My name is Matthew Kelley, and I am a member of the Society for Creative Anarchism (SCA) which is a non-profit educational organization that researches and reenacts the medieval period. I’m also an Army veteran and a Florida native. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife and a small army of cats.

Within the SCA, I am known as Gunnarr inn Hviti (pronounced GOO-narr in VEE-tee) a 10th century Norseman form Iceland, living in Jorvik (pronounced YOR-vik) which is where modern day York, England is located. My Norse name literally means ‘Gunnarr the White’. Not only is my hair turning white with age, I’m also a huge fan of polar bears – my heraldry has a polar bear on a blue background.

As “Gunnarr” my role is that of a skald – a Norse entertainer, usually a traveling poet or storyteller. In a different culture, I might be called a bard. As an entertainer, my medium of choice is Performance Magic. Performance magic is just that, a performance, and has nothing at all to do with supernatural or occult ‘magic’. It is a show, meant to entertain or educate the audience. Skalds influenced people, from common folk to rulers of nations, with stories that extolled heroic virtues – or cautioned against bad behavior. In the same way, my performance art often involves storytelling as well as magic.