GREAT FALLS — If you're a fan of medieval history, you may be interested in joining the Society of Creative Anachronisms (SCA). On Saturday, the SCA chapter in Great Falls hosted Fool's Revel, which is the group’s main spring event.
“This is going to be our arts and sciences competition,” said Angee Steir, who goes by Ladyship Saffeea Zevce Boga with the SCA. “Our bardic competition, which is singing, storytelling, dancing. Performance, basically.”
The SCA was created in 1965 by medieval enthusiasts and has grown into a full-fledged medieval reenactment group with more than 60,000 worldwide members.
“The difference between what people consider LARP (live action role-playing) and us is, this is based on historical fact,” Steir said, “We are taking history and making it real.”
People met up from around the Kingdom of “Artemisia”, which consists of Montana and parts of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.
One of the many other aspects that entices people to join the SCA is the realistic fighting. Members wear realistic and historically accurate armor and spar with weapons made out of rattan.
I spoke to a man who went by Litiljohne (Pronounced Little John), who showed me his homemade leather armor. Every stitch and rivet in the armor was done by him over the course of two months.
“About 110 individual leather plates and each plate has four rivets and burrs,” Litiljohne said, “So around 440 rivets that I had to do by punching the holes, setting the rivets, and every single one setting individually.”
The SCA is a tight-knit community that invites everyone to stop by and see what they’re all about.
“These are my friends,” Steir said. “I left for 12 years because life took us away. I came back because these guys are my family.”
More information regarding the SCA and the Shire of Stan Wyrm can be found here.
(MARCH 21, 2024) The Shire of Stan Wyrm is part of the Society for Creative Anachronism, or SCA - a national nonprofit organization that recreates life in the middle ages.
The SCA has numerous "kingdoms around the world with more than 30,000 members. The Kingdom of Artemisia covers Montana, Utah, southern Idaho, and parts of Wyoming. The kingdom is then separated into several shires, with the Shire of Stan Wyrm based in Great Falls.
The president, or seneschal, of the Stan Wyrm Shire is Marion Hatch, also known as Lady Bianca De Monte. She explains the group focuses “on teaching and learning everything we can about the medieval period”.
The group meets at least once a week to work on their crafts together; Lady Bianca does weaving and sewing, while others do woodwork, medieval cooking, metal work, or any number of other medieval activities.
“We do have fighting,” she noted, “and that’s what draws a lot of people in. There’s heavy fighting, which is sword and shield with armor. And thrown weapons. So throwing knives, daggers, spears - that’s one of our local favorites”.
On Saturday, April 6th, the Shire of Stan Wyrm will be hosting the Fool’s Revel to celebrate spring and April Fool's Day. There will be classes including medieval hairstyling, music, games, and a tournament.
Lady Bianca said, “Come as you are. We’ll have some garb that people can borrow if they’d like to dress up and play around a little. There will be arts and sciences to view and then fighting to watch and classes to attend on different subjects."
The Fool's Revel will be on Saturday, April 6, 2024, from 9am until 6pm at 1300 First Avenue North in Great Falls; click here for more information.
For more information about the Shire of Stan Wyrm, click here to visit the website.
