Craziest Re-Enactment stunts or injuries

[Robert Vermaat]

Then one came in high. The man in front of it lifted his shield and deflected it away from himself. Fine. The javelin went up and over the shield wall, coming down again, point first, into the AUDIENCE. The audience moved. Oh. Fine.

At a certain event in The Netherlands, some time during last summer, we watched a gladiator show. Before the fighting there's always an act where a man from the audience is 'recognised' as a retired champion gladiator, and invited to do some stuff. Fine. This time, the guy also obliges, does some running, then lays 'dead' on a red cloak. Fine. On comes the guy with the big hammer (whatsisname?) who usually 'finishes off' dying gladiators. Fine. He swings. Fine. His hand slips. hock: The hammer flies backwards. Into the first rank of the audience (which was sitting way too much forward, before the first row of seats) where all the litle kids are sitting... We're all gasping with horor.
Luckily, the hammer hit no-one...


This is from a similar event in 2004.

[Malleus]

Madoc, aside from the issue of playing with sharp weapons, what was the effect of skewering your leg? Could you stand, walk (tripping over the shaft),or otherwise function? Did you go into shock?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, Madoc,

We might as well learn as much as we can about spear wounds, and battlefield trauma generally, from your unfortunate experience....

[madoc]

The effect ??

Well. surprisingly little pain when it went through. I reached down to pull it out but it fell out as I lifted my leg.

I then got flattened by the chap who threw it and they pinned me down until they could get me in a car to AandE.

No pain for maybe a couple of hours, but complete and utter revulsion at the hole in my leg with bits of muscle hanging out, and then the shock wore off and it REALLY hurt. One operation later and I was on crutches for a couple of weeks and then limping for a bit. Still aches a bit in cold weather and I lost any sprinting speed.

My opinion is that if such a thing happened on the battlefield and it missed your main artery (like mine did) then you'd probably be able to continue with all the adrenaline etc and ony suffer afterwards.

It does however teach us that a sharp weapon , and ours wasn't razor sharp, would easily go right through your average unarmoured bloke.

[hoplite14gr]

From what I read so far I now appreciate my sargent´s aphorisms:
"Unloadded" weapons KILL!
"Exlposives hate drunks"!
"Trainees are deadlier than artillery!"
Kind regards
Stefanos

[A_Volpe]

And as far as lives go, mine is not worth much, as you might agree. -Aedon

Aww shutup and stop whining. You just need to learn to be competent and safe with what you're doing...You say you're in no intention to hurt anyone else, but when you do foolish things like that - what if someone was in that other room and they got hit? Who's the one holding the gun? You're not being considerate of anyone doing stuff like that.

Learn from your mistakes, no matter how incredulous and never do it again....Who cares how fast you can unload a magazine? Why waste rare, vintage ammo (which could have been spoiled), go out to a firing range and use blanks if you so desperately need to prove your "coolness" with your buddies.

We're trying to recreate the Idea of what it was like in the past, not actually go around killing people or ourselves.

Reenacting safely is so much more fun, everyone has a good time and everyone goes home, if with anything, some sores, a bruise or just an aching back, and noone had to prove anything.

[Aedon]

Khaire Dudicus,

Thanks for your judgments. From your reaction I guess I did a poor job of making myself clear, so I will explain myself a little further. Even when meeting someone in person, it is difficult to pass a fair judgment on them, as we see only a glimpse of their psyche, and no point of view is more valid than another. Over the internet it is even more difficult to judge people and their situations, so I guess this explanation is futile, but oh well, why not?

Aww shutup and stop whining.

Whining? I have nothing to whine about. I was just pointing out I don't have anything to lose, which I prefer. I have an Epicurean/Samurai philosophy regarding death. Death smiles at us all, all one can do is smile back. So whining? Quite the contrary.

You say you're in no intention to hurt anyone else, but when you do foolish things like that - what if someone was in that other room and they got hit? Who's the one holding the gun? You're not being considerate of anyone doing stuff like that.

I mentioned earlier that I make sure that nobody is where I am pointing guns, even if there is a wall or great distance between us. I live far from town (Actually, I live in a dorm, but at the time I lived in the country.) and I knew there was nobody in the room or even within about a mile. Still though, I should have been more considerate about my friend's eardrums!

Who cares how fast you can unload a magazine? Why waste rare, vintage ammo (which could have been spoiled), go out to a firing range and use blanks if you so desperately need to prove your "coolness" with your buddies.

Hmmmmm, I care about observing the firing rate of a historical rifle firsthand, as the poor firing rate of the Karbine 98K was pretty important. Actually, old FMJ ammo is really easy to find, at least where I am from and I have a bunch of it. Still, I guess I should have been ejecting blanks, as blanks don't blow holes through my stuff. But it is just stuff.
I don't need to prove my "coolness," you should have heard the historical discussion we had before our experiment. We were pulling this off with historical interest. (mostly)

We're trying to recreate the Idea of what it was like in the past, not actually go around killing people or ourselves.

Good for you! Me too, but I also duplicate certain combat experiences in order to glean a greater understanding of human conflict. If you wish to know about Japanese swordsmanship, take Kendo. If you want to understand the principles of Kendo, you must be prepared to train with Shinai and Bokens. If you spar with Bokens and Shinai, you will get beat up, (Especially your wrists!) but It helps your understanding of people if you share an experience with them. Besides, it is a way of learning about yourself too. If I die, well, it is better to die than to fear dying. I will just do my best to prevent taking anyone with me.

But hey, let this be the end of this, as this sort of conversation leads nowhere. So, Jeder tut's auf seine Weise. Look to my signature... :wink:

Khaire,

-Aedon

[DAN OF BRITANNIA]

Well I'd like to nominate Madoc Again for a medal...

The reason:
The experience/information is certainly useful, use-able and quote-able.

But, not an experement that could (or would) be easily repeated! (Ow)


Before anyone thinks him irresponsible, we've worked with his group many times and they put on an educational, thrilling but very safe 1st Century show (The audience go home and talk about Roman Britain to their friends... not their lawyers)!