I’ve volunteered a few times to try dress the part of a Canadian townswoman from the 1860’s for events at Dickinson House<\/a> in Manotick, Ontario. I’ve quit that for now. Why? Reason one: I’m too far behind on my own projects. Reason two: I didn’t feel I was doing it “right.”<\/p>\n It wasn’t very hard to find clothes and re-purpose curtains from thrift stores to pull off an old-fashioned look. But I always knew it was slap-dash at best, and plain “wrong” at worst. The right real wardrobe would be of natural fabrics (wool, linen, cotton). It would not use zippers<\/a>\u00a0and would be hand sewn following patterns I wasn’t properly replicating.<\/p>\n Re-enactors in a tournament melee in 2011. Photo: Marko Vallius<\/a>, Creative Commons, some rights reserved<\/p><\/div>\n Basically, there’s playing at re-enactment and then there’s serious re-enactment. And, some might say, there’s seriously kookie re-enactment. As described by this New York Times article on an event happening in Aigues Mortes, France right now (May 9-12), to wit: “The Battle of the Nations<\/a>“.<\/p>\n Filed under sports, the Times article is headlined: “The Holy Grail of Battle Re-enactments.<\/a>” Reportedly, about 500 participants representing 22 national teams will turn out for match formats that range from one-on-one, to 21 against 21, to all against all – in mass melee<\/a> fashion.<\/p>\n As the Times explains:<\/p>\n Full-contact armored fighting events grew out of participation in historical re-enactments, which are largely theatrical and tame. More common re-enactment fighting involves wooden weapons in the United States. The Battle of the Nations, in its fourth year, is the first international full-contact competition of this scale that uses steel armor \u2014 a heightened risk factor that has attracted a certain breed of fighters. It has been won by Russia every year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Kind of like a\u00a0medieval\u00a0video game, only real. There’s much more – including videos – at the Battle of the Nations website. The U.S.A. wasn’t even a gleam in any nation builder’s eye when knights\u00a0flourished\u00a0in Europe. But there is a U.S. team<\/a> which looks to consist of hefty, mature<\/a>\u00a0specimens. (Slim and small physiques may want to sit this out from the sidelines.)<\/p>\n What do you make of this? Are these fighters nuts? Or just gung-ho?<\/p>\n I’ll close with the famous Black Knight scene<\/a> from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (“It’s only a flesh wound!”)<\/p>\n ——————————<\/p>\n![\"Reenactors](\"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/files\/2013\/05\/melee_800-300x198.jpg\")
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