Mattias Norberg

Man with Karamat hat in front of traditional long log fire

Growing up in the south of Sweden, Mattias Norberg spent much time playing in the forest as a child. Building shelters, fishing and so on which greatly improved his nature awareness. From there he developed a deep interest for survival and northern indigenous people’s old way of life.

In 1984, when Mattias was 13 years old, he bought his first survival handbook, which he read in two days. After that he stocked up on all kinds of books concerning nature, survival, primitive technology, and indigenous peoples. Most of his free time was spent outside, roaming the forest, practicing different skills and learning about plants and animals.

This eventually led him to holding courses himself in the early 90s. Mattias constant desire to learn more made him participate in many different courses in the 90s both in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Malaysia.

In 1995 Mattias was appointed instructor in the Swedish Survival Guild. This is a guild that was founded back in 1982 by, among others, Lars Fält and Harry Sepp. He was teaching everything from winter survival courses in the far north of Sweden to plant courses in the south.

Later on, Mattias started the first advanced fire course in Sweden which is a 4-day long course. His deep passion for wild plants and their use is something that’s always fascinated him and is a subject his been teaching for over 25 years.

Mattias has written numerous articles on wild plants and wilderness skills and is the author of a comprehensive book on fire skills titled Konsten att elda, which was published in 2020.


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