Sunday, September 27, 2015

My havoc garb adventure

This weekend I attended Hollow's Havoc VI and had an awesome time, but in the rush of loading my car I made a classic mistake. I forgot my garb.  That's right I found myself 2 hours from the house and already running late for the event and nothing to wear. I considered going home and calling it a disappointment. I thought about going in and see if a friend had a loaner, but a very simple and inexpensive solution came to mind. I rolled into Walmart and bought a yard of the cheapest fabric they had and a pair of scissors. So for right around $4 I was able to create a very simple Tabard. No it wasn't pretty. After all I just split the fabric in half and made a place for my neck to go through by tying it back together at the corners. In retrospect buying 2 yards would have been better.  Then i could have just cut a neck hole and used it. Either way I hid my street clothes and got to fight on.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Were the Vikings victims of propaganda?



During the ninth and tenth centuries Europe was plagued by invasions. Magyars from the east, Muslims from the south, and Vikings from the north put a great deal of pressure on European civilization. Vikings showed remarkable ingenuity expanding north into Russia, the continent of North America, England, Italy, and even to Constantinople.
While they most certainly could be savage, they were not just savages. They had a rich culture and were highly adept at trade. The tools and tactics used by vikings were complex and effective. The long ships they utilized were well designed capable of both handling the high seas and of navigating inland on rivers. They were faster and more maneuverable than anything any one else had on the water at the time.
They showed no preference between trade, piracy, or raiding. They often did not invade with the goal of conquering and occupying territory. Rather they seemed motivated by profit and would utilize whatever method was best afforded to them by a given opportunity to gain it. They had a knack for striking at the most vulnerable targets at the most opportune time, then vanishing before the local authority could muster their forces to respond.
Vikings plundered places where money and goods could be found and being non-Christians had no problem with targeting churches and monasteries. Churches at the time were rich in precious metals that were difficult to find else where so they became prime targets for the Vikings. The clergy were among the few who could read and write during this period so their writings would often paint Vikings in the worse light possible.
Clergy described their attacks as horrific and disastrous. They described Viking warriors as barbaric, violent, and evil. Many of the images that carry on to this day are a result of these writings like the depiction of the Viking with horns on his helmet going so completely berserk in battle that he would kill both friend and foe in his battle frenzy or the description of the blood eagle as a form of ritualized execution. This was an obvious attempt to demonize the Viking with the addition of horns and indiscriminate blood lust. Today their is debate about whether any of these depictions had any basis in reality.
While Vikings most certainly could be savage and brutal they were not alone in this. The same could be said of any of Europe’s invaders and of the local lords and kings. Obviously the tales of Clerics were biased propaganda designed to paint the Viking in the worse light possible. One good example deals with the town of Dorestad which clergy blamed the Viking for removing from the trade route, but which we now know historically happened because the river changed course.
Viking raids most certainly hurt communities in the short term, but in the long term some believe they aided in Europe’s recovery. The precious metals the church’s had been hoarding were minted into coins and put back into the economy. The trade routes that they opened helped to spread all of that coin around. Many communities that had degenerated into barter trade (a system which offers no room for economic growth) for lack of coin suddenly found themselves with new opportunities open to them. This eventually opened opportunities for intercontinental trade that helped to revitalize Europe’s economy.

So while it is true that Viking raids did destroy trade centers and cause destruction, they also built new trade centers that were superior to the one’s they displaced. While it may seem barbaric to raid churches they took precious metals being hoarded by the church and reintroduced them back into the economy and they managed to reopen trade with the east that had collapsed with the fall of the Roman Empire. Yes, the Vikings had their faults but they were not the depraved, the ignorant savages often depicted in imagery.