ANGORA- There were Vikings, but also faeries, pirates, mermaids, dragon hunters, mystics, and more at this year’s Festival of Skalds Viking Festival in Angora last weekend.
This is the second year that Micah and Jacinda Hodge, along with many family members, put on a local version of a Renaissance festival, but with their own Norse spin.
“Basically, it is like a big family that comes together to do these shows,” said Micah.
And even though Micah admits he does have a rather large extended family, family in this case involves all the volunteers and vendors and entertainers who come together to make the event possible.
“Our budget is on a shoestring,” he said. “We’ve mostly been funding this out of our own pockets.”
This year the festival received a grant from the Cook Timberwolves Snowmobile Club that helped pay for the materials to build a new fence and entrance gate area.
But it’s the volunteers, including the entertainers, who make the festival possible.
The volunteer crew starts with the Hodge family.
“This wouldn’t happen without the help from all of our family members,” said Micah. The family rebuilt the wooden wall and gate that serves as an entryway into the festival grounds and expanded the festival area. This summer’s drought added some wrinkles to their plans, Micah said, because they had trouble re-growing grass in the newly created areas, so they ended up using the same festival footprint as two years ago and set aside the new areas for vendor camping.
Their oldest children sold attendance tickets, and the youngest took turns selling bottled water and leeches, an essential medical tool a thousand years ago, in their own convenient little carrying cases.
The Hodges began their journey into the world of Renaissance fairs after Micah, an instrument repairman by trade, began making and selling wooden archery bows.
“People were coming back and asking for arrows and quivers,” he said, “and I’ve learned not to say no to a customer.”
“The next thing I knew I was making all sorts of products,” he said.
Jacinda also creates leather journal covers and other items they now sell in their booth.
When the couple went to their first Renaissance festival they were immediately hooked.
“It was such a blast,” he said. “It was like a big family…and everyone helped show us how to make our booth come alive.”
The family started travelling to shows, and their children also loved the experience. Now they are working to share that magic with families in their hometown area of Cook.
“Our kids are so happy after not being able to travel to shows last year,” he said.
When the family bought 10 acres of land in Angora, they started planning to host their own event, and in 2019 the first Festival of Skalds was held.
“It’s fun to make believe,” said Micah. “I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s fun to relive the old-timey things and help people feel like they have stepped back a thousand years.”
And that they did. Attendance this year topped 400, with many larger family groups stopping in. On Sunday afternoon, Micah shepherded everyone on the grounds and created an angry mob that marched around grumbling.
They are always looking at ways to get audiences involved in the re-creations, as well as increasing the types of entertainment available.
“This is definitely growing,” he said. “We want this to be a place to tell stories. We want to have more musicians, and poets, and storytellers.”
In old Norse culture, a skald was a poet and storyteller.
The Hodges have already been talking with their organizing committee on what improvements can be made for next summer’s festival, which will take place again in early August. The exact weekend will depend on when the St. Louis County Fair is held, so it doesn’t conflict with that event.
“We want people to know the old stories,” Jacinda said. This year’s performers told stories of mystics, dragon hunters, and faeries. There were Viking games, archery, and axe-throwing. There were rune readings (fortune telling), replica and wooden weapons for sale, leatherwork, handmade soaps, and even pet leeches for sale.
Many of the vendors travelled from out-of-state, though some came from the Range. Most were friends that the Hodges had met at other Ren fairs, including several generations of the local Hodge family who all seemed to get in on the fun.
RV Hodge, an “expert” on dragon hunting, was back for his second Skald Festival. The weekend also coincided with his 40th Cook High School reunion, which gave him a chance to catch up with dozens of old friends.
RV also has a love for all things ancient.
“I am the last living authority on dragons,” he said. R.V. started writing just for his family, but soon realized that many others enjoyed his stories. As his children grew up and married, he started writing children’s books.
Miriam and Katelyn Theisen came over to visit with RV and his wife Jennie, also a storyteller. They were fans of his writing and already owned several of his books. They had driven over from Hibbing with their parents, and were all in costume.
“We like to dress up and get into the spirit of the festival,” they said. The two girls had found some of their costume pieces online and created the rest themselves.
“I really love this festival,” said Sarah Riley, who was selling original artwork and doing rune readings. “Renaissance festival people are wonderful,” she said. And after spending most of the last year and a half working from home, selling her artwork and teaching art therapy classes online, she was happy to be out visiting with old and new friends.
The Hodge family grandmother, Darlene, a retired newspaper columnist from the Hibbing Tribune, was selling a collection of her columns, as well as historical fiction and fantasy she has written. Other Hodge family members were teaching archery and axe-throwing to festival-goers young and old.
The camaradarie of those drawn to these festivals was clear. Heidi Duerst, who was selling handmade soaps and lotions with her daughters Jessica and Julianna, said that the fellowship they have found is what draws them to these festivals. The family had travelled from the Milwaukee area and learned about the festival after meeting the Hodges at a festival in Wisconsin.
Jessica, dressed in pirate attire, noted that you can’t dress up like a pirate every day. Her sister Julianna liked the friendliness of the festival regulars.
“Everyone talks to everyone else,” she said.
One of the most memorable participants in the first festival, Mustafa Ali, was back.
“He puts on such a wonderful show,” said Micah. “He is so talented and humble. He is like a real travelling mystic. We are very blessed to have him come.”
Ali’s tent would have been right at home during the time of the Arabian Nights and was filled with dozens of instruments that he has gathered from his travels around the world. His storytelling and music-playing attracted the largest crowds at the festival. His business cards list his address as “Planet Earth,” and suggest contact is best made with him through telepathy.
Anyone interested in participating in the festival next year can contact the Hodges for information, at www.ironrangerarts.com. While performers do need to be in costume, Micah said there is no need for elaborate get-ups, and many inexpensive costume pieces can be found at local big box stores during the Halloween season.