Medieval Market

Chad and the girls once again had the day off on Monday, so we decided to check out the Middelalder Marked, also known as a Medieval Market, that we had seen advertisements for.  It ended up being a really fun event.  It’s kind of a historical reenactment event complete with handcrafted “medieval” items, period costumes and entertainment.  We thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the marketplace and wished that we had brought more cash with us!

The Kids could battle with a Troll.

We saw some really neat things.  We ended up coming home with a hand-carved in-laid jewelry box and a hand-carved Dragon relief to hang on the wall.  But the best part of the day was the entertainment.  They had knights sword-fighting and they were really going at it.

It looked like a real fight, with hard sword swings.  They also did a mock battle.

The commentary was all in Danish, so we didn't really know what was going on, but it was fun to watch.  They nearly ran us over in the beginning.

They had women doing tricks with fire.  I was a little worried about this.  We were sitting right in the front and they were flipping around these burning sticks and a couple of times they fumbled them.  I was worried they would drop them on us, but luckily, no one was injured.

I just felt bad for the guy they pulled out of the audience and proceeded to singe his chest hair.  They also had some “jesters” doing acrobatics and juggling.

 
At one point they asked for a volunteer from the audience.  The kids were sitting in front of us and Myra was just about wetting her pants trying to get them to pick her.  But all her hopes were dashed when he stepped passed her and pulled ME! out of the audience!  I have always really detested being singled out for things such as this.  Even as a kid, I would never volunteer.  I just always feels silly and awkward up in front of people like that.  But, I figured I had 2 choices, I could feel silly and awkward or I could just embrace the moment and try to put on a good show for the kids, especially Myra who was physically shoving me forward onto the field.  Luckily I didn’t have to do anything embarrassing.  The jester tricked me into giving him a neck massage and then picked me up and flipped me around.

When my part was done, he reached in and kissed me on the cheek!  Not the most pleasant of experiences considering he was drenched in sweat and I had to seriously wipe it off the side of my fast.  Ick!  Myra was so ecstatic about my “performance” though and just about knocked me down once I got back into the audience.

I love the look on her face.  You can see how excited she was.

But, my favorite part of the day was watching the Jousting.  Have you seen the movie the Knight’s Tale?  Well, this was just like that movie.  Fully-suited knights performing tricks on their horses, such has putting a staff through a ring or lighting a small object on fire.

They even battled each other with swords on horseback.

  But, the best part was the actual jousting.

 

Selling Honey Bread to the viewers.

There was no way it looked like any sort of an act.  They were really racing their horses down the field and hitting each other with the long jousting poles.  It was so fun to watch!  I think they have these Medieval Festivals a few times throughout the year, so we’ll probably go to one again.  It was a great activity.  We all loved it.  

Random girl walking around with an Owl on her arm.