Dagorhir

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Dagorhir is a live-action dark age battlegame (or LARP) organization founded in Maryland in 1977. Dagorhir has since spread to scores of locations with thousands of members in the US, Canada and England. Dagorhir is a combat-oriented organization with full-contact fighting as its primary focus, with a secondary element of acting in-character before, during, and after combat. Dagorhir fighters typically use weapons such as swords, spears, bows and arrows, morning stars, axes, and other weapons that were commonly used during the dark ages. This particular LARP does not involve use of “magic"--only medieval type weapons. Participants also dress in period costume and are expected to stay "in-character" during events, though the amount of seriousness the role-playing aspect receives varies greatly by unit and chapter.

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[edit] Description

In the early days, the weapons were crudely made of couch foam and broomsticks; today, they are usually made from closed-cell foam bonded with adhesive around a fiberglass core. Participants may also wear armor, which gives them an advantage in battle, but armor is not required, as the weapons are built and frequently inspected for safety. Fighters are organized into units of various sizes, organized along social lines, that generally fight and socialize together and are a club or fraternity of sorts. There is friendly rivalry between units. Units typically adopt a particular historical or fantastical race or nationality and dress, act, and fight according to their interpretation of that group, so at a battle you might see Roman Legionnaires squared off against Orcs and goblins, Vikings, Samurai, elves, and German barbarians. Chapters are organized by geography, and range between a handful of participants to several hundred. Typically a chapter will organize a battle each month, with the various units participating, with occasional supplementary activities such as feasts, overnight camp-out battles, and even annual inter-chapter meetings. The biggest Dagorhir annual gathering is called Ragnarok and is usually held in Ohio during June. The original chapter, founded in 1977, is based in the Washington, D.C. area, and is known as "Dagorhir Aratari" after the founder's persona, Aratar.

[edit] History

Bryan Weise watched the movie Robin and Marion while reading The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. He had never heard of medieval reenactment, Live Action Role Playing Games or even Dungeons and Dragons but he wanted something to capture the spirit and adventure that could only come from wielding sword and bow. As 1977 rolled by, Bryan ran ads on the local radio station WGTB. Bryan then became "Aratar Anfinhir the Stormbringer" and Dagorhir was born into it's first incarnation (as of yet, unnamed).

[edit] Membership

Dagorhir is open to the public, free of charge and requires very little set-up costs to get weapons. Most groups will keep an armory of weapons for loaning to new members or guests. This is most common of larger groups, but often smaller groups will do it as well. Sometimes veteran members will give old, unused weapons to the new players. As a project on the Dagorhir forums, people began counting and listing active Dagorhir members. At last count this list contained 1486 people with several large groups not reporting. Due to the nature of the chapters of Dagorhir, as well as the definitions of "active", this number cannot be completely accurate.

[edit] Ragnarok

Ragnarok is the national Dagorhir event. Ragnarok XXI, which took place in June of 2006, had some 1,020 participants, approximately half of whom were fighters. Ragnarok has, for the last several years, been held in Cambridge, Ohio, though it is not likely to remain there indefinitely.

[edit] Other Events

Groups across the nation hold events open to the public, and first-time fighters generally have their battle fee, if there is one, waived. While all local battles are open to any participant, there are battles such as Rivendell's (see below for link) Crown War, that decide the "king" or "queen" of a realm. Then there are larger-scale regional events which typically draw over 100 fighters, as well as national events, of which Ragnarok remains the largest and longest running. In Fall 2006, the second major national event, named after the battle of Badon Hill, took place in western Pennsylvania and drew over 350 attendees, and could prove the catalyst for future large-scale events throughout the country.


[edit] External links

[edit] See also

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