The Valhalla Faire, 2008
June 5, 2008 by The Crier · Leave a Comment
The South Shore’s annual renaissance faire returns to the 16th century, and returns to the Valhalla site from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 7, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 8.
Pirate Weekend caps the festivities, but fairegoers needn’t worry about the scurvy seadogs overrunning the faire: There are knights about and at least one guild dispensing justice and mediating disputes.
“We had a splendid time last weekend. The weather was terrific, the crowds happy,” organizer Marti Miernik said in an e-mail. “(The) Knights of Avalon provided the audience with a spectacular show. The games of skill showed Quint (Ross, a Tahoe native) the winner, as did the joust. Lances broke, and so did the armor in fact as the knights charged at each other time and time again.”
The Knights of Avalon return to Valhalla for a second year, but many members of that band have been coming to Tahoe’s renaissance faire for decades. The arms and armor are authentic, but training, and a couple of modifications, keep the combatants safe.
“We train many, many hours,” said Bil Woodford, aka Sir Eaton Blackheart, co-founder of the Knights of Avalon.
“We basically are very careful about how we joust.”
“Most joust shows are just two guys hitting each other with a stick,” he said.
“All of our shows are different, so we always add something fun into it,” Woodford said. “If you saw every show the whole week, you’d never see the same show.”
The steeds also lend to the authenticity, on the jousting grounds and beyond. The knights use draft horses exclusively (last week’s show featured a percheron, a Belgian and a Clydesdale), and the members take care of horses when the faire is over: The Knights of Avalon are a 501 (3) (c) nonprofit horse rescue organization.
“We use the show as a way to keep the horses, one, in good health because it’s very expensive, but it’s also a way to rescue horses,” Woodford said.
Along with the jousting exhibition, the St. Dismas troupe will demonstrate English swordfighting. Other guilds and exhibitions this weekend include the St. Maximilian landsknect troupe and the Piccolo Puppet Players presenting “Punch and Judy.”
And a Tahoe favorite keeps the peace among the different guilds. According to member Clay Cunningham, the Court of St. Aidans is easy to find.
“We’re the loudest and the most obnoxious guild there,” Cunningham said.
The Court of St. Aidans mediates disputes between guilds, fairegoers, production managers and other participants — that is, when it’s not involved in an embroglio of it own, such as one last week that involved the Polish guild, a catapult and grapes. (Cunningham said the Polish guild explained that it was merely offering St. Aidans wine — albeit wine the court would have to make itself.)
“Our motto is everyone is guilty until bribed innocent,” Cunningham said. “Either we’ll tickle them with feathers and yell ‘naughty, naughty, naughty’ at them until they repent their sins. If that is not sufficient, we pour cold water on them until they cry uncle.”
“We’re more extortionists than anything else.”
Mediating disputes might sound like hard work on a summer weekend. But it’s something Cunningham and Co. look forward to and miss when the faire is over.
Unfortunately it is the last weekend,” he said. “We live for this, my friends and I.”
