Iv'e been into medieval history since I was very little, begining an arms collection at age 7. I am now 15 and expanding my collection and my knowledge. Now though, as I get older I don't want to just read about it, I want to experience it. I want to get into re-enacting but quite frankly I have no idea how. I was wondering if anyone on myArmoury was into re-anacting and just wondering how to get into it.
-james

hehe

james, where are you in maryland?
there are a ton of groups there. my main group is www.lordgreys.org
in april there is a giant reenactor event called marching thru time. its in glen dale md.

Zowie, if you're in Maryland, all you need to do is decide which era to dive into first! As Chuck says, you DEFINITELY want to come to Marching Through Time on April 22-23. Costs 3 or 4 bucks to get in, and there are about 30 different groups there ranging from Romans and Celts up through the Gulf War. It's at Marietta Mansion in Glenn Dale, MD:

http://www.pghistory.org/MariettaMansion.html

I'll be there with my Roman unit this year, the Twentieth Legion, but I have friends in many other camps as well. Next year I'll be going as the Bronze Age.

http://www.larp.com/legioxx/

http://www.larp.com/hoplite/bronze.html

http://www.larp.com/hoplite/

http://www.larp.com/midgard/

On February 19 I'll be at Fort Ward park in Alexandria, doing a Revolutionary War battle with the First Maryland Regiment (and others).

http://www.toad.net/~onemr/

These are not all the eras I've been into, by any means! The sky's the limit, and you should definitely listen to your mood swings. Have fun, and I hope that helps!

Matthew/Quintus/Aelfric/Pvt. Amt/etc.

If you want to get into it relatively inexpensively at first, you might want to get in touch with Bob Gresh. He's interested in getting together a group of Irish Kern (peasants) in your area. The minimum for a Kern impression is probably just the typical Irish shirt/tunic and a spear, axe or darts (three dowels with $6 arrow heads, fletching optional). These guys often went barefoot and bare-legged. Can't get much cheaper than that unless you'd like to portray a stripped battlefield corpse. You'll see the Kern hairstyle in any American high school these days--round and shaggy, hanging down into the eyes. They were clean-shaven or wore mustaches. See this thread for info about the Irish and use Bob Gresh's posts to get in touch with him if it sounds like something you'd be interested in:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...t=kern+axe
I think he's planning on going to the Marching Through Time event described above.

By the way, the typical Irish "spar" or fighting group consisted of a Gallowglass mercenary and two kern attendants, often quite young. Even at your age, you'd fit right in. The figures at right and left in this image are Kern. The fellow in the middle is a Gallowglass. The second image below, drawn ca. 1520, shows Irish fighters armed and equipped to varying levels. The two figures at far right are Kern. As you can see, most of your work/money would go into your tunic and mantle (cloak). Bob is currently sewing a tunic (called a leine) so he could probably hook you up with a simple pattern and source for cloth.If those Irish darts (giant arrows, basically) don't do it for you, you could get a spearhead for under $40 and mount it on a poplar closet pole in under an hour with only a knife.

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You guys got anything for medieval reenacting?? Particularly VA and MD???

Be thankfull you don't live in Missouri. Here we get to pick from U.S. civil war north or south.

Hi everyone,

Actually I'm in a similar position to J. Bedell, I would eventually like to move from just reading about armour to reenacting, although as yet I don't really have the time or money.

Does anyone know about Medieval reenactment groups from the Northwest of England. I know we have the Sealed Knot in Liverpool and Chester who do sterling work, but I'm interested in something earlier, more medieval, Ideally mid to late 15th century (i.e. Wars of the Roses era).

Thanks

Oh yes and BTW thanks for posting that picture Sean. It looks like an Osprey picture, which book is it from? :)

Thanks Chuck!

This'll get me started. I'm just in the "thinking about it" stage.

I am in a position similar to J's. I too am 15 and looking for reenactment oppertunities. Does anyone know of anything in the louisville KY area that's not civil war?

Akkk, you guys are killing me. Try living 200 miles from nowhere in which there are all of two people that know what the word "Medieval" even means, or have seen a book detailing the Migration era, or a sharpened blade longer than a bowie knife. If you think I'm exagerating, even the SCA doesn't have anything around here, and the closest place to do any re-enactment is Wichita - 210 miles as the eagle flys. Yep, I hate this place, mwhahahahaha. Glad to hear there are active groups for you young guys to get involved with!

For medieval, esp 14th and 15th century, a good site for info and networking is http://www.wolfeargent.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
They have a Re-Enactment Group Directory page that lists many groups, and usually contact info.