Medieval Fayre-ee Tales

Yesterday afternoon I wandered down to the Medieval Fair we have annually in Colchester, the Oyster Fayre. I forgot my camera, as per bloody usual. It's lots of fun - some serious re-enactmentyness, some random hippyness plus real ale. Can't go wrong really. This year I was by myself and went for just the afternoon so didn't see as much of the puppetry, mumming, falconry, archery etc as some years although I did peruse the stalls fairly thoroughly (no surprise there, then). I had my runes read for a laugh and recieved food for thought.


Pan's Pantry, my favourite incense suppliers were there and I bought some of the aptly named 'God's Smile' incense. I love this stuff. A few years back I discovered the joy of loose incense, thanks to their stall at Oyster Fayre and am now an incense snob as well as a beer snob. To be honest I find the loose incense rather less convenient than sticks, so don't use it as much as I'd like and have a box full of baggies of loose incenses. It's not a small box either. I'd take a picture but frankly it's a bit embarrassing and the box is a pain to move out into the light.

I was pointed to the stall of Viking Kristall by a friend I bumped into who had succumbed to some seriously beautiful viking silver jewellery. I managed to avoid the charms of the silver and fell for the bronze instead:

The spear heads are beautiful, speaking of war and weaponry and yet their leaf shapes recall nature too. The spear is the special weapon of Odin, and yet also the weapon of the common soldier. Cast over the heads of the enemy it began battles in Odin's name. And yet there's the leaf there too. I love that juxtaposition, though I know it was probably not intended by the maker. It feels very Heathen to me.