“Sportful Combat” Gets Medieval: The Representation of Historical Violence at Renaissance Fairs

Abstract

The Living History Center (LHC) Renaissance Faire website describes the “Ren Faire” as “an amalgam of many things: it is partly a craft fair, it’s partly historical re-enactment, it’s partly performance art.^”1 There are over two hundred Renaissance Faires in the United States alone and many more outside the United States in Europe and Australia, many of which embody the LHC definition. These three aspects are equally important: the Faire is a capitalistic venture in which one may buy and sell artifacts, clothing, food and other items; a “historical” recreation of Renaissance culture; and a theatrical event.

It’s just someone’s idea of the English middle ages crossed with Disneyland … It’s all bollocks! You should spray ‘em all with shit as they come through the gates. No lice. No nits. No rotting face cancers. When was the last time you saw someone with a bloody great tumor hanging off their face?

—Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: The Wake