The Year of the Great Coat - Detling 2018
Detling's Military Odyssey is always one of the biggest re-enactment shows of the year; 4,000 re-enactors on 200 acres, displaying 3,000 years of military history. Groups from around the country portray a large range of periods, including Greeks, Romans, Vikings, Medieval, Napoleonic, the American Civil War, the Wild West, World Wars I & II, Vietnam, and other more modern armies as well. For Regia's part this year, we were portraying the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, where the Irish forces, loyal to the Irish king Boru, fought against a Norse-Irish alliance. We didn't focus much on the main battle, we were a Viking raiding party that had come across a separate Irish force and had our own fight, with a good amount of raiding and killing of innocent civilians.
We brought the Bear, our Viking longship, with us, and parked it right across from a Vietnam era Huey helicopter, which was blasting all the war-time classics. We had also built a small rocky beach area with a bridge, for our annual cultural exchange with the Daughters of Britain, who brought over tea and biscuits one evening. Another addition was a small flat-pack chapel building, like a medieval IKEA construction project. The chapel was a nice quiet place for the weekend and inside we had a beautiful embroidery hanging on the altar.
While we were Vikings, this was a later period show, so they would have all been Christianized already. This meant one thing: wimples. However, after going three days without a shower, you begin to not mind hiding your hair as much as possible. It's probably for the best.
The fighting was amazing. We did our usual array of line fights, resurrecting group fights, and kill-the-captain fights. One game that was new to me was where everyone started off in group of five people and you picked a team name. If you were killed, you joined the team of the person who killed you, so everyone was constantly having to yell their team name to minimize the confusion. This lead to a field of warriors shouting their battle cries of "WOMBLES" "NOT A CULT" "STINKY BISHOP" "CHOCOLATE" and the overall victor, "CHEESE!"
The main battles went really well, minus the fact that the Viking side lost, meaning that the Saxons (who were Irish for this show) won the season. We ran through the camp, sending children screaming in terror and killing anyone in our path, until we encountered the Irish army. We had a few show fights, lots of yelling and dramatics, and then got into our competitive battle. While our line did quite well, the Irish still managed to break through and, according to history, cut off our feet and salted the wounds. Unpleasant.
During one of the Circles of Dishonour, there was only a group of Mercians left standing, so they decided to treat it like Honour, only fighting in pairs and no backstabbing - lame. The last two fighters to face off were Steve and Tom. As Mike Everest was introducing them over the PA system, Steve began limping over, his hand on his overly-stooped back, exaggerating the fact that he is one of Regia's older fighters. This facade was quickly shed when he struck the winning blow and cartwheeled away.
The fighting was a lot of fun and ... mostly injury free. Tunics should have a bit of blood on them anyway, adds to the authenticity. Katya has some stylish steri-strips on her lip and I won't be able to wear shorts or t-shirts to work for a while, since my skin is now smattered with multi-coloured bruises.
After training, a small group of us worked on champions fighting. Often, between line fights, each side will pick a champion to duel and these fights have to be intense, loud, and deadly. But the most important aspect of these gruesome conflicts are the insults. Medieval ‘your mother’ jokes and accusations of romantic interests in farmyard animals are all a part of the sophisticated art of taunting. It’s a delicate skill, but that, and the combat aspect, is something I want to improve on. I’d like to work up to doing a champions fight for next season.
People also continued the tradition of viking games. The tug of war was popular, especially against ØC's newest member, Charlie, who does strongman competitions. He was a very hard man to get across the line.
Walking around, the vendors and other groups were much the same as last year. I didn’t get a chance to see any of the other group's battles this year, but you could hear them. Rattling gunfire or booming cannons would cause us to jump throughout the day. A few tents over, there was a WWII singer belting out tunes from the 40's. The Zulu war guys behind us not only had a cannon, but also played reveille at the beginning of the day as they hoisted the British flag. I mostly stuck close to home for this show, chatting to Regia people, but I could still see the soldiers of the ages marching past.
The party tent at Detling is always a thing of legend. Re-enactors across the eras and from around the world embrace our weirdness en masse - especially Saturday night. After dinner at camp, we walked over to the main building. We were there a bit early, so the dance floor was mainly empty, save for one border collie who was enthusiastically trying to catch the DJ's coloured spotlights as they ran across the floor. That probably could have been the entire weekend's entertainment and no one would have complained. It was adorable. However, more people kept coming and things began to kick off. Some people stay in their various uniforms or kit while other groups get creative. ØC never managed to pick a theme, so Katya and I wore dresses that were flowy enough for dancing. Throughout the weekend, there was certainly an eclectic variety of costumes. There was a group of American cowboys who rode in on hobby-horses with much whooping and hollering, one group came as hippie protesters, shouting protest slogans and waving signs, all led by a Lieutenant Dan and Forest Gump, and one Regia group decided to come as Baywatch Lifeguards, complete with shark. There were some guys in German Lederhosen, grannies in nightgowns, Mercia had decided to buy all their outfits at the Detling traders, with a limit of 10 pounds, so their drag had a vintage flair to it, and there was even a Günter (my family's name for the inflatable dinosaur costume). Beside the more modern costumes, many people chose to stay in their military kit, so you had naval officers doing the Macarena with guys in togas, and WWII bomber pilots dancing besides a bunch of swing dancing Vikings. Battlefields across the ages would have been much more pleasant if it was just all the soldiers doing the YMCA.
Last year at Detling a few people had great coats, which looked amazingly comfortable and warm. Once I got home I ordered one and used it as a winter coat through an entire -30 Calgary winter. This year, there was a mad scramble for almost everyone to find a great coat. I was trying to find one for Steve, (even though he said he'd be satisfied with just a good one -ha), but given that he was in Canada, and at camp, and my phone kept dying, communication made it near impossible to get confirmation on it. Guess he'll just have to come out here next year if he really wants one. The great coat frenzy had a snowball affect. Katya, Jordan, and Liam all bought one on the Friday evening we were there. By the end of the weekend at least eleven people, by my count, had purchased new great coats. The worst part was that most of them out ranked me. I'll have to find new bars or stars for next year. We were going to try and get a final weekend great coat photo however the mad rush of pack down didn't really make that possible. I'm sure we'll get photos of us eventually. They proved to be a very handy purchase when it came to Sunday afternoon.
Detling weather always seems to be one extreme or the other. It's like British sink taps, burning hot or freezing cold, they just can't seem to work out a middle ground. Last year it was blazing hot, plus 35 degrees all weekend, and while this year was more manageable, for one out of the three days we had a torrential downpour. The rains started on Sunday afternoon, right after our training and the warrior's march around the site. Everyone was very quick to get under shelters, where we had to stay for the next 8 hours reciting the mantra, “I love my hobby. I love my hobby.” We managed to stay quite cozy, buried under wool blankets and furs.
A few fighers decided to take to the field anyway and looked amazingly epic, every swing of the sword sending more water flying. The sky was a sheet of grey and so a group of us bunkered down in Rob's tent where we had a rather static view for most of the afternoon, with the occasional schadenfreude moment as we'd watch a soaking wet person run by. However, the glee in other people's misfortune was short lived when we heard the sound of tearing canvas. One of the flaps on the ØC group awning had torn half off, and after attempts had been made to bring the tent under control, Townie had to take a knife to the flap. That wasn't enough, so we quickly moved everything from there and took down the whole tent. While people ran to help at the ØC tent, the Mercian tent also went down, sending their cauldron full of dinner all over the grass. There was very much a sense of 'blitz spirit' as people would run from tent to tent, offering rope, tent pegs, food, and shelter to whoever needed it, and everyone managed to still have an enjoyable time.
This was a very destructive weekend in regards to kit. The main issue was the new plastic tent that Katya and I just bought. The zipper broke when we were setting it up, it leaked like a sieve, and at take-down we realized one of the poles was already split. English outdoor stores just aren't MEC quality. The re-enactment kit casualties included 2 cuffs, a ripped neckline on my dress, a very scarred shield that had previously been newly painted, my trousers, which are no longer decent and are pretty much separate pieces of fabric, and a lost tablet weave belt, which was unfortunate since it really tied my outfits together. Still, fingers crossed that the belt will be found, but the rest of it will require a decent amount of sewing and repair.
Since I couldn’t be on our wic in kit and with a camera, I developed an amazing covert photo-taking outfit that fit over my Viking clothes: my great coat, bright red flannel pj bottoms and Birkenstock sandals with polka dot socks. I’m sure that it’s a look that will catch on. Many thanks to Konrad who took a lot of the photos while I was fighting, including this art piece.
Vivat Rex!