In February 2018, Jon Erik returns to Birkebeinerspelet (The Last King) at Sjusjøen, this time in the role of Audun Berserk. The show has sold around 2000 tickets, and the audience can look forward to an immersive, all-inclusive winter experience!
The historical background:
In the year 1205, when our story takes place, Norway is ravaged by civil war. On one hand, stood the Birch Bones (birkebeinerne), a group of rebels who, with King Sverre Sigurdsson, managed to take power over the country. But they never got complete control, and working against them were the Bagli party (baglerne), a political group with support from the church and from Denmark. When King Sverre died, his son Håkon Sverresson took over the throne, but died shortly after doing so, allegedly poisoned by his stepmother, King Sverres widow Margareta. Håkon had no real-born descendants, and the Birch Bones chose a nobleman as their king – but the same did the Bagli and claimed stands against claims. The Birch Bones’ chosen king, Inge Bårdsson, fought down the Bagli, who fled to Denmark in 1205, but in the spring of 1206 they returned, and the battle continued.
Håkon Håkonsson was born in 1204 as the illegitimate son of Håkon Sverresson. After holding the boy hidden at the farm Folkenborg in Østfold for almost two years, his mother Inga from Varteig and her supporters wanted to smuggle him out and take him to Nidaros to claim Norway’s throne for the Birch Bones. But the road to Nidaros went through the Opplands, where the Bagli controlled several areas. On Christmas Eve in the year 1206, they came to Hamar. And this is where our story begins…
