Medieval Warriors in a Campground in Pennsylvania

For two weeks every summer, a campground in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania is transformed into a medieval village where people dress and act as if they were living back in the middle ages. There are tournaments, musical performances and, perhaps most importantly, battles in nearby fields just for the honor and glory of it all. Our correspondent, Zorislav Baydyuk, reports on the Pennsic War -- a blend of the words Pennsylvania and Punic. Here is his report, as narrated by Julia Taboh.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• medieval
• warrior
• pennsylvania
• middle
• age
• pittsburgh
• society
• for
• creative
• anachronism
• festival
• summer
• taboh
• voa
• news
• Baydyuk

[rmcdaniel423]

@PescesNonMortuum There is a distinction to be made, regarding your critiques of what you see in this video. This group is not a "reenactment" group, nor do they portray themselves as such. It is a "recreation" group. Furthermore, the SCA stands for Society for Creative Anachronism. It covers roughly 1000 years of history (hence "anachronism"), from MANY different cultures, all playing together in their own unique way (hence "creative"). It's not for everyone, but everyone is welcome!

[Fancy79]

This group is not a "reenactment" group, nor do they portray themselves as such. It is a "recreation" group. Recreation!! and not everyone spends $1000.00s a suit. or at least all at once. It's a lot of research too. Not just fighting. Sewing, cooking, all types of art and sciences also.

[Dimitri0809]

What I hate about this sport is when everyone gathers in the middle and fighters are constantly pounding eachother with weapons and then there is a lot of dishonesty, I can understand the concept and dynamics of this sport but in thoery it doesn't really work properly when it comes to the honor system of this game, It would be good if sca were to use an electronic scoring system similar to the one used in fencing except wireless.

[PescesNonMortuum]

@rmcdaniel423 Alright, fair enough, still some of the groups are very far away from history - so they are "creative" - hence resulting in a fantasy-solution. So I can understand it like a kind of a half-breed of reenactment and Larp (without the magic-crap and the rubber toy weapons) - right?

[PescesNonMortuum]

@Ruskulism @Ruskulism Hmm, if what you say is true than NO soldier is actually trained for battle...because on the practice shoots and ops they dont actually kill somebody-a soldier doesnt kill somebody unless its in war....so I think your statement is simply wrong. Medieval "Buhurt" (check it out in history bookds) was exactly what knights did to practice - with blunt weapons. oh and check this out, it might change your mind: battle of the nations, episode 1

[ulfhirtha]

@Fancy79 Re-creation and Recreation, yes...and it is up to you where you land on that sliding scale

[sinnoach]

@stabamonkeyintheface There is a group in Europe the main website is sca.org

[bubbleyfication]

@SwingBlade Really?! Fatalities? Injuries yes, but DEATHS? Some documentation would be nice. I know nothing like that has happed in my kingdom. The only death at an event in out kingdom was a man who knew he was alergic to pine nuts who knowingly ate them to "see if he was still alergic." yes dehydration is a possability, but not common.

[stabamonkeyintheface]

This looks epic, pity there's nothing in Britain :(