• 46:54
  The is is a not in Valhalla? Is is this a returning event?
• 46:59
  Like is this a returning part of the Great Northern Viking
• 47:02
  festival? Like is this the first time?
• 47:04
  Second time is this like? Yep, second year and kind of
• 47:08
  like what Nate was talking about, it isn't something we
• 47:10
  advertise come veterans and be to this, we don't.
• 47:14
  It's just a very subtle piece of it.
• 47:18
  Last year, one thing that I really enjoyed was not seeing
• 47:23
  people on their phones. They were so immersed in the
• 47:27
  experience of Valhalla that we barely had any photos because no
• 47:32
  one was on their phone. They were just put away just in
• 47:35
  in the moment, which is, which was pretty great.
• 47:38
  Yes, Last year, it being our first year, it kind of started
• 47:43
  off again with an idea. And Inga had this vision of a
• 47:49
  campfire. And, you know, these, these
• 47:52
  Vikings standing around the fire in the, you know, the brisk,
• 47:55
  cold October evening, you know, there's fog and in the woods and
• 48:00
  you see this full moon and they're sharing stories.
• 48:02
  And that's where sagas began. That's where the things that a
• 48:06
  lot of us have lost or are trying to find, that's where
• 48:10
  those things began. That's where our ancestors and
• 48:14
  our guides learn, you know, what they still share with us today
• 48:17
  when we can connect with them. We wanted to do that again to a
• 48:22
  level where it, it's a feeling. We went and talked to a
• 48:29
  Paddlefish brewery and she said, hey, I, I, we have this idea.
• 48:34
  We want you to create a beer that resonates with this
• 48:37
  feeling. Not necessarily a flavour, but
• 48:40
  the whole entire thing was again just immersed to feel this
• 48:44
  experience. Everyone who was involved in it
• 48:48
  felt it and like drafted onto it and it turned out to be a great
• 48:51
  success. And wow, I.
• 48:56
  Don't know Gabo. Gabo was the beer.
• 48:59
  Oh, OK. Yeah, yeah.
• 49:00
  The gift. Yeah.
• 49:01
  Yeah, which change? Absolutely.
• 49:03
  What a great yeah. But yeah, so we've selected Gabo
• 49:06
  and we said, hey, you know, this is this is, you know, the rune
• 49:10
  that we selected. We're not going to really tell
• 49:12
  you a lot about it. We want you to do the research
• 49:15
  and we want you to express, you know what that means and why we
• 49:20
  picked that. And they were absolutely able to
• 49:24
  do that. They're like, this is GEPO.
• 49:25
  It's. Yeah, they're making us another
• 49:29
  beer, so we're excited for it this year.
• 49:32
  I'm. Excited for you from the sounds
• 49:33
  of it, that's, that's, that's really awesome that you have
• 49:37
  those resources around that want to collaborate.
• 49:42
  You know, in that way, it's a great market to to to get into.
• 49:45
  I mean, obviously when it comes to the culture, I obviously, you
• 49:51
  know, drinking alcohol, this is kind of one of those things that
• 49:56
  can get into some territory that can be triggering for people,
• 50:01
  right. So a bit of a warning with it
• 50:02
  all, you know, the the heathens and and pagans and drinking
• 50:07
  right, like it almost becomes synonymous, right?
• 50:10
  It's not that this isn't this isn't a time to get rowdy and
• 50:14
  boisterous to the degree of losing yourself and becoming
• 50:19
  uninhibited and dishonorable, but it is part of the culture in
• 50:25
  the way that it was a bonding experience.
• 50:29
  The stumble ceremony is one of my favorite rituals in, in
• 50:34
  Germanic heathen practices. Every time we have a holy tide
• 50:39
  and, and I can either participate or host a stumble.
• 50:42
  It is like, you know, what was his name back in the day?
• 50:45
  Let's get ready to rumble. Like the wrestling, it's, it's
• 50:48
  me. It's like, let's get ready to
• 50:49
  stumble. Like it's a whole big thing,
• 50:52
  right? And drinking is a part of it.
• 50:54
  But so it's cool that you have like an either a brewery or a
• 50:58
  meatery or or other businesses that want to contribute in that
• 51:04
  way. Yeah, we're drinking.
• 51:06
  We're drinking spirits with the spirits.
• 51:09
  Right. Yeah, exactly.
• 51:10
  And I. Really like how you, you know,
• 51:13
  express that it's it's not about that drunken competition of no,
• 51:18
  we're. Not getting wasted.
• 51:21
  Yeah, it's not what it is. It's it's it's about remembrance
• 51:25
  and the toast to the fallen, you know, and finding brotherhood
• 51:29
  or, you know, just being with kin again.
• 51:34
  And you know, I think when you when you build it properly, the
• 51:42
  the people who are there understand that and was very
• 51:46
  much observed last year and not just respected and appreciated
• 51:52
  from us, but from the land owners and the locals.
• 51:54
  And we heard nothing but positive things on how
• 52:00
  respectful and well maintained everyone was throughout this
• 52:05
  festival. And, you know, in a, in a the
• 52:10
  post kind of review of it, people said, you know, yeah, I
• 52:14
  was hesitant on it. And they were really glad they
• 52:17
  gave us the chance because, well, we were able to shine
• 52:21
  light on the fact that there's communities out there that still
• 52:24
  have that respect and kind of adhere to old traditions and.
• 52:30
  Kind. Of want to leave a place better
• 52:32
  than than it was. Yeah.
• 52:36
  No, it's about honor, right? And, and, and preserving our
• 52:40
  honor individually, but then sharing in that and then having
• 52:44
  a shared experience. And it was that that kind of
• 52:47
  segues into one of my next questions that I was going to
• 52:50
  ask you. Because when we talk about
• 52:54
  festivals or events, experiences that attract a certain
• 53:00
  demographic, whether by design or whether by natural organic
• 53:04
  growth, it pulls certain it, it pulls a certain type, you know,
• 53:08
  it, it garners the attention, I should say, of a certain type,
• 53:11
  right? So whether you intentionally
• 53:14
  attract the attention of certain types or not, it's going to
• 53:18
  come, if it hasn't already, it will.
• 53:20
  So I was gonna ask like, do you, like, how do you balance or how
• 53:24
  do you, I should say, choose or vet the participants, whether it
• 53:29
  be performers, artisans, attendees, you know, like, I
• 53:34
  don't know, like does is there a process that you go through to
• 53:37
  ensure that you have safeguarded this place and, and preserved
• 53:43
  what your vision was intentionally like from from the
• 53:48
  beginning? Yeah.
• 53:50
  So we have position statement on our website as well.
• 53:55
  It's pretty short in brief and but it gets to the point of, you
• 53:59
  know, this is where we're welcoming everyone, no matter
• 54:03
  what your heritage. And we also no hate, no
• 54:05
  politics, you know, to keep to keep it, to keep that brief part
• 54:10
  of it. Yeah, we have in the beginning
• 54:13
  we experienced that some like you said, it will come, you know
• 54:17
  and it did. But that was easily able to be
• 54:20
  cut off pretty quickly. I don't give things like that
• 54:24
  much attention because as you know the things you give more
• 54:26
  attention to, the more energy you do, you create.
• 54:30
  And so we we didn't have any of those issues last year.
• 54:36
  And like I said, because of that, because initially just
• 54:38
  kind of cutting it off where it needed to be cut off.
• 54:42
  Yeah, it's, you know, through observation and intervention,
• 54:44
  you're able to really deflect a lot of things.
• 54:47
  First and foremost, you know, we we're taking an approach that is
• 54:52
  very much alternative to the typical, you know, veteran
• 54:55
  mindset, I suppose. But we're not, it's not a
• 54:58
  security position. And, you know, we have safety
• 55:01
  and Wellness and, you know, we're not responding to
• 55:05
  incidents where we're trying to prevent them and, you know,
• 55:09
  accommodate a place where it's very much understood that that,
• 55:14
  you know, these there's aspects that aren't tolerated.
• 55:18
  And when it's observed, when it's reported, you say, hey, you
• 55:21
  know, respectfully, this is not the place, you know, you can
• 55:25
  please leave the premise, you know, or just respond
• 55:28
  accordingly. And we've been blessed so far to
• 55:31
  not have anything, you know, fall outside of something that's
• 55:37
  been manageable. Inevitably, you know, some days
• 55:41
  are harder than worse and things will be tested.
• 55:44
  However, you know, with, with the community, with our growth
• 55:49
  and with, you know, our staff and everything that we've kind
• 55:52
  of built, we're ready to take on, you know, whatever it is
• 55:57
  that there is to test us. Yeah.
• 56:01
  Well, I, I, I believe in what you've talked about truly, you
• 56:05
  know, it's, it sounds very, it's, it's very purpose driven
• 56:09
  and the purpose I, I from, from what I'm hearing and is, is, is
• 56:13
  coming from a place of wholesomeness, goodness, truly,
• 56:17
  you know what I mean? Like it's it, there's no agenda
• 56:20
  behind it. It's, you know, you've, you've
• 56:23
  spoken now for almost an hour about the, the vision and the
• 56:26
  inclusivity and all of that. And the beautiful thing about
• 56:30
  when you do it that way, it's like the trash takes itself out
• 56:33
  or it doesn't even show up. It, yeah, you know what I mean?
• 56:36
  Like, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's not that you're
• 56:37
  ignoring the problem, it's that you're like, well, this isn't
• 56:41
  even, it's a, it's a non existent.
• 56:43
  It doesn't become a thing because you've set up those
• 56:45
  boundaries, you've set up those wards.
• 56:47
  I've I've, I've attended other events too where it's very
• 56:50
  clear. Like these are the do's and the
• 56:52
  don'ts. Come here and enjoy yourself.
• 56:55
  But also don't come here and get shit faced and be, be an asshole
• 56:58
  because you'll be asked to leave or thrown out or whatever.
• 57:01
  Like, it's very clear, you know? Yeah.
• 57:04
  Yeah, you know, well, even last year, I'll, I'll just talk about
• 57:08
  it. A a kind of experience that
• 57:13
  happened that was kind of eye opening in a way as somebody
• 57:19
  came up like he said, we don't call IT security, we call it
• 57:21
  safety and Wellness. So somebody came up to the
• 57:24
  safety and Wellness and they said there's a man outside the
• 57:27
  gate and he's really scaring us. He's, he's concerning.
• 57:31
  And, you know, the safety and Wellness were like, OK, you
• 57:35
  know, we'll go check it out. And they ended up luckily our
• 57:39
  safety and Wellness are very good at talking to people.
• 57:42
  And it ended up being a very autistic person that was very
• 57:47
  overstimulated and had a hard time wanting to come in.
• 57:52
  So he was kind of pacing around the gate.
• 57:55
  And to people that may not know what that looks like, maybe they
• 57:59
  can, you know, maybe, maybe ignorance, maybe not, but it can
• 58:02
  look a little. In a world of, you know, if
• 58:05
  something looks weird, say something, Yeah, there's a lot
• 58:08
  of, you know, immediate judgments.
• 58:10
  So what is, you know, with the intervention, come to find out
• 58:16
  this, this young man was saying, hey, you know, I'm actually
• 58:19
  having a really good time here. And I'm just a little
• 58:22
  overstimulated, he said, but I don't want to leave.
• 58:25
  And you guys are really helpful with this.
• 58:28
  And it, it was just a situation where again, it was eye opening
• 58:33
  because we, we didn't necessarily intend to create an
• 58:38
  event where we were able to I I guess, yeah, well understand how
• 58:49
  to respond in, in that aspect. Naturally we did without even
• 58:55
  really defining it. And it was just, again, it's
• 58:58
  not, it's not about solving a problem.
• 59:01
  It's intervention, intervening and saying, hey, what's going
• 59:03
  on? You know this situation, OK?
• 59:05
  Everything's great, You know? Is there anything we can do to
• 59:08
  help you? Respond versus React.
• 59:11
  Yes, yes, yeah. I guess we have to.
• 59:13
  It's a lot. A lot of us have to learn that
• 59:16
  and we have to go through quite a few years of life to to find
• 59:20
  it. Yeah.
• 59:23
  No, that's a beautiful example that you that you shared.
• 59:26
  And so if I could ask is the safety and Wellness, I don't
• 59:34
  know what you call it like a committee or a safety and
• 59:36
  Wellness like group like you have dedicated people who are
• 59:39
  vetted and chosen as part of this safety and Wellness
• 59:43
  commute. So they have they have
• 59:45
  experience, they have training, they have some sort of
• 59:49
  credentials to be able to serve in that capacity, right.
• 59:54
  And, and so, yeah, so, so is, is it like, would you say that
• 59:59
  it's, it's, it's more about responding to things and not
• 1:00:05
  reacting to things 'cause as you mentioned, right?
• 1:00:06
  People that that are on the spectrum with various things,
• 1:00:11
  like there's, there's so many people that are experiencing
• 1:00:13
  life and, and their existence in ways and that are that are
• 1:00:15
  triggered by certain things. If you're not aware of it, if
• 1:00:20
  you're not trained, if you're not experienced.
• 1:00:23
  It could. It could trigger a reaction that
• 1:00:25
  could result in something bad happening, right?
• 1:00:29
  And, and, you know, I this, this could almost go off into a
• 1:00:33
  completely separate discussion, but you know, one thing in my,
• 1:00:39
  in my, I guess, travels and adventures dealing with my
• 1:00:46
  mental health issues, I had PTSD from, you know, going through
• 1:00:50
  combat is I started realizing that, you know, those sensory
• 1:00:56
  struggles and hyper vigilance and over stimulation that has
• 1:01:02
  been becoming a lot more understood in the spectrum world
• 1:01:07
  is something that I felt I was feeling as a, a veteran who's
• 1:01:11
  understanding that, oh, I have PTSD.
• 1:01:13
  That's what this is. But I'm learning about, you
• 1:01:19
  know, what it's like to experience, you know, life
• 1:01:23
  through, you know, this very wide spectrum.
• 1:01:26
  And I'm saying, hey, well, like that feels like me.
• 1:01:29
  I, I know that's not how you know, I'm feeling that, but
• 1:01:34
  there's all those synchronicities and whatnot, so.
• 1:01:38
  It's easy to see for a lot of us leads because we're all very
• 1:01:41
  similar in the way that we can see and feel things without
• 1:01:46
  having to necessarily. I don't know.
• 1:01:49
  Yeah, we're all very, we're all very well trained to again,
• 1:01:55
  respond and not react. Yep.
• 1:01:57
  It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, the very first thing
• 1:02:01
  we say and it's kind of the, the very first intent of every
• 1:02:06
  action we take so. It's such a, it's such a tricky
• 1:02:10
  place to find yourself in too, right?
• 1:02:11
  Because you don't know, you know, your response and, and how
• 1:02:15
  you have coped with certain things.
• 1:02:18
  You know, this is another person, right?
• 1:02:20
  And, and, and, and giving them that space to like, OK, you got
• 1:02:25
  to feel this like we're going to get through this.
• 1:02:27
  You know, it's not invalidating their, their feeling.
• 1:02:30
  They're they're they're it may not even be something that they
• 1:02:33
  can voluntarily in the moment have control over.
• 1:02:38
  Odds are it's not. I mean, and I've experienced
• 1:02:40
  that and I, I've felt rejection from the, the experts that they
• 1:02:45
  tell you to go to where, you know, you go in for help as a
• 1:02:47
  veteran and you, you get chastised and locked up for it
• 1:02:52
  because people are scared. And it's like, well, that's not
• 1:02:54
  quite what I thought this was supposed to be.
• 1:02:57
  That's got to be scary too, for, for having going through that
• 1:03:00
  right, to be like demonized and ostracized because of your
• 1:03:05
  experience, because of what you're feeling, instead of being
• 1:03:08
  given the chance to feel it and give it space.
• 1:03:11
  Yeah. So has that been like, I was
• 1:03:16
  going to ask, like, is it like in terms of like failure?
• 1:03:18
  I don't want to say like failure is a harsh word.
• 1:03:21
  You know what I mean? Challenges is probably a better
• 1:03:22
  way like or, or set back like what has been in in, in the last
• 1:03:27
  year almost 2 now that you've been doing this, like what has
• 1:03:30
  been the biggest challenge or set back in planning this or in
• 1:03:34
  or even hosting it or or facilitating it?
• 1:03:40
  Would you say that that some of the things that we're talking
• 1:03:42
  about right now has been like the pinnacle of challenge or
• 1:03:46
  setbacks or? Anything.
• 1:03:48
  Else that you might that's. A really, that's a really good
• 1:03:51
  question. I, I I know.
• 1:03:53
  I think there's, there's multiple ways to approach to
• 1:03:56
  that. I mean, the, the, the biggest
• 1:03:59
  challenge is the one you're facing right now, I guess.
• 1:04:02
  But there's obviously inevitably obstacles that are a little
• 1:04:07
  higher than others. Just the very 3D aspects, you
• 1:04:13
  know, there's always financial struggles trying to.
• 1:04:17
  Oh yeah, funding. The funds necessary to pull this
• 1:04:21
  off and it's it it's it's it's a it's a big on taking the the
• 1:04:27
  time and the toll that it takes out of most certainly Inga and
• 1:04:31
  all of our other staff for just supporting a dream and like an
• 1:04:37
  effort. Yeah.
• 1:04:40
  You know, those are those could all be looked at as very
• 1:04:42
  difficult aspects, but. Yeah, no, I agree.
• 1:04:47
  I am working from the time I get up to the time I go to bed.
• 1:04:51
  And you know, I'm not getting paid for that.
• 1:04:53
  I'm not taking a paycheck for that.
• 1:04:54
  I have to be able to come up, you know, just me and you know,
• 1:05:01
  the small group that we have just even the funds to do it,
• 1:05:05
  right. So our first year we did a
• 1:05:07
  Kickstarter and that was very helpful and the community really
• 1:05:11
  kicked in and the people that we knew to kind of make that dream
• 1:05:14
  launch to be able to launch it. And so it going into the second
• 1:05:20
  year, it's a little bit harder because you don't have that base
• 1:05:22
  per SE. You're kind of almost starting
• 1:05:24
  from from scratch and and a lot of people will look at a a
• 1:05:29
  festival. I feel like that's happening
• 1:05:31
  here too and say, oh, I can do that.
• 1:05:33
  And I kind of chuckle about it because I was like, no idea.
• 1:05:39
  You're. Feeling froggy, right?
• 1:05:40
  Jump right. Oh, yes, yeah.
• 1:05:42
  If you make it look easy though, then I suppose you know.
• 1:05:47
  I guess like there's that old saying, right?
• 1:05:49
  You you can dazzle him with brilliance or baffle them with
• 1:05:53
  bullshit like. There we go, both of them.
• 1:05:58
  You make it but. So that I think that's that's
• 1:06:03
  the bigger, bigger piece of it. You know, I'm not a big company
• 1:06:07
  with a big pocketbook, you know, and have done this all these
• 1:06:12
  years and just, you know, putting it out there.
• 1:06:14
  And I'm also not just running on it because it's popular.
• 1:06:17
  So, you know, you say Viking and you know, because of whatever
• 1:06:22
  the shows were, whatever, you know, it has goods and it has
• 1:06:27
  positive and negative. The positive part are there's
• 1:06:29
  more people interested in this type of thing than there ever
• 1:06:33
  was. And I look at that as a positive
• 1:06:35
  based on, you know, just even shows that we had, you know,
• 1:06:39
  like Vikings and things like that.
• 1:06:41
  And I think of that as a positive because that brings
• 1:06:44
  people into you that maybe otherwise wouldn't have been
• 1:06:47
  interested. You know, you can stick in this
• 1:06:50
  small community and it's just the same people, the same
• 1:06:53
  people. How do you create something to
• 1:06:55
  pull in new people? You can't tell them there are
• 1:07:00
  ways wrong or that's wrong or you don't dress this way or
• 1:07:03
  that's not historically accurate.
• 1:07:05
  That's not creating community, that's allocating people and
• 1:07:11
  that's that's sad. We shouldn't be doing that.
• 1:07:13
  Well, it's, it's trying to create a, a, a, a location and a
• 1:07:18
  community where, you know, we can really grasp and take in
• 1:07:24
  that learn from the old point of view.
• 1:07:28
  You know, growing up, you know, with Norwegian heritage, I
• 1:07:33
  remember learning about lefsa luthus, guruma grout and in
• 1:07:37
  church basements. And, you know, as far as
• 1:07:40
  exposure, exposure to the Scandinavian world or the Norse
• 1:07:44
  world, that was pretty much it until, you know, coming, coming
• 1:07:50
  into this, this whole, this whole dream.
• 1:07:53
  And I didn't realize that there's not a lot out there to
• 1:07:56
  facilitate that expression and sharing of that Scandinavian
• 1:08:01
  culture. And I, I think it's really
• 1:08:04
  important to be able to do that because again, that's, that,
• 1:08:06
  that's our heritage, It's where we came from.
• 1:08:08
  And to be able to do that is it's it's necessary to maintain
• 1:08:13
  those bonds with community and that collective.
• 1:08:16
  Yeah, and, and teaching people, I mean, we are in Minnesota, we
• 1:08:18
  have football team, the Minnesota Vikings, right?
• 1:08:21
  And they have the horned helmets and the way it looks and that's
• 1:08:25
  how people, a lot of people view it.
• 1:08:28
  So when you can invite them in and be like, oh, you know, we're
• 1:08:33
  curating something that it's not only part of MyHeritage, but
• 1:08:37
  it's part of I guess, my spirituality and part of my
• 1:08:41
  purpose in what I'm looking to do with, like I said, the
• 1:08:45
  healing in the community, community and stuff.
• 1:08:46
  So people come in and they say, I liked that Viking show.
• 1:08:49
  OK, yeah, come check it out. Check it out.
• 1:08:52
  Because by the time you know it, you may have somebody that is
• 1:08:56
  down a path of their own, you know, their own spirituality,
• 1:09:01
  their own finding their purpose, finding their ancestors, finding
• 1:09:03
  those pieces that wouldn't have otherwise.
• 1:09:07
  So it, it's pretty amazing just from small things like that,
• 1:09:11
  that you can say, oh, that was pretty neat.
• 1:09:14
  I've seen many of my friends do that over the years, change and
• 1:09:18
  come ask me questions. I thought in a million years
• 1:09:21
  they would never ask, you know, So it's, it may take a little
• 1:09:27
  bit of time, but I think if you're always alienating or
• 1:09:30
  you're just so small or you're only doing reenactment where
• 1:09:34
  it's the same people showing up, I mean, how, how are you going
• 1:09:38
  to bring in new people? No, I think it's a good
• 1:09:42
  observation too. It like you're in a, you're in a
• 1:09:44
  very interesting geographical location to be hosting things
• 1:09:49
  like this because I know that the Midwest specifically, I mean
• 1:09:53
  Minnesota, Wisconsin, there's a very deep and long rooted
• 1:10:01
  settlement of Scandinavian people in this part of the
• 1:10:04
  United States, right? Midwest has a lot of Norwegian,
• 1:10:07
  Swedish, Scandinavian people that have settled up there where
• 1:10:14
  I'm from in like where I'm from in the, in the part of New York,
• 1:10:18
  a lot of Dutch, the German and the Dutch settled there.
• 1:10:21
  So there's, there's MyHeritage, right?
• 1:10:22
  So there's a lot of physical ancestry that is, that is, has
• 1:10:28
  accumulated or has settled in a geographical area.
• 1:10:32
  So for you to have this event every year that highlights the,
• 1:10:39
  the spirituality, the folkways, the religion, whatever you want
• 1:10:43
  to call it and present it in a way that is, hey, you know,
• 1:10:47
  maybe this is a part of your heritage too.
• 1:10:49
  Because we talked earlier about how people are looking for
• 1:10:54
  belonging. This this kind of goes back to
• 1:10:57
  something that I talked with somebody else recently about how
• 1:11:01
  if you don't have your own, if you don't have identity,
• 1:11:11
  cultural identity, yes, you are going to.
• 1:11:14
  If you don't, if you don't know what your culture identity is,
• 1:11:16
  you're going to suck or swallow the cultural identity of others.
• 1:11:21
  Yes, yeah. Because it's a longing.
• 1:11:24
  It's it's, it's a, it's a need. It's a feeling of as our, our,
• 1:11:27
  our species has that inherently within us.
• 1:11:30
  We, we the the need, the feeling of the need to belong somewhere.
• 1:11:33
  Yeah, well, if there's nothing there that's feeding that
• 1:11:36
  natural belonging, if we don't know where we're from or where
• 1:11:39
  we our ancestors come from and all that, we're going to swallow
• 1:11:44
  or suck up just whatever it is around us.
• 1:11:46
  And that can look like appropriation to a lot of other
• 1:11:49
  cultures, right? It can look like you're you're
• 1:11:52
  you're cosplaying or pretending. And, and so giving this place or
• 1:11:58
  giving this space in, in your area, which is probably a very
• 1:12:03
  concentrated group of, of Scandinavian descent, right?
• 1:12:08
  It's beautiful. I think it's great that, that in
• 1:12:11
  that area, geographically, the spirit of the land, the spirit
• 1:12:14
  of what you're doing, it aligns right.
• 1:12:17
  And and people that are there that are maybe looking for
• 1:12:20
  something can find belonging. Yeah, for sure.
• 1:12:24
  If you don't know where you came from, you don't know who you
• 1:12:27
  are. That's always something that
• 1:12:29
  I've said to people. How are you supposed to know
• 1:12:33
  where you go? And that was the path I wanna
• 1:12:35
  you know, when my teacher said, who are you calling?
• 1:12:39
  Who is your ancestors? How how was I supposed to know
• 1:12:42
  who I was? So that was a a long journey.
• 1:12:46
  And yeah, so it it does create people really looking into that.
• 1:12:51
  I think they are longing for the past.
• 1:12:54
  They are longing for a a a lot of different things.
• 1:12:58
  Nature, for one, were very, you know, obviously, you know, Nate
• 1:13:04
  and I are even having this festival in the woods one.
• 1:13:07
  But we're disconnected from nature.
• 1:13:10
  Then we're disconnected from each other.
• 1:13:12
  We're disconnected from our ancestors, I mean disconnected
• 1:13:15
  from ourselves and then we're disconnected from ourselves.
• 1:13:18
  You know, so when you were talking about kind of, you know,
• 1:13:23
  the tree, and then I think about, I said this to people, if
• 1:13:28
  you don't find your roots, you know, you can't grow.
• 1:13:31
  And it's, it's that point of a tree has to know its roots,
• 1:13:35
  because if you have very good roots, you know what they are,
• 1:13:38
  they're built. Any storm that comes by, if you
• 1:13:40
  don't have them just knocks you straight over.
• 1:13:42
  You have to be able to, if you want to grow high in the sky,
• 1:13:45
  you want to grow out your branches.
• 1:13:47
  You have to have good roots and they're all connected.
• 1:13:51
  And that's it's important. Yeah, it is.
• 1:13:53
  It's a very beautiful balance too, right?
• 1:13:56
  Because we talked about being rooted and, and, and there's a,
• 1:13:59
  there's a, there's an awareness I feel that that people should,
• 1:14:04
  should realize is that, you know, to become root bound can
• 1:14:07
  also be a trap to fall into. And you could become, you know,
• 1:14:12
  slogged into the roots and, and then you can't grow because
• 1:14:16
  you're, you know, you're too root bound.
• 1:14:18
  In order for those branches to expand, in order for that canopy
• 1:14:21
  to become a shade and as broad and as beautiful as it is, it
• 1:14:26
  has to have good strong roots. But those roots again, the, the
• 1:14:29
  tree grows up and it grows out. So it's, it's touching upon
• 1:14:33
  various things. And that's that, that connection
• 1:14:35
  to nature that, you know, turn off the, the computer, turn off
• 1:14:39
  your phone, disconnect from this, this blue screen hue and
• 1:14:44
  let the sit with the sunrise, sit with the sunset, right?
• 1:14:49
  Absorb that beautiful glow of our mother, our earth, mother of
• 1:14:54
  Yort next to the ground. Do all these things.
• 1:14:57
  Expose yourself to like the weather, weather and wear of
• 1:15:01
  just life. You know, isolating yourself in
• 1:15:04
  front of a screen in this self-contained box all day does
• 1:15:09
  nothing but kind of validate comfort.
• 1:15:13
  And whether you're a tree or somebody going to the gym, you
• 1:15:18
  don't grow in comfort, you grow. And thank you.
• 1:15:21
  And, and you need to, yeah, you, you need to be able to be
• 1:15:25
  exposed to that strain, to that weathering in the where, you
• 1:15:29
  know, a tree that's strong, has thick bark and you know it
• 1:15:33
  because you can see it. And that that's not, that's not
• 1:15:36
  grown in front of a computer, you know, inside.
• 1:15:39
  There is no growth and comfort. Yeah.
• 1:15:41
  And it's I, I think, you know, just kind of tying that whole
• 1:15:46
  analogy thing from trees to the festival, you know, old growth
• 1:15:51
  forests are dying. And they're, they're, they're
• 1:15:55
  something that, you know, one day in the future, we're never
• 1:15:58
  going to see those giant old growth trees that have roots
• 1:16:01
  that have been found and digging down for, you know, hundreds of
• 1:16:05
  years. And, you know, you can see that
• 1:16:09
  in our heritage and our culture and our spirituality.
• 1:16:14
  If, you know, we don't, you know, water those trees and, you
• 1:16:19
  know, feed that need, it's going to die and it'll be gone before
• 1:16:24
  we before we know it, you know, yeah.
• 1:16:27
  It's even at the festival on Friday night, we have something
• 1:16:31
  called Fellowship by the fire, and that's for the weekend, kind
• 1:16:36
  of people that are coming for the weekend.
• 1:16:38
  And the idea around that is, you know, what happens when we start
• 1:16:42
  sitting around a fire. You know, it's a very meditative
• 1:16:46
  thing, every grounding thing, but it's it brings people
• 1:16:49
  together. You start talking.
• 1:16:52
  Sometimes you can even just sitting in silence.
• 1:16:55
  But I think that creating the fellowship by the fire, which is
• 1:17:00
  new this year because we thought, what are we going to do
• 1:17:02
  when people are there on Friday? Last year they just kind of were
• 1:17:07
  camping. They didn't have, we did have a
• 1:17:09
  Hasana, but a lot of people didn't really know what to do on
• 1:17:14
  Friday. So I thought, OK, it's better
• 1:17:17
  than having, you know, that primal feeling of fire to gather
• 1:17:22
  people together. Man, it is such a that, you
• 1:17:24
  know, fire is it serves so many good purposes.
• 1:17:31
  It it keeps you warm, it provides light, it provides
• 1:17:35
  comfort. It cooks our food.
• 1:17:38
  Like there's so many purposes in in things that that fire can
• 1:17:42
  provide, but at the very, like you say, primal level just to
• 1:17:48
  sit and be present. Yeah, I think you know fire.
• 1:17:54
  Provides one thing very specifically to, I should say,
• 1:17:59
  men. And it's a field for us to show
• 1:18:03
  up in that doesn't require competition.
• 1:18:06
  You know, whether whether there's a grass field that two
• 1:18:10
  guys walk up to, you know, we're going to find a way to compete,
• 1:18:12
  whether it's through sports, through, you know, a measuring
• 1:18:17
  contest or just some weird childish game.
• 1:18:21
  Since we've been little kids, you know, we are born here to
• 1:18:24
  compete. And for some weird reason, when
• 1:18:28
  you get a bunch of men standing on a fire, it's no longer a
• 1:18:32
  competition. You are there to be, and without
• 1:18:35
  that fire, there's competition. Yeah, man, it's common ground.
• 1:18:41
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:18:43
  Because we all need it. We all need that fire.
• 1:18:45
  We all need that, that, that. And that's, that's a beautiful
• 1:18:49
  analogy, right? Because fire is, you know,
• 1:18:52
  something that y'all can relate to as as as a place of comfort.
• 1:18:57
  It's a beacon. It's that Kaun, right, That
• 1:19:00
  canos that, that, that, that torch in the distance that I can
• 1:19:04
  find comfort and peace at. I can sit here and I'm not going
• 1:19:08
  to be judged. I'm not going to be challenged.
• 1:19:11
  I'm just going to be able to relax.
• 1:19:13
  I'm going to be able to introspect and and have this
• 1:19:15
  moment of time to heal, to just pause, you know, and I thought
• 1:19:24
  about that too, right? I mean, we're talking about a
• 1:19:26
  really big endeavor, the Great Northern Viking Festival.
• 1:19:30
  And you know, this is a, a, a mind fire for you.
• 1:19:34
  This, this, this vision that you've had help with and, and,
• 1:19:38
  and has become something of an inclusive experience for a lot
• 1:19:43
  of people. But I did want to ask both of
• 1:19:46
  you now, since I have you here, right?
• 1:19:47
  Like how do you individually keep your own passions and your
• 1:19:52
  own energy alive when you're managing all this heavy lifting?
• 1:19:59
  The logistics, the the planning? Or how do you tend to your own
• 1:20:03
  inner fires? How do you keep yourselves?
• 1:20:06
  You know, First off, we have a couple of dogs and much like the
• 1:20:12
  dogs, it's a it's a game of balancing patience and the need
• 1:20:18
  to go outside. I.
• 1:20:19
  Guess one of them say one of them bugging us under the table.
• 1:20:22
  Losing their patience right now. However, you know, you said, you
• 1:20:26
  said earlier just a bit, what's the biggest struggle?
• 1:20:28
  And as a partner, from Inga's point of view, I think the
• 1:20:33
  biggest struggle is that what you just spoke on, finding the
• 1:20:38
  balance in your personal life and your life, whether it's
• 1:20:42
  professional endeavors or building a dream for yourself or
• 1:20:45
  for others. Fighting the balance, to be able
• 1:20:48
  to maintain that brevity within yourself, to transfer your
• 1:20:52
  imagination into something that other people can see.
• 1:20:56
  And how has that been able to be accomplished so far?
• 1:21:01
  I guess it would be not from just our own will and
• 1:21:05
  determination, but from a lot of help from people who have
• 1:21:10
  latched on and been able to take on aspects of the festival that
• 1:21:19
  you know, you were holding on to yourself last year.
• 1:21:23
  It's all it's all that balancing game and much like fire, I guess
• 1:21:27
  if it's contained, yeah, it's a it's a beacon.
• 1:21:30
  But if it's not contained, it's it's it's it's a danger.
• 1:21:34
  So I don't know. How do you do that?
• 1:21:37
  It's kind of crazy. But with will and determination
• 1:21:41
  and community, I suppose things things happen.
• 1:21:45
  A road map outside myself. Yeah.
• 1:21:50
  Yeah. Do you need Do you need to let
• 1:21:54
  the baby out? Yeah, he's going to.
• 1:21:56
  He's going to bug us. That's fine, that's fine.
• 1:22:00
  We'll just keep, we'll just, you know, and, and I'll just say
• 1:22:02
  real quick, you know, with, with folks like whether it's, you
• 1:22:07
  know, you and I and I've talked to other and I've been a part of
• 1:22:09
  other events in my area and abroad this past year or just
• 1:22:15
  earlier this year. I got a chance to go to North
• 1:22:17
  Carolina and, and be a part of a really big event that that
• 1:22:24
  brings in, you know, thousands of people, you know what I mean?
• 1:22:26
  And to, to sit there and to offer a service or bring goods
• 1:22:34
  right in or, or, or just experience it.
• 1:22:38
  It's a huge thing to reflect upon after the fact, you know
• 1:22:43
  what I mean? Like, and, and then to think
• 1:22:46
  about like, man, like if this is what I'm feeling as a attendee,
• 1:22:51
  you know, or as a participant, what, what must this be like for
• 1:22:57
  the ones who planted this seed, who started this fire, right?
• 1:23:04
  And that's really what I was coming at it from an angle from
• 1:23:07
  like, man, like you've got so much that you've got to think
• 1:23:09
  about logistically, physically, emotionally, right?
• 1:23:14
  And then yourself or yourselves and, and like, what do you do to
• 1:23:19
  like balance that all out? Because it's a big thing.
• 1:23:22
  Like, you know, we, we, we talked about the, the, the fact
• 1:23:25
  that this is kind of a niche group or topic or whatever.
• 1:23:32
  Like you're going to to attract a very niche audience, but it's
• 1:23:36
  a big audience at, at, at, you know, at the same time, you
• 1:23:39
  know, so you have this vision, you have this great, which is a
• 1:23:42
  great vision. And then you, you have all of
• 1:23:44
  this to, to manage at the same time.
• 1:23:46
  So how do you protect your peace?
• 1:23:49
  I guess is another way to say it in the in the process.
• 1:23:53
  I think, well, yeah, it's a lot of planning, but also present
• 1:23:57
  moment, you know, taking time to be in nature, even if it's a
• 1:24:01
  short amount of time for me is very cleansing.
• 1:24:06
  But yeah, allowing myself to be in the moment because otherwise
• 1:24:10
  your head's going to go 100 miles an hour thinking about all
• 1:24:13
  these things that are not actually happening right now,
• 1:24:16
  right? They're in the future or they're
• 1:24:18
  in the past and they're not right now.
• 1:24:22
  And it all it takes reminders from people, especially Nate and
• 1:24:27
  my festival manager, She's always like, OK, have you done
• 1:24:31
  something for yourself today? Did you eat?
• 1:24:34
  Did you this? Simple things like that.
• 1:24:36
  Yeah, I get it. Like, you know, I have this
• 1:24:41
  practice that I'm trying to maintain and adopt is, you know,
• 1:24:45
  is even if it's, if I have to get up an hour early, you know,
• 1:24:50
  I have to set my alarm or whatever and get up an hour
• 1:24:53
  earlier than I normally would every day.
• 1:24:55
  What's an extra? What's, what's, what's an hour
• 1:24:57
  earlier to just have quiet time to myself walking, being
• 1:25:03
  outside, you know, in nature or, or whatever, like whatever,
• 1:25:07
  whatever it is. And it may not be an hour, but
• 1:25:09
  you know, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, bare feet on
• 1:25:13
  the ground, put my skin to earth, touch a tree, put my bare
• 1:25:19
  feet on the ground. Like whatever it is, am I giving
• 1:25:21
  myself that time to? Because when I do that, I am, I
• 1:25:25
  am shifting my attention to whatever it, whatever else that
• 1:25:29
  I may be taking my like, whatever else is, is taking up
• 1:25:33
  my attention, you know, giving real estate to like.
• 1:25:38
  I, I am now putting that aside and I'm being present in this
• 1:25:42
  moment. I am feeling the, the earth
• 1:25:44
  beneath my feet. I'm feeling the, the, the, the
• 1:25:48
  touch of the, of the tree to my hand.
• 1:25:50
  And I'm pausing for just whatever time it is to exist and
• 1:25:56
  be present in that moment. And as little or as small as
• 1:26:01
  that might be it, it it's, it speaks volumes.
• 1:26:05
  It brings a lot, Yeah. Be able to manage things like
• 1:26:09
  this I think. Also gratitude because there's a
• 1:26:13
  lot of times you can get very frustrated, you know, things not
• 1:26:16
  lining up because it is a, you know, it's still a business and
• 1:26:21
  you still have to have that mindset.
• 1:26:23
  It isn't just a dream, it's if you know you're, you're still
• 1:26:28
  having to create that in in the real world, right?
• 1:26:31
  So yeah, reality is we live in a time where things cost money.
• 1:26:35
  And yeah. Yeah, so gratitude is huge.
• 1:26:40
  Trying to remember that and being gracious for the fact that
• 1:26:43
  you have the dream in the 1st place and you're just daring
• 1:26:46
  enough to do it and to create it and setting goals.
• 1:26:52
  You know, Nate was say the other day, you know, about goal
• 1:26:55
  setting, because for me, I think my personality is he was like,
• 1:27:00
  how do you feel after the first festival?
• 1:27:03
  And I said, I don't know because I was already thinking down the
• 1:27:06
  line. It's like I couldn't process the
• 1:27:09
  fact that it happened, that it it because I was too far ahead.
• 1:27:15
  So remembering to stop and give gratitude for even the smallest
• 1:27:20
  things is important. Yeah.
• 1:27:24
  I feel like that's a, that is a, an opportunity for all of us to
• 1:27:34
  gratitude, right? Stop and be thankful.
• 1:27:37
  Stop and show gratitude, right, For the littlest things, for
• 1:27:39
  anything, because we do, we, we tend to think, you know, like
• 1:27:44
  one of the things like, oh man, you know, where do I want to be
• 1:27:47
  in five years, right? That's that's so much when when
• 1:27:49
  it comes to business or when it comes to any sort of like
• 1:27:52
  enterprise, Where do you see yourself?
• 1:27:55
  You know, what are you, what are you going to be doing?
• 1:27:57
  What are you going to be accomplishing?
• 1:27:58
  Where are you going to be right climbing up the slider?
• 1:28:01
  Well, what about where I am? What about what I've done right?
• 1:28:06
  Have you have you given yourself the space and the chance to be
• 1:28:12
  great? You know, give yourself that
• 1:28:13
  grace. Yeah.
• 1:28:17
  And all that. So, yeah, that is, that is a
• 1:28:19
  that is a huge observation. I'm glad you brought that up.
• 1:28:22
  Gratitude. We tend to overlook it, I think,
• 1:28:24
  as people just in general. Yeah.
• 1:28:27
  Because we're looking for that next big thing, right?
• 1:28:29
  Especially when it comes to our vision or our, our purpose that
• 1:28:32
  we, that we feel so passionate about.
• 1:28:34
  What's the next thing, right? What's the next thing?
• 1:28:37
  Of course, but I think that's the society we live in,
• 1:28:41
  fortunately and unfortunately depends on the which way you
• 1:28:44
  look at it, but it it can be difficult if you're, I mean,
• 1:28:50
  think about the whole social media thing, if you just, you
• 1:28:53
  know, God, all these pictures in these beautiful places and not
• 1:28:57
  realizing, just pause and actually realize where you are
• 1:29:01
  because. You're.
• 1:29:02
  Trying to. Show everybody who's not there
• 1:29:05
  that you're there. Yeah.
• 1:29:07
  Yeah, look at, look at me, right, Attention.
• 1:29:09
  It's, it's, it's clout and, and trust me, like, I mean, you
• 1:29:13
  know, speaking from my own experience as a content creator
• 1:29:18
  and having a platform and, and doing things like that is a huge
• 1:29:24
  trap for, and I see people getting caught up in it so
• 1:29:28
  often. I'm like, I would be miserable
• 1:29:31
  if I was doing it for that reason all the time.
• 1:29:34
  Like I would, I would, because that's all you're chasing is the
• 1:29:37
  next reaction, the next comment, the next algorithmic,
• 1:29:42
  analytical, you know, thing or whatever it's so disconnected
• 1:29:47
  from. Yeah, but, but isn't that, isn't
• 1:29:50
  that Loki's game? You know, in the way it's the
• 1:29:55
  teachings, right. So if you're unaware that you're
• 1:29:58
  continuously doing that in this cycle of not being present,
• 1:30:03
  that's it. It is a gift if you're able to
• 1:30:06
  stop and then to make the realization of where you are and
• 1:30:09
  what you've been doing because you catch yourself saying, wait
• 1:30:13
  a minute, why am I so anxious? You know, because I keep
• 1:30:17
  thinking about all these things that are even in front of me, or
• 1:30:21
  I'm so depressed. I haven't processed any of my
• 1:30:23
  emotions from the past like Nate was saying before.
• 1:30:27
  So if you get stuck in the cycle, is that really a negative
• 1:30:30
  thing? While it's not so much fun, but
• 1:30:33
  it's a teaching. Yeah, there's, there's an
• 1:30:37
  opportunity there. Yeah.
• 1:30:39
  They, it's, I have to embrace it.
• 1:30:41
  I have to, I have to sit with it.
• 1:30:42
  I have to be present with it. I can't avoid it.
• 1:30:43
  I can't push it aside or move on to the next thing.
• 1:30:48
  Yeah, that's, you know, I'm, I'm so glad that we got a chance to,
• 1:30:54
  to talk this week, both, both to both of you.
• 1:30:58
  I didn't know Nate was going to be here, but I'm glad that he
• 1:31:01
  was because he's brought so much to the conversation, you know,
• 1:31:05
  So Inga and Nate, thank you for being here.
• 1:31:06
  And there's, there's, there's one last thing that I would like
• 1:31:08
  to to ask. That's like a question, because,
• 1:31:13
  you know, this is your second year, you, you have a vision,
• 1:31:17
  you've realized the vision. You've gotten good results as a,
• 1:31:21
  you know, as, as a result of doing it right.
• 1:31:23
  You you've seen good response as a result and and it might
• 1:31:29
  inspire other people, right? This podcast might reach others
• 1:31:32
  in different parts of the country or different parts of
• 1:31:34
  the world and, and it and it might spark something within
• 1:31:37
  them to pursue a sort of cultural festival or an
• 1:31:42
  immersive experience in their area.
• 1:31:45
  So would do you have any like, I don't know, like maybe qualities
• 1:31:49
  or skills that you think are most important when it comes to
• 1:31:56
  starting something like what you've done?
• 1:31:59
  Yeah. Well, first, first of all, that
• 1:32:05
  foundation, because going even into the second year, I'm not
• 1:32:10
  looking to create bigger, larger this, this I'm.
• 1:32:15
  I'm looking for the foundation and that's the most important
• 1:32:19
  thing because if you're not able to get all of those pieces
• 1:32:25
  together, it's going to fall apart later.
• 1:32:27
  You can't grow unless that foundation is there.
• 1:32:30
  So it takes a lot of temperance, their temperance patience and
• 1:32:37
  and also having a plan because it, it's, it's easy to have lots
• 1:32:42
  of dreams. Not all dreams we want to
• 1:32:44
  necessarily create in reality or that they're easy.
• 1:32:47
  And like I've said before, a lot of people will come to an event
• 1:32:51
  and think, oh, I can do that. It looks easy and not
• 1:32:56
  necessarily. And I, it takes a lot of
• 1:32:59
  tenacity. And because you have, it's a lot
• 1:33:04
  of grinding in a way you have to keep on.
• 1:33:06
  It can't because you're going to hit walls in a lot of walls and
• 1:33:11
  you can't see them as walls. You have to just see them as
• 1:33:14
  things that we move around kind of like water.
• 1:33:17
  Water hits rock. It doesn't just stop.
• 1:33:19
  It goes through it, around it. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:33:23
  Creating a plan and and working with other people.
• 1:33:28
  You it's I think important to reach out to other people that
• 1:33:33
  are like minded and, you know, express.
• 1:33:37
  OK, here's the things that I'm looking to do and hopefully
• 1:33:40
  you're on the same page because if you're not on the same page,
• 1:33:44
  it's not going to go anywhere. You have to be on the same page,
• 1:33:47
  at least in the sense of the ethics or base of it about what
• 1:33:56
  is it that I really want. So for me, this is wasn't about,
• 1:34:01
  I guess, Oh, I want to create a Viking festival because Vikings
• 1:34:05
  are cool right now, or I want to do this because I I like doing a
• 1:34:10
  festival and a festival might make me a lot of money or
• 1:34:14
  something. And no, by the way, but no, it's
• 1:34:20
  what is the purpose? What is the purpose?
• 1:34:23
  It has to start with that. What's the goal short?
• 1:34:28
  Time, work. Work.
• 1:34:29
  You plan? Yeah.
• 1:34:32
  Wow. It's been really nice to talk to
• 1:34:35
  you today and so I'm glad that you had us on.
• 1:34:38
  I'm glad to have had you here. We did cover a lot and we're
• 1:34:42
  going to wrap things up because it's getting late and we, we,
• 1:34:44
  we, we've covered a good portion of everything I feel.
• 1:34:48
  So to kind of wrap things up, Inga and and Nate, you know
• 1:34:52
  you're in Mankato, MN. October 18th and 19th is the
• 1:34:56
  Great Northern Viking Festival, second annual Great Northern
• 1:35:01
  Viking Festival. Where can people find you?
• 1:35:05
  What can they? Where can they go to learn more
• 1:35:08
  about what it is that you're doing and see if it's something
• 1:35:11
  that they want to become a part of?
• 1:35:13
  Yeah, so great, Northern vikingfestival.com is the
• 1:35:16
  website. It's going to have pretty much
• 1:35:19
  all the information that people need and as well as the night in
• 1:35:22
  Valhalla, which is the second annual.
• 1:35:25
  All of that's on the same website.
• 1:35:27
  Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, YouTube.
• 1:35:32
  We have one video. Yeah, no, I think we have a
• 1:35:34
  couple. Oh, do we?
• 1:35:35
  Have we? Got a couple.
• 1:35:36
  We're not good at that part. We're just better at the making
• 1:35:39
  of it and the in the real experience in the moment.
• 1:35:42
  We have some experts coming in this year that we're really
• 1:35:44
  excited about. Herswick is coming in.
• 1:35:47
  They Doctor William Short and Herswick team wrote a book
• 1:35:52
  called Men of Terror and they are experts in Viking combat.
• 1:35:57
  So they'll be joining us and the Gleema king of Iceland will be
• 1:36:02
  there to explain Gleema to people, which a lot of people
• 1:36:07
  don't really know about national.
• 1:36:10
  And then Doctor Scott or Doctor Scott will be there talking
• 1:36:17
  about rune magic. Are you talking about Doctor
• 1:36:21
  Scott Shell? Yes.
• 1:36:22
  Yes. Awesome.
• 1:36:24
  Yeah, Yeah, that might be reason enough to to go as.
• 1:36:27
  Well as Scorgamore. Yeah.
• 1:36:30
  And Scorgamore. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:36:32
  Providing some great ambient Norse music.
• 1:36:35
  Folk music, yes. Yeah, so we're excited.
• 1:36:39
  You can check that out on the website and I'll see what we're
• 1:36:43
  up to and hopefully travel and come have a horn of meat around
• 1:36:48
  a campfire. Yeah, I would suggest the best
• 1:36:50
  way to check us out is to show up on the day of the festival
• 1:36:53
  and experience it for yourself, because it's guaranteed to be a
• 1:37:00
  better time if you're there. Oh yeah, absolutely.
• 1:37:04
  All of your stuff that you talked about, right?
• 1:37:06
  Your website, any of your social media platforms.
• 1:37:10
  For those of you that are listening to this episode, check
• 1:37:12
  the show notes of the podcast because all of that stuff is
• 1:37:15
  going to be linked. If you're watching this on
• 1:37:17
  Patreon, of course, just head down to the description area of
• 1:37:19
  the video because all of that stuff will be down there in the
• 1:37:23
  description area. So all of the Great Northern
• 1:37:25
  Viking festivals, contact information, website, socials,
• 1:37:30
  etcetera, etcetera, all of those things are going to be linked
• 1:37:33
  somewhere in this episode. They're in Mankato, MN.
• 1:37:38
  Maybe you heard of them, maybe you're just now hearing about
• 1:37:40
  them. You've got some time to think
• 1:37:43
  about heading up there and figuring this whole thing out
• 1:37:46
  and seeing what the buzz is about.
• 1:37:49
  It's quite a buzz if you haven't figured it out already.
• 1:37:51
  So I do appreciate Inga and, and and Nate for being here to talk
• 1:37:56
  about this and, and bringing us into your world a bit.
• 1:38:00
  And I wish you all the best of luck in this year's festivities
• 1:38:04
  and future endeavors that you have going on.
• 1:38:06
  Sounds like you got it really dialed in and it's been great
• 1:38:10
  talking to the both of you. So thank you for being here.
• 1:38:12
  Likewise, thank you so much. It's it's been great.
• 1:38:15
  Thank you. Any parting words that you would
• 1:38:17
  like to leave with our audience before we sign off for the
• 1:38:21
  night? I would just say, you know,
• 1:38:24
  enable to accomplish anything. You got to first and foremost be
• 1:38:27
  your own keeper. You need to know when you need
• 1:38:29
  to give yourself a break, when you need to maintain that
• 1:38:33
  enthusiasm and, you know, withstand that burnout.
• 1:38:39
  Don't give in to the temptations of that, you know, just run
• 1:38:43
  yourself until you're empty. Get to be your own keeper before
• 1:38:46
  you can do anything else for anyone else.
• 1:38:48
  And wow, that's not taught enough.
• 1:38:51
  And we need to remember. That yeah, man, take care of
• 1:38:54
  yourselves. I would echo that sentiment
• 1:38:58
  wholeheartedly. Man, take care of yourselves out
• 1:39:00
  here folks. Thank you.
• 1:39:02
  Take care. Anybody else or sorry Inga, did
• 1:39:04
  you have anything that you wanted to say before we sign
• 1:39:06
  off? No, I think I did pretty good
• 1:39:09
  job of explaining. It's been great.
• 1:39:12
  It's been so wonderful to have you here stick around for just a
• 1:39:14
  few minutes after we sign everybody off so I can kind of
• 1:39:16
  debrief with you a chance to really get something out of this
• 1:39:22
  from Inga and Nate with the Great Northern Viking Festival.
• 1:39:25
  Check them out at the links that are posted in the description or
• 1:39:28
  show notes of this episode. Show them support in any way
• 1:39:31
  that you can. And until we talk to each other
• 1:39:34
  again, thank you so much, by the way, for being here and
• 1:39:36
  supporting this episode. It it means a lot.
• 1:39:38
  So until we hear or talk to each other again, may the gods
• 1:39:42
  continue to notice you and may your ancestors smile upon you.
• 1:39:47
  We'll see you in the next one.