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Ren Faire Myth

Started by Charlotte Rowan, July 14, 2008, 10:02:51 AM

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analise

It occurs to me with all of the jokes in the past couple of years dealing with "we can't do fire anymore!" at MDRF (after an unfortunate incident involving fire a few years ago, though no one was actually injured, IIRC), that might be on its way to going for mythic status. Or maybe I just saw too many "Fight School" jokes involving "mime fire". :)

Capt Gabriela Fullpepper

Many years ago at CoRF we were allowed to carry none bound steel. One year when you showed up you could not have steel of any type peace bound or not. Myht has it that a couple of drunk SCA members pulled steel and started to have a fight chasing people around the fair. No steel on playtons lasted a couple of years and then when they did allow it all weapons had to be peace bound from then on.

I hope this is what you are looking for that maybe the myth behind peace bound weapons was caused from drunk playtons trying to put on their own act.
"The Metal Maiden"
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody e

groomporter

Quote from: Charlotte Rowan on July 15, 2008, 09:40:01 AM
Yes, exactly. In class we call it myth, but certainly "mythic icons" works too. And YES, BLT is a perfect example. And the fire at MNRF. And yes, Thistle Leather as well. Thanks!

It harder to come up with significant universal mythic icons for fairs. Twig the faerie is getting close since she does so many fairs and has appeared several times in Renaissance Magazine either in photo spreads, or adverts for various Renfairs.

Other well-known traveling acts like the Tortuga Twins, might be icons for people at several fairs on the circuit of shows they do. The concepts of Henry VIII or Elizabeth I would fit as universal symbols.
When you die can you donate your body to pseudo-science?

Blue66669

*waves hand in front of everyone*

I am not the Rennie you're looking for.....
Blaidd Drwg

Count Adolfo

Quote from: blue66669 on July 15, 2008, 07:16:03 PM
*waves hand in front of everyone*

I am not the Rennie you're looking for.....

Is that Blue speaking?  ...or Babylon?

Charlotte Rowan

Quote from: Lady de Laney on July 15, 2008, 04:47:24 PM
Many years ago at CoRF we were allowed to carry none bound steel. One year when you showed up you could not have steel of any type peace bound or not. Myht has it that a couple of drunk SCA members pulled steel and started to have a fight chasing people around the fair. No steel on playtons lasted a couple of years and then when they did allow it all weapons had to be peace bound from then on.

I hope this is what you are looking for that maybe the myth behind peace bound weapons was caused from drunk playtons trying to put on their own act.

Yes, good one, thank you!

I think there was a similar story posted on the old forums in which a bunch of Scots had their swords stuck in the ground and were relaxing nearby... when a bunch of non-Rennie teenagers came by and tried to steal one?? And then the Scots all grabbed their swords and scared the bejeezus out of the hooligans. :) Anyone recall the exact details of that story?
Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting.

Valiss

#36
Quote from: Charlotte Rowan on July 16, 2008, 09:26:51 AM
I think there was a similar story posted on the old forums in which a bunch of Scots had their swords stuck in the ground and were relaxing nearby... when a bunch of non-Rennie teenagers came by and tried to steal one?? And then the Scots all grabbed their swords and scared the bejeezus out of the hooligans. :) Anyone recall the exact details of that story?

Oh lol that was me, I almost forgot about that.  Let's see if I can remember the tale.....

It was probably 15 years ago at Fresno's faire, maybe more.  It was after hours in the evening and all the guilds were at their encampments, gathered around their fires eating, drinking, singing, dancing and all that.  Now I have come to understand that some of you guys don't have guilds at your faires, but it is common for guilds/actors in our area to stay at the faire after hours and then sleep in their encampments/shops. Many people who work at faire typically stay after hours for the fun and then camp on site.

Well like the rest, the Scots were in front of their encampment sitting around the firepit.  Many people at the time stored their blades/polearms stuck into the ground, usually in front of, or just to the side of the encampment (remember this was a while ago and rules were more relaxed). The faire itself was at a park on the edge of town as I recall, and it was mainly a grass field with some trees and the whole park was surrounded by a chain link fence.

Being that this is in the Fresno area, there are some gangs/hoodlum kids in the general area (the kind with saggy pants and pocket knifes).  Anyway, as the Scots were wining and dining, one or two of the punk kids hopped over the fence and began to sneak behind, and to the side of the encampment.  Seeing the shiny blades stuck in the ground, one of them decided to steal it.  Just as he began to pull the short sword from the ground, one of the Scots noticed and sprang from his seat - the rest of the clan immediately followed.  Seeing this, the kid took the short sword and hopped over the fence and took off running.

The next thing anyone saw was a kid running down the street, sword in hand, followed a couple of seconds later by a dozen or so Scots, armed to the teeth, screaming as loud as they could, chasing this punk down.  As I hear it, they caught up to the kid, relieved him of weapon (peacefully), escorted him back to the security booth and gave him a 20 minute lecture while they waited for the cops to arrive (remember no cell phones back then).  Those that were there said it was truly a hilarious sight to see the look on this kids face when he suddenly realized that he has pissed off many large folks in kilts who took their weapons serious and could probably wield it with surprising effectiveness.  Lesson learned!

Charlotte Rowan

HA. Yes. Fabulous. Thanks for retelling!
Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting.

Valiss

#38
Not sure if this counts.  Supposedly there have been rumors for yeas that the dress that the Queen wears at faire is 40 or 50lbs. Anyway, I found this on another forum:


Quote from: Pasha
The Mythical 50 pound Dress

At a guess, this is apocrypha that comes from the early days of Agoura. I first heard it cited as "fact" when the Guard told me how much the chair and queen weighed. An estimate of 300 pounds for the chair, maybe (depending on the woman) 125 -175 for the queen herself, and that mythical 50 pound gown.

Yeah, cited as fact. (This was the early 90s.) Without any backup, we simply repeated the stat to new people. I'll bet there's guys right now in Guard who believe they're hauling around a 50 pound gown.

That's why I wanted to do the bathroom scale thing. I wanted to a) weight the queen sans dress b) with dress c) put 6 scales on the ground and weigh each chair carrier, then have them pick up the chair, and check that weight. That'd give you an accurate figure of weight of queen, dress, chair, and also an idea of where the weight is distributed on the chair, which has always been an interesting subjective exercise-- sometimes everyone reports the chair feels light, and sometimes they all say it's heavy. Since the weight is mostly the same, save for atmospheric conditions and a few pounds here and there for fluctuation in the actress, is that caused by how the actress leans in the chair and by the height/stature of the carriers? This, of course, is the physics of fulcrums and levers, which I never took in school. Oh look, a real life application! Quick, someone use your physics knowledge.

But the 50 pound thing seems to come from costumers talking (out of their @#53) about how the gowns "back then" were 50 pounds.

Hope that helps!

GirlChris

Quote from: Count Adolfo on July 15, 2008, 02:11:59 PM
But as for specific myths... relating to a single Faire... I have not really seen them so much here myself but I know certain cast members become somewhat legendary... and that I have seen.

Bill Tuttle
King Henry VIII, MDRF and FlaRF

He is sorely missed.

Um... it was actually Huttel. He was also Henry at the Ontario Renaissance Festival up here in Canada until he passed away. The man is a legend in two countries- not many ren faire performers can say that.

Lady Neysa

Quote from: analise on July 15, 2008, 02:52:31 PM
It occurs to me with all of the jokes in the past couple of years dealing with "we can't do fire anymore!" at MDRF (after an unfortunate incident involving fire a few years ago, though no one was actually injured, IIRC), that might be on its way to going for mythic status. Or maybe I just saw too many "Fight School" jokes involving "mime fire". :)

Haha-mime fire  ;D. Not long now before we'll see "the boys" again! Yep, I agree, that one's right up there with the no weapons policy for becoming mythical status. 

RumbaRue

Quote from: Valiss on July 16, 2008, 05:51:22 PM
Not sure if this counts.  Supposedly there have been rumors for yeas that the dress that the Queen wears at faire is 40 or 50lbs. Anyway, I found this on another forum:


Quote from: Pasha
The Mythical 50 pound Dress

At a guess, this is apocrypha that comes from the early days of Agoura. I first heard it cited as "fact" when the Guard told me how much the chair and queen weighed. An estimate of 300 pounds for the chair, maybe (depending on the woman) 125 -175 for the queen herself, and that mythical 50 pound gown.

Yeah, cited as fact. (This was the early 90s.) Without any backup, we simply repeated the stat to new people. I'll bet there's guys right now in Guard who believe they're hauling around a 50 pound gown.

That's why I wanted to do the bathroom scale thing. I wanted to a) weight the queen sans dress b) with dress c) put 6 scales on the ground and weigh each chair carrier, then have them pick up the chair, and check that weight. That'd give you an accurate figure of weight of queen, dress, chair, and also an idea of where the weight is distributed on the chair, which has always been an interesting subjective exercise-- sometimes everyone reports the chair feels light, and sometimes they all say it's heavy. Since the weight is mostly the same, save for atmospheric conditions and a few pounds here and there for fluctuation in the actress, is that caused by how the actress leans in the chair and by the height/stature of the carriers? This, of course, is the physics of fulcrums and levers, which I never took in school. Oh look, a real life application! Quick, someone use your physics knowledge.

But the 50 pound thing seems to come from costumers talking (out of their @#53) about how the gowns "back then" were 50 pounds.

Hope that helps!

I happen to know the person who does the costuming for the current Southern Ren-faire at the Santa Fe Dam here in Calif., and yes those damn dresses weigh a lot!

When the faire was still in San Bernadino, I use to go to the person's home and she would bring home the Queen's dress, hang it on the back chain link fence and turn the hose on it to clean it. That's because of so many seed beads on the thing it couldn't be taken to be dry cleaned because the chemicals used take the color out of the beads....My ex was one of the Queen's Guard who had to carry the chair, the guys were totally wiped out by the end of the Queen's Parade.
I remember one year when the faire was looking for a new Queen, and a very large woman applied for the position. All the Queen's Guard guys put their feet down and refused to carry such a person. Nowadays there's a weight limit to who can be Queen.

Gee at the Escondido, and Ojai faires the Queen walks around under a canopy the Guards carry. Huzzah for her!
Being Blond means I have the right to walk into any wall.

Valiss

Quote from: RumbaRue on July 17, 2008, 12:37:53 PM
Quote from: Valiss on July 16, 2008, 05:51:22 PM
Not sure if this counts.  Supposedly there have been rumors for yeas that the dress that the Queen wears at faire is 40 or 50lbs. Anyway, I found this on another forum:


Quote from: Pasha
The Mythical 50 pound Dress

At a guess, this is apocrypha that comes from the early days of Agoura. I first heard it cited as "fact" when the Guard told me how much the chair and queen weighed. An estimate of 300 pounds for the chair, maybe (depending on the woman) 125 -175 for the queen herself, and that mythical 50 pound gown.

Yeah, cited as fact. (This was the early 90s.) Without any backup, we simply repeated the stat to new people. I'll bet there's guys right now in Guard who believe they're hauling around a 50 pound gown.

That's why I wanted to do the bathroom scale thing. I wanted to a) weight the queen sans dress b) with dress c) put 6 scales on the ground and weigh each chair carrier, then have them pick up the chair, and check that weight. That'd give you an accurate figure of weight of queen, dress, chair, and also an idea of where the weight is distributed on the chair, which has always been an interesting subjective exercise-- sometimes everyone reports the chair feels light, and sometimes they all say it's heavy. Since the weight is mostly the same, save for atmospheric conditions and a few pounds here and there for fluctuation in the actress, is that caused by how the actress leans in the chair and by the height/stature of the carriers? This, of course, is the physics of fulcrums and levers, which I never took in school. Oh look, a real life application! Quick, someone use your physics knowledge.

But the 50 pound thing seems to come from costumers talking (out of their @#53) about how the gowns "back then" were 50 pounds.

Hope that helps!

I happen to know the person who does the costuming for the current Southern Ren-faire at the Santa Fe Dam here in Calif., and yes those damn dresses weigh a lot!

When the faire was still in San Bernadino, I use to go to the person's home and she would bring home the Queen's dress, hang it on the back chain link fence and turn the hose on it to clean it. That's because of so many seed beads on the thing it couldn't be taken to be dry cleaned because the chemicals used take the color out of the beads....My ex was one of the Queen's Guard who had to carry the chair, the guys were totally wiped out by the end of the Queen's Parade.
I remember one year when the faire was looking for a new Queen, and a very large woman applied for the position. All the Queen's Guard guys put their feet down and refused to carry such a person. Nowadays there's a weight limit to who can be Queen.

Gee at the Escondido, and Ojai faires the Queen walks around under a canopy the Guards carry. Huzzah for her!


I certainly don't doubt that the Queen's dress is heavy.  But I would implore anyone who thinks it 50lbs to weight it and come back here to tell us.  An easy way for someone with the dress to weigh it would be to stand on a scale and weigh yourself. Then pick up the dress and stand back on the scale and subtract the difference. While I had never heard of this myth before, I tend to agree that the dress itself probably isn't a full 50lbs, but that's just a hunch.

Ojai is a great faire, btw. In terms of setting, it is only rivaled by Valhalla faire.



Lady Gwyndolyn

It would depend on how decorated the gown is.  I have several myself and I weighed the outer skirt for the one that is most decorated. By itself the outer skirt weighed 6 pounds, but it is beaded all over.  I hope that this information helps.
Lady Gwyndolyn
Duchess of Kearsley

GirlChris

Well, it would all depend on the materials as well, wouldn't it?

I know that my governor's daughter outfit weighs in at 10 lbs. But it has plastic boning, no corset, no stuffed sleeves or shoulder rolls, no chemise, no beading and no hoops or padding. It's made of cotton and linen. And that's what it weighs without accessories and jewelery.  Not even shoes.

Now, imagine with a steel boned corset, steel hoops, lots of beading and trim, puffed sleeves, a bumroll, made from velvet, and jewelery everywhere.

Maybe not 50 lbs, but it could definetly get up there.