About Brighthelm

Post date: Jan 20, 2009 11:1:52 AM

Brighthelm is a household based in Fife, Scotland. Most of the Brighthelm members are paid-up members of the SCA, and are active in the local SCA Shire of Harpelstane.

If you are interested in the SCA and its activities, we encourage you to visit the Harpelstane web site for more information. The Shire of Harpelstane covers the whole of Scotland.

If you unfortunately live elsewhere you will be able to find a local group by the links both to our Kingdom of Drachenwald (which covers Europe and parts of Africa) and to the main SCA site.

We will not list fully all of the areas that the we are involved in, but it would be useful to mention the main areas of interest that drew us to the SCA:

• • Cooking and Medieval Banquets. Try having 80 people around for dinner.

  • Brewing and drinking strange and wonderful concoctions.

  • Sword Fighting. The SCA has two styles: one is full contact (using rattan swords) and the other is a more earthy version of fencing (which allows the use of multiple weapons).

  • Dressing up and costume making.

  • Learning new skills such as calligraphy or archery.

A Brief History of Brighthelm

Brighthelm first appeared long, long ago in a country far, far away. It was formed in Brighton, Sussex, about ten years ago, within the Barony of the Far Isles. It was started by Gytha Haideesdottir and Richard the Rampant, based around a Viking battle re-enactment group called the Guild of Warriors.

During the next few years we developed a reputation for running serious parties but otherwise not taking ourselves too seriously. As with all things life moved on and Gytha and Richard moved to Fife, Scotland and unfortunately the household withered away and died.

Enter Brighthelm II, the remake. Over their first couple of years in Fife, Gytha and Richard met several like-minded people already within the SCA so it was decided over several bottles of mead (funny how this always seems to happen) that it was time to take down and dust off Brighthelm and do it all again. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Current Status

Brighthelm was established in July 2000. Hopefully we will see you at one of our events soon.

Future Plans

Oh no, the future! Who knows, we have many diverse interests which we want to explore. Hopefully new people will bring in yet other interesting things to do (although I do not know where we will find the time).