Beowulf 2025: Building a Viking-Style Tent

In October 2024, the Upstate Renaissance Faire held Midgard at the Mill: A Viking Invasion.

This two-day festival clearly focused on Vikings, so I made a Viking-style tent, sold quests, wrote/acted in a Beowulf retelling, and danced with daggers.

My plan is to have a Viking tent build at Beowulf 2025 as a team competition. I'm not sure if it will be purely a timed thing, or if I'll provide a lot of ways to make one and let people figure it out.

This is my very inauthentic build (I use power tools for everything).

Materials: 2x4s

Three 1" Wooden dowels (3 feet long, I think)

Painter's canvas (12x25)

Step 1: Drill 1" holes into the end of the wood.

Step 2: Pound the dowels into the holes (wear proper shoes for this).

You can probably find a better way to do this. The dowels could also be thicker for more stability.

Step 3: Lace up the frame with LOTS of twine. You'll be putting canvas on this, so the more twine, the better.

Put the canvas on top. I used the tent for decoration and storage, so I didn't tie the canvas down too much.

I did cut some holes in the bottom of the canvas to tie it down to the support dowels in case of wind.

Below is my tiny Viking tent! I ended up using it for two days and then repurposing the wood for my raised beds. This is easy to transport and easy to put together if you have help.

The final product!