I want to talk about tents for a moment.  Tents are a huge part of the SCA and they can add or detract from your experience at an event.  When we think about building a persona we often only think about things like garb, or skills but your camp can also be a part of the immersion.  I involve myself in the SCA as much for myself as others.  I like to be as Rus’ and feel as Rus’ as I can at events from when I wake up to when I go to bed. It is fun for me to do things a period as possible and while that is not part of everyone’s game, it’s an interesting thing to think about even if you only add an element or two or none at all.

Many people stay in mundane tents because they think a good quality period tent is prohibitively expensive.  That can be true, but it doesn’t have to be. There are several very affordable tents out there that are still good quality and we’ll talk about them.  Canvas tents are also good just from a comfort perspective and not a period one.  They breath better, stay cooler and tend to get more light.

There are so many tents that are appropriate for Rus’ personas that it would take forever to talk about them all so right now I just want to talk to you about the A-frame and the wedge tent.  Often these terms are used interchangeably and they are pretty similar but they are technically different tents.

A-frame tents are essentially a canvas tube with doors that stretch around a wooden frame.  These tents do not require stakes though for larger versions they are recommended. These are one of the most recognizably Viking/rus tents. Two A-frames were found in the Osberg ship burial. One was quite large and the other slightly smaller. More information can be found on them by the original excavators in the book The Viking Ships: Their ancestry and Evolution by A.W. Brogger and Haakon Shetelig. The cons for an A-frame tent is that they tend to be a bit more expensive than the wedge and require more lumber and space for transportation. The pro’s are that they have a floor built in, they are easily documentable and they are completely customizable as you can carve or burn designs into the wood.

 

Wedge tents are my number one recommendation to the newer player. They are immensely affordable, fold up small use very little lumber, can typically be set up by  1-2 people in less than 20 minutes, and  if you get two doors you can alternately also use them as a sun shade or kitchen tent by adding two poles and lifting one side. I cannot stress this enough, if you get a wedge tent, spring for the extra set of doors.  Not only can you open it up as a shade if you do that but on hot days you can open both doors and get a nice breeze running through your tent (also good for tents that regularly have sweaty armor in them). You can also make a wooden frame for them to make them look like an A-frame but Wedges are fairly period all on their own, though I’ve had trouble pinpointing any real data for them before the 1700’s.  The most I can currently find are statements like ‘They have widely been accepted to have been in use across cultures for centuries’. I’m certain I have seen wedge tents in Rus’ illuminations, but of course now, I can’t find them. When I do I’ll be sure to update.  Since it is widely accepted that they were prevalent across all cultures they are a good investment regardless of your culture or if you change it up.

Both tents have a surprising amount of room considering they have slanted walls. They both have ridgepoles that you can hang things like lanterns or clothing racks from and they both are more resistant to wind damage because of the slanted walls, which is nice if you live in a windblown area.

Now, where to get them. Any more you do have to be careful and do your research as there are a lot of tent makers out and about these days and sadly, the quality is not always there. I don’t know all the tent makers but I’m happy to offer up some places to start. All the sellers on this list are either ones I’ve dealt with directly or vendors that I often hear spoken of well.

As always, SCA marketplaces and other re-enactment pages are often a good place to get a deal on a tent but sometimes you do have to wait for the right tent to come along. A lot of times you’ll see used tents but sellers are usually pretty up front if there are issues and you can always just ask.  There are tent makers who sell on these pages though such as Gleb and Alina. I’ve heard pretty mixed reviews about them and they’ll be shipping from Kiev so just keep that in mind.

If waiting is not an option and you’re on a budget, I recommend www.fcsutler.com  You can get a two door 9x9x7 Wedge with sod flaps for $344. You can also purchase substantial stakes from them if you are so inclined. I’ve bought two tents from them and they have both been great.  The overlap for the doors is a little less with their tents which seams to be a major concern for a lot of folks. I’ve never noticed any issues with it.  You just need to make sure that you make your poles the right size and the doors should close like they are supposed to.  They are also very nice to deal with as we had an issue with an order (the tent came with one set of doors instead of the two) and they offered to not only fix it but cover the shipping of the mistake.  We ended up leaving it as is but still, they replied promptly and were helpful.

Tentsmiths offers a 10x11x8 A-frame for $740. They also offer an A-frame to the same dimensions of the large Osberg tent find 14x17x11 for $1105. You can find them at www.tentsmiths.com in the Viking tent section.  You can get a Wedge tent from them for as little as $275 but they offer many different sizes. All of which are pretty reasonable. Tentsmiths is nice because they have put a lot of research into their tents and they are more than happy to do a custom tents, say if you got super excited about a tent at a museum and want them to make it.

Panther Primitives are expensive but they are completely customizable. Colored canvas, paint, dividers, stakes, poles… You name it, they will do it for you.  They don’t really have a website but www.pantherprimitives.com will send you to a page where you can download their catalogue.  Depending on what you want, they can be one of the more expensive options but their quality is undeniable and they have a good guarantee on all their tents.  And really, they have recently come down in price. A basic wedge will run you $272 to $437 with no extras. So you’ll be spending more for that extra door.

The last site I want to talk to you about is www.larptents.com . They are comparatively new on the scene but they do have what they call their ‘Norsemen’ which is probably the most reasonably prices A-frame I’ve seen at $400 for a 10×10. You can also get all the lumber with it for an additional cost and they do allow customization. I’ve never ordered from them but I have heard good reviews from those who have.

There are other tents that are period for Rus’ and eventually we’ll get into them but I wanted to be sure and share these two with all of you as I really do think that everyone, no matter what stage of the game you are in can benefit from having one, particularly the wedge. Between myself and my husband we actually have had three wedges. One sadly was stolen, but one we were able to gift out and the other we use for storage, shade or we loan it out to newcommers who don’t have anything yet.  Sadly, our own tent is not very Rus’ or viking. Currently we either camp in a square marquee we bought on SCA Yardsale or for bigger events we use our large oval marquee or ‘circus tent’ as we like to call it. Soon, that will be remedied.