The Fantasy Of Throwing Things
Originally published at jaredaxelrod.com. You can comment here or there.
“You want to hold the axe with both hands,” the teenager said. “Heft it over your head, take a step forward, and release.”
The axes themselves are gorgeous in in their Mad Max-style construction: steel pipe handles welded to ground steel blades, crude and brutal. You feel like you need both hands to throw these post-apocalyptic side-arms, as they are weighty with stored violence. It is, without a doubt, the safest way to throw an axe. But it’s also really hard to aim. I had trouble getting enough power to make it to the target. My axes either hit the ground or bounced off the wall. Down to my last axe-you get five shots-I asked if it was okay if I threw it one-handed.
The teenager shrugged. “Sure, if you want,” he said with the bored lack of enunciation that comes from receiving the request many times, and not seeing any difference in the granting. If you can’t make it with two hands, why try one?
With one hand, I slammed that makeshift battle-axe deep into the wooden target. The teenager was suitably impressed. “I’ve never seen anyone sink it in one-handed.”
But then, I’ve always been good a throwing things.
Photo by JR Blackwell
The Saturday at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire was a day of throwing things-axes, knives, arrows, wine bottles-on top of the usual delights of trying on medieval garb and watching sword-fights and jousts. I haven’t been back to the Renn Faire since I proposed to JR there, and was good to be back. The PA Renn Faire goes the extra-mile with their cast, staging complicated scenarios and having considerable interaction with the folks enjoying the faire. This year was no different, with William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe engaging in a theatrical rivalry, a sheriff intent on ridding the faire of gypsies, and an extremely arch Queen Elizabeth. We didn’t get to see all of the plot, but we got the gist from the human chess match-done with sword fights!-and the joust. The customary turkey legs were eaten, as was a variation on a Cornish pie, “steak on steak,” fish & chips, and the wonderfully anachronistic fried mac and cheese. Period shirts, souvenir cups and a vast amount of wine was purchased. A fantastic time was had by all.
I love the fantasy of the Renn Faire, where historical periods and locations mesh, where people of all origins gather, women can be sheriffs, and even the “filthy” people are pretty clean. It’s not about traveling to the past, or even representing it. It’s about having a good time, of being entertained and being entertaining. Where a piece of weaponry, designed to split a man’s skull becomes a game of child. You too, can throw an axe, and for a moment, imagine yourself a mighty warrior. You can throw things like anyone else.
That said, scholars of history are finding that swordswomen were not uncommon, and that Renaissance-and Medieval-society was far more multicultural than was previous assumed. So perhaps the fantasy of the Renaissance Faire is closer to reality than we realized.
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