The Role of Reenactment and Combat in Markland

[Cap'n Atli]

A version of this was posted on the Markland "General Discussion" BB; but since a number of past and current Marklanders hang out here, I figured that I could also get a good variety of opinions here, too. Also, the "free armor give-away" hoax provides at least some other folks here with a passing knowledge of the subject.

The Role of Rec and Frat, Reenactment and Combat, in Markland

This subject was raised by folks discussing Hastings XXXXI and the current low level of reenactment in Markland. Some of this was generated by a troll (who spent some time debating and taunting him/herself) but a lot of it is a legitimate concern and a part of the larger view of what Markland was, is, and could be.

First, of course, some history.

Markland started out as a reenactment organization; in 1969* we began with a recreation of the Battle of Hastings, where we pictured ourselves as loosely following the path of the many American Civil War reenactment groups. “Same job; different date.â€

[Konstantin the Red]

Well spoken, Atli. I remember Wilhelm Greycloak from his Fort Meade days, circa 1981-83 CE, and I believe it was your longship I one afternoon pulled an oar on around Baltimore Harbor, maybe summer of 1984. I remember the gal behind me just could not catch the oars' beat and I kept thudding into her knuckles every stroke of the oar. That got real old after the first five minutes.

[Cap'n Atli]

Knuckles in the back while rowing; Konstantin:

Close quarters seem to be a persistant problem on these vessels. On the Sæ Hrafn we actually stretched the spacing a few inches beyond the historic norm to reduce this problem. It can still happen, but not nearly as much. On the Danish Sea Stallion, they had the same problem when they fully manned the oars, and were most comfortable rowing every-other thwart.

On both the Gyrfalcon and the Sæ Hrafn we will sometimes row "whaleboat style" with oars alternating, one to port on one thwart and one to starb'd on the next thwart. This is actually pretty efficient on the faering, and rather more comfortable; and eliminates the "knuckleback" problem completely on the longship (if you have a small crew).

So, returning to the original thought, sometimes being able to do something both ways is generally a good thing!

[Klaus the Red]

[quote]These are usually described as “fake fighting with real weaponsâ€