Medieval Mayhem (SCA and other medieval related chatter)

[U4ea]

LMAO...

 

HUZZAH!

[Wren of the Brown]

Our Seneschal was offered knighthood. The entire Shire is bursting with joy - he is a good friend and a great man. We're waiting for dates for his vigil. :D :D :D

[Ryrin]

There is some dissent in our Barony.  I received a confidence ballot in the mail.

[Wren of the Brown]

Yucky. :(

[Thane Vakarian]

just peeking in, thought this might be appropriate in here:

 

 

in other news: i've been promoted to officer in my reenactment group, and now am responsible for the South of the Netherlands and Belgium concerning training and events

[Ryrin]

Congrats!!!!'

 

I'm new to my group. Just getting started on an awesome journey!

[Ryrin]

On 12/13 I'm going to an SCA Yule thing.

[LadyWordsmith]

Woo! We are going to the Kris Kinder event in Calontir for a friend's Laureling ceremony. Bit of a drive, but very worth it! 

[Ryrin]

I need to find something to wear.

[Thane Vakarian]

 

next step: armor plating for arms and legs. Slowly but surely getting fully protected. Even in this gear, we do fight though.

[Ryrin]

I loved watching the fighting!!!

[Thane Vakarian]

i need to find someone with a good camera to tape a fight, then put it in here. The more experienced fighters nearly go full contact (but, not everybody has the plating required, so we're still careful). I specialized in sword & shield. Seeing i broke 4 wooden shields in 1.5 years, i got a steel one now.

[Ryrin]

Awesome!

[U4ea]

Hi, Thane! Glad you found us! 

 

How long have you been fighting? That doesn't look SCA (in the picture), but I FREAKIN' LOVE IT! I want to know MORE. MORE. MORE! 

[U4ea]

I have recently mastered the Lucet, btw. I made Peanut some shoe laces. hahaha

[Wren of the Brown]

I think Thane is a European reenactor but he hasn't told us what group he's with.

 

Inquiring minds want to know.

[Thane Vakarian]

Hi, Thane! Glad you found us! 

 

How long have you been fighting? That doesn't look SCA (in the picture), but I FREAKIN' LOVE IT! I want to know MORE. MORE. MORE! 

I think Thane is a European reenactor but he hasn't told us what group he's with.

 

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

Hiyas

 

I've been fighting for 2.5 years now. (i have the scars to prove it, lol). Nastiest experience was having a swordtip through the eye opening of my old helmet which broke my nose. Glad i kept me eye though. I'm mainly sword & board, as we put it. I'm more capable of fighting with sword & shield than with a longsword. True, i use a longsword (around 49 inches total length) as a one handed sword, but that's a minor detail. I was made officer in my re-enactment group recently, which means i take care of training, events and other things for the South of the Netherlands and Belgium. This also includes archers. They only fire with longbows. Fun event: setting up shieldwalls to be fired upon by the archers while advancing (blunt arrows, ofcourse)

 

The current group i'm part of is The Knights of the Four Quarters (sorry, the site is  doing some much needed overhaul and is only available in dutch for the moment). Though, seeing recent events (or, lack of), we're thinking about splitting the group. The current group covers a too large timespan (1300-1450) so people are free what to buy. Though, for official events organised by the National Platform of Living History (official organisation that covers all re-enactment groups), we need to cut that down. We're currently working on a specific group, the Compagnie Landen van Overmaas, which will cover the region of Noord-Limburg in the period 1365-1399. One of the main focus points in the groups' history will be the Battle of Baesweiler We're looking into historically correct clothing for the region and are nearly ready to get the second group going. Naturally, that will not be taken lightly by the rest of the staff responsible for the North of The Netherlands.

 

The Knights of the Four Quarters actually have a castle of their own, Castle Doornenburg. (Again, it's a dutch only website, sorry about that). Fun fact: they filmed the tv show Floris there, with a (at that time) not so famous Rutger Hauer.

 

 

 

It's true what Hiarthbeorn says, i'm a European reenactor.

[U4ea]

I figured the European part out, and I knew it wasn't SCA because that pic had a metal blade. 

 

That sounds like fun, though! So, your group does historical battle reenactments, then? Just the one, or do you have skirmishes here and there? Does one group do it and decide who is on which side or do different groups represent different groups within the battle and naturally fill their role in the battle?

 

The SCA covers the entire medieval period (from 500-1600 in most kingdoms), so we get a lot of different garb and armor going. We have wars between kingdoms and within kingdoms, but we don't reenact them. We fight them fresh every year! The King of our daughter kindom is claiming to be the King of ours, too, for example, so there's about to be (good natured) "blood"- shed. haha

[Thane Vakarian]

For the moment, seeing we lack some of the necessary paperwork, we can't participate on big re-enactment events. We do monthly training at Castle Limbricht, open to public, where they can participate with the training for swordfighters and archery. Then we do certain events where medieval themes are involved. We did a grand tournament two years in a row at Castle Hoensbroek, including showfighting and jousting. Then also the yearly knights tournament at Castle Doornenburg, open to every re-enactment group. This is the only location where we actually get to fight other groups at the moment. We did notice, however, that certain re-enactment groups don't wish to fight us. Apparently, we're 'nuts', 'play too rough' or simply are 'too intimidating'.

 

For every event up untill now, we receive a screenplay and have rolls to fill. It would be nice to organize an event and just find out which team is the strongest. But, historical re-enactment naturally has its limits, seeing someone always won in the past and we can't really change history... (unless we invent a time machine)

 

We're looking to expand, even further into Belgium, so we can really do our thing  The new members fight with training swords like these. We replaced our wooden training swords because they break too easily. The experienced fighters, after being evaluated by the officers, may fight with battle-ready steel weapons. If an experienced fighter gets to fight a newer member, weapons are downgraded to the lowest level of fighter, so both would receive training swords. We also have people fighting with axe and round shield, viking style. It's interesting to go up against an axe, especially with wooden shields.

 

How do SCA members train/fight and which equipment do they use? I'm curious

 

Oh, and i will extend this invitation: If any of you ever would like to experience European Re-enactment and fighting, just contact me and we'll see what we can do

[Thane Vakarian]

some new developments: We had a staff meeting from the southern region and decided it's time to expand. Either we keep the same course and will be bankrupt within the next 2 years, or we will expand our activities over several groups. Here are the plans: The general group will still exist, but will be subdivided into 4 sections. First, the original Knights of the Four Quarters. Historically less correct and more funbased, but not suitable for the real re-enacting events. Then, we'll start a late 9th century Viking group, historically correct with events around Asselt around 881 A.D. I will be leading this group with another member. Then, we will have a late 12th century Templar group. This group, too, will focus on being historically correct. It'll be led by my brother. Last, but not least, a late 14th century re-enactment group, focussed on the region around and the events after the Battle of Baesweiler. Also, 100% historically correct.

 

The biggest thing is doing all the research, but we're working hard on it. I'll keep you informed on the progress

[U4ea]

Sounds awesome! 

 

We're mostly historically accurate in the SCA and my persona would fall under that last group. ;-)

 

As for weapons, we don't use combat ready weapons. Here's a link to the weapons rules: http://www.sca.org/activities/chivarts.html 

 

We do use "as accurate as it can be" armor and clothing, and even do full period encampments in some places (where they scream if you take a picture!). 

[Thane Vakarian]

Europeans are a tough crowd to please A lot of rules are involved and things are taken, perhaps a bit TOO, seriuosly. But, when done right, you're really back in time. 

 

During my research on the early middle ages, vikings more precise, i discovered tons of interesting things. Like, England wouldn't have existed without them. Very interesting period in history

[Wren of the Brown]

My newest tunic paired with another project coat.  I need to stitch the sleeve shut on the jacket but I won't be doing any further embellishments on that garment.
 
The blue tunic is a repurposed project.  The blue material is a linen curtain while the trim is from a blanket, bed sheet and pillowcase set I found - I have a whole bedroom set invested in this garment.  :D  In addition to this, I'm wearing maroon trousers, slate blue winningas and Jorvik boots.  I've made about 75% of this ensemble.  That's a good feeling.
 

 

 

Here's the tunic laid out in full.

 

[Thane Vakarian]

i'll have my measurements taken this weekend and will get fitting viking clothing soon. All wool, no linnen. I'm getting somewhere with the viking group. A museum curator will give my friend and i a presentation about local vikings, who did what and expanded regional history.

[Wren of the Brown]

Neat!