The Brotherhood of Arrow and Sword – NH

The Brotherhood of Arrow and Sword – NH

  1. What is it that you do ? Sir Brian: The Brotherhood of the Arrow and Sword is an educational based medieval reenactment group that performs educational presentations and live steel combat at schools, renaissance faires and other public events.
Knights battle it out at NHRF
  1. Where are you located? Sir Brian: Southern Maine and Southern New Hampshire
  2. What got you interested in starting out in this business? Lady Evelyn: We wanted to share our love of history and western martial arts with others. We had been working at renaissance fairies so it was a natural progression.
  3. When did you start selling or performing? In general or at renaissance fests? Sir Brian: The Brotherhood was “officially” formed in 2015 but several of our presenters have been doing events together since way before then. Several of our presenters, myself included, have been presenting/performing publicly for over 20 years.
Amanda shows a young lady how to knit
  1. What was your local faire or home faire? Sir Brian: the New Hampshire Renaissance Faire. Several of our presenters are on the Board of Directors for that faire. But we have a special place in our heart for each and every faire and school that we perform at in New England.
  2. How are you compensating for this strange time we are in now? Sir Brian: We are fortunate that most of our presenters have “regular” jobs outside of our group. So we do not have to rely solely on any faire income. But beyond that, our presenters are studying medieval subjects to present, working out/training, making more garb/armor and additional new displays.
  3. What advice do you have to give to others that are just starting out in this business? Or how to stay in this business? Sir Brian: Be open to advice and always strive to improve. Be it your shows, displays, merchandise, garb, whatever. The Faire community is very open and friendly. There will always be knowledgeable people willing to help you with advice and/or to lend a helping hand. Do not be afraid to seek them out.
  4. How do you handle thefts or copying of your works? Sir Brian: We chuckle. It has happened where other groups “acquire” and present our material. Sometimes even at events we’re actually at and in the exact same manner in which we present it. But our fans know where the material originally came from. But then again, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We tend to not get too worked up about it since Historical facts are Historical facts and our mission is to get those facts out there.
At it again at NHRF
  1. What do you miss most about faire? Sir Brian: Our friends and fans. The camaraderie and sense of family in the Faire/reenactment scene is incredible.
  2. Do you think that there will be faires in the future or what steps we should be taking next? Lady Evelyn: We believe there will be fairies. The advantage to renaissance faires is that they are primarily held outdoors making it easier to hold safe events. Until then we are working to bring our content to our audiences through our upcoming video series.
Display of helmets
  1. Are you doing any online sales or virtual performances? Sir Brian: We are currently working on educational videos that will eventually be posted onto our YouTube channel.
  2. Why Renaissance Faires or theme? What is it that made you so interested in this period? Lady Evelyn: We love history and the ideal of the knights. This is the peak period for knights so renaissance fairies gave us a chance to share the history and excitement of the knightly arts. We love interacting with the patrons at the fairies, they are great audiences
  3. Are you creating more stock or more content? Sir Brian: Yes. We’re constantly trying to improve our presentations and displays. We owe it to the patrons, our fans and the Events that invite us to strive to be the best that we can be
School presentation (A/N – assuming this is before COVID affected)
  1. In five years (or less) my goal is to: ___________________Lady Evelyn: be better than we are now. We are always striving to have a more accurate and comprehensive encampment and keep adding to and updating our shows.
  2. At faire, what was your garb/attire your usual go to? Sir Brian: Most of our presenters wear garb/armor that falls anywhere from late 14th Century to late 15th Century Europe. Although we do have a reenactor who portrays Asian armor and garb from that time period and we’re hopefully bringing in a reenactor who portrays the middle east in that time period. I, myself, portray a knight from the middle to late 15th Century England. So I wear garb and armor from that time period.
Abbadia Mare -at Hammond Castle – THIS SHOW IS NO LONGER RUNNING
  1. If events are not happening again this season, what do you plan on doing? Lady Evelyn: we are planning on working on producing videos about different crafts of the time period. We are very excited to be going digital! We are all working on upgrading our kits in our down time.
  2. What makes your act/wares unique or different? Sir Brian: Most reenactment groups just do interesting hands off, static displays and interact in the first person. Meaning they talk like someone from their time period and their persona can not relate to modern times. Plus, they do not fight. The Brotherhood of the Arrow and Sword has an encampment full of hands on displays and presenters that patrons can interact with and we talk in the third person. We find that It makes it easier for us to educate and relate to the crowds. Also, most “fight” groups at renaissance faires, especially in New England, do scripted theatrical fighting and tend to use Renfaire/fantasy inspired armor. We do not. We are trying to show the fighting styles used during the medieval time period, the difference between real life fighting and Hollywood fighting and the progression of armor evolution through the Hundred years war and War of the Roses. But we also try in each fight demo to showcase one or two tournament style duels to help promote the new sport of Medieval Sport fighting, such as HMB and ACS. Our Fight demos are High energy, full speed, full contact and always Unscripted. Plus we love to interact with the crowd after our demos by taking pictures with them, dragging them into our encampment and discussing life as it was in the medieval time period.
Evy and her knitted items
  1. What was your very first experience at a renaissance festival? What education or training if any do you have that led to what you do? Sir Brian: Several of our presenters, myself included, are actual educators in real life. So that is one factor that drove us to the educational aspect of reenacting. Plus, each and every presenter in our group has a love for their time period and particular subject that they present. Which is why they are working with our group.
  2. Plug your website or fan page here (or both) https://www.facebook.com/Brotherhoodofthearrowandsword

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