Several years ago

actually more than a few, back when i was in my starting 20'ties....
I was in a viking reenactment group. Having a great place as home city, near Trelleborg, Slagelse in denmark. One of the biggest fortifications from viking denmark.
We did shows of coreographed combat with live steel swords. Was quite fun.

Back then i searched the internet, and actually found a few mentions of the SCA. Curious about what it was, i looked it up, thought it looked nice, and promptly forgot about it.

A few years later, i stumbled across the SCA again on the web, it was during my time as an apprentice for the armor smith store, called "Hvide Horse, Fionia" or white horse, fionia. They were also a medieaval reenactment company, setting up an entire mercenary guard.
I only read about the SCA, in the armoring content, as i was looking around for ideas for armor.

While i normally have trouble even learning how to do simple stuff with wood, cloth or any other substance, once i started shaping metal, i was hooked. It seemed i had a natual affinity for it, and i quite quickly was up to speed on all the basic parts of armor making. My master, enjoyed finally having someone to bounce ideas around with, and i was just happy to have found something i enjoyed so much.

Alas, all things come to an end, and we ended up having a bad fallout, which ended in me beeing discharged. It was not a job, more like a practice thing to do during my studies. But still it was sad to go.

A few years after that, roughly 3 years ago, i looked up the SCA again on the web. Read extensively from all the sources i could find and track down, studied what the SCA was, looking for video clips from all sources. The holy grail was to find a video of pennsic. Still havent found one, as it seems the only one there is, is one you have to pay for, and as i do not have a way to get cash on paypal or visa, then it's quite difficult.

So if someone have a used DVD of pennsic, i would love to borrow it for a month or two...

Now having studied SCA for a few months, i decided i truly wanted to do this. Drafted a few of my friends, we 5 paid our membership dues, and started the Incipient Shire of Eresborg. The first few months were a blast. Having meetings and fun. Then 3 of them started being hard pressed from real life, and suddenly we were only 2 active people. That sucked.

But lo and behold, the kingdom chatelaine, whom i was writing quite a bit with, asking all the stupid noob questions one could ask, told me of an american couple who were living in denmark for awhile, and of a few others living around denmark being members. So our count rose again. Though we never were able to get hold of the others living around denmark, we did meet the couple.

Had a few fun evenings, but they weren't really active. But they did provide some good stories.

During those days, we drafted another friend of ours, and we 3 decided, that we were going to go to Double Wars, the biggest event and war in Drachenwald. Being only a few months away, having no clothes, no armor, no weapons, and no idea, we started searching for solutions.

Living in central copenhagen at the time, it was impossible to find a cheap place to rent to have a workshop. So we were forced to buy armor on the web. In such a short time, it would be impossible to get a plate suit of armor, so we decided on plastic. Bought full plastic suits all of us, and ordered a few helmets from Drachenwalds local importer, to arrive at site during Double wars. So no time to practice.

Well we got the suits of armor, and we needed to custum fit them. And pad them. It ended up being me padding 3 suits of armor, with foam, glued to the inside. And not using a proper mask to the contact glue. Man my nose was ruined for a year after that... while the other 2 guys were sewing all our clothes. Just basic stuff, so we had something to wear.

Then we rented a car in sweden, drove it over to denmark, picked up all our stuff, and drove off to sweden again. Yes the car was 50% cheaper in sweden, thats why.
Enter our first event. Double wars 2005.
Luckily, our 3rd members parants, had an apartment 30 min drive away from site, so we went to the apartment to stay. And to finish some of the clothes we still needed. Which was alot.

Actually we were scheduled to leave copenhagen on friday, but it became sunday before we left. And we did not arrive at site, until monday. And during the next few days, we got to site after noon, and stayed there till evening, when we returned to the apartment to finish more stuff. Finally come thursday, we were ready and were at site almost full time. Though going home some of the nights to sleep in a good bed and get a shower.

We practiced a fair bit, and got help fitting our helmets from peole who know what worked. Had a blast, and finally authorized. Fought in the first day war, and i became a marshal in training during the second war day.

Well that was my first event ever... maybe i'll tell more about the event some day. But for now, cya next time. Hope you enjoyed it.