VIKING HIKING XIIII

WRITING & READING

Chances are that most people of the time were illiterate unless they were ecclesiastical. For ecclesiasticals, any books carried should probably be biblical or religious homilies.

Blank books could be useful, and they can be marked with pen and ink, with pieces of charcoal or pencils of lead. Those marked in lead will fade and must be copied in a more permanent manner within a few days.

Wax tablets are period and can be used to take notes and hash marks. They can be erased or marked over to be re-used, or the wax can be remelted if the surface becomes too choppy.

GAMES & ENTERTAINMENT

Do not die of boredom. Some sort of entertainment might be necessitated by circumstances.

Know period tales to relate or songs to be sung (note that tunes are unknown for the period, except for religious music, but poems probably used as songs were known.

Trekkers may be amused or entertained by games. Period games of various types can be brought or produced. Dice and sheeps’ knuckles are small and light, and tafl boards can be drawn on the ground or on rocks, with rocks or coins being used as gaming characters.

A BIG DECISION BEFORE YOUR TREK

The large decision is whither you plan to record your effort, either with still or moving pictures.

If your decision is affirmative, you have to decide whether you should be accompanied by a cameraman. He might dress in modern clothing, overtly using modern devices. Many people would find this to be a direct contradiction to what you are trying to do, but the decision must be yours, for we all live in a modern world no matter what our goals and actions are.

VARIATIONS

These are all legitimate possible variations on trekking, and each one could be a chapbook by itself. If any of these intrigue you, you can do the research and do a great impression!

• Horseback Riding
• Bringing a pet
• Pilgrimage
• Sailing
• Skating
• Skiing