DAGFARI.net is going back to school.

Education needs to be done wherever and whenever. If your hobby is already your livelihood, and you can spot handwoven wool at 100 yards and date Thor's hammers even if you're woken up at midnight, the incredible thing that happens is that you're approached by the right people and your costume makes it into the new high school history textbook. And even that costume is filled out by the DAGFARI.net team - Dagfari and Marja! 

Still, we know there's always room to improve and get new things, and more handmade from the initial materials, more thoughtful, more practical, and conversely, reduce all the half-measures. That costs a lot of money and it's a long run. What is impossible today may be found tomorrow in some forgotten grave, what was considered correct until today may be explained differently tomorrow... But a good reenactor (history demonstrator) will not harden, will not give up and next season will buy or make an even more authentic part for his costume :) He then goes to medieval weekend events in such a way, where he lets himself be ogled by the visitors and is always ready to pull out some little pearl that will draw a thick line behind another dogma that can be considered true by the ordinary TV user.

In another blog post, we will provide our brief reflection, where we want to advise mainly newcomers on what to think about before embarking on a costume that could also demolish myths.. but what was behind the textbook?

First of all, it must be said that reenactment of the Middle Ages and antiquity is not easy. The last few decades, when literature and quality sources were lacking, apart from those that someone famously imported in pamphlets from abroad, made this hobby a hobby at its beginning and significantly delayed the development of the Czech scene from, for example, German or from groups from northern countries. However, the Swede also searched hard for information on how to build a costume of a Great Moravian nobleman..

Fortunately, today we have the internet and an endless amount of information. We can look in museum databases, we can contact anyone in the world who has a great costume or a source - photos of originals, books in foreign languages, contacts to manufacturers or the enthusiasm to do everything as correctly as possible and throw ourselves into the production of something that, for example, takes half a year to make and requires, among other things, a considerable amount of urine :-D .

It was to improve my costume that I started to make a lot of things myself and after many years I have a stand and an e-shop, where everyone can find their own thing. That's one of the reasons I got into the subconscious as a Viking of the people who demonstrate the High Middle Ages and created the New History textbook for high schools (by the way - worth reading even for those who have long forgotten where they put their slippers and want to refresh the timeline of the stories of our history). A photo of both combat and civilian costume was chosen for it. Children will be able to see ring armour of the highest quality and the clothing of the free northerners without horns on their helmets or the appearance of a dirty villager who hasn't washed in six months. 

We sew our own costumes, by hand, often inhabiting open-air museums without electricity, so that we can try out the products, garments and processes for ourselves. Some things we make, cast, carve, sculpt. But some things we don't dare.

So we would like to thank those who are masters of their craft, without whom we would not have such beautiful equipment. To the makers of ringlet shirts, to the blacksmiths and sword makers, to the makers of wooden and ceramic vessels and furniture, to the dyers and weavers, to the jewellers, metalworkers and leatherworkers who provide us with shoes, and to those craftsmen who, with their felt hats and naalbinding socks, do not let us die of cold. And to the archaeologists who keep finding new challenges for us in the land. Also to those who tirelessly answer questions and don't get discouraged, even though they are (usually by lazy people) called derogatory labels like "LH-fascists" - people who push the bar of quality of our community, buy and read books and travel the world to museums to answer irrelevant questions over and over again and never give up on us :) 

Thank you :)

P.S.: If you have kids in school and they will be learning from this book, please don't paint horns on our helmets :-D

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)