Trelleborg fortress was said to have been the site of a mighty battle a thousand years and more ago, between Svein Forkbeard and his father Harald Bluetooth. Trelleborg was under Harald's protection, so what better way to pick a fight with the old man than to sack his town and pillage the townsfolk? Svein and his army then sat down to get dead rolling drunk (like all good norsemen!) and had their asses comprehensively wupped when Harald and his honchos turned up the next morning.
Svein, being the son of a royal, was merely exiled instead of being killed outright... he and his men sailed West and terrorised the land they found there... until Svein's descendant, Canute, was finally accepted as the English king.
So all that was amazing - as is the long house and the amazing fighting, the long house and other period buildings that have been reconstructed on the site. But better than all that was that, among the thousand or so re-enactors who turned up for this week-long battle, were Fathma, and Jeff and Katherine, and Josh and the boys, and Lissy, and me.
And cherry mead (the Dane's bless 'em, call it Vikingseblod).
A picture tells a thousand words, so I'll let this lot say the rest.
But if I can't get Ants back here next year, I'm coming alone if need be...
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