12th Century Re-enactment: Radnor/Powys (Wales) and the Heimaey Islands (Iceland)
Time period: 1194.
23 years after the death of Owain Gwynedd, Cymru is still ruled by Dafydd ap Owain, who killed his brother and Owain’s rightful successor, Hywel ap Owain. Dafydd supports the Norman Church, which has increased its control within Wales. Delwyn, a Welsh bard, fled long ago to the farm of Katla, a distant Icelandic relative and widow.
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Personas
Arts, Crafts, etc.
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Crwth
Delwyn plays the crwth. He was stripped of his harp, a very harsh punishment for Welsh bards, so he is always hoping to work out a way to get a new one. In the meantime, the crwth serves quite well.
I am very excited to have found a crwth seller in the US that charges only a few hundred dollars. Good crwths by expert Welsh crwth makers cost around $2,000–$5,000. I paid about $300 in October 2025, plus shipping. The lead time is 6 months, so I should receive it sometime in April or May. There may be an additional cost for when I bring the crwth to my local violin shop to have them check it over. I started playing the cello last year, and I have come to understand the value in having a luthier check it over and make adjustments if needed. I intend to buy a traditional crwth sometime in the future, but for now, I am lucky to have one in preparation at all.
I took up the cello last year and am using that to get familiar with string instruments in general.
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Tiny Archery
I started working with a small 10-inch recurve trick bow made of carbon fiber, because I live in an apartment and the county archery range is too far for me to easily travel to by myself. I have some wood staves that I am going to attempt to carve into mini-bows. I have also got a sitka willow with which to grow arrow shafts.