Adrienne Dandy is a technical writer who delights in the company of her family, friends, library, and fabric collection. In the SCA, where she's (currently) known as Katharine Townsend, she delights in her friends, good conversation, and the opportunity to justify her Tudor costuming habit.
Classes: Bodice fitting 101
               Take this bodice and...

Andrea Collis is an engineer currently working in a small accounting office (long story). I like to dabble in the arts and crafts (snoods, socks, dresses of all styles but mostly 15th century, veil beading, oil painting, necklace making, embroidery), dancing and music, but as such I haven't become an expert in anything. Oh, and I like things that are shiny or soft.
Class: How to make beaded snoods with nalbinding

Brendan Smith is a dad who spends his days working to support his family, when he isn't researching medieval Japanese culture. In the SCA, Yoshikuri Nagayori is a samurai from the Mutsu province in northern Japan circa 1580. At that time the province was under the control of the daimyo Date Masamune, a Tokugawa supporter.
Class: Who were the Samurai?

Caitrin Ollerhead DeSantis is known in the SCA as Countess, Viscountess, Mistress, Tangwystl d'Courci. Caitrin and her husband Alfredo live on a 20 acre farm where they raise Shetland sheep, gaited horses and peacocks - all watched over by an Abruzzi  sheepdog named Milton.
Classes: Bodice fitting 101
               Portraits and Clothing Design

Christine Olliffe is the mother of two wonderful little girls born in 1997 and 2002. Recently she has returned to the work force as the ticket processing assistant at the Stratford Festival Theater. She loves to garden, does many fiber arts, and recently competed in Sock Wars, a knitting competion. Lady Dwynwen was born and raised in Wales, but found that life there was not all she wished. She left home at a young age and traveled to the fair lands of Ealdormere where she made her home in the Barony of Septentria where she helped to found the incipient Canton of Greenhithe. While traveling in the shires of Ealdormere, far from her home she met Lord Angus MacDonnell, whom she did marry. They moved from Septentria to the lands of the Barony of Ramshaven.
Class: Nalbinding

Danute Dorion works the Reception desk at Waterloo Housing. In the SCA, Alyce de Sheppey is a noble woman of the Middle Ages. She was born on the Isle de Sheppey and has travelled far and wide exploring her Norman roots and tasting the pleasures of other places. Currently she is serving as the Baroness of Ramshaven.
Class: Poetry Open Forum

Darrell Markewitz has worked as a consultant to major museums in the field of Living History. His major achievents include the creation of the 'Norse Encampment' for Parks Canada and the 'World of the Norse' for the Cranbrook Institute of Science. Darrell has worked on the Smithsonian's 'Vikings - North Atlantic Saga' and the Newfoundland Museum's 'Full Circle - First Contact'. He is a co-founder of the Dark Ages Re-creation Company. A professional blacksmith, he operates the Wareham Forge. In DARC, Darrell is known as Ketill Einarsson. Ketill, like many young Norse men from Norway, went 'a viking', and was involved in the battles in Ireland. He was fascinated with the work of the weapons smiths, and learned how to work iron, spending more and more time in the forge - and less and less on the battlefield. In his middle age, he decided to settle near Dubhlin with his wife Bera, spending his hard earned silver on a small farmstead. He now balances his work as a blacksmith with seasonal trading voyages to Jorvick and Birka.
Classes: So you want to buy a Sword...
               Let's talk about Vikings

David Learmonth is a chemical engineer who somehow found his way into dancing in the SCA. Thus, Darius the Dancer was born. I have continued to study and to teach dance in the SCA for approximately 10 years, and consider myself at an intermediate level in my research. My main goal has always been to bring dance knowledge to the masses, and to introduce it in such a way as to be fun and easy to follow for all who are willing to give it a try.
Class: Renaissance Era Dance

Dr. Dean Knight completed his undergraduate training at Beloit College, Wisconsin earning his BA in anthropology with specialization in archaeology. His field work was in southern and northern Wisconsin involving survey, testing and excavation of stratified Paleolndian, Archaic and Woodland sites. Dr. Knight's graduate training was at the University of Colorado in anthropology with specialization in archaeology and at the University of Toronto. MA, PhD in anthropology with specialization in Great Lakes archaeology. Doctoral thesis dealing with the Archaic of the Canadian Shield in the area surrounding Cobalt, Ontario. His current research interestsinvolve the excavation and analysis of the Ball Site, a early 17th century Huron village, near Orillia, Ontario. Work, which began in 1975, has focus on the settlement patterns of this 3.6 hectare village, The settlement contained 71 houses, a large number of middens, thousands of artifacts and a palisade surrounding it. Excavations on this site ended in 1999 after 25 field seasons. His teaching specialties include North American Archaeology, Old World Prehistory, Human Osteology, Introductory Anthropology, Introductory Archaeology, Field and Laboratory Methods
Class: Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones

Ealdormere War College - contact Brendan Smith (Yoshikuri Nagayori) at ticat1@hotmail.com for all Ealdormere War College classes.
Classes: Ealdormere War College: Small group Strategy & Tactics
               Ealdormere War College: In Armour Session

Elise Kingston is a writer and actress living in Waterloo, Ontario. She has travelled extensively and studied at The American University in Washington, DC and the Czech National Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In the SCA, Wencenedl of Rokesburg is a 12th Century Scotswoman from the Royal City of Rokesburg in the Borders during the reign of David I. Her father felt it was important she know how to read, so she was tutored by monks from Kelso Abbey just across the Teviot River.
Classes: Scholasticism & the Rise of Science in the Middle Ages
               The First Abolition of Slavery: Queen Bathildis & the Manumission Movement
               Romanesque Garment Construction - Practicum

Gary Snyder is a Kitchener grandfather working for Ontario Hydro and has been with the SCA for many many years. Garwig der Waffenschmidt was born in Sussex, England just before the turn of the 10th century.   Orphaned in his fourth year he was apprenticed to a local smith from whom he learned the basics of metalworking.   Caught up by a call to battle from the local thegn, he perforce learned the art of repair and manufacture of armour - specifically chainmail.   For his skill he soon acquired the title of "der waffenschmidt" - weapon or armour smith.
Class: Building a Viking Ship Model

Gary Van Lingen is very much in a liminal state at the present. Much like a chubby caterpillar encased in a crusty, isolating pupal stage chrysalis, he will shortly eclose forth in a grand display of his true capacity. (Then again, to fulfill this analogy, he had better chose a specie that doesn't die within 24 hours of emergence unless, of course, the whole time is spent mating.) He has two B.A.s, a M.Sc., and half a PhD tucked away between his ears and is presently looking for a job. He does despair of ending up with a job that will inevitably not employ anything learned in his degrees and so has come to realize his charming manner and good looks may afford him better employment chances.
Classes: Black Death: A Tale of Two Interpretations
               Between a Swamp and a Wet Place: The Frisians 700 BC to 900 AD
               When Humans Met the Sea: The Historical Geography of Land Reclamation in the Netherlands, 300 BC to 1700 AD

Grace Carr is a stay-at-home mother of one. In the SCA, Satake Matsumi is a 16th century lady of the warrior class in Japan.
Class: Introduction to the SCA

J. Caz Bentley is a teacher, carpenter, and artist who works in a variety of media. In the SCA, Master Alasdair of Raasay is a retired mercenary with the time to indulge in practicing the fine arts practiced in areas through which he has traveled.
Classes: Stained Glass
               SilverPoint Drawing

Jean Ross is a registered nurse practicing in Halton. She is happily married and has a lovely dog named Luke. In the SCA, Aislinne of Alainmor is a 10th century saxon/viking lady. She specializes in glass bead making, textiles arts, and cooking.
Class: Introduction to Glass Bead Making

Jerry Penner is a 38 year-old self-employed electronic design engineer specializing in the development of custom products for resale by local companies. He knits and sells chain mail in several local shops and via his website at http://www.chainmailguy.com . In his spare time he plays with things that go BANG and THUD. Gierhaerdt of Hildeschiem is a local chain-mail knitter. Weekdays he can be found in his shop building or repairing link armour for the pagans, and sabotaging armour for the Christians. Weekends he can be found drinking his profits in nearby Einbeck, where Bock beer will be invented 100 years after he dies. His hobbies include middle-eastern drumming, reading Germanic runes, and playing with things that go BANG and THUD.
Classes: Chainmail for Beginners
               Chainmail - Second Steps

Jim Arnold is the founder of Folklore Music. Jim is a musician, instructor, author, and a member of the Ontario Music Educators' Association. He can be contacted through his website Folklore Music.
Class: Musical Instruments in Medieval Times

Jo Duke started medieval recreation about 16 years ago, and unleashed a passion for creating historical garments within months. She started tailouring and fitting men's hose when she got her husband to join her at a Kentwell Tudor Recreation in 1994, and has since taught numerous classes on Medieval and Renaisance hose in London (England), Pennsylvania and Ontario. The interest in Viking clothing was initiated by the DARC trip to L'anse aux meadows in 2000, and included exhibition of her creations at the Woodstock Museum in 2002 for the Reflections of the Conquest exhibition mounted by An Droichead. Her passion for the textile arts includes weaving, dyeing, papermaking and recycling. Jorunn joined the crew of the DARC longship for their voyage to Norstead many summers hence. She took her loom on board, but the distractions were great and the seas rough, so now she sews and cooks much more than she weaves.
Class: Greenland and London Hose

Karen Peterson is a library clerk at the University of Waterloo, deeply bored by her day job except for the opportunities it provides to further her research efforts. Karen has demonstrated various parts of the Viking Era textile process at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Haffenrefer Museum at Brown University in Rhode Island and at the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Detroit, Michigan. In DARC, Karen is known as Kaðlín Ragnarsambatt. Kaðlín was a small town girl living on the shores of Scotland in the mid 800s when Vikings raided the nearby Church at Iona and stole some of the women folk away. She was promptly renamed by her Viking captor, Ragnarr, who says he can't pronounce "that pig grunt language the Scots use" anyway. She now lives with Ragnarr in Iceland as his ambatt (personal body slave).
Class: Warp-Weighted Loom - Discussion

Karina Bates is a part time farmer; a member of Hurly Burly (an Early Music Choir & Ensemble) and a researcher of Roma history, amongst other things. In the SCA, Keja is a 15th century Romany travelling the Baltics with her extended family, under the watchful eye of her Patron, Lord Vladimir Blahuciak.
Class: Brief History of Pottery

Kathy Page is an at-home mother of one very active and curious little girl who enjoys helping Mommy with her "experiments". Most of those experiments tend to include textile of some sort, however Kathy's interests wander far and wide. For once, however, she has settled upon one topic, Italian underwear in the sixteenth century, and has earned the title of Independent Scholar. One that, as vague as it is, she is quite proud of. "The Underwear Lady" as many have referred to her as, makes her first presentation at The International Congress for Medieval Studies this May. In the SCA, Caitlín inghean Tomáis uí Duibhir is a widowed Tipperary, Ireland cattle woman circa 1580. Just because Kathy has a compulsion to never do anything simply, she has a second persona - Signorina Salvatrice D'este, Honorate Cortigiane e Veleno, a noble courtesan born and raised in Venice, currently residing in Verona in the period surrounding 1575.
Class: "What Goes on Under a Sicilian Woman's Dress?" The Sixteenth Century "Trousseau of a Sicilian Bride" Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, Costume Institute

Mark Patchett is a software developer and father. Count Edward the Red is a Norman Knight who fought at the battle of Hastings, and later settled down in northern England where he married a Saxon lady. (How their son ended up as a Viking is still a mystery.) Edward enjoys fighting, with rattan polearms and swords and rapiers in the SCA and with rebated steel swords and spears with Regia Anglorum. He also enjoys building things - armouring, woodworking, leatherworking, and even setting things on fire, and whatever else he can fit into his dwindling spare time.
Class: Flint and Steel Fire Striking

Melanie Burrett likes to play the harp, fiddle around with various crafts and read. Muirenn does pretty much the same thing.
Class: Dance Music

Melanie Robbins is an Accounting Clerk who lives in Kitchener, Ontario. Lady Gwendyon Casgudcath is a young Lady from Wales whose interests lie in fighting and learning...anything.
Class: Introduction to Book Binding

Neil Peterson is a certified Project Management Professional working in the software development industry. In his spare time he is a student of Archaeology at Wilfrid Laurier University and works with museums, libraries, and various groups to promote an appreciation of Norse History, and the application of Project Management to historical projects such as this conference. He is a charter member of the PMI-CTT chapter, a member of the Ontario Museum Association, a 20 year vetran of the SCA, and the co-founder of the Dark Ages Re-creation Company where he is known as Ragnarr Thorbergson. Ragnarr is a tired old ex-viking who now makes his living as a trader. Never one to give up a fun hobby he is still making trouble wherever possible.
Class: Viking Era Pastimes

Nina Bates is a mother of 4, with 2 left at home. She can be found spinning, weaving, dyeing, playing in the garden, sewing and cooking amongst other things. In the SCA, Odette de Saint Remy lives in the very early 16th century in France. The darker side prevails sometimes when Odette goes a "viking" for comfortable clothes, inexplicably and overwhelmingly interesting research projects and the hunt for a suitable name and fitting second persona.
Class: Carders and Combs and Fibres, Oh My!

Paddy Gillard-Bentley is a playwright and hair-stylist (who does blood-letting too). Thaninieyaieres is an 11th century herbalist. Having finished her apprenticeship with Mistress Tamarra Amalthea of Romany, she has set up her own apothecary called Wyte Wythy Moon. She has two apprentices and not enough time.
Classes: Herbal Workshop
               Plants and Stones

Richard Schweitzer is a teacher, artist and musician currently busy working on his new "farm" north-west of Orangeville. In the SCA, Martin Bildner is a pewter-caster, instrument maker and musician from the town of Wismar in the early 1300s. In DARC, Rig is a Skald of no fixed address (his wife has a terrible time keeping track of him).
Classes: Norse Sagas for Adults
               Introductory Pewter
               Dances from Tudor England
               Writing Period Music

Rob Schweitzer is a chemistry teacher in Toronto. In the SCA, Master Rufus of Stamford is a Saxon born in 1098 in the village of Stamford, with a great many hobbies and interests to keep himself busy.  Some of these hobbies include tablet weaving, archery, leather work (primarily bottles), choral singing, and playing the harp.
Classes: Tablet Weaving for Beginners
               Tablet Weaving - Advanced

Dr. Ron Ross is an archaeologist and historian of the Long Middle Ages (A.D. 300-1650)teaching in Archaeology and in Medieval Studies at Wilfird Laurier University. His current research focusses on Medieval industrialization, and the early cementation steel industry in Shropshire. He is also interested in swords, boats, demography, intentionality, ethical frameworks and archaeological method and theory.
Class: How do I find out about.... ?

Sarah Hughes is known as Gaerwen of Trafford in the Society of Creative Anachronism where she portrays a woman of Welsh descent living in the time of the Dane Law. In REGIA and DARC, Sarah is known as Gudrun and portrays a Norse woman living in 10th C York. Sarah's love of fibre arts has her pursuing spinning, natural dyeing, cardweaving, inkle weaving, needlework and embroidery though she has yet to get the knack of naalbinding. Sarah is currently working as an Executive Assistant and provides computer consulting in her spare time.
Class: Carders and Combs and Fibres, Oh My!

Sarah Scroggie is the technical director at Theatre Orangeville and as a result is a very busy young lady. Emma Dansmeyla is primarily a dance instructor in the SCA, but in DARC, Aesa has more projects than she can keep track of (which is what Rig is for).
Class: Dances from Tudor England

Stephanie E. Nyhof-Demoor has an MA in Education from Goddard College. She currently resides in Toronto with her husband, infant daughter, and 5 cats. She is a member of the canton of Eoforwic. Gwerydd verch Llwelyn is a 16th century Welsh woman from Gwynedd currently running a farm in the Welsh Marches.
Class: Material Culture in the Late Period Home

Susan Carroll-Clark is a project manager and business analyst, and is the former editor of the SCA's quarterly magazine, Tournaments Illuminated . She also has a PhD in medieval history from the University of Toronto and works as an independent scholar of medieval popular religion and clothing. She lives in Ajax with her husband and three cats. In the SCA, Nicolaa de Bracton is a 13th century Englishwoman, the daughter of a minor knight in the service of Simon de Montfort. Her husband is a wealthy cloth merchant, and they have holdings in Leicester and on the newly-fashionable shops on London Bridge and are embroiled in City politics.
Class: Introduction to Latin

Tina Gaston works when she must but prefers to spend her days stitching at one thing or another. In the SCA, Tina is known as Lady Cairean ingen Fiachnae who was born into a matiarcal irish family in the late 1200's, she was raised there until her mothers death at age 8 when her father returned to his homeland of England. There Cairean was taught to manage a household and married at 17 to an aging lord. At 21, upon her husband's death she returned to Ireland to her mother's people where one of her husband's servants introduced her to his son. They fell in love, and had 2 beautiful little girls. Lady Cairean and her family then, a little over 3 year ago, moved to the Kingdom of Ealdormere.
Class: Lucet Braiding

V.M. Roberts is an illustrator/designer and visual artist, usually found making pictographic versions of complex texts for people who have difficultly with language. My recent work includes "Life is Larger than Aphasia" a self-help book for people who have recently aquired a language disability, and the "A-FROM" a quality of life measure for people living with language disabilities. Magnunnr Hringsdottir is a sheepfarmer and wool trader from Hvammr in West Iceland.
Classes: Old Norse Poetry Basics - Advanced
               Veistu hvé fáa skal? Viking age colour aesthetics - Intermediate

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