VISTA -- Spotlighting everything Nordic, Viking clans from across San Diego County gathered Saturday at the Norway Lodge on East Vista Way in Vista.

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Viking Festival 2007, which continues today, is the product of two groups, Norway Lodge and the Norwegian Fish Club Odin. Robert Undheim, president of the latter, has overseen the festival for its entire five years.

"It is a way to get acquainted with the community and to celebrate our culture and heritage," Undheim said.

"We have very nice live music over the weekend," he said, as Highland Way set up for their performance, and Chet Homes played his accordion for an audience.

Authentic products from the Viking era were available at the more than two dozen vendors.

"There is a romantic fascination about people who lived hundreds and thousands of years ago," Undheim said, as an armored Viking blew an authentic Norwegian ram's horn, drowning out the other sounds of the festival. "He's demonstrating his wares."

Viking Fest is a gathering for social joys and a chance to enlighten people, Undheim said.

"Vikings weren't just fighting people; there was love, family, community, and you see that here," Undheim said, pointing to the Nordic period village just ahead.

"The Vikings weren't a bunch of people looking for what's in your wallet," he said. "There was law, society, community -- it brought us great stories, mythology and religion."

The diversity of the festival's musical performers speaks to the range of the ethnic groups influenced by Viking heritage.

"They reached Dyflinn -- that translates today to Dublin -- they were all over," Undheim said. "They were in Iceland, Greenland, and Erik the Red and his son Leif Erikson into North America."

Over at the enclave, sights and sounds were purely ninth century. Working at an authentic stone oven was Terry Andrews.

"This is about the culture, the companionship -- a joyous event," she said, passing out bread samples. Having participated in renaissance fairs, Andrews said, she finds Viking Fest more authentic.

"Those are more performance all the time," she said. "This is more about getting together to live in the period and connect with one another."

Walking over the woodchip-covered grounds, visitors got the sense that the aura of another era pervades.

Across from Andrews, Jennifer O'Neill and her Norwegian collective Drafn have set up camp.

"Drafn is the old Norse word for driftwood," O'Neill said. "We're all a group of wanderers who travel all over California. This is the third year that we've done the festival. Every year what we get to do gets bigger. This year, we were able to add the ovens and a period Viking forage."

The cross-continental connection to Viking culture also sat on display behind O'Neill -- colorful flags from the world's corners.

"It's very ethnically diverse," she said. O'Neill added that she believes the flags from Vikings in Denmark to England represent a people with vast foresight.

"The spread of the education of the Viking culture has grown so much in the last several years," O'Neill said. "People are now realizing that they didn't really wear horn helmets going around killing people. They were traders, farmers, craftsmen, so much more. It's nice we are able to bring more of the cultural aspect to people."

Available inside the Norway Lodge was a cuisine of Odin burgers, fish cakes, the Valkyrie feast, Swedish meatballs, and a dessert of riskrem -- cold rice pudding with raspberry sauce.

Playing next to the lodge were children at arts and crafts tables painting their own wooden swords, shields, axes and helmets. The kid activities included a moon bounce in the shape of a Viking castle.

Steve and Susan Gillespie of San Marcos arrived to explore their Icelandic familial connection to the Vikings and left with a further appreciation of a culture whose influence looms large.

"It's great to get the feeling you're in a Viking camp, with the different costumes and craftspeople working," Steve Gillespie said, as a soldier in body armor passed.

Although a peaceful impression permeated the afternoon, the Drafn Viking combat tournament and log toss still spoke to the Vikings' conquering ways.

"After being invaded and assimilated, it's nice to see people start to espouse the Viking in their past."

The Nordic spirit is also about venturing into the great beyond, Undheim said, adding that that is what he thinks most resonates with the public.

"There was an incredible sense of bravery to reach out past the limits of your own community," Undheim said. "To brave the seas in those little long ships, the weather they battled, I can't imagine it."