Maldon Revisited

[robinturner]

The Battle of Maldon lesson went reasonably well. I'd been nervous that I wouldn't be able to fill two hours, but in fact I did that and left some over for the next lesson. I wasn't able to do as much in the way of simulating Saxon combat as I'd hoped, but at least I got them to make a shield-wall by holding up their bags while I attacked them with my two-handed axe board marker (this is a variant on my legendary hoplite simulation). After going into a lot of nerdy stuff about the arms and armour of the Dark Ages (which the nerdy FRPG types in the class loved, bless 'em), I read out the poem with various students taking the speaking parts: "Remember you're in a Saxon drinking hall with a lot of people quaffing mead and going 'Aaaaargh!' so you have to speak LOUDLY!"

Trying to demonstrate a blood-eagle on a female student without the kind of physical contact that could result in accusations of professional misconduct was also interesting. Must remember to pick a boy if I ever do this lesson again.

This "living history" stuff is cheesy but fun. Back in the summer, I was talking about education with maggie_lucy about this kind of thing, and she mentioned the headmistress at my primary school (where she also worked) making us kids run up a hill to some castle walls so that we got an idea of the importance of high ground in military tactics. "Bloody hell, I remember that!" was my response. I'd forgotten about it for 35 years, then suddenly there I was in my mind, sweating up a grassy slope.

Comments

Pretty Cool!

[(Anonymous)]

It was one of the most exiting classes I've done in almost years. Being an actual saxon fighter :P in that wall was exicintg ehe-he.
"which the nerdy FRPG types in the class loved, bless 'em"

one is me ı guess ehe-he :D yea ı really enjoyed the class. we were thinking of playing a game about that ages so it really helped me to think about the people, environment etc. :P
not only for education and for frp :P :D!!!!

emirhan 'the jolly joker' demirel

"Nerdy FRPG types"

[solri.livejournal.com]

That phrase came from a colleague who said, when I told him I was planning to do this theme, "I suppose you'll get all the nerdy role-playing-game types." My answer was "Suits me fine - I am a nerdy role-playing-game type!" I don't have time to do any role-playing these days, though. The last RPG I was in was about five years back: we played Vampire: the Masquerade and a cyberpunk game I adapted from some generic rules I found on the web.