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Driving home from Aarnimetsä
Aug. 23rd, 2015 01:16 pmThis weekend we attend our first event in the Barony of Aarnimetsä, in the canton of Kaarnemaa (Oulu, Finland). The site was a lovely cabin in the forest, on a beach, and while the building is glaringly modern, it is the onlt modern thing in the area--the rest is trees, beach sand, and lightly salty water.
The event was much fun--there were somewhere around twenty of us on site, more than half locals, but a few travellers. We two were the only ones from Frostheim, but the Baron and Baroness and a few others came up from southern Sweden.
One of the guys on site is a boy from Belarus who is studying spider genetics at the Uni there. He had done lots of Medieval reenactment back home, and was glad to have found the local SCA, though he is still a bit skeptical about the "Kingdoms" thing, and about mixing time periods at one event. He taught some bransles, one of which (Hermits) I hadn't seen before.
Most of the people on site, but not all, were fluent in English, which is good as our Finnish course doesn't begin till October. Durring the feast I read aloud the story of the first SCA event, written by Dorthea, who was once (or more than once?) Bard of the Mists. The Herald did translation/interpretation for me. I let him read the text first, then I read out the story, with pauses every few sentences for him to say it in Finnish. The story was well received.
Many people expressed interest in my hammer dulcimer, and I learned that they happen to be the national instrument of Belarus.
All in all it was a fun event, and I will certainly travel over for their events again--it is only a three hour drive (four if you count the hour time change). Several of them expressed interest in coming over to Frostheim for Norrskenfest. I hope they do.
The event was much fun--there were somewhere around twenty of us on site, more than half locals, but a few travellers. We two were the only ones from Frostheim, but the Baron and Baroness and a few others came up from southern Sweden.
One of the guys on site is a boy from Belarus who is studying spider genetics at the Uni there. He had done lots of Medieval reenactment back home, and was glad to have found the local SCA, though he is still a bit skeptical about the "Kingdoms" thing, and about mixing time periods at one event. He taught some bransles, one of which (Hermits) I hadn't seen before.
Most of the people on site, but not all, were fluent in English, which is good as our Finnish course doesn't begin till October. Durring the feast I read aloud the story of the first SCA event, written by Dorthea, who was once (or more than once?) Bard of the Mists. The Herald did translation/interpretation for me. I let him read the text first, then I read out the story, with pauses every few sentences for him to say it in Finnish. The story was well received.
Many people expressed interest in my hammer dulcimer, and I learned that they happen to be the national instrument of Belarus.
All in all it was a fun event, and I will certainly travel over for their events again--it is only a three hour drive (four if you count the hour time change). Several of them expressed interest in coming over to Frostheim for Norrskenfest. I hope they do.