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The Jorvik Viking Festival is taking place in York this year from 14th February to the 22nd. The festival is always a good one, I’ve been, a chance to experience history in a way that you don’t often get to.

This year there is no shortage of good news for storytelling, books and authors. Event organisers Danielle Daglan has announced a range of great events.

Vincent Atherton kicks off the action with an event on Monday the 16th at 2pm at York Mansion House. Tickets cost £3 or £4 and pre-booking is strongly advised. Atherton is part of the festival to discuss his book “Viking Voices: The Sword of Amleth” and the effort needed to keep fact and fiction apart. The book follows Ragnald, a man who became both king of Dublin and York.

The following day, at the same location, Matthew Townend of the University of York, will be sharing fascinating insight into his new book “Viking Age Yorkshire”. This is the first ever full-length study of Yorkshire’s Vikings.

Children’s author Jeremy Strong is likely to sell out. Tickets are currently available from £7.50 per person (which includes a free child’s ticket to the Jorvik Viking Centre). Strong is at the merchant Adventurers’ Hall on Wednesday the 18th. Visitors will be able to meet the man and get books signed.

On Friday the 18th, bestselling historical novelist Giles Kristain will be talking about his book “God of Vengeance”, a prequel to his Raven trilogy, that follows Sigurd, son of Jarl Harald.

Each day there will be living storytelling taking place at 11am, 1pm and 3pm at the Vikings central camp on Parliament Street. Visitors will be able to see a Viking longship ready for war, learn about Norse weapons and warfare as well as discovering some secrets to Viking health and healing.

This year the Jorvik Viking Festival has the conclusion of the third Bloodaxe Book Challenge. The Festival organisers, York Archaelogical Trust, run this with Explore York Library Service, with the aim of getting children to read over the winter holidays. More information about the Bloodaxe Book Challenge can be found online.

In Pure Spirit

Have you ever been to the Jorvik Viking Festival? Tell us what it was like in the comments below. If not; is this the sort of history-meets-entertainment-meets-education festival you would go to if you could?

A photograph taken near York Minster, in Precentor’s Court, seems to show a ghostly swirl of mist. Some people say they can see a face in the shapes. The photograph was taken by a man walking is dog in November 2010. Interestingly, the dog seemed unhappy at the time.

Paul Simpson, who took the picture, told press;

“The first photograph I took was very dark so I went to take another. The dog, which is normally very placid, started going mad, barking and growling. We both wondered what was wrong with the dog, but we didn’t think anymore about it.

“It was a week or so later when I looked at the photographs and saw the ghostly figures. One has a distinct face.”

Simpson also told press that before the photograph he was sceptical about ghosts.

The meaning of the the word “Precentor” isinteresting too. A precentor is a person who assists with worship and they operate in a number of religions. The latin meaning of the name, is probably taken from ‘cantor’ as “the one who sings before”.

The Jorvik Viking Festival 2015 set to be a good one for authors

York’s Precentor’s Court photograph shows ghostly face

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