Robin Hood Pageant

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Today, Kia and I attended the Robin Hood Pageant today at the Nottingham Castle. The pageant is a living history festival complete with homemade crafts, puppet shows, music, jousting, fighting, and falconry. Kia and I wandered around and watched one guy making a bowl, looked at spices, watched a shoemaker, and looked at the goods that were for sale. Kia held a falcon which in her own words was "really awesome". I shot 8 arrows and over half of them hit the target, not necessarily near the circle but they did hit the target. The key, I guess is to keep your hand that is holding the bow relaxed and draw your thumb of the opposite hand back to rest on your jaw bone. I only hit my arm with the bowstring twice which is probably better than I have ever done. Then we watched a really bad puppet show entitled "Robin Hood and the Monk" - yeah, a bad title. We didn't stay to watch the end. It was basically one guy operating the different puppets on a stage that hung around his neck. He tried to do different voices but it didn't work too well. The we wandered up the hill to where the playground is normally, but today there were more tents and stands to watch the fighting, jousting, and falconry. One of the tents had Green Man hangings that were carved by hand. The Green Man is "the embodiment of the nature spirit, the living pulse of the forest and the earth as it is felt by our humanity". Also this likeness is carved on many churches and is associated with Robin Hood and other folk heroes. I bought a few Green Man hangings and then we took seats to watch the in-between-act entertainment (not so good), the Dogs of War who did a story about Robin Hood with some pretty sad rhyming, and then the jousting. I liked the jousting a lot. We go to boo the Sheriff of Nottingham, cheer on Robin Hood (although where he learned to joust I have no clue, and how would an outlaw keep a horse in the forest anyway?), boo Guy of Gisbourne, and laugh at a very seemingly-drunk Friar Tuck (although I am not sure why a friar would be jousting). At one point the good friar was fighting and I think it was Guy who pretty much took him out with his sword. I didn't think it was good for one's soul to harm a churchman, but that is Guy of Gisbourne for you. It was also at the castle that I had my first hamburger that tasted half-way decent - and it came with onions and cheese so that could have helped, and I was really hungry. I would really like to do living history stuff like that - it was kind of like the Renaissance Festival but much smaller and more realistic. I can't wait until I can go somewhere with the Living History Society!

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