Medieval (Yes, Medieval) Times

Not so very long ago I went to a picturesque little spot in the English countryside called Loseley Park, which not only has terrific ice cream but also, in the summer, hosts the Loseley Medieval Festival. Alas (or, perhaps, thankfully) this is not a medieval festival in the way of the (in)famous Medieval Times -- and in fact you can get utensils here. This is not a picture of a man with a utensil, but it is a picture of several men running through sword drills with wooden swords and itty bitty tiny little shields. Those shields don't look like they'd do much.



The Loseley Medieval Festival, along with about a jillion others held during the summer in England, is peopled by groups of "Re-Enactors" like the Medieval Siege Society (Limited) and the Paladins of Chivalry. No joke, these people are serious dudes. Check out Lance Guy in the picture to the left. I like his hat. He's also doing...something...to that lance, which will be used in an honest-to-gosh jousting tournament, with real lists and real armor and real lances and real people falling off their real horses onto the real ground. Yikes. Here are a couple of the real Destriers doing their riding-and-jamming-lances-at-each-other thing.



On our way out we saw these folks striding purposefully across the lawn. No idea where they were going or what they were doing, but they were certainly marching in a dedicated military-type manner.