MONROE — The lords and ladies who re-enact the Middle Ages talk about something called "The Dream."
The Dream usually comes at dusk during one festival or another, when modern life fades into the 17th century.
With the sun low in the sky and a pink spreading over the land, there is a distant drumbeat.
The battles of the day are done, and the lords and ladies have returned to their houses to eat, drink and be merry.
The entire encampment hums with friendship, gentility and good conversation.
Saturday was not The Dream.
About 40 ladies and lords from the Barony of Aquaterra (Snohomish County) in the Kingdom of An Tir (the Northwest) gathered at the Galaxy 12 movie theater in honor of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and to show people what they’re all about.
Aquaterra is a local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism — 28,000 strong worldwide — that researches and recreates the Middle Ages.
"Creative" means they’re not purists. They mix and match their favorite personas, re-enacting ranging parts of pre-17th-century European history.
"Anachronism" means anything taken out of the past, including chatelaines (rich ladies), exchequers (tax collectors) and pursuivants (low-ranking messenger).
People from the Barony of Aquaterra like to say they’re re-enacting the Middle Ages the way they should have been.
Saturday afternoon, safe but medieval-style demonstration battles raged in two roped off areas on the sidewalk outside the Galaxy 12.
In the theater’s lobby, lords and ladies in full regalia intermingled in the line for popcorn with moviegoers, whose reactions ranged from amused to outright name-calling. For every dozen puzzled looks, perhaps one person stopped by to talk to the lords and ladies.
"You get used to it," said the Honorable Lady Nimue Lucia da Firenze, who also goes by Nicole Palmer. Palmer of Bothell has been married for 11 years and has three children ages 4 to10.
Atop her stately, black medieval gown she has chin-length, curly blond hair and wears lipstick. She looks like, and in fact is, a PTA mom. But when re-enacting, she’s also meant to be the wealthy wife of a Florence merchant circa 1490.
Palmer doesn’t look it, but reluctantly admits she’s always been "kind of a nerd on the inside. "
She likes the family atmosphere and the old-fashioned manners. People address her as Milady and open doors for her.
"I like the utopian, Camelot feeling," she said.
At a table in the theater’s lobby, Gina Hill, who is called the Honorable Lady Eleanor of Leycestershyre, knitted wool socks "from the toes up."
Next to her, Fi MacKenzie, who likes to be called Fionnghuala Friseil, spun dark gray wool into yarn.
The fully armed Michael Waller, whose medieval persona is Mikael Drakelawe, was dressed in black leather and chain mail, and stood guard over the two.
Those textile guild ladies can chat up a storm about all things medieval and "mundane," the word some in the society use for "modern."
They said most people at the theater Saturday regarded them with "the glaze" — an empty stare of semi-avoidance.
"Especially if you use the flowery speech of the day," said MacKenzie, of Everett. "The moderns look at you like, ‘What did she just say?’ "
Along with "the glaze," people often ask them, "Are you in a play?"
The women discuss people’s misconception that only theater people or "Star Trek" fans or Dungeons and Dragons players are into re-enacting the Middle Ages. Some lords and ladies say they would rather be compared to Civil War re-enactors.
The local membership, they say, ranges from software millionaires to those who work the drive-through at Taco Bell.
So why all the fanfare for "Lord of the Rings," then, and not also for "Elf?"
"The Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien dredged much of his "Middle-earth" from medieval folklore and history, said Jean Johnson, who goes by Honorable Lady AErne Clover.
Johnson, of North Bothell, was dressed as an English lady from the Isle of Man circa 1300.
Though the group risked being further misunderstood by showing up at the theater, the Aquaterra re-enactors said they were there to play off the movie’s Middle Ages feel, not because they identify with elves and hobbits.
The group has also appeared at the theater for other movies with similar themes, including the previous two "The Lord of the Rings" movies, both Harry Potter films and "Pirates of the Caribbean."
It’s a natural progression from those movies to what the Aquaterrans are doing, Johnson said.
The group appeared at the Galaxy in part to promote Ursulmas, its upcoming Medieval Renaissance Faire and Grand Tournament at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds.
"They see us here, and then they can come to Ursulmas and see for themselves what we actually do," Johnson said. "It’s free advertising."
Outside, a tall man with short red hair, a neatly trimmed goatee and prescription Speedo goggles discussed his left-handed swordplay with another combatant.
He is Larry Kirkpatrick, and also Lord Jarnskeggi inn Irski. He said there are typically three types of combat in which re-enactors engage.
There’s heavy armored (think knights with broadswords), late period (swashbucklers with rapiers) and combat archery (using blunt-tipped arrows for safety), Kirkpatrick said..
"I’m probably into this $1,500," he said, shifting his expensive, 15-pound brass and stainless steel helmet from his right hand to his left.
Stiff leather armor and his weapons also cost the Everett resident. His swords are made from rattan — "bamboo on steroids."
He practices every Sunday at Emerson Elementary in Everett. Others travel to Seattle every Wednesday to spar beneath the 65th Street bridge.
Johnson, a town crier, said people typically get hung up on the way Aquaterrans dress and the fighting and miss the expertise and skills of the Middle Ages also being demonstrated.
Most lords and ladies agree the hobby is about educating people while recreating.
After the festivities, the lords and ladies went to Alfy’s for pizza. Then back to the theater for the movie’s 8 p.m. showing.
A little modern fun never hurt anyone.
And who knows. Maybe four centuries from now some sort of creative, anachronous society will re-enact what it was like to eat popcorn, drink soda and eat Raisinettes at a blockbuster movie on a rainy Western Washington Saturday afternoon.
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.
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