"Are You in that Group, You Know, the Ones That Dress Up. Nan?"

"Are You in that Group, You Know, the Ones That Dress Up. Nan?"

"You mean Goths? Drag queens? Drill teams?" I chuckle and relent. "You mean a reenactment society, like The Society for Creative Anachronism."

"Yeah, that one!"

The answer is not at the moment, but not want of getting involved again. The answer is also that I used to be. And here's that story, and it is all true.

For those who don't know about the SCA, it is a worldwide organization now dedicated to enjoyment of the arts, sciences, crafts, warfare, and culture of a sort of sanitized Middle Ages where there are only nobles and life is good. That is to distinguish it from reenactment societies that recreate the era with all its warts. Local groups hold events such as tournaments and feasts and conduct classes and get themselves on the local news from time to time. It can be fascinating and a lot of fun, unless. of course, you run into some "Scadians" who forget to have any or that the newly crowned king is really a used car salesman.

In about 1967 I lived in Sacramento, California. My friend Linda Laaksdonen's sister, Patty White, was interested in a group of people mostly from UC Berkley that met in a farm house between Sacramento and San Francisco. She knew I was into the Middle Ages and had gotten Linda into it too, so she offered to take us with her to a meeting there. Linda and I did not actually attend the meeting but instead wandered around the farm. It wasn't until later, much later, that I realized that meeting had been one of the initial founding meetings of the Society for Creative Anachronism and the birth of the Kingdom of the West. The most I can claim about my part in it is that I was outside with Linda the whole meeting.

We moved to Chicago about a year later. In gym class at Senn High we were doing archery. According to Ellen Scaruffi, the girl paired with me for that, I charmed her instantly by talking about Robin Hood. It was she that heard about an event being held at a park near the University of Chicago campus. We scrounged together a couple of "medieval costumes" and went. It was the end of the reign of the King of the Middle kingdom of the SCA, Cariadoc of the Bow. Cariadoc is otherwise known as David Friedman, the son of the famous Milton Friedman, and of much greater distinction to me, the first and only King of the Middle Kingdom at that date. (They call it the Kingdom of the Middle now.) You can find his novel, Harald, at medieval-novels.com in "England -> Celts, Saxons and Danes". In the tournament that day Franz von Bllinkenlichten became the second King of the Middle Kingdom. They are on their ___ now.

Some years later I tried to join the SCA again, this time a group associated with Loyola College in Chicago, where I desperately wanted to attend the Medieval Studies program. (My father wouldn't pay for it...) I only attended one meeting, which seemed to have nothing to do with medievalism, and did not look for a new group for many years.

My husband Jim and I moved to Juneau, Alaska, in 1983. We found out there was an SCA group there, the Barony (now Shire) of Earngyld in the Principality of Oertha in the Kingdom of the West (at that time, anyway.) We got involved in a small but active group, most memorable of which was Wolf Federweiss, a musician, herald and calligrapher. We made the mistake of accepting the then Baroness's to share an actual house with her. it was SCA day and night after that. Most of the time that was wonderful, but Jim and I are not cut out for group living situations, so the living arrangement spelled the end of our sojourn in the Current Middle Ages. But while we were in Earngyld. I, Angharad of the Coppery Shields, became the chatelaine and keeper of the Golden Key (a lending library of costumes so new people can attend in period garb), and Jim, Aethelwic of St. Edward's Ford, their Minister of Sciences and and even had one of his articles published in the corporate sciences annual. I won first place in a story contest for my "The Theft of the Moons" which I wrote while thinking in an irish accent.

I am interested in joining again, but the logistics are the problem now. i live in the Barony of Aquaterra in the Kingdom of An Tir now, and the meetings are on the same night every month as my Let's Read Historical Novels group. I will look into what exists of the canton of Brarwood in hopes it is nearer and meets on a different night. In the meantime I will work on my Saxon costume and brush up on a new persona, Leofwen Taverner.

By the way, I was a member of Regia Anglorum for a year, a group that reenacts Anglo Saxon, Viking, and Norman era England. If you saw the BBC Television movie, 1066L The Battle for Middle Earth, you saw RA fighters in the battle scenes. That's what they do. Historical novelist, Elizaveth Chaadwick, is a member of that group primarily located in England. Again, it's logistics that keep me out of that group.. the nearest chapter is Westmearc, otherwise known as Oregon.

So, to answer the question, regrettably, no, not at the moemnt .. but i have been in small ways and by happenstance at some seminal events.

Are you in a medieval reenactment group? Let us hear about it in Comments! i would also love to hear from any of the people I mentioned above!

And there you have it.. enough links to start a darn good suit of mail.

Pctured above, an SCA group in Pennsylvania.