Me as Harp-Ell, playing the wirestrung old Gaelic harp in the St Clemens ruin in Visby, Sunday 10 August 2025.
(I promise I'll not post too much of my own artsing and music stuff on this blog, but I will do occasionally, because it's my blog, even though it's mainly a place for my obsessions like The Locked Tomb.)
Medieval Week on Gotland is my favourite week of the year. All the other 51, I long to go there. I don't know how many years I have gone, it's well over thirty, I don't know when my first one was.
Let me tell the story in brief, of how I got from there, to being a solo performer in the programme...
I began as an owl-eyed child growing up on Gotland, wanting to do more than the market on one or the other Sunday (it runs for eight days). I knew there was more, I tried my best to somehow join in more than as a modern visitor. I finally got to make and wear a simple white kirtle around age 12 or so, and go to a workshop in singing, on my own.
I took up longbow archery, and joined the official activities as part of Gutars Bågskyttar. But 14th C dress didn't interest me, at least not the sacky things popular in reenacting then. And so, in 2001, I believe, I bought my very first pearl, starting the journey to a fully fledged early 10th C Gotlandic women's outfit. I was decently happy with it around twelve years later. I still update it every year, with a pearl, a silver ring, a new fabric or suchlike.
In 2008 I learned about the wirestrung old Gaelic harp. My placeholder harp and I did a guest starring in a friend's performance.
2017 I received my first own wirestrung, and set about making a 14th C male outfit to go with it. I brought it to Medieval Week, finding new people to hang out with, and make music. Another way of "doing Medieval Week" had opened up (there are many). I got to know people I still meet up with for this purpose, every year.
Although, 2020 taught me there's no such thing as certainty of "every year", but I joined via watching the 8-day stream, as did so many others.
2021 was small and cautious, but it's when I took to the stage for the first time as a solo artist. I had over 20 in the audience, and I was so, so happy. The storyteller friend and I click stupid well on stage and by now I've accompanied him many times over the years.
Now, I have returning audience members, there's fanart (!!!), and I really enjoy spreading the knowledge and music of the old wirestrung Gaelic harp, especially since the original to the Queen Mary replica I am now caretaker of, is dendrochronologically dated to 1325~1350. Perfect, as Medieval Week is centred around the invasion of 1361.
And next year I'll be the Tristan to Saga Björling's (Starur) Isolde, with Berättaren as king Mark. *cue incoherent and incredulous babbling*
