Anatolijs Venovecs is a third year prehistoric archaeology student at Wilfrid Laurier University. His major interests are fieldwork methodologies, archaeological theory, environmental archaeology, and artistic representations of native peoples by the early European artists.
Class: Vikings and the Inuit in Greenland

Brendan Smith is an independent contractor, specializing in finishing basements and minor home renovations. He is an avid football and hockey fan, as well as a military enthusiast. 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.
Classes: Who were the Samurai?
               Samurai Cooking
               Warrior Monks and Ninja of Japan
               Stories and Poetry of Medieval Japan
               History of Japan
               European Influence on Japan

Bridget Jankowski is a 6th year Ph. D. student in sociolinguistics, working on language variation and grammatical change in 20th century English. She also occasionally teaches undergrads about Language. In her spare time, she plays french horn and recorder. She also spins, knits, weaves and has begun experimenting with dyeing. She lives in Toronto with two cats and her ever-patient husband, who has learned to stop asking "what's in that strange-smelling jar in the backyard." In the SCA, Brigid grew up in the war-torn Debatable Lands where a great conflict erupted in her neighbour's backyard every year. It scared the sheep. Seeking a quieter life, she moved herself and her sheep north, and found a good husband. She occasionally sings and plays music for dancers, and she pines for the day she can afford a sackbutt. But normally, she just works with wool. A lot. She visits the Debatable Lands regularly, to see her family and for the shopping. War is good for shopping.
Classes: Intro to Fibre Prep for Spinning
               Intro to Drop Spinning

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.
Class: Truth about the Tudors

Dr. Chris Nighman is an Associate Professor of Medieval & Renaissance History and the Co-ordinator of the Medieval Studies Program at Wilfrid Laurier University. He received his B.A. in History and Medieval Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara)and his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Toronto. His research area is late medieval and early renaissance intellectual and ecclesiastical history, focusing on Latin florilegia (collections of quotations), early Italian humanism, conciliar sermons (especially eulogies) and ecclesiastical politics, rhetorical theory and practice as it relates to the construction of self and delimitation of audience, pastoral reform in response to heresy, scribal agency in manuscript traditions and editorial agency in early print traditions.
Class: Keynote Lecture: Statim inuenire: the Manipulus florum in the 14th and 21st centuries

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: Exploring the Viking Age in Denmark
               Towards an Icelandic Smelt
               To build a Tent - Camping in the Viking Age

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 12 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.
Classes: European Dance - Mimed Bransles
               European Dance - English Country Dances

David Stamper is a stay at home dad, military historian, war gamer and miniature figure painter. He lives in Guelph along with his wife and two children. Known in the SCA as Albrecht Stampfer, David's persona is a German mercenary soldier whose knowledge of military engineering and tactics has found employ in places as far away as Persia and England. He is also a tolerably skilled swordsman who has studied under masters from both Italy and Germany, and now teaches the Arte of Defence in the city of London.
Classes: Warfare in the Renaissance Part 1
               Warfare in the Renaissance Part 2

Debbe Kerkoff is currently a 4th year student of Wilfrid Laurier University. She is working towards a combined Honours degree in English and Medieval Studies, and is involved in the Medieval Student Society on campus.
Class: Three Early Medieval Celebrities

Eve Harris is an executive assistant and writer. Some published works include "75 Years of Greyhound Canada" (2004) and "Lo Sposalizio del Mare" (2003: Compleat Anachronist Issue 123). She lives in Guelph with her husband and children. Known in the SCA as Asa Gormsdottir, Eve's love for pattern, colour and fine detail has drawn her into the research of textiles, illumination, cookery and several other things. Don't get her started because she won't shut up.
Class: An Introduction to Lindisfarne Illumination

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 - A Boat for the Burning

Helen Marshall is a second year Ph. D student at Toronto's Centre for Medieval Studies where she focuses on manuscript culture and literature in fourteenth-century England. She has traveled to a number of libraries and cathedrals in England and Scotland in order to study these books. In the SCA, Prydydd Gwerydd verch Rhys is a 13th century Welshwoman and poet.
Class: Reading Medieval Books - what is that word?

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: Apprenticeship in the Artistic Professions
               Silver Point Drawing

Jackie Wyatt is a Prospect Researcher at the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario. Her interests range widely, although she tends to concentrate on such topics as embroidery, sugarpaste/subtleties, Irish clothing, beading, and the compulsive researching of any topic that's mentioned to her. In the SCA, Medb ingen Dungaile was an 11th century merchant's daughter living in Dublin, however she discovered the 16th century a few years ago and hasn't looked back since.
Class: Beginner Embroidery

Jean Ross is a RN currently away from her work. She is interested in many things Medieval especially those of the North. She does so many things within the SCA that it is hard to pin down but lately she is most interested in Beads and Spinning. But mostly beads. She is known in the SCA as THL Aislinne of Alainmor and has played since 1977. She lives with her very tolerant husband, Martin and their very anxious Lab-mixed named Bella.
Class: Treasure Necklaces

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

Jo Duke started medieval recreation about 17 years ago, and unleashed a passion for creating historical garments, dyeing using natural and traditional dyes and all kinds of weaving. Known variously as Jorunn, Jhone of Wodecott, or Joan Woodcote, a weaver or tailleur, tradeswoman, goodwife and mother, she loves to relax with a beer and a game of chance and strategy.
Class: Simple Medieval Dice and Table Games

Karen Peterson is a library clerk at the University of Waterloo who was recently promoted in her deeply boring day job although she enjoys 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: Viking North Atlantic Sites & Museums

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.
Classes: Pottery in Europe
               History of Andalusia

Ken Cook is a Nuclear operator at Pickering with a penchant for smelting iron, forging iron, working iron and ...well, you get the idea. He was introduced to iron smelting by Darrell Markewitz and taken part in about 20 smelts. Cynred Broccan is an 11th century Anglo-Saxon thegn who likes to get his hands dirty at the forge, working wood and timber and smelting iron. His contemporaries thinks he's a little nuts, but Cynred doesn't care.
Class: Making Medieval Helms

Kristel Schmidt is a fourth year Medieval Studies and English student, who hopes to dive headfirst into the connections between Medieval Europe and Shakespeare's England in graduate studies in the fall. She enjoys sewing her bits of period costume, attending Stratford Festival, archery and dabbling in languages - though sometimes Old English gets away from her a bit.
Class: Three Early Medieval Celebrities

Lianne Maitland is a fourth-year Classical Archaeology student at Wilfrid Laurier University who, when not doing readings or homework, enjoys spending time dancing, watching movies, and attempting to become profficient at any number of the random hobbies she picked up through the SCA. In the SCA, she is known as Symonne de Brienne or Miyoshi Yukino.
Class: Christian catacombs of Rome

Linda Kalusik, a Human Resources practitioner for 21 years and an HR software analyst for the last 10 years for the City of Brampton, recently retired. Mistress, Baroness Rachael Catherine McLellan is a late period Elizabethan Lady whose father is in the diplomatic corp for Her Majesty. As such, she was well schooled in religion and the arts. Rachael spent 3+ years as the Kingdom Signet and found a passion for illumination and has been producing scrolls for Ealdormere and Rising Waters for most of her SCA career.
Class: Introduction to Black Hours Illumination

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.
Classes: Flint and Steel Fire Striking
               Introduction to Naalbinding

Natalie Kauntz is a fourth year History and Medieval Studies major at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Class: Three Early Medieval Celebrities

Neil Peterson is a certified Project Management Professional working in the software development industry at BlueCoat Systems. In his spare time he is a student of Archaeology at Wilfrid Laurier University and works with museums, libraries, schools, and various groups to promote an appreciation of Norse History, and the application of Project Management to historical projects such as this conference. His primary research interest is in the processes of the Norse era specifically including iron smelting and bead making. He is a charter member of the local PMI chapter, a member of the Ontario Museum Association, a 20 year veteran 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.
Classes: Viking North Atlantic Sites & Museums
               Viking Era Bead Production

Nina Bates can usually be found spinning, weaving, dyeing, playing in the garden, sewing and cooking amongst other things. In the SCA, Odette de Saint Remy is a wool merchant in the early 16th century in France. Inexplicably drawn to the darker side, Gyða is a Norse woman who settled in England someplace and found a comfortable living as a weaver and dyer.
Class: The Possibilities of Early Period Colour

Richard Schweitzer is a teacher, artist, musician and imminent father currently busy preparing his "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: Pewter Casting for Triflers and Sadmen
               Pewter Casting for Beginners

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
               Double Faced Tablet Weaving

Dr. Ronald A. Ross is a Professor of Archaeology at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Waterloo, Canada. He teaches in the departments of Archaeology and Classical Studies, and Medieval Studies. His research interests include the medieval origins of the British iron and steel industries, medieval demography and population, and archaeological method and theory.
Classes: Farms to Forges
               Three Early Medieval Celebrities
               Vikings and the Inuit in Greenland

Russ Sheldon is a computer technician and and has also gone back to university part-time to further his education. His hobbies are to numerous to mention but his one great love is anything dealing with archery, modern or historical. Within the SCA, he is Dafydd ap Sion, a Welsh bowman in the army of Edward the III.
Classes: Battle of Poitiers
               The Mary Rose - what we have learned so far

Sarah Backa is a historical archaeology student at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her activities in the SCA consist of mainly whatever seems interesting at the time, including Vikings, amber carving, dancing, Tudor England,and cheese making. Her goal is to become almost proficient at absolutely everything. Her current academic infatuation is Finland between the 11th and 13th centuries.
Class: Viking Era Bead Production

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: Wet Felting

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

Susan Carroll-Clark is a certified project manager (PMP) with a financial services company in downtown Toronto, and also holds a PhD in medieval history. She lives in Ajax with her husband and small herd of cats, and is also involved in Toastmasters. She is a calligrapher, illuminator, clothier, researcher, archer, and dyed in the wool project manager, even outside her job. She is a former editor of the SCA's international magazine and is currently about to become Trillium Herald for Ealdormere. In the SCA she is known as Nicolaa de Bracton, a 13th century minor noblewoman born in Leicester and now living in London.
Classes: Introduction to Calligraphy
               Popular Religion during the Middle Ages (c. 1100-1450)

V.M. Roberts is a history/anthropology student at Athabasca University. As an illustrator, she makes pictographic versions of complex texts for people who have difficultly with language. Her past work includes "Life is Larger than Aphasia" a self-help book, and the "Assessment for Living with Aphasia" a quality of life measure. Currently, she is developing a communicatively accessible film "What is Aphasia." Magnunnr Hringsdottir is a sheepfarmer and wool trader from Hvammr in West Iceland.
Classes: Viking age clothing and textile production
               To build a Tent - Camping in the Viking Age

Valerie West is a manager for a second hand clothing store and has been sewing extensively for many years. In the Society, Valerie is known as Lady Mahhild de Valognes, a Norman noblewoman who is running the family estate while her husband is away on Crusade. Mahhild enjoys a variety of medieval crafts including sewing, Lucet, embroidery, chainmaille, wire knitting, leatherwork, calligraphy and illumination.
Class: Hand Sewn stitches for seams, edges and hems

Wendy Maurice is on the secretarial staff of a psychiatric hospital. Away from work, her family, rambunctious kitten, knitting, crocheting, sewing, spinning, weaving and two gardens keep her busy. Her quest to learn how to get the fibre from the flax she has been growing in a local biblical garden since 2000 led her to the SCA in the fall of 2003, where she is known as Anne of Saffron Walden. Anne enjoys learning as many new A&S skills as possible, especially but not exclusively in fibre arts.
Class: Linen: flax seed to fibre

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