Arrow to the Knee: swords

Monday, 24 June 2019

Medieval Fayre: Viking Invasion

We attended our first Medieval Fayre together this year. The Medieval Fayre is a yearly event held at Muldersdrift, and it is an amazing experience. People dress up in medieval garb and participate in axe throwing, mock battles, tomato throwing, archery, tavern quizzes, impromptu dancing, and much more.

This year's theme was Viking Invasion, which was right up our alley (we pride ourselves on our surname being from Nordic origins and translating to 'champion'). It also happened to coincide with our fourth wedding anniversary, so we grabbed some tickets and made a weekend out of it.

Marius buying mead, a tankard, and a drinking horn.

Some of the other raiders were happy to pose for a picture.

Ye Olde Information Booth.

These dogs were undoubtedly some of the stars of the Fayre.

A rare picture of us together.

The Jarl Couple Tickets got us turkey legs and craft beer, along with some other things.

Eating meat like a Viking.

Your friendly neighbourhood Norseman.

Getting some archery tips from a professional.

Vegetable Justice - you pay to throw tomatoes at a very insulting criminal in the stocks.

Marius attempting to deal justice with a tomato (we missed all our throws).

Curly fries and yummy burger.

Fairy tales do come true - Marius found a unicorn.

The bacon doughnut was another popular item at the Fayre.

Action shot of Annalene practicing to shoot her enemies.

Annalene got her very own driking horn fit for a jarl.

Axe throwing lessons - one of the most satisfyinig sports EVER.

Annalene enters the ring to Fight-A-Knight.

Our loot haul from the Fayre. Mead, tankards, drinking horns, chain maille jewellery.

An official photo of some of the merrymakers. We are just left of the centre.

A blacksmith practising his trade.

This handcrafted gladius was exquisite.

Some vikings ready for feasting.

So many people dressed for the occasion. The atmosphere was amazing.

Marius shows off the 'dragon claw', a drinking horn with a sling for easy transport.

Some gear for the Fight-A-Knight area.

Marius is ready to bludgeon his opponent.

Marius enters the ring, ready to fight.

We had a total blast, and would recommend this to anyone who loves alternative events, history, or dressing up. We cannot wait to hear next year's theme.

A short video of Marius fighting a knight.

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Lord of the Rings collection

Today, we'd like to share our Lord of the Rings gear with you. We've made our love for Star Wars and superheroes pretty clear by now, but both of us are also huge Tolkien fans! And as an added bonus, we happen to live in JRR Tolkien's birth town - Bloemfontein, South Africa.

When we moved in together, we actually had doubles of the Lord of the Rings books and DVDs, so we gave away the extras and combined our collections.

We actually bought Andúril (Aragorn's sword) for our wedding - perhaps one day we'll have a blog post on that - so that was our first combined Lord of the Rings purchase. Unfortunately, Middle Earth craze seems to be subsiding a bit, so epic Lord of the Rings gear is in short supply in most places. We found the sword in a very random Chinese toy shop in Bloemfontein - someone else had ordered it, but never came to pay for it / pick it up, so the owners let us have it. Score!

There are different opinions on the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movie adaptations, but both of us have agreed never to speak of the Hobbit movies.

In addition to the collection pictured below, we also have a bunch of Lord of the Rings games (most of them digitally purchased, borrowed or sold, so not pictured): Shadow of Mordor (PS4), Lord of the Rings War in the North (PS3), Lego Lord of the Rings (PS Vita), Battle for Middle Earth (PC), and Lord of the Rings Conquest (PC).

So without any further ado, here are the pictures: