SCA Weekend

All In The Family... Life in The Upper South... My Various Hobbies...

Keely's medieval re-enactment group had their second annual event over the past weekend. The event was called "Shadow of the Wolf II" and it was held at the Cumberland Centre near Columbia, TN.

Keely's group is named the "Shire of Redewolf's Den", and it is part of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Redewolf is from Murray, KY, and many of its members are students at Murray State University. Its name honors the native American red wolf, once common to this area and recently reintroduced to the Land Between the Lakes, a few miles east of Murray.

The whole idea of an SCA event is to dress in medieval garb, get together with a lot of other people in medieval garb, and learn about medieval life by recreating it. A typical SCA event might include
∙ classes in various Middle Ages arts and crafts
∙ sword, rapier, and other types of combat
∙ dance classes or exhibitions
∙ a "market" where medieval garb and gear are sold
∙ court, if the King and Queen are present
∙ medieval food, including a multi-course evening feast

This weekend, I tried my hand as a merchant, selling various medieval-like items and cloth that I have gathered over the last year. Amazingly enough, I took in about $110 which wasn't bad considering that my selling prices on most items were very cheap.

As a business venture, we did not break even because there were the costs of the merchandise, buying a table and a sun shelter, the trip down and back, and the event's admission fee. On the positive side, we have an extra $110, we still have the table and sunshelter and some leftover merchandise, and we were going to have the expenses of the travel and admission fee whether we were merchants or not.

So, I consider it a positive experience. We visited with many different people who wandered by, and during the slow times, I finished the handwork on a couple of pieces of garb for Keely that I've been working on for a while. I have caught myself several times saying, "Next time..." as I talk about the weekend. I guess I'll try it again.

One nice thing that happened at this event was that the King and Queen gave Keely and four other members of her shire awards for their hard work and leadership in building their shire and getting these annual events started. Keely is now Lady Catherine the Wierd, and she has a circlet to wear on her head.

In the photo below, Isaac and I are sitting in our little market booth. I have some sewing on my lap. We are both wearing garb that I've sewed (as were several other people!) Our tent is in the background. If we were hard-core re-enactors, we'd have medieval camping gear as well as medieval clothing to wear.



Related:
In May of 2006, we attended the Tennessee Renaissance Festival This blog entry about the festival contains many photos of the different garb and costumes that people were wearing.


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