Large crowds have welcomed the Vikings back in York as the Jorvik Festival returns to its traditional place in the calendar.

The last time it was held during the February half-term was in 2020, just before Covid closed down the country.

The fearsome warriors and their families are showing their gentler side today and tomorrow.

Their Encampment in Parliament Street, complete with Viking ship was very popular with families and visitors of ages and they have also set out their stall in the Guildhall and elsewhere in the city.

 

The Viking ship in Parliament Street during the Jorvik Viking Festival. Pic by Megi Rychlikova

The Viking ship in Parliament Street during the Jorvik Viking Festival. Pic by Megi Rychlikova

 

Coppergate Centre was the venue for the traditional Best Beard competition with extravagant displays of face hair on display.

Afterwards, some of the competitors and others in Viking garb joined the long queue to see the Silverdale Hoard in the Jorvik Centre.

Tonight, the Merchant Adventurers Hall will be the venue for the first big set piece of the festival, the Jolabart Feast, which is already sold out as are several other events during the week-long festival.

"I'm amazed, there are so many people," said Una Windweaver. She is a nalbinder, a traditional Viking occupation, and was kept busy explaining how Vikings worked with wool and textiles.

Like all the Vikings taking part in the festival, she was wearing Viking costumes made and dyed in the same way as the original Vikings created their clothes more than 1,000 years ago.

From time to time the crowds in Parliament Street were deafened by the sound of a Viking horn as they chatted with different craftsmen and women in the Encampment.

Among the crafts are armour making, metalworking, wood working, jewellery and pottery, with constant groups of people round each.

"It's Living History" said Una.

 

Part of the Viking Encampment in Parliament Street during the Jorvik Viking Festival in York. Pic by Megi Rychlikova

Part of the Viking Encampment in Parliament Street during the Jorvik Viking Festival in York. Pic by Megi Rychlikova

 

Down at the Guildhall where her colleagues were helping children do some of the Viking crafts themselves, Anthony Eastwood and his daughter Beth were watching her daughter and his granddaughter Isabelle doing trollen wheel braiding. They had made their journey from Manchester specially for the festival, as they have done before.

They said it was fun and educational at the same time and Isabelle was loving it as she "absorbed" history without realising it.

The Berserker Boot sessions in the same venue were very popular as youngsters took the chance to learn Viking warrior skills.

In a quieter mood, Guildhall is also hosting skalds or story tellers, such as Bork the Viking.

The Silverdale Hoard was found in a lead container in Lancashire and dated to about 900AD, it is one of the largest Viking hoards ever found in the UK. It includes more than 200 pieces of silver rings, hacksilver and coins of Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Arabic origins and is on loan to the York museum from Lancashire County Museum Service.