We’ve been doing this for years.  It’s a recreation of an event from the Iron Age that was recorded in a Roman history (no, I don’t know which one–Aes, do you remember?)  The non-combatant women of a tribe dressed in white with copper belts.  They danced around their warriors, chanting something that the witnesses couldn’t understand.  The warriors grew frenzied.  Battle ensued.

So Maddog wakes everyone up by drumming softly at their doors.

Folks get woaded.

Etaine painting Suibhne.

(I wove her belt)

Many of our friends walk down from Canada, like a sleepy Edain, ready to fight:

And Morgan and Shay, who I think had coffee before they walked down the hill:

Both pretty darn bright-eyed, for the crack of dawn.

And our friends from Tir Thalor:

Who make quite a show

This year, Lily suddenly turned into a warrior:

And even worked up a ferocious face for her new sport.

Woading going on all the while:

Have I mentioned that our circle has a pretty high percentage of women who fight?  It’s still a pretty rare thing, I guess.  It just makes sense to us.

Once everyone is ready to go, we process up the big darn hill, singing and drumming, and, you know, awesome-ing (and not in a “that hot dog was awesome” sense, a la Eddie Izzard).  Then we group the fighters together in a group, and we women in white dance around them, chanting something we chant.

I’d show you more, but I can’t both participate and photograph this happening.  Other people certainly do, though.  I know our friend Ursus has taken some great shots, because he’s taken great shots of everything.  Darter chronicled it last year.  Gwyneth got it the year previous.  It’s also been recorded by a particular photographer who regularly attempts to profit off of us and our friends but refuses to give us free or discounted prints and has never once recognized the need to obtain a model’s release.  Boo to her.  We are not museum exhibits–we are people who deserve kindness and fair treatment.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS