Alan swordfighting with Wolf

It was the first midsummer festival of enchantment and i think some of that enchanted fairy dust must have rubbed off on me because i didn’t do badly at all. Well i didn’t get killed anyway. The audience was supposed to have been more important to us than the fight itself but we figured that the best way to entertain was just to go at it hammer and tongs with no choreography involved at all. There were 5 fighters so we rotated in an attempt to keep everybody fresh.

Intense sword battle

The fight format didn’t allow for breaks or stoppages because we wanted to create as much realism a possible and not have a marshall constantly stepping in and stopping the action. Also in a full contact scenario there’s a lot of strength involved and being used so we knew the fights were going to be short affairs, and they were, but we each had a chance to have a breather then get back into the ring. 25 minutes after we’d started, as the music ended we were all shattered but still upright and, surprisingly, still fighting.

Learning the basics of swordsmanship

There is so much to learn, and the best way to learn it seems to be through applied practice and sparring. Movements and blocks can of course be practiced and, to a degree perfected while training alone but by far the best way to correct any mistakes creeping in to one’s technique is to have a reliable sparring partner who is prepared to literally beat those mistakes out of you.  A good smack on the head is far faster than repeatedly being told you’re making a mistake.

After one sparring session the week before the midsummer festival of enchantment, and a short session on the Saturday morning, it was straight into my first full contact swordfight. Of course we were using blunt swords, but even though i wasn’t going to get my head chopped off it still hurts when you get hit. The boys who’d invited me to come and play weren’t small either.

James Roberts vs Christoff Rademeyer

squaring off

Seems putting photos up isn’t as difficult as I thought…

Bevan

There was everything we hoped for and a bit more too. The fights, the jesters, the forging and even enough toilets for everyone.

We had highland dancers come all the way from Johannesburg, we had draught beer, cold beer, good food and shade.

Even the weather held up and gave us a beautiful day with a bit of cloud and a gentle wind, but no rain until later when it was time to pack up the armour anyway.

The band was Skin ‘n Bone – yes that’s their name not a description and they rocked the place till pretty late, making for a brilliant end to the day.

I still haven’t quite got the hang of putting up lots of photos on the blog but we’ve put up a lot more pictures on the facebook page

A fairy from Taleisin's tribe. In fact the head fairy

We have the live entertainment pretty much sorted out, with the band Skin and Bone along with firedancers, jesters, stiltwakers, fairy, some mediaeval theatre (can’t wait to see this one myself), the armoured fighting, Mediaeval flea market and craft displays which is more than twice the size it was last year.

The Mediaeval theatre and the stilt-walkers are being provided by Taliesin’s tribe, a group of experienced live entertainers that have become very popular at live events here in South Africa and who perform a variety of different items, including firedancing so the evening’s entertainment shows some great promise as there will be at least two groups of fire performers on the field, possibly even three but we’ll wait until they confirm before we tell you who the third group are.

The armoured fighting will be in a display format this time around as a one day event just isn’t long enough to host a full tournament but this is all a build up for next year’s full 2 day event, at which we will have a full contact tourney with prizes offered and some mediaeval jousting.

After all the messing around earlier in the year, it’s quite a relief to finally be here, after 3 date changes and 2 different venues, all of which was of course beyond our control.

Taleisin’s tribe will be coming this year to help us with the entertainment. An awesome bunch of performers with a multitude of skills – Firedancing, stiltwalking, mediaeval theatre, storytelling and much more.

We’ve found horsemen to ride in the stunt shows, although it may be a bit of a squeeze to do the actual jousting display this year so we’ll rescue the princess again in November and plan proper jousting in 2011. There will definitely be medieval type swordfighting and a whole bunch of spectacular stunts, done live.

A knight in armor at the Mediaeval Fayre

Some of the Medieval costumes at the Mediaeval fayre

We’ve also allowed ourselves a lot more planning time this year, and have a years extra experience at this kind of thing so this year promises to be something not to be missed. Don’t miss it.

Find out more about medieval times