On Sunday and Monday the magic troll, the Da´, and myself made for Münzenberg in Hessen, site of an annual reenactment fair. The weather was promising, but there were a few clouds spelling mischief, but me cutie was not worried a bit. "Jonny´s there," she said. "-"And what if it rains?"-"Jonny´s there." she replied.;-)
When we arrived at Münzenberg castle, there was a huge line of people waiting. Seems to be that the rout at the love-parade in Duisburg had an effect on the EU - law situation (and we all know what that means:-( ) So the organizing team was not allowed to allow more than 800 people at once into the castle. The fair takes place for some 20 years now, with not so much as one incident. But chief bureaucracy has it that a castle has to have an entrance, an exit and several emergency exits. Too bad they did not build it in in the medieval ages, would have made for interesting sieges*ggg*. While we waited, we made funny jokes ("Bring out yer dead! LEON!!!*ggg*). As usual, the vikings had a laugh while slowly being roasted by the sun, while the templars fainted like flies*ggg*. There were several templar gentlemen waiting behind us who had a bit too much booze and thusly being a bit wobbly in the knees. It was quite hot, and I daresay there were more "casualties" in the waiting crowd than would have been in case of a fire. Bureaucracy and paranoia make funny twins at times.
The line waiting to be permitted...
Behind the gates there was a harpist harping like mad... and of course,
Jonny was already composing a satire against the city´s safety referee. Please remind me to never cross this man... I would not want to have my name sung at a thousand reenactment fairs all over Europe! But no worries whatsoever, he´s a great man, and I daresay he could be called a genius. He is a
druid in the OBOD, and his musical skill is amazing. Jazz on a harp anyone? He was already improvising on his ex tempore satire, when someone from the organization staff came by and TRIED to command him "Hey, you should play something more medieval!" He just looked up at him, sneered : "Why should I?" and continued as before. When he was done, there was a satire named "Orga-face" that he sang while the orgaface was stynding beside him. He just does as he pleases and goes where he wants. Certainly not my style, but where´s the harm? He is a great guy I feel privileged to have met.
The beauty and the beast.. I leave it to your interpretation who´s the balding beast...*ggg*
Sundown over Münzenberg castle...
Impressions of dusk. When the first day was done, we made for the camp. There was a huge session of musicians going on. I made some vids in a lousy quality, that I will publish later. Again, it was Jonny leading the pack. After that, we made for Marburg, had some food and quite a fill of mead on the terrace of the magic troll´s place;-).
On Monday we were a tiny bit reluctant to rise early, but rise we did, and drove to Münzenberg again. Again some waiting in line, and we were in.
There was this lovely stone sculpture booth on the area. I really liked this wood spirit... have to do that in wood sometime soon... very inspiring.
Another one, not so funny.;-)
This one´s for the ladies...
Funny gargoyle, if you ask me... you want to cuddle him all day instead of being frightened.*ggg*
I also liked those Bès / Telesphoros figurines.
Grmlgrmlgrmlhavetostandherealldayandstandgrmlgrmlgrml.*ggg*
I still have that saliva on the shoulder piece of my tunic from the magic troll drooling all over the place over these torques...
...lovely indeed, and I was having a hard time keeping back my drool, too;-).
A great inspiration to my crane bag...
A bronze javelin tip I rather like a lot. Don´t know what I´ve got with those recurve shapes, but I´ve got a thing with them going on...;-). Love the engravings, too.
A shield buckle in the Celtic style.
Javelins.
Those chains really got me by the balls, and I really have to try that myself. Everywhere I looked, they seemed to be. They are worn as belts by Celtic reenactors.
An arrow quiver with a very cool décor, if you ask me:
Then we made for
Nico´s booth. Nico Runge is a master blacksmith offering-amongst many other things- workshops in swordsmithing and the like. We had a nice chat, and he is a hard-working guy with "the fire" in his heart and eyes. He simply loves what he does, and he does it well.
Those knives were not quite my (personal) style, but great craftsmanship nonetheless. Those surfaces obviously tell something of his being a master!
Fibulae and axe heads. The tools are made from spring steel.
A complete Roman armour kit for sale.
The master at work. He worked with children, and they waited in line to get to the anvil. And some of them had that look in their eyes that told that the fire had been kindled in their hearts! Great job, Nico!
We could not help but noticing an infernal noise going on, as the Skalden were starting to play, oversized bagpipes, you know;-). We whined for help, and Jonny came to our rescue, the brave archer enemy of any noise riot*ggg*. Is it a bird? ;-) Is it a plane? ;-) No, it is SUPERJONNY*ggg*, rescuer of music and good taste...;-)
...for he cannot just sing his satires and his thrash songs. Few know now, but he has a lovely repertoire of Breton folk songs and own compositions. If only he played them all the time, for they are beautiful enough!
For us, he did, and we sat down there for a song, and simply listened. By the way, the harp he plays he made himself. He also plays the guitar, bagpipes (oh, yeah, he DOES!;-)) and the Faecalophon as well as eggcutters and mouthharps.*ggg*
There also was this great booth offering cups and bowls and oil lamps, all handmade earthenware.
And the magic troll got herself a new cup.
We had some delicious food, watched some Huscarl fighters giving each other a right whacking, and simply smelled the roses.
Then we made for home, said goodbye, and Erich cared like a Daddy ;-) for us by buying a load of mead. Back on the terrace we had a ball and quite a fill, so much indeed, that I fell asleep in mid-sentence, if only for a second, and I haven´t had that experience for some 20 years. Meaditation anyone?*ggg*
But before we drove home, we visited a stone age burial site, but that is another tale and shall be told in another post;-).
It was a wonderful day, plain and simple, with the most wonderful people I have met in years, and the one friend of my soul and her Da´, who is quickly becoming very close, too.
