Colorado is a landlocked state with no navigable rivers that could accommodate a longship filled with Vikings.

Don’t tell that to the revelers of Golden’s Scandinavian Festival, which kicked off Friday and concluded Sunday. The festival gave Denver Metro area residents a chance to experience the traditions and customs of the seafaring warriors.

Held at Parfet Park, across Clear Creek from downtown Golden and just upstream from the Coors Brewing Facility, the festival offered Scandinavian food and drink, products from local artisans and traditional dances put on by the Valkyrie Dance Collective.

A group of reenactors, known as the Fjellborg Vikings, made the most noise as they held a staged battle between two Viking warriors. Shields weren’t shattered, but the swinging of axes and swords and the clash of steel drew a crowd and lots of cheers.

Loren Schultz founded the Fjellborg group — then named Denver Vikings — more than 20 years ago. He has become the “elder” of the group and adopted the name Lodin Graskeggr of Myklebust. Since its founding, the group revised its name to “Fjellborg” which, when translated from Scandinavian and Germanic languages, means “mountain community,” Schultz said.

“Our purpose is to teach people about the lifestyle of Scandinavians during the classic Viking Era,” he said. “The combat is kind of the neon light blinking that brings people in, but what we try to teach is daily life, like farming and fishing, really everything the Scandinavian people did during that period.”

The Fjellborg group exists statewide, so distance can be a “limiting factor,” Schutlz said. He pointed to a reproduction of a Viking ship the group and said it came all the way from Grand Junction.

The boat was on a trailer and did not sail to Golden.

The Fjellborg group tries to bring it to as many events as it can. If unable to, the group brings a collection of artifacts, many which were made by members. All the tools Schultz had on display represented what Vikings might have used on a day-to-day basis, including in combat, he said.

“We had displays in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science when they had a Swedish exhibit years ago, and everything you see at this camp was in the museum,” he said. “I consider this table in front of us a traveling museum.”

While he and the rest of the Fjellborg Vikings try their best to share Viking history, Schultz said some misconceptions from movies and the internet — such as fuzzy boots and horned helmets — just “ain’t Viking.”

Where some shows and movies embellish Viking life, the Fjellborg group follows the “traditional reenactor style,” Schultz said.

Their goal is to represent the culture as truthfully as possible, he said.

“I am uncomfortable complaining about anybody else, they have their goals and what they do in their camps is their business, but we try for authenticity in teaching history as best as possible,” he said. “Real history.”

The Fjellborg group is open to anyone who has a passion for history and wants to learn more about the Vikings, Schultz said. Potential members don’t need to have any Scandinavian heritage to join — just a strong desire to learn.

That doesn’t just mean learning about staged combat that draw crowds at the festival. It’s about an array of other skills, such as weaving and woodwork, Schultz said.