Fantastic Jousting

As you know, I have had a long-term quest to have mop jousting introduced as an official Olympic sport. Everything was looking pretty good, right up until the breakdancing fiasco, which seems to have put paid to those plans – apparently the Olympic committee are now going to be much less permissive in the sports they allow to be introduced. Boo!

Anyway, in order to ameliorate some of the pain caused by this setback, we took Funsize and Surprise! to see the older, less mop-based form of jousting.

It was fun!

The event took place in the fields behind Linlithgow Palace, where there were about a dozen tents set up with various Ren Faire type events – the archer and the armoury, scribes and calligraphy, a musicians’ tent, a falconer, and so on and so forth. There were two arenas, one in which the falconer held a display (that we saw), there were jugglers and acrobats (that we didn’t), and a re-enactment of the Battle of Stirling Bridge (though the Wallace wasn’t Australian enough).

And there was the main arena where they held the jousting.

This was not, of course, authentic jousting – that would be far too dangerous. Instead, there was a lot of riding towards one another and carefully aiming lances at shields, which were then dropped with a loud clattering. Even then, there were instances of people falling from the horses, followed by a melee on foot. It was exciting stuff.

It was also hot and sunny, which made for a lethargic, tired type of day. The hours didn’t so much pass as evaporate in the heat.

All in all, it’s something I’d recommend going to see as and when there is an opportunity.