March School Event

At the end of March, Lord Cedric, Skallabjorn and myself went over to Lake Silver Elementary School and talked to the kids about medieval life. Here are a few shots from that day:

Our table, in the courtyard:

One of Lord Cedric's helms:

Skallabjorn, looking very happy (hey - he's a man who was made to do events like this):

Skallabjorn's mail & a few swords very aesthetically arranged:

Lord Cedric & one of the teachers, addressing the students:

Lord Cedric & Skallabjorn teach the students (who were dressed medieval-ish for the event):

Showing the kids the armor:

And the kids really seemed to enjoy it. We both look forward to doing more events like this when school is back in session.

Canton Event: May/June

For our June event (which was a double event making up for May) we were fortunate enough to have the crowns come up and visit us - HRM Dame Cerridwyn Fiend and HRM Sir Nikademus Fiend:

Here, Skallabjorn (in black kilt) sounds the horn to open court:

Lord Cedric (in white shirt) and Skallabjorn at opening of court:

Archery! Sir Gar takes aim:

Sir Conrad is behind him, but he's kind of hard to see in this picture.

Skallabjorn & HRM Sir Nikademus compete in the archery:

Here's a better shot of Sir Gar & Sir Conrad competing in archery:

Lord Cedric & HRM Dame Cerridwyn compete in archery:

As it turns out, Lord Cedric won the archery that day. Congratulations to Lord Cedric!

Now, we did have one very amusing incident happen during the shooting; this was one of Sir Conrad's arrows:

Right through the bag!

And even thought it was quite hot and muggy, we still did combat. Here, Lord Cedric has a swig of water before competing:

Sir Conrad & Lord Cedric head over towards the battlefield:

HRM Sir Nikademus (in white) and Lord Cedric (in green) face off:

Sir Conrad (in black) & Skallabjorn face off:

Sir Conrad won all of the combat on this day. Congratulations Sir Conrad!

Sir Gar also made an announcement: Sir Conrad and Lord Cedric were inducted into the Order of the Dragon for their work with the schools - going to a local school and teaching kids about the medieval period. As I understand things, this means Skallabjorn and myself are also members of this Order, as we participated in an educational event back in March (I do have pics of this, and I plan to get them up ASAP - apologies for the delay). So that's really awesome, if you ask me. Order of the Dragon. How cool!

Due to the heat and humidity in Florida during the summer, we have decided to take the next 2 months off; instead of an event, we might look into doing a brief sojourn up to St. Augustine, which has much by way of medieval period history. We also might do a "medieval movie night" or some such as someone's house - but whatever we do, we want to have access to air conditioning, something our medieval forefathers might have been tremendously appreciative of!

I do have a few more pictures, so I'll get those up in another entry soon.

The Worst Jobs In History: The Tudor Period

More fun & games with terrible jobs with Tony Robinson...

And oh my...



OMG you've GOT to be kidding me! Wiping the royal bum! AAAHhahahaha!!!! OK, see here, people, I don't care HOW royal someone is in Adria - I am NOT wiping anyone's bum!!





And a lot of people don't realize that woad is a topical hallucinogen!



YAY TONY! Putting himself through what we women would have been put through! And in a dress, at that! HUZZAH!!

The Worst Jobs in History: The Middle Ages

Tony Robinson checks out the worst jobs in the Middle Ages...

Oh, nice, send the women in after the leeches. Really good.



Um, no thanks on the barber thing. Ugh. And that medieval enema tube - AAAAAAHHHH NOOOOOOOOO LOL!!! Oh man, and killing an eel on tv - um, where's PETA when ya need them?!



And no - I'm sorry, but you couldn't pay me enough to sample worm soup. GAAAA!!! Hahahaha!





Marching around in urine. Nice. I have such an appreciation for life in the 21st century.

New Link: Bede's World

I'm also going to try and put some links on this blog that are historically interesting and releveant to our business of re-enactment. I found the link to Bede's World and I thought it would make a very good addition to the links list on the sidebar.

Admittedly, the period Bede lived in is very early, earlier than the Adria period, but it's still considered "early medieval" and Bede's World looks like a very interesting museum in the north of England that I for one would really like to visit if I ever get over there.

The Worst Jobs in Anglo-Saxon History

Hahahaha...this is hilarious!

In between Sheffield events, I'd like to post some historical information for the amusement/entertainment of any readers of this blog. Tony Robinson (he who played the role of Baldrick in the Blackadder TV series) hosted this very interesting show...

When the Romans invade in AD 43, they impose their way of life and also create some truly terrible job vacancies that just have to be filled.

Some 400 years later, when the Romans are becoming a distant memory, Anglo-Saxon England is able to offer a whole new range of miserable ways to make a living. Not a people to be outdone in the misery stakes, the Vikings, too, are no strangers to uncomfortable, dangerous and all-round grim working conditions.

This first video has a bit of introduction that got cut off from the following one:

Ya know, working in the mines REALLY generates a new appreciation for the unions and guilds, eh?




Holy crap - LOL - and they're handling that without gloves...




Hah! Stomping in poopy!

That bog-ore thing looks nightmarish.




"...bits of the forest too." Um, yeah!!




Oh GAWD those FISH! The SMELL!

March's Event

< Joseph the Younger walks through the event site

The March event was, I thought, a really good event. It was held at a lovely park in Winter Springs, which was much easier to get to from our place in Winter Park. :)

We set our things up in a nice shaded area, well away from the playground and from too many inquisitive eyes (although don't think that as the day went by, we didn't have some curious people coming over to see what the fighting was all about - we actually did). Fortunately for us, the weather was good all day - sun all day long, not too cold (as it had been unusually cold in Florida over the past few weeks), and very soft breezes - no strong winds blowing everything around, as wind is wont to do in Florida.

Skallabjorn was very thrilled to show off a couple of new items he had: a lovely wooden keg for water, which I call the medieval water cooler:

 and a beautiful hand-made and hand-tooled leather spangenhelm, crafted by his own hands:

It fits over his fencing mask and makes it look like he's wearing an actual spangenhelm. Pretty clever, isn't it?

I actually got pretty brave and decided to help out with the "stewing" or steward's duties that day. Given that I'm not inclined towards combat and have very little arts experience, doing steward duties was a good way for me to be involved, feel like I could make a contribution, and learn something about how events run.

We started out with archery.

Co-Viceroy Sir Conrad Marshall, in green, competes in archery - Mar. 2010

Our competitors shot quite well.

Skallabjorn competes in archery - March 2010

Santiago competes in archery - March 2010

Edward competes in archery - March 2010

Co-Viceroy Lord Cedric of Rotherwood, competes in archery - March 2010

Sir Conrad won the day in archery, with Santiago a very close second and Skallabjorn third.

After we got everyone's points totted up in archery, we had a break for lunch. Skallabjorn and I spread out a picnic feast on one of our blankets under the trees. It was absolutely lovely, nibbling on summer sausage, colby-jack cheese, olives and rye bread and enjoying the beautiful day.

Combat followed.

Skallabjorn & Santiago duke it out - March 2010

Santiago (in black) and Lord Cedric fight - March 2010

Sir Conrad served as marshal for the shanai (sp?) bouts. And I know I recorded who won shanai and who won rapier, but at the moment it has escaped me because to be honest - I'm a bit tired from the day. That, and on Sunday, I must confess I wasn't feeling all that well, but I did my best to concentrate on my stewardly duties and try to learn something new. 

We were very fortunate to have a lot of guests that day - a couple of people who had been part of Adria about a decade ago (Cliff & Krystal) came by, and Sir Conrad's family was in town (all the way from England) to see the event, and a friend of a friend of Skallabjorn's came by as well. Perhaps more people will become more interested in Adria; who knows? 

All in all, it was a very enjoyable day.  

Test Post

This is my test post...let's try inserting a pic here...

Ah. Looks great.

These two are:

On the left: Sir Conrad Marshall, Co-Viceroy of the Canton of Sheffield.

On the right: Skallabjorn Vilkjalmr.

This photo was taken at the February canton event, held at Sir Conrad's keep.

I'll be uploading more pictures and adding more commentary as time goes by.