The Blog Devoted to All Things Medieval; Weapons, Armor, Knights, Castles, Books and More ———–Never Give a Sword to a Man who can’t Dance - Old Celtic Saying
The Stormthecastle.net forum is starting to bubble with activity and there are some interesting things happening. We have been getting visits from some very special guests and creatures.
A Magical Phoenix named Fawkes has descended upon the Bestiary of the castle and is making claims to foresee the future.
And in Lady Castle’s Corner a true high borne lady of nobility has given us her secret recipe for Mincemeat pies called Magic Mincemeat Memories which is a true Christmas delight.
There are some interesting things going on and if you like medieval things you might want to buzz on over to the forum, register and join in the fun. Storm The Castle.net Medieval Forum
Here is a video of a massive battle of Armored Soldiers at the Yearly Pennslyvania meeting of the Society of Creative Anachronism.
Last night I attended my first meeting of the local chapter of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) and it was a real blast.
If you aren’t familiar with the SCA they are an organization that studies all aspects of medieval life during the middle ages. At the top of this post is a video of a two groups of knights engaging in battle and it’s pretty cool but you have to understand that fighting in armor is just one small aspect of what the SCA is about. They are all about everything in the middle ages and they have a very active schedule in a lot of things including Study and Reproduction of Sieges, warfare, Fencing, Brewing, Fiber Arts, Blacksmithing, Tailoring and well everything.
So if there is a particular aspect of Medieval Life that you are interested in the SCA will have something for you.
About the Appeal of experiencing Medieval Life
I have given some serious thought to why I like Medieval things and at the meeting last night I asked other people the same question and I think it comes down to two very simple things.
Simplicity and Richness
We live in very complex times. Everything is piped into us at the speed of light and there isn’t a person in this world that doesn’t want things to slow down a bit. This is where the allure of the middle ages comes in. I think it was a simpler time but simpler isn’t a negative. It is a big positive because it came with a richness. The Middle ages weren’t a time where people spend all their time lounging around underneath trees and hanging out in pubs. There was a richness to life in those times and this richness came from the variety of things they did from arts, crafts, tailoring, blacksmithing, combat, architecture, food and so much more.
It was simple and rich. For me there is a deep enrichment in taking my time and brewing some mead, building some armor, telling stories around a campfire, and many other simple but rich things.
I really think that the experiences within the SCA bring people closer to what we all as human beings are supposed to experience in life. Seriously! Is it better as a human being to play a pixellated knight in a video game or to actually pick up a wooden sword and actually face off against somebody?
If you want to learn more about the SCA or find a chapter local to you check out their website: http://www.sca.org
You might know that I have owned stormthecastle.com for almost ten years now. I got it way back when most people didn’t even have a computer. You might not know that several years ago I wanted to expand things by getting more websites and one of the sites I wanted to get was stormthecastle.net but to my dismay it wasn’t available. A garage band in Arkansas called Storm The Castle had snatched it up and this was always a thorn for me.
Anyway, I kept an eye on their registration and every year I would check to see if they re-registered the domain. And well several months ago they let it run out so I happily snagged it! So now I own stormthecastle.net and my plan is to make it a hub for all things medieval.
I have started to develop materials for the site and the first thing I have put up is a forum to discuss medieval things. If you like medieval things then you might want to hop on over and register with the forum. Some of the conversations are getting quite lively and more people are registering.
Hop on over, choose a medieval user name, and pick out an avatar from the great collection I have put together!
