New Varangian Guard
The New Varangian Guard is a re-enactment group focusing on the Byzantine Empire and its allies and enemies during the 9th to 13th centuries A.D. The group's name relates to the Varangian Guard, bodyguards to the Emperor. The New Varangian Guard uses steel weapons in their melee combat and uses combat archery rules similar to those of the SCA. There are chapters of this group throughout Australia, and members of the NVG sometimes attend SCA events.
Members of the Guard attempt to learn about the lifestyle of these peoples by study and reconstruction of the materials and practices of the period.
Their aim is to make their recreation as realistic as possible without compromising safety, the law, or personal enjoyment. They also endeavor to create and maintain channels of communication amongst members, other recreation groups, educators, government and the business community. In this way they provide opportunities and venues for members to practice, display and teach the skills, arts and crafts of a bygone era.
Homepage: http://nvg.org.au/
Historical Basis for the New Varangian Guard
Vikings and Rus' had been traveling to Byzantium for at least a century before 988 A.D., when Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev (later Saint Vladimir) sent six thousand 'Varangians' (probably mixed Russian and Norse troops) to Constantinople to serve Emperor Basil II, in return for Christian baptism and the hand of a Byzantine princess.
Like other Vikings and Rus' before them, they served with distinction in the regular army, but sometime around or before the middle of the eleventh century, Varangians replaced the existing native Imperial guards. Their boldness, bravery and unswerving loyalty is recorded by Byzantine chroniclers.
These Emperor's Varangians, also know as the 'axe-wielding guard' (though one Emperor nicknamed them "Winebags"), were primarily Vikings and Rus until the late eleventh century, when a large influx of Englishmen fleeing Norman persecution significantly changed the ethnic composition.
Scandinavian involvement revived during the Crusades, and indeed, the heyday of the Emperor's Varangians seems to have run from the late 11th to the mid 12th century.
After the destruction caused in the capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 A.D., the Varangian Guard continued to exist in name but became a hereditary ceremonial guard, largely drawn from internal Byzantine sources.
AUSTRALIAN BRANCHES
ANTIOCH (Ballarat, Victoria)
Weekly training: Sundays from 2pm at Lake Wendouree. Wendouree Parade, opposite White Ave.
In the event of bad weather training will move to Little Bendigo Primary school 8 Monte st Nerrina 3350.
Craft night: Every Tuesday from 7.30pm also at Little Bendigo PS.
DUBH LINN (Geelong, Victoria)
http://www.nvg.org.au/dubhlinnweb/
Weekly training: Sunday at Sparrow Park, Hope St, Geelong West from 1pm
HANDAKAS (Adelaide, SA)
Weekly training: Wednesdays 7.30pm to 10.30pm, Beefacres Hall, Pitwater Drv, Paradise.
2nd Wednesday of each month 7.30pm to 9.30pm Colonel Light Gardens Scout Hall, Cnr Windsor Ave and West Parkway
HODEGON (Belgrave Heights, Victoria)
http://www.geocities.com/indunna/hodegon.html
Fortnightly training and craft: Sundays 1 pm to 4.30 pm Bring along a plate to share and BYO meat
