TORONTO A couple of medieval aficionados have kept busy during the COVID-19 restrictions in Manitoba by building a replica Viking hut in their backyard. Pedro Bedard and Wendy Speary of St. Francois Xavier, Man., about 31 kilometres west of Winnipeg, began building the hut in May and finished it in September. It’s made using mud, logs, sticks, and dried grass for the roof. Inside, the hut is complete with a bed, table, stool and a shelf for dishes. “We’ve always been interested in historical re-enactments,” Bedard told CTV News Channel. “We usually participate in a festival in Gimli called Islendingadagurinn and it was cancelled this year, so we thought: ‘We need to do something’ and we always wanted to build a medieval-type structure.”
Viking hut offers present-day connection to the past By: Cody Sellar
Wendy Speary picked handfuls of prairie tall grass and set to work thatching a roof for the Viking hut that would draw international attention.
Wendy Speary picked handfuls of prairie tall grass and set to work thatching a roof for the Viking hut that would draw international attention. A friend of ours who lives in Germany, she’s seen it, said Speary’s partner, Pedro Bedard. Another friend in the United Kingdom told Bedard he’d read it in an online paper there, too.
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Wendy Speary and Pedro Bedard enjoy the Viking hut they built in their backyard in St. Francois Xavier.