Preparing to thrust his lance at the enemy is Duke Henrik Olsgaard, chainmail maker extraordinaire. He made his beautiful, historically-accurate suit of armor out of repurposed metal wire, which he often gets from stripped electrical wires and discarded coat hangers. Wow – a knight in recycled armor! A co-founder of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Duke Henrik recently had a chance to put his homemade duds on display at a reenactment of the Battle of Hastings. History geeks love recreating the Battle of Hastings because it's achance to remember that groovy moment when the French overtook theAnglo-Saxons and gave the English language all those awesome words thatend in "tion." Plus who doesn't love some good Medieval carnage?
It's sort of like Dungeons and Dragons crossed with reality TV crossed with Shakespeare.
Duke Henrik made his first suit of chainmail in 1967, and said that he worked on it during episodes of the original Star Trek, starting at the beginning of the season and completing his hauberk of steel rings as it ended. So if you're wondering what to do with your hands while watching Starbuck implode on Battlestar Galactica, check out the first issue of Craft magazine, in which Duke Henrik gives me a chainmail-making lesson.
Battle of Hastings. [Pixtures de Jacques Maréchal]
