Hark! A medieval festival beckons!

[redroanchronicles]

It's possible that I might have a little, teeny, tiny thing -- a fascination, you might say -- for the medieval period. You might assume that it began with Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale, or even with Kevin Costner (shut up) in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which I must have watched about ten thousand times as an impressionable youth.

I suppose I didn't really realize at the time what an English accent was, much less why Robin Hood really ought to have one.

I mentioned being young and impressionable, I hope.

But honestly, my childhood love for all things medieval goes back almost as far as my childhood love for all things dinosaur. I was merely interested, until I found my library's collection of Arthurian legend and picked up a beautifully illustrated copy of Gawain and the Green Knight, and then I was a goner. It's a fascination I indulge to this day, though the more fantastical elements of dragons and wizards that form the basis of so much fantasy and legend really aren't of much interest to me. I prefer the grit and dirt and head lice of the real thing. I probably should've been a history major.

At any rate, while I've occasionally indulged this fascination with all things ye olde with visits now and again to local Highland Games festivals or Renaissance Fairs, I can't say it's ever really been my scene. It's seemed more within the purview of, well, drama geeks. And while, being a geek myself, I understand and appreciate their enthusiasm, it just didn't make my skirt fly up. I've enjoyed exploring my Scottish heritage at the Highland Games and lord knows I love a good caber toss (not to mention a good kilt), but I never felt terribly compelled to attend another Renaissance Fair as long as I lived.

Until I heard on the radio that Humboldt County has its own medieval fair, the Medieval Festival of Courage. And sure, maybe they aren't big on website design or maintenance, and maybe it's still not really my scene, but they were going to have jousting. With horses. And lo, I was compelled.

This gentleman was meant to be the bad guy, but I'm afraid I was on his side. For one, he had the prettier horse. For two, his barding was kind of Scottish. For three, he totally won. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This young upstart was the challenger. Spoiler warning: I took this photo after the second time he was very painfully unhorsed.

From a spectator's standpoint, jousting's pretty simple. You get on your horse, you put on all of your armor, and then you send your horse thundering toward the other guy...

And he comes thundering right back at you, on his much more attractive horse...

...and one or the other of you gets knocked on his ass.

This poor knight had a rough day. To be fair, the other guy was apparently a world champion jouster several times over. So.

Then the winner does the modern-day jousting version of an endzone dance and plays it up a little for the crowd.

And then if the other guy's particularly foolhardy, he'll get up off the ground and back on his horse and you'll do it all again. While you scroll down for the inevitable carnage, I'll tell you some interesting facts I learned about modern jousting.

In jousting competitions that are more for show, the lances are often hollow, pre-broken, and stuffed with spaghetti at the break -- so when the lance breaks, it will look like splintering wood. These guys, by contrast, claimed to be using entirely solid wood. They could've created stress points for the lances to break easier, I suppose, but it looked pretty genuine, and after the competition the troupe was selling broken pieces of the very solid lances to help finance their show.

You may also notice that these guys are riding without actually holding their reins. This is for their safety and that of their horses: on each pass, one or both of them are very likely to be unseated, and when you're about to take a tumble, it's tough to make yourself not grab for the horse to keep yourself from falling. Dropping the reins keeps them from pulling the horse over with them (and more than likely on top of them) when they are unseated. I also noticed this particular knight sometimes dropping his stirrups just before impact.

Did you know that after a jousting tourney, knights used to get together for an evening of music, food and dancing? I'm not sure that this knight is going to be up for it, but I doubt he's missing much; I doubt they danced to David Bowie like in A Knight's Tale.

Have I mentioned that I had a little bit of a crush on this horse? I did. He wasn't the only handsome animal in attendance, though.

There was even a horse-and-wagon taxi to ferry people to and from their parked cars.

I only caught up with the equicab as the driver was removing the harness, but I did catch this lovely shot of one of his helpers holding on to the horse while he put the collar and hames away. This was a gorgeous and very patient animal, the real epitome of a cart horse who just isn't bothered by anything, not even a bunch of children hanging off the wagon and waving foam-covered "swords."

Of course, there's more to a medieval festival than just horses. There are also dogs. And women in period clothing.

There are also weapons. And occasionally entire hordes of little children wielding them. I imagine it's a bit like what the children's crusade was like, except with less being-sold-into-slavery going on. There were also children with bows, which frankly I found terrifying. I snapped some pictures and then ran far, far away.

I wonder if that guy on the right is supposed to be Robin Hood. He doesn't look very much like Kevin Costner.

My point is, there's more to the medieval festival than just horses.

I mean, I assume there is. I didn't really notice the rest of it very much.

But it is as good a reason as any.


The Festival of Courage happens in October, so anyone who has an interest in catching it should keep an eye on the usual sources around then for the 2010 dates. For more photos of the event, check out my photography website riiiight over here. You can even buy prints there, that's how awesome it is.

In other news, though stylistically I prefer not to cut-tag my photos, I realize I might be breaking some flists. So I've put them behind a cut tag. If any of you have a preference for cutting or not cutting photo posts, could you comment and let me know? I'm still finding my way a bit with this new blog, but I'd like for it to be a pleasant diversion for you and not a pain in your ass flist.

Comments

[cofax7]

Pretty pictures!

(And if you get around to uploading any pictures of TNG, I'd love to see them.)

[redroanchronicles]

My brain is on a continuous loop and apparently I'm reliving my childhood, but all I can get out of that is "The Next Generation." And then my mind goes to Data places and never recovers. So you'll have to remind me. TNG?

[cofax7]

TNG - The New Girl. That's my dog's internet handle. *g*

[redroanchronicles]

Oooooh, I gotcha. I figured it was her, but then I couldn't figure out what "TNG" could possibly stand for in relation to your dog. ;D I haven't even finished sorting through the SF pictures but I'll have a look right now and see how the ones of Herself came out. The light was pretty bad for it but I could swear I got at least one good one. :)