About us
Claudia Hoessler – from Nurnberg/Germany
Where does my interest in history and knowledge about the Vikings come from?
People are always curious to find out. Well, it started in 2006 when I was visiting a medieval market. I was very impressed by the colourful hustle and bustle there. But because I didn’t want to be a medieval lady, I immediately shifted my focus to the Migration Period (400-700 AD). With the help of social media, contact was quickly established in all directions. And off we went into a new era called “Living History”.
Reading, learning, trying out things, exchanging knowledge. I immersed myself in a new world and taught myself a lot, such as sewing, needle binding, building shields, setting up camp, everything that made the subject more perceptible to me. New acquaintances were found, new friends were made, and new places visited. My world became larger, and suddenly I went to England, France, and Denmark. My focus in life has changed completely ever since.
In 2015, I even started thinking about emigrating to Norway, which I finally did in December 2016. And that also shifted my perspective on the Viking Age History (750-1050 AD). Why? Here in Eidfjord, at the end of the Hardangerfjord, we find literally hidden history below our feet. The Hæreid plateau is the second largest Iron Age Burial Site in Norway, and the biggest in Western Norway. The lack of published information about this historically important place and its role as a power center during the Iron Age was the reason I and my husband started in 2020 to build the exhibition. Not a normal exhibition, but an exhibition where you can use all your senses: feel, see, smell and taste history!
We show a documentary and for the input, we work together with the Cultural History Museum in Bergen and are in contact with archaeologists who were in charge of the excavations in the area (2015-2022). There are constantly new findings from the Viking Age throughout the World, and we like to share this knowledge with our guests as well.
To implement our business idea – In the footsteps of the Vikings – we got practical support from many other different angels. Learning the language, a Norwegian and English course was the first step, followed by a business start-up course and a storytelling course by well-known Norwegian actors. Those are just some of the building blocks we used to achieve our goal: taking visitors back in time.
Mark van de Buerie – from Ghent/Belgium
The Viking Age has been fascinating me since 2005. I was travelling in Western Norway when I by coincidence passed Gudvangen, a small village at the end of the Nærøyfjord, where a Viking market was organised. As a Belgian tourist, I was very impressed by the enthusiastic international atmosphere and the knowledge those people had. This visit was the reason I started in 2006 with Viking reenactment. I started to learn and read a lot about the Viking Age. Each summer, I joined the Viking market in Gudvangen and lived a month as the Vikings did at the time. Living History became a part of my daily life ever since.
As I moved down to Eidfjord in 2015 – a childhood dream that finally became reality – I still had no idea about the rich history of this small village and its important role during the Iron Age. Excavations in 2015 by Anne Drageset on the Hæreid plateau – the biggest Burial Site from the Iron Age in Western Norway – as well as the excavations in Lægreid in 2016-2017 by Søren Dinnhoff, convinced me and my wife Claudia about the significant history of Eidfjord as a gateway to the Hardangervidda plateau.
The excavations in Eidfjord revealed 5 spectacular longhouses, the oldest in Norway dating back to 2950 BC and the biggest in Western Norway with a size of 50m by 8m. At the same time, we were exploring the Hæreid Burial Site, which has about 400 mounds – the biggest Iron Burial Site in Western Norway – with spectacular finds from the Viking Age. Our curiosity was growing by the day, and we took contact with the Bergen University to find out even more about the local history of Hardanger. The Viking boat grave in Røldal, the Leidang boathouse in Kinsarvik as part of the defence system and the richest find from the Viking Age in Hardanger, the excavation in Granvin, draw our attention. But there was more. We also found out about a small defence system in Øvre Eidfjord – build during the Immigration Period (450 AD) – which was used until the late Viking Age – as well as two Viking Burial Sites on the “Varberghaugen” in Øvre Eidfjord and in the “Måbødalen”-valley.
My wife Claudia and myself got more and more fascinated, and we decided to join the “Eidfjord History” group, so that we could study even more the local rich history. The Historical Museum in Bergen and the different archaeologists we had contact with, convinced us to build our exhibition in 2020 and start with our project “In the footsteps of the Vikings” taking the people back in time.