The Renaissance Faire!

The trip began, as trips usually do, with planning sometime in advance. We found the North Carolina Renaissance Faire on the internet. We had to rent a 15-passenger van for the drive (an experience in itself), but it worked out well and we only got lost once. Not even lost, really, just turned around a bit...

The real adventure driving was the last, on the drive home over the mountains: snow!

We spent two weeks researching costumes, then made a few shopping trips. We spent less than four days on construction (including the wee hours of the morning and the minutes before leaving the hotel room the morning of the Faire :D); a few pieces were purchased (such as Miss M's shoes--Wal-Mart special!), much was modified or built upon thrift store finds, and the rest was made from scratch.

Working on costumes in the hotel room, the morning of the Faire.

---

The Locksley Children
The older four, from left to right, are Master Thomas, Lady Miriam, Sir Owen, and Master Henry. The younger two remain Master C and Miss M.

---

The Faire was great. There was the usual motley assortment of people from mundane tourists in jeans to fairies and pirates to the serious period reenactors (quite a few of these, to our delight). The Queen's Grace was there herself with her guards and court, and we think we spotted Sir Walter Raleigh (though I may have missed him, as I was making obeisance at the time). We spotted one varlet in a T-shirt being hauled away by the guards for trying to sit in the Queen's chair.

Elizabeth, by the grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland.

Her Majesty's court. We believe the chap with the Order of the Garter is Sir Walter Raleigh.

There were displays of horsemanship (and horsewomanship...) and jousting, which was great although not quite up to Ashby-de-la-Zouch standards. They played dramatic music on loudspeakers at either ends of the lists, which was unfortunate, but luckily didn't much affect the fun of the joust. There were also rings set up in several places where they had fencing and broadsword fighting, SCA style, and some demonstrations with metal weapons.

The German champion preparing to tilt.

The German champion being unhorsed by the Italian.

There were dancers, singers, and minstrels all about the grounds. Inside the main building they had set up a stage for dancing, and the performances ranged from belly dancers to the Highland Fling. We heard a group of madrigal singers practicing (though we didn't stop--too many empty tankards about for the offspring of Sir Reginald Locksley to countenance :D ).

The madrigal singers.

There was an excellent gallery inside an old church on the fairgrounds, where they had reproduction period manuscripts, a collection of books on the period, and various other things such as a miniature demonstration of a printing press and life-sized cardboard silhouettes to show the average height of Elizabethan adults (surprisingly short--the man was perhaps 5' 6" and the woman about 5'). Oh, and an autographed photo of Queen Elizabeth, a.k.a. Cate Blanchett :P. At one end of the church there was a woodwind trio playing beautiful period music.

An illuminated letter on display in the gallery.

There was a group of acrobats, called Barely Balanced, that performed twice while we were there. They were a lot of fun to watch--a bit nerve-wracking, too, sometimes, juggling knives and whatnot. At the very end one of them did some firebreathing, and that was really neat (we got no pictures of that, but they have some at their site).

Barely Balanced.

The place was thick with vendors, of course, and there was plenty to look at. We bought some traditional Welsh cookies at the inFAMOUS Welsh Cookie Co., which proved quite good--little cakes with currants and nutmeg, baked on a griddle. Otherwise the food was disappointingly modern. Master Henry spent a good deal of time lifting, examining, and generally drooling over the swords at the weapon shop. I, Master Henry, and Lady Miriam got to hold a replica of Anduril, which was (dare I say it?) too cool for words. There were trinket shops and instrument shops, costume shops and hat shops, and a chainmail shop where they were giving lessons in the craft.

The gentry patronizing the Welsh Cookie Company.

We kept having people invite us to the costume contest. When we got there it was not what we had expected--only a few entrants (the well-dressed patrons of the Faire were excluded), and the judging perhaps a bit biased in favor of the cute little fairies. But Master Henry's costume won the Peasant category and he got a T-shirt and bag with the Faire logo.

---

There seems to be much to learn about period manners and customs. There is a particular way that the men make obeisance to the Queen--one foot behind the other, with the body bowed forward. It looked like there was a certain way to hold a napkin (though I didn't inquire) and one old gentleman stopped us to show us the proper way of escorting a lady. (The lord raises his right arm level with the ground and the lady places hers on top of it. If, however, during the course of the day, she has reason to be displeased with him, she may mark it by lifting her hand from his and leaving a space betwixt for the hand of any wanderer that may pass by.)

Our reading had of course given us some acquaintance with Shakespearean English, but we found that reading or even reciting it is a very different matter from speaking it fluently. "O, for a muse of fire" doesn't help much when trying to ask your way about, and "Double, double, toil and trouble" doesn't make for good smalltalk. It would take quite a bit of research and practice to learn all the terms of address for different classes and when to use them. Another time, perhaps.

Enjoying ourselves at a show.

We learned a lot about period dress during our research, but we still have a long way to go for authenticity. More slashes, more ornament, some ruffs, fewer trips to Wal-Mart, etc. If we could do it again we would also make some changes for our own comfort, such as tights that don't slip and corsets that don't bunch, but taken altogether the day was a blast and we'd love to do it again sometime. Forsooth, yes!

The end of a long day.