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Party of mythological proportions
Sep. 13th, 2019 07:42 pmLast weekend I didn't have the budget to travel to Oogstfeest II in Trivium (Belgium) from my home in Frosthiem (Luleå, Sweden). I did, however, manage to travel as far as the Shire of Uma (Umeå, Sweden), where their Seneschal was celebrating his 30th Birthday with a "Fest av mytologiska proportioner".
Three of us got on the road not long after noon and had a lovely drive south. Since costumes were encouraged (he had said "Därför är temat på den här festen just mytologi, med inriktning mot våra nordliga trakter. Kläd dig som en hjälte ur sagorna, eller kom som det knytt du är, ta chansen att gestalta dig som völva och sejdare, kom som sjörå eller svartalv, möjligheterna är många. Kommer du som Fenris kommer vi behöva fjättra dig, så tänk dig lite för. Som tröst kanske du får gnaga på någons hand iofs.", I went the lazy way and just put on my Viking tunic and borrowed a sword to be a hero. Linda, who was visiting from the UK, borrowed a tunic, some elf ears and a hat with curly brown shoulder length hair to cover her straight, short blond hair. Oscar, our driver, on the other hand, had decided to come as Fenris, so I spent the drive sewing some teeth* to a wolf nose for him.
We arrived early, at about 16:45, and found our host and some of his friends busy attaching sheets of painted plywood to the wall in the hallway. They had done it so that once in place there was a large “cut stone” archway over the entrance to the living room, next to which there was a very large leg, that looked much like the leg from Babba Yagga’s hut that had graced the party invitations (whatever the leg was attached to one couldn’t see, as the ceiling of the hallway cut the leg off abruptly before it reached the hip of the house or over-sized bird). On the other side of the archway was a large decorated runestone, painted in a lovely dark maroon-red and yellow. The painting on the runestone wasn’t quite done—there were still some decorative red bits to do in one of the yellow roundels, and it was necessary to paint over the screw heads holding the plywood up, so I was delegated to that task, as soon as I finished getting the cake I had baked and brought with me onto the serving plate and ready to eat. After I finished touching up the painting it was nearly time for the party, so I helped the host into his costume.
His degree is in forestry, and he loves trees. Therefore, given the mythological nature of the party theme, he chose a delightful costume, as a part-tree creature. He had collected bits of a thick bark from a tree, which I cut into reasonable sized bits and glued onto the small of his back, making a triangle of bark from the top of his hips to just short of the middle of his waist. Once the triangle was covered in bark and there was a bit of time for the glue to dry, I took some brown paint (presumably for face-painting and other costume use) and painted the gaps between the bits of bark, and did a feathered edging to blend the brown from the tree into his normal skin tone. Once the bark and paint dried, he completed the costume with a large bit of leather belted around his waist as a skirt, and some necklaces. Even though I had done the work of attaching the bark and painting between it, I was really delighted with how convincing the effect was—he really did look like he grew that bark himself and that it was supposed to be there.
A number of the guests also chose the easy way of just wearing their normal SCA costumes for the occasion, but there were a few other fanciful/mythological costumes to go with the elaborate decorations they had done to the house. I love being involved in an organization where even our “modern” parties can have so much arts and crafts in their execution.
Because our driver had things to do at home on Sunday, we three left the party a little before 01:00, which got us home right at 04:00. I sent our host a “got home safe” note when we arrived, and about an hour later he replied letting me know that the party was finally over and he was heading to bed. I would have enjoyed staying for the rest of the party, but I had a great time talking with my travel companions on the way home, and it was nice to have Sunday at home to recover from the trip and short sleep before work on Monday. (A luxury that doesn’t often happen when it is an SCA event I am traveling for, so I appreciate it when it does.)
*One of my uncles in Alaska made his living back in the 60’s and 70’s as a fur trapper, and turned the teeth into necklaces and earrings to sell to tourists. When we moved there, when I was 9 years old, he gave my sister and I each a fox-tooth necklace. She gave me hers as “gross”, when she went vegetarian while at University. I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out, since I adored that uncle, and the animals were long dead—getting rid of their teeth now wouldn’t help anything. Therefore, both necklaces have both been sitting, unused in the bottom of a box of childhood keepsakes for decades. Turning them into a costume for a party seemed like a great use for them. Somehow, I doubt many people seeing the Fenris costume would notice or care that the teeth were fox and not wolf.
Three of us got on the road not long after noon and had a lovely drive south. Since costumes were encouraged (he had said "Därför är temat på den här festen just mytologi, med inriktning mot våra nordliga trakter. Kläd dig som en hjälte ur sagorna, eller kom som det knytt du är, ta chansen att gestalta dig som völva och sejdare, kom som sjörå eller svartalv, möjligheterna är många. Kommer du som Fenris kommer vi behöva fjättra dig, så tänk dig lite för. Som tröst kanske du får gnaga på någons hand iofs.", I went the lazy way and just put on my Viking tunic and borrowed a sword to be a hero. Linda, who was visiting from the UK, borrowed a tunic, some elf ears and a hat with curly brown shoulder length hair to cover her straight, short blond hair. Oscar, our driver, on the other hand, had decided to come as Fenris, so I spent the drive sewing some teeth* to a wolf nose for him.
We arrived early, at about 16:45, and found our host and some of his friends busy attaching sheets of painted plywood to the wall in the hallway. They had done it so that once in place there was a large “cut stone” archway over the entrance to the living room, next to which there was a very large leg, that looked much like the leg from Babba Yagga’s hut that had graced the party invitations (whatever the leg was attached to one couldn’t see, as the ceiling of the hallway cut the leg off abruptly before it reached the hip of the house or over-sized bird). On the other side of the archway was a large decorated runestone, painted in a lovely dark maroon-red and yellow. The painting on the runestone wasn’t quite done—there were still some decorative red bits to do in one of the yellow roundels, and it was necessary to paint over the screw heads holding the plywood up, so I was delegated to that task, as soon as I finished getting the cake I had baked and brought with me onto the serving plate and ready to eat. After I finished touching up the painting it was nearly time for the party, so I helped the host into his costume.
His degree is in forestry, and he loves trees. Therefore, given the mythological nature of the party theme, he chose a delightful costume, as a part-tree creature. He had collected bits of a thick bark from a tree, which I cut into reasonable sized bits and glued onto the small of his back, making a triangle of bark from the top of his hips to just short of the middle of his waist. Once the triangle was covered in bark and there was a bit of time for the glue to dry, I took some brown paint (presumably for face-painting and other costume use) and painted the gaps between the bits of bark, and did a feathered edging to blend the brown from the tree into his normal skin tone. Once the bark and paint dried, he completed the costume with a large bit of leather belted around his waist as a skirt, and some necklaces. Even though I had done the work of attaching the bark and painting between it, I was really delighted with how convincing the effect was—he really did look like he grew that bark himself and that it was supposed to be there.
A number of the guests also chose the easy way of just wearing their normal SCA costumes for the occasion, but there were a few other fanciful/mythological costumes to go with the elaborate decorations they had done to the house. I love being involved in an organization where even our “modern” parties can have so much arts and crafts in their execution.
Because our driver had things to do at home on Sunday, we three left the party a little before 01:00, which got us home right at 04:00. I sent our host a “got home safe” note when we arrived, and about an hour later he replied letting me know that the party was finally over and he was heading to bed. I would have enjoyed staying for the rest of the party, but I had a great time talking with my travel companions on the way home, and it was nice to have Sunday at home to recover from the trip and short sleep before work on Monday. (A luxury that doesn’t often happen when it is an SCA event I am traveling for, so I appreciate it when it does.)
*One of my uncles in Alaska made his living back in the 60’s and 70’s as a fur trapper, and turned the teeth into necklaces and earrings to sell to tourists. When we moved there, when I was 9 years old, he gave my sister and I each a fox-tooth necklace. She gave me hers as “gross”, when she went vegetarian while at University. I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out, since I adored that uncle, and the animals were long dead—getting rid of their teeth now wouldn’t help anything. Therefore, both necklaces have both been sitting, unused in the bottom of a box of childhood keepsakes for decades. Turning them into a costume for a party seemed like a great use for them. Somehow, I doubt many people seeing the Fenris costume would notice or care that the teeth were fox and not wolf.