THE NEW VARANGIAN GUARD

Boys will be boys! As an historian and a history teacher I am interested in most things historical, especially the way people lived. It seems many other people share this interest. In Australia there are a plethora of re-enactment groups. I could find over fifty of these groups listed, covering many periods in history. These range from Ancient Greeks, Romans, Vikings, Knights, Condottieri, Pike and Musket, Napoleonic, American Civil War, Colonial, Victorian era, World War 1 and World War 11.

Historical re-enactors try to recreate as accurately as possible life as it was lived in the historical period they are interested in. Generally this involves adopting the dress of that period and performing demonstrations for special events, festivals, museums, educational purposes or for members of the group to gather and immerse themselves in the history they are living. Often the members of these groups will carry out extensive research into the period they are representing. For each event or public demonstration there have been days, months and years of trial, error and research to get a piece of clothing, a craft or a method of combat as close as it was to its historical counterpart.

My earliest contact with these groups was stories told to me by my good friend, historian Edgar Penzig. Edgar himself had been involved in Colonial Australian reenactment groups. When his daughter married a member of a group who reenacted the American Civil War they had decided to get married in Union uniforms. A complete colour party marched to the church, including drummer boys and flags. Of course Edgar hired a uniform for the event. He told me he was the only one there in a confederate army uniform..... but that was Edgar.

In February 1999 I marched, and I mean marched, from Parkes to Bathurst and a part of a reenactment of the Boomerang march. This was a reenactment of a World War 1 recruitment march. The reenactors followed the route of the original marchers. This began with a train trip from Parkes to Daroobalgie, then marching to Forbes, Yamma Station, Eugowra, Gooloogong, Canowindra, Cowra, Woodstock, Lyndhurst, Carcoar, Blayney, Newbridge and Bathurst.

This a a photograph of the original march.... though the reenactment group looked very similar.

The other group I became involved with were the New Varangian Guard. Guard members recreated the arts, crafts, clothing, weapons, food, art and combat of the Varangian Guard. The original Guard were Vikings and Rus who travelled to Byzantium during the 9th to 13th centuries and found employment there as mercenaries. Because of all the intrique in the court of Byzantium, and the bravery of the Varangian, they were soon enlist by the emperor as trusted bodyguards. They became known as the 'axe-wielding guard' because many were armed with axes as their weapon of choice. The Varangians fought in many battles for the Byzantine Emperor.

I attend a number of New Varangian functions. One of my favourite was the hunt weekend held by the Blue Mountains garrison. A number of 'hunt related activities' took place over the weekend. This included target shooting with bows, hunting a quarry (a well padded person) with blunted arrows, a feast and story telling. There was a young teenager there who just wanted to be in everything all the time. We ended up putting him in armour (including helmet and faceguard) and playing William Tell by trying to shoot an apple off his head. Ten people fired arrows at him....... despite the armour it must have been daunting having arrows firing at your head! We enjoyed it. I ended up winning the weekend...... not because I won any events but because I placed high in each event to give me the highest total, including the story telling. See bullshit baffles brains.

I also attended the New Varangian Guard tenth birthday celebrations in Melbourne. These were held at Monslavat, an artist colony, in a medieval hall. A friend and I walked in through a balcony at the top of the hall..... it was like being transported back in time. A medieval banquet was taking place. Everyone was in costume. There were jugglers, acrobats and story-tellers and a host of medieval food. We drank mulled wine, mead and alcoholic cider from our drinking horns, which because of the shape you couldn't put down. And that night we slept in Viking style tents.

I see on the internet that the New Varangian Guard are flourishing and have garrisons all around Australia.

Earlier days.....obviously! Stumbled across this photograph in the archives, which prompted this post.