Her back was turned, hooded head leaving her features indistinguishable, and yet the quiver of arrows and bow slung across her back and the earthy tones of her garb left me in no doubt I'd found an elf. I was quiet but not quiet enough for her keen elven ears; she turned and my suspicions were confirmed. Pointed ears, light skin dusted with freckles and hair the colour of mid-autumn leaves...yep...an elven girl.
Last weekend I went to a fair in the hills. It was a cold day, I knew it would rain a little, and that the ground would be a little muddy underfoot, but I wasn't missing the opportunity to attend the annual medieval fair.
In truth it's not just about the medieval (middle ages) era however that's the main focus of it. That doesn't stop people from dressing as Vikings, Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings characters, pirates, wizards and witches, tavern wenches, kings, queens and princesses, monks, friars and druids, Romans, Saracens, people from the Tudor period, peasants and just about anything else you can think of from hundreds of years ago and the fantasy genre...like the elven girl I found.
There's many demonstrations from medieval combat, jousting, fighting gladiators, medieval life, blacksmithing, archery and horse archery, arms and armament making, arrow-making, embroidery, leatherworking, sewing, cooking, a Scottish warriors' test of strength, Punch and Judy show, juggling, music and dancing...there's even a medieval tavern. I put together a few photos below if you're interested.
Here's a few people (and a horse) I ran into. This is one of the horses used for the horse archery with her rider on the right; the horse archery was super-cool. She was a bit of a princess, that horse complete with pretty braids, but friendly and I had a pat. You can also see the elven girl I mentioned, another of the horse archers and one of the chaps who fought in combat. He was slain.
Here's some of the martial arts in progress. They did a melee (combatants fight individually at the same time against everyone else all at once until only one is alive), team combat and individual combat. There was much death, destruction and carnage. These folks (guys and gals) go at it pretty hard with arms and armour they make themselves. This is a world-wide activity enjoyed by many thousands of people and they get right into it.
Below was one of the teams battles. You can see three fighters converging on a lone enemy whose legs have been cut from beneath him. It was only a flesh wound though, he managed to fight on, kill one of the others with a glorious back-slash of his sword but, alas, was cut to pieces by the other do in a rather workman-like manner. The chap on the left in the blue tunic was one of the Marshalls who keep an eye on things for safety purposes. This is not mock combat though, it's full speed and unchoreographed with few rules.
Here's one of the other demonstrations, embroidery - not as brutal as the combat, but difficult enough. I'll admit that this didn't hold my interest for long but I had a funny conversation with the two ladies in the image below. Sorry about the blurry one on the left, she moved as I took the shot. She embroidered the crappy thing on the left and the other one did the excellent work on the right. Don't be fooled though, the one on the left fought in combat and did very well. She's a brutal killer...and can do embroidery. They make all sorts of medieval things like clothing, hats, belts, pouches, tapestries and bags; you can see a hat one of the hats below.
After the not so exciting embroidery area I headed off for some jousting. I'm sorry about those jousting photos below folks I only had my phone, not my camera so the zoom is rubbish. They were proper-jousting though, full armour, horses at full tilt and lances were breaking on shields. I also stopped off to look at a few blokes doing some weapons instruction, knife fighting, and a few medieval people cooking up something fucken vile in the pot; it was possibly a human head left over from the melee.
After that it was time for a glass of mead and mulled wine at the tavern, both delicious! There were some rather lovely, well-proportioned tavern ladies there...I'd say their tops were a little too low-cut but I'd be lying...they were just perfect. Sorry fellows, no photos of that. I had a mead and a mulled wine and was feeling pretty damned happy as I wandered around afterwards.
There were a lot of artisans and craftsmen around the place but I wasn't able to get around to them all unfortunately. I had some great chats with a few though, talked about making weapons and armour, the methods and reasons things were done a particular way and that takes time so I missed some. They were all super friendly and chatted as they worked though and it was informative. I wanted to buy some things whilst I was there but refrained, I don't need more swords and axes...I just want them! I was a good boy though, and bought nothing.
I had a really great conversation with the fletcher. A fletcher is a person who makes arrows and the guy was in the middle of making some arrow-heads in his forge. We talked about different heads and how they fly and penetrated mail or armour, the feathers used and how the use of different birds feathers (and how they were affixed) would make the arrow do different things like twist for instance. He was saying how water-bird feathers are preferred as they have more strength. We chatted for a half hour and I found it all pretty fascinating.
I thought it was really cool how so many people got dressed up for the day. I'd say there would have been about 3,000 people there at any one time over the day and at least a third of them were wearing some type of costume, many of them very good! There was a group of Vikings wandering around, three girls and three guys and they looked awesome, as did a group of druids who all stayed in-character the entire day; nerds. It was great how all ages were dressed up too and people from all walks of life including entire families. I was really impressed with how people got into the spirit of it and it made the fair that much better.
There were loads of food stalls offering just about everything, none was medieval though. I opted for a kransky hotdog with sauerkraut, mustard and tomato sauce which was bloody tasty...it may have been washed down with another mead too. Possibly.
Overall, I thought the day was excellent. There was only one light shower, although the ground was a little sodden underfoot, and the sun even popped out now and then which helped evaporate some of the mead and mulled wine I'd drunk right out of my system. It was well run and I'd say it was worth the fifty Australian dollars I paid for myself and my warrior-woman shield maiden to get in.
Have you ever been to a themed fair like this? Do you think this is something that you'd find a little interesting? Would you sit at the tavern and have a mead or mulled wine with me? Are you an elf, druid, king, or some such thing? Whatever the case, feel free to comment below if you feel so inclined?
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default; tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind - galenkp
[All original and proudly AI free.]
Every image in this post is my own.