Why I'd have liked to have lived in the 11th Century (Unedited Version. Published version was forshortened).

By Mark Talbot, Silver Thegn, The Vikings.

Survival. An idea that as a modern man I am taking for granted thanks to a few pills, airbags, central heating and M&S. My life is going to be longer than those poor Vikings beheaded in front of a baying crowd, and longer –I hope- than all of those in that crowd. My survival will have much less to do with me than it would have done in the 11^th Century though.

As a member of the UK’s largest and oldest Dark Age re-enactment group (The Vikings), I have an ideal chance of comparing modern life with that of around the time of this grave’s use. I know for certain that my skill set is smaller and less vital to life than those of my Viking and Saxon counterparts.

The Dark Ages got the name due to a lack of information surviving into modern . Slowly but surely though we are piecing together a picture of a technically competent and very artistic period of time. The beauty of the Staffordshire Hoard found recently shows a rich and exquisite appreciation of art, whilst the fact that Vikings were raiding our Northern shores brandishing pattern-welded steel swords from ocean-going ships shows a level of technology that would not really be surpassed until the industrial revolution (in the late mediaeval period gunpowder comes in to revolutionise weaponry, but at the cost of some technologies like pattern welding and long bows). The production of food, clothing and buildings remained similar for hundreds of years.

The 11^th Century saw far more of the population responsible for their own personal survival than modern Britain. If I wanted my family to eat I would generally need to grow food,  but I would also know how to start a fire, what time of year to sow seed, how to store food for the bleak winter, and how to care for health of my livestock – and my family. Yes, there was a ruling class and traders – but that was a small proportion of the population. In our re-enactment society, I hold the rank of Silver Thegn – a favoured position within the King’s protection. I would hold land and be quite rich, but I still face a daily struggle to survive.

If you are getting tired of the nanny state and endless instruction of how to live your life safely and without hurting the feelings of people you have never met, the 11^th Century is for you. The only people you need to avoid upsetting are those who can fight better than you. The 51 people in the Viking grave had got that wrong. The penalty was not a tribunal or trial by media, it was a horrid ritual death.

The only people to tell you how to live are the priests. Regardless of whether you are a Christian Saxon or a pagan Viking, you have some basic rules and regulations – some of which are really very cruel in their penalty.

The nanny state wasn’t there though when you had to build your own house, corral your livestock, or move on because someone bigger and more fierce took a shining to your land.

In The Vikings we hold public events showing what the 11^th Century probably looked like – our involvement with experimental archaeology and faithful reproduction of surviving artefacts allow us a sneaky look back into the Dark Ages. We have craftsmen, warriors, and temporary encampments which have to make sense of archaeological items and what sparse written evidence survives.

I would like to live in the 11^th Century because I would know more about myself and my environment than I do in this well-educated, environmentally savvy 21^st Century we call home.