Living History Team

The Living History Team is made up of people at every level from Group to High Council. The general chain of command is as follows:

• Group Village Thegn. This is the person who organises your own group LHE and is appointed by the group leader. The Village Thegn receives information from the Society in respect of village matters and should therefore be able to offer advice and provide answers to queries for many general matters. In the absence of a specific Village Thegn your group leader is deemed to fulfil the role. Your group LHE Thegn is responsible for training you and ensuring that you comply with the Society rules in respect of all LHE matters.

• Recognised Training Thegn (Village). Known as an RTT-V, this person should be the first point of contact for general enquiries that your group Thegn cannot answer, and is also the person with whom you should discuss and arrange village tests. Note that your Village Thegn might also be a RTT-V. Check the list of RTT-Vs to find them in your area.

• The Society High Thegn of Living History is responsible for setting, educating and policing standards within the village, and who will keep records of show attendance ; or where the Society LHE Head of Department (HoD) is not present then his appointed Deputy LHE Coordinator. If neither LHE HoD or Deputy are present then there should be a Show LHE Coordinator appointed from one of the RTT-V present.

• The Konungr and The High Council. The King should not be consulted unless the problem is with or concerns the Society LHE HoD or his appointed officers.

The above administration is responsible for running the entire LHE at all Society shows. Where this encompasses or interacts with another discipline such as Authenticity or Health and Safety then the relevant Society officer should be consulted as well as the LHE officers but generally all matters within the village are ultimately the responsibility of the LHE administration.

It must however be understood that everyone involved within the Vikings is a volunteer and are themselves involved with being a re-enactor. It is therefore quite possible that a particular person may on the day be unavailable or might be having a ‘day off’ from their organisational responsibilities. In such circumstances another person of the same rank or the next person up the chain should be consulted.

Whoever is in charge of the LHE at a show is called the Show LHE Coordinator. This person effectively acts as the Society LHE Coordinator for that show and is required to report upon the show to the Society LHE Coordinator as appropriate. The Show LHE Coordinator is responsible for :-

• Setting out the village.
• Checking that people and campsite are authentic by the show start time and throughout the show whilst the public are present.
• Checking that thoroughfares and the like are kept clear and safe.
• Checking that re-enactors do not undertake tasks in a manner which could be considered dangerous.
• Recording the LHE equipment present.

It should be noted that the roles of locating and advising upon stockpiles of wood, sand and turf for fires, where the water points are, and advising on general information regarding the show and venue, are not automatically the job of the Show LHE coordinator. This is the task of the Special Event Liaison Officer, being the person that undertook a site visit prior to The Vikings accepting the booking for the show. It is this person’s job to liaise with the client to find out where such facilities are located and to advise the LHE administration accordingly.