We were at a park the other day, when I had the enormous privilege of spotting a large group of people dressed up as Medieval warriors. To say they looked awesome with their manicured beards, prescription glasses, chainmail and plastic swords would be a terrible understatement.
I looked on in awe, dumbstruck to think that people actually did this. In real life. The leader (Lord Edward Longshanks IV of the House of Wolf Castle?) was laying out a few ground rules, speaking short, throaty, inspirational phrases of battle. Off to the side a few other fearsome figures practiced their swordsmanship, the flexible clackity ckacking of the plastic swords causing devastating sparks across the playground.
I left them to their business, thoroughly impressed, and then later passed them again, as they had apparently stopped for a lunch break. I was slightly disheartened to see them eating a packed lunch. They could have at least hunted some native marsupials or something and roasted it over some coals.
But I consoled myself with the idea that what appeared to be ham and cheese on those sandwiches, could well have actually been wild boar and goats' cheese from the Outer-Hinterlands.
To battle, men! And then back to my Mum's house for jam and scones! YAAAAH!!
7 comments:
And yes, my mockery is a thinly veiled subterfuge for what is actually a deep desire to be one of them.
Well, just the other day when I was at a train station, a woman came up and asked me if I could help her tie on her gauntlet. That doesn't happen every day!
She was on the way to a meeting of the Society for Creative Anachronism.
LARPers. There's hordes of them in a local park where I live. Nice guys. The battles get pretty epic too. And I too wish I could join them. What prevents this?
We did plenty of medieval re-enactment in my youth-group days. I have been to a cutlery-free medieval feast dressed in sack-cloth (the ugg-boots maybe didn't quite cut it) once and made a right disgusting wench of myself gnawing on hunks of some pit-roasted something. Good times.
The weirdest people in this country hang out near where I live, and I too have seen this in parks. The other day a guy had a fancy looking tape strung up between two trees and was trying to type-rope walk it. All in an ordinary Saturday.
Or should that be tight rope ...
Joanna- Gauntlet tying = awesome. How good a word is 'anachronism'..
Hanny- Hmmm.. what prevents us joining the battle? I don't know mate, but I'd like to shrug off that shackle and don my armour asap.
Ali- Ahhh the good ol' medieval feast. We had one of those in high school I think. Good times indeed. I like the random grouping of anything vaguely 'ancient'..togas, sandles, cloaks, swords, viking helmets.. all together at last.
Ahhh yes, the Medieval madness and monstrosities of the Inner West...
Post a Comment