Return to Sherwood

5 hour flight. 5 hour layover. 5 hour flight.

Movies watched: The Greatest Showman, Kong: Skull Island, The Shape of Water and the new Murder on the Orient Express.

We arrived at Gatwick very tired, but having managed to bring four 50lbs bags, 2 much-larger-than-the-allowable-size carry on bags (which contained heavy chain mail and coin dies), and 2 large backpacks. The next hurdle was then fitting all of our luggage into Tim's car when he came to give us a lift back to Canterbury. We didn't have much turn around time between dropping our bags at our little temporary flat until we were already headed off to an Ost Centingas practice: 36 hours without sleep and a sword in my hand. It was great to see everyone again, and there were a few new people in the group as well. I loved getting right back into the routine of one-on-one fights, ambush games, line fights and the honourably dishonourable fight circles. As is tradition, the group headed to the local pub after training, and whereas, before, we would take up one or two tables, we now inhabit the entire front room of the pub. Every time the group would start being ridiculous, Townie would look at me and say "you sure you missed this?" The answer was and will always be, 'yes'. 

When Katya and I first started planning our move to the UK, we knew that we wanted to be able to come to Sherwood. Sherwood had been my last official Regia show in 2016, before I moved back to Canada, and it had been enormous fun. Agata, Katya and I drove out with Townie, and accidentally wound up in Robin Hood's forest before we made it to the other Sherwood forest, where we were actually meant to be. As people slowly started to trickle into the campsite, we began to unload all the vehicles and set up all of the tents. Katya and I had thought we were going to be sleeping in the plastic camp but we got upgraded to the Lord's viking tent which was nice and snug. We had dinner at a nearby pub, where we had very in-depth and philosophical  discussions such as "how many giraffes could you fit in a closed truck if you packed them like shoes in a shoebox?" 

I had been a fool and forgotten my RAF top coat at home so as soon as it started getting chilly, I put on every layer of wool reenactment kit I had, which did serve as an adequate substitute. People were already chatting around the fire and a few of us broke from the group to once again see how many people could fit into the giant mushroom in the children's playground. The answer is 7 - well, 6.5 since I couldn't quite get my legs in all the way. 

Shows always feel like they are over too quickly. It's a whirlwind of fighting, feasting and friends. I ran into a bunch of people who thought I was only over in the UK for a week or a weekend like I've done previously for shows and were quite surprised when I explained that I was sticking around for slightly longer this time. 

The storyline of the main battle was that the viking army (my side) was escorting their völuspá (a Norse religious leader) across the Danelaw (viking-held territory in England in the 9th century), and the Saxons (opposing side) wanted to kill her (burn the witch!). Unfortunately for Agata, who was playing our witch, even on the day when we won most of the skirmishes and the battle overall, she still got her throat cut. We did manage to avenge her rather nicely in the Sunday fights though. No comment on the Saturday fighting, that was a bit of a mess and I died many, many times. During the circle of dishonour, ØC bunches together like a pack, but that also tends to put a rather large target on our heads so we were all hunted down rather quickly. Sunday, again, worked out a bit better and all six of the final fighters were ØC. I had gotten quite far that round but then I was against Rob with a spear and I didn't stand much of a chance. 

This was my second Regia show with a sword so I was really trying to do all the fighting I could. I also stubbornly wore my chain mail to every training and every battle. Partly, because after the hassle of bringing it over here I feel like I need to make it worthwhile, but also, since my sister's wedding is in July and me being purple would clash with the wedding colours, I'm trying to remain as un-bruised as possible. The bridesmaid dresses are full-length so my legs can get as marked up as necessary, I just need to protect the arms - and face I guess. 

Saturday night was rather rained out, the downpour meant that most people were keeping to their own camps or turning in early. Fortunately, OC had invested in a large group shelter so a few friendly stragglers found their way over to our fire to chat. 

In the downtime between training and the larger battles, Katya and I wandered around camp taking footage and photos of all the crafts that were going on. Walking around I could see glass bead making, stone masonry, coin minting, weaving, spinning, antler and wood carving, music and tons of other everyday art forms. The skill and care that goes into each of these projects is insane and I'm still trying to figure out if there's one that I would want to start learning. 

Another in-between activity was a series of viking games that started with a handful of people and quickly drew more participants and a crowd. There were games of strength- like the 4-way tug of war, games of speed- where each contender would have a piece of cloth in their belt and the last one standing in possession of their own and having stolen the other people's won, and games that wouldn't quite fit into either category - mainly the one where two people are blindfolded and have to catch the "pig," essentially Marco Polo but the pursued person "oinks" rather than answers. I managed to win the snatching fabric one and the pig one, which counts as my personal victory for the day. Another popular game is the one with two teams on either side of a line and if one team manages to pull you over to their side, you join there side. This is the game that gave me a hand-print shaped bruise last time but I still couldn't resist. The game got a lot more intense as more and more people kept joining it. It was a good thing we were called to muster otherwise that could have gotten out of hand. 

It was an amazing weekend and a great way to start off our show season and our life in the UK. The next show is Newark, a much later period show which means Castles! We've started settling in Canterbury, have been on the job hunt but I'll go into more detail in my next post. 

Obviously, photos that I am in I didn't take, so credits to Lauren Roberts, Catherine Stallybrass, and Christopher Doyle.