Medieval Combat
I wander onto a grassy field in central Illinois on a warm October morning. A thick leather roman-style armor protects my torso, while baggy grey Hakama pants hide my legs . I hold a 7 foot spear in my hands as I line up with my fellow warriors.
"Lay On!!" booms a voice over a loudspeaker. We rush into battle with a savage cry. Shields and swords crash together, an arrow flies by my head, narrowly missing my face. Defended by a shieldman, I stab quickly for an opponent's leg. He crashes to the ground, wounded. I turn and ram the weapon into another warrior's torso, before an opposing shieldman rams into me and slashes my chest with his sword. I fall to the ground, dead.
Minutes pass, as both sides take heavy casualties. Eventually the field falls silent.
"Reset!!" calls the voice. I stand back up, return to my team, and prepare for round two.
Welcome to Belegarth.
Belegarth Medieval Combat is a free-to-play sport that is enjoyed throughout North America by thousands of participants. Often confused with a LARP (Live-Action Roleplay), Belegarth is a full-contact combat sport that does not involve any roleplaying, magic, dungeons, or dragons.
This is all about getting outside, being active and fighting one another in a competitive sport.
The sport uses foam-padded weapons for safety, and allows for full-force strikes and stabs to any area of the body except for the head and neck. It also allows for shield bashing, shield kicking, grappling, and other aggressive tactics.
Belegarth groups typically run 1-2 practices per week at various indoor and outdoor locations across North America. These practices can attract anywhere from 5 to 50+ participants depending on the realm.
Larger multi-day camping events are run through the summer months and may attract thousands of participants, and include massive field fights, as well as a great party atmosphere and night life.
Want to learn more? Click here for the Belegarth website or ask me anything in the comments below!
I'm in my 9th year of participating in this amazing sport and have loved every minute of it.
Thanks for reading,
-Matt
Sounds like fun, but why no roleplay, roleplay is the best part.
I wish something like this happened where I live.
Belegarth caters to people who are more into the combat aspect of the sport. There's another group called Amtgard in North America that does more roleplay, questing, magic, etc but is similar.
In Lithuania you might have a harder time finding a group like this. In Germany there's a large annual event called Drachenfest that is one of the largest LARP events in the world. There's also various chapters of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) which is quite popular accross Europe although they're more historical and less fantasy-based. Might be worth checking them out. Good luck!
How expensive is it? I assume props cost a lot.
That's a tricky question.
It's free to participate and most groups have gear you can borrow for your first few months.
Eventually you'll be expected to get your own gear. You can buy a decent professionally made one-handed weapon for $25-$40 - check out some gear here
https://www.forgedfoam.com/?product_cat=full_contact
Some people make their own gear, which significantly reduces costs. A home made one handed weapon might run $10-$20.
Of course just like any other sport you can spend as much as you want, and get really fancy gear if you want to. Some people get super-lightweight weapons or commission hand-made plasti-dipped artisan shields that are like works of art and those can cost hundreds. Check these out:
https://shield-shop.com
What do the weapons tend to have as cores? I played in the more fantastical competitor Amtgard for a while, and found I didn't care for the feathery whippy things that came into fashion in it. People complained that I was "sluffing hits" because I couldn't even tell the damn thing had touched me.
Our cores are variable materials depending on the weapon. Weapons under 4ft have to weigh a minimum of 12oz and are typically cored with .505 kitespar which is a blend of fiberglass and carbon fiber.
Amtgard is similar, but uses magic, classes, quests, etc. Belegarth is akin to Amtgard ditching but has a "minimum force" rule and no maximum force, meaning that light taps and grazes aren't counted, and most people won't complain if you hit hard.
There's two very similar sports with minor regional differences - Belegarth and Dagorhir. Depending on your location you might have one or both in your area.
This looks so geeky, and amazing and a ton of fun all rolled up in one!
Nice job. I run the only English language LARP in Japan, and also have the first and only LARP gear shop (brick and mortar) in Japan. We use Epic Armoury weapons, or similar realistic looking weapons.
Our LARP is part of the Underworld LARP from Canada. Its a horror-medieval fantasy LARP with a very developed core rule book. There are chapters throughout Canada and a development of a few chapters in the US, and of course us in Japan.
I randomly stumbled across a couple of papers about LARPing in Japan a few months ago. This isn't you, is it?
The Power of Just 100 Yen: LARP in Japan
I've heard of underworld although we don't have a local group. Glad to see that the culture has spread overseas.
Belegarth has also had some luck with globalization - in addition to the massive number of US groups there are a handful of Canadian (that's me!) and Mexican groups. There's also single groups that exist (or used to exist) in Italy, Germany, Denmark, China, Australia, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and probably a few others I'm not aware of. It really only takes one dedicated player to bring an activity to a new community :)
That article was written by a friend, and member of my LARP group, Bjorn Ole Kamm.
Nice to hear about your group. Its best to have a group who works on rule books, and the mechanics of the game. I like to play, and don't want to get bogged down in the rules.