Camlann Medieval Village looks to grow under new leadership

Tucked away under mossy trees in the hills above Carnation lives a village where it’s been the year 1376 since 1981.

At Camlann Medieval Village, a nonprofit and living history museum, volunteer interpreters don character personalities as though they are in 14th Century rural England. Each interpreter has a skill — like carpentry or wool dying or pottery — which guests will see them carrying out in character. The property is scattered with cottages, a village inn and other authentic structures.

Executive Director Lauren Poyer, who started last fall, hopes to grow her roster of volunteers, as well as add some new structures to the property, strengthening the museum for its next 40 years.

0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%

00:00

“One of the big strengths of Camlann is the architecture,” she said. “You step into the space, and you really are transported into a different time and place, which is the goal, but that’s a lot of work and time and money behind the scenes.”

Camlann is hosting a fundraiser April 12 to work toward its goal of $50,000 for building construction and maintenance. The day will include a silent auction and a live auction, and tickets for entry are $25. Interpreters will be in character throughout the day, but unlike a typical festival, they will also be sharing their experiences as volunteers.

Along with volunteers, Poyer hopes to grow Camlann’s attendance. The 44-year-old institution, she said, is still known as a hidden gem in the region, despite a widespread interest in medieval culture.

Camlann, in being a living history museum, is innately interactive, Poyer said. But moving forward, she and the Camlann team want to find ways to drum up even more participation and excitement.

“There’s a term ‘participatory medievalism,’ which is the term that’s often used to describe a wide range of activities, including Dungeons and Dragons, including renaissance fairs, but also including living history museums,” she said. “All three of those activities are engaging with medieval culture to different degrees and with different goals. So trying to find ways to encourage people to engage at a level that they feel excited about, and encourage them to continue to do that, is a big goal.”

Another duty Poyer has as executive director is balancing the immersion in medieval culture with modern necessities. There were no fire extinguishers in the 14th Century, for example, but there are plenty at Camlann, a venue that has several live fires.

“It’s been a fun challenge for me to kind of find those sweet spots,” Poyer said. “But also, I think I’ve been giving myself a lot of grace to just say, like, no, actually, the public needs to know how to navigate the space in order for them to be able to learn.”

While Poyer honors the authenticity that makes Camlann special, she acknowledged that it can be subjective. As an academic by trade, she said she has a different take on authenticity than others at Camlann.

“Authenticity is a sensation, and it’s the sensation that it’s correct,” she said. “And of course, when you come to a living history museum, it’s because you don’t necessarily know what’s correct. So I think meeting authenticity is all about meeting expectations of the public and also challenging expectations of the public.

“The way that we work to challenge guest expectations is really in the specifics of the crafts, because there’s a lot you can learn from books, but there’s also a lot that wasn’t necessarily written down from the 14th Century.”

While settling into her new role at Camlann, Poyer is on leave from her position as an associate teaching professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Scandinavian Studies. She has a PhD in Scandinavian studies, specifically in philology, the study of historical linguistics, which she says she fell into backwards, starting with studying Icelandic as an undergraduate.

Typically the teacher herself, Poyer said she’s enjoyed being able to learn even more about the middle ages in her time at Camlann.

“Studying the past allows us to imagine alternative ways of being,” she said. ““That’s something that I treasure about studying the medieval period, is that it reminds me that the future that we build can be anything we want it to be.”

Check it out: Camlann’s fundraiser is April 12 starting at noon. Tickets are on sale through March 31 at camlann.org. Camlann Medieval Village will hold festivals each weekend May to September from 12-5 p.m., starting with May Faire on May 10. The Bors Hede restaurant is open on Fridays and Saturdays year round and requires a reservation.