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Kongemord – A LARP Where I Had to Act Like a Lady (Never Again!)

It’s been a while since I have done one of my ultra-long LARP posts, but I am afraid this won’t be it. I just realized that I hadn’t shared any pictures from Kongemord, a one-day Danish historical medieval LARP I went to this summer. And considering how much I suffered for this costume, it really won’t do not to show the proof.

It was 28 degrees (that’s a LOT for Denmark), and not only did I have to wear a heavy dress, but the friend who had convinced me to join her for this game also made it absolutely clear that wearing a smock underneath was not optional. I am now convinced that the only reason women in medieval times didn’t throw themselves off castle walls more often was that they couldn’t bloody move.

Never again. Don’t get me wrong, the game was really well-made, but having to navigate those benches in the dining hall all day while wearing multiple layers of skirts is a special kind of torture.

Kongemord LARP Cecilia Nielsdatter

Ahem. About the game: as mentioned, it was a historical medieval LARP set in Denmark in the late 1200 and loosely based on the murder of King Erik Klipping in Finderup Barn. The name “Kongemord” literally translates to “King murder”, which makes it slightly funny that this was one of the few LARPs I attended that wasn’t heavily focused on murdering each other.

(We did have the king murdered, but that happened between acts, and it was all very political.)

Kongemord LARP Niels Sunesen

The game was all about intrigue and political alliances between the country’s powerful families. I played Cecilia Nielsdatter of the Rodsteen family, the oldest daughter of Niels Sunesen and sister to Magnus and Elena. Their father was a right bastard who made enemies left and right, squandering what fortune the family had left, and his only son was a gentle soul who was more interested in becoming a monk and serving god—much to the disapproval of his father—than becoming the new head of the family. This left Cecilia and Elena to be the responsible ones who took care of practical matters, and try to mitigate the damage done by their father, all while trying to protect their dear brother.

Kongemord LARP Rodsten Siblings

So, I did say that this was a game about politics and not murder, but… Cecilia’s main objective was to get married to a man with enough influence to help her get rid of her father in order to protect both her siblings and their family name. And she totally considered murder to be an option.

I haven’t started playing meek characters, even if they appear to be more well-behaved than usual.

Kongemord LARP Walk

I will say this: while the first half of this game was very uneventful for me, the second half got pretty damn crazy. I managed to get engaged to three different men in the span of an hour (none of them being the one I had picked for myself and attempted to make a match with), my dear brother—who had no interest in finding a wife—got married and disowned by our father, and our sister orchestrated a plan that ended up with our father both accused of the murder of our mother and banished for treason, then eventually killed as he tried to murder Elena in front of everyone. 

Good times.

 

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Did You Know Birthdays in Denmark Can Get Rather Spicy?

Pepper Denmark Tradition

So, what’s been going on in my life lately?

Well, I turned 30 earlier this month, so of course my friends tied me to a lamppost and covered me in ground pepper.

Pepper Denmark Tradition

Let me explain:

In Denmark, it’s tradition to cover a person in certain spices if they reach certain age milestones without having gotten married. On your 25th birthday it’s cinnamon (I dodged that one) and on your 30th, as you can see, it’s pepper.

So, how did this tradition start? Well, I’m fairly sure it has something to do with how the Danish expression for an ‘old maid’ is ‘pepper maiden’ (pebermø). Don’t ask me about the cinnamon. For all I know, that might just have been made up by people who were afraid the jackass mate they wanted to harass would get married before he turned 30, so they needed an earlier occasion.

As far as I know, the Danes are the only ones with this tradition. Probably for good reason, since – if your friends are assholes – it can be a rather horrible (and borderline dangerous) experience.

I, however, know that my friends aren’t complete sociopaths who would go overboard with no regards to safety (google it if you want to see what I’m talking about), so I told them they could do it, but also demanded that if they were going to do it, they had to do it properly. Tie me to a lamppost or don’t even bother!

They were happy to abide.

I did get back at them, though. It was a windy evening, and my loose hair was whipping around and throwing pepper at everyone involved. It also felt like a bit of payback for all the times I have been compared to the girl from the Grudge. Fear the hair!

(Insert evil laughter here)

I also tried to hug people after I got free, but for some reason they kept running away from me…

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Twitter Trends and Grotesque Ignorance

Twitter TrendsI decided to swing by Twitter to waste a bit of time during my break today. I looked briefly at the Trends panel (something I usually never do) and had to shake my head when #rapedbyaslothanditwasamazing was the first thing that met my eyes. Seriously, what’s wrong with people?!

But that wasn’t the worst thing. To my big surprise, I saw København(Copenhagen) and Danish among the trending words, and it puzzled me, since Denmark normally isn’t of much interest to the international world. And that’s when I saw, to my great horror, the words ‘Marie Krarup’ among the trends.

To anyone unaware of this, Marie Krarup is a Danish MP who visited New Zealand and offended the Maoris quite harshly with a bunch of ignorant and racist comments about their culture. You can read The Daily Mail’s article about it.

I read the article in the Danish news a couple of days ago and actually discussed it with some friends, but I honestly thought that it was the kind of blatant ignorance some politicians spurt out every once in a while, and would just be forgotten in a day or two. Which is why I was very surprised to see it laid out on Twitter, and as a trending topic, no less!

Marie Krarup is a member of the Danish People Party, which is widely known in Denmark as sometimes being borderline racist, but this is stupid even for them. And I can’t express how embarassed I am that this is the view the world gets of the Danish these days! Fortunately, I can tell you that the Danish people are raging against her as well. But still, she refuses to apologize, even though I doubt anyone is on her side.

Krarup says that some of her comments were ‘lost in translation’… I’m not sure exactly what the translation changed in her mind, but the Danish article was pretty bad already.

All in all, a bad day to be Danish on Twitter!

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Graduating in Sunshine

Graduate Girl Dress StudentIt feels like this has taken forever, but I can finally write this post. After 3 years of blood, sweat and tears, I can finally call myself a graduate of the Danish Gymnasium and wear my student cap with pride.

Though it has been 3 interesting years where I have been lucky to learn something new every day, either from my classes or from the people I got to know, it was a great relief when the cap was finally placed on my head. It has in many ways been some great years, but it has definitely also been a lot of work.

Surprisingly, even though I have longed to write this post for so long, I can’t find much to say. It’s funny how those things goes.

One thing I can say, though, is that I’m looking forward to being able to focus on the things I enjoy to do. I will finally have the time to read and write, and not put my work as a writer second to everything else. Most of all, I’m looking forward to being able to reply to my emails before I have 50 waiting for me!

Though I have enjoyed being out celebrating with my classmates and friends this last week, I can’t say I haven’t been longing for just being able to relax now when it’s all over. I guess those 50 or so emails(Maybe it’s really 87… Shuuu!) can wait for a little while longer…