A fragile girl with extra-red braids in a Tyrolean hat, which suits her. She is not only a participant, as they say, a “character” of the festival, but also a warrior, a knight!
It was the first time when the festival of medieval culture “Silver Tatosh” hosted professional women’s fights. The knights Kseniia Marko and Kateryna Umiarova fought, and both were the winners of the world championships of historical medieval battles. So, today Ukraine is at the highest level of this sport in Europe, and the “Silver Tatosh” hosted many participants and, in fact, the champions, of the world competitions of historical medieval battles. However, the festival, whose the most striking feature is the competition of warriors in armour, is not focused on battles today, but wants to help the participants and guests plunge into the atmosphere of the Middle Ages. Difficult, mysterious and romantic.
The location of the medieval camp is, of course, legendary. The Saint-Miklosh castle, located in the Transcarpathian village Chynadiievo, is the “stage” of the unfolding of the historical novel – the love story of Countess Ilona Zrini and the Hungarian rebellion Imre Tekeli, and nowadays it is the first privately rented medieval palace in Ukraine. Eight festivals of medieval culture took place here. The walls of the fortress are the best background for buhurts (massive battles), and the yard is a place for a camp.
Canvas tents – certainly with white, but with insertions of bright, such prestigious colours in the “dark ages”, lions bare their teeth and boars boast their teeth on the flags, and beautiful ladies, completely in character, stroll in the park, gracefully holding trains of lace up dresses in hands… There are men clanking with details of their armour and not for show, but for real ask the squire to tighten their knee pads, and they care about the strength of the chain mail… They are not actors – they are people who have jumped out into such kind of entourage of our common 2018, because just they want it, because they like this journey to another era.
The holiday is very pleasant visually, but even more saturated ideologically. This is a dream, which continues to come true, admitted a person who made the “Silver Tatosh” possible. Yurko Slavik is a historian and romantic.
“The idea was born in 2011, and the first festival was implemented in 2012. What this business – “Silver Tatosh” – was started from- either from the fact that I am a historian, or from youthful romantic imagination, or from other such festivals, from the very place, the Saint-Miklosh, from the fact that Transcarpathia is a tourist destination that needs such development? Probably all at once. The catalyst was the event “Tustan” in 2007, when my friends and I saw joust with our own eyes. Then there was no club of historical reconstruction in Transcarpathia. So the idea came to mind, and later the club appeared, which we called “the Order of Saint Mykolai”. Although then there was no resource to organize an event like that, the idea was not delayed and in a few years we began to realize this dream with a team of reenactors. Our friends, including “Black Halych” Club, helped us organize the first festival. We were not well-known in Ukraine as a club, but we received positive feedback from the visitors, we continued, and today the festival already has its name. To date we have held the seventh “Silver Tatosh”. At first it looked like an adventure, we probably did not know what kind of big business we started, the romantic idea inspired us, but it was a success. And yes, “Silver Tatosh” is my dream, which is coming true, thanks to the “guardian of the castle” – Yosyp Bartosh. “Silver Tatosh” is also a sort of catalyst for the development of Saint-Miklosh”.
This year, “Silver Tatosh” had a three-day program for the first time. The first day of the festival had the so-called “Battle of the Cities” as the main event. The eternal dispute between the administrative centre of Zakarpattia – Uzhhorod – and the city with a good location – Mukachevo – had to be settled with the help of swords. The district centre was represented by a peasant, a shepherd (in such a way, the historian Sashko Shershun, the unchanging herald of the festival, threw down the gauntlet to his friend Yurko Slavik), and the regional centre was represented by a nobleman. However, they both fought in armour. The audience was worried about the people who were the most important for the festival. Since the battle was based on the principles of professional fights, which had few restrictions on hits. At the beginning of the third round, friends-opponents hugged and went on taking care of the holiday.
“What does “Tatosh” mean to me? Usually it is a lot of stress during the festival itself and incredible satisfaction of the work done, – says Sashko Shershun. – I am very grateful to all the participants and community of volunteers who went the extra mile to implement this holiday. Why did I do that? At the first festival, I became the moderator at request of Yurii. In general, I am a historian, a medievalist, my diploma thesis is “The Ideology of Knighthood “, so the topic is close to me in ideological sense. I liked the festival cuisine, and then I could not remain uninvolved. I am glad that the festival is developing. Today, world champions came to fight here, there are horse performances, and the most important is unique atmosphere”.
“As for the ideology of knighthood: it was a class of professional soldiers who served either the king, or even their own interests, were not innocent, but at the same time, a virtuous culture was formed among knights that defined the ideals of honor, the inability to offend the old and the orphans, rob settlements and finish off those who fell down, and this culture demanded to be true to your word and your sovereign, and also to help those people who need it… And although this mostly the theory and literature, but history gives us real examples of practical expression of this ideology, on the battlefield particularly. This concept transferred to real life and became a strong example for future generations: the word “knight” became not a notion for a warrior who beats the opponents, but a symbol of a person who adheres to his code of honor. You can feel this atmosphere and these principles at our festival “, – says the herald.
Professional fights with the participation of the best Ukrainians in historical fencing were the epicenter of the festival and they really impressed. “Professional fights are essentially mixed martial arts. There are several restrictions: no striking the most vulnerable spots, but all the fighting techniques are allowed. This is a spectacular event, especially since only the best are taking part in professional fights, and the list of fighters is determined even before the festival, according to the experience, age and weight of the warriors. For three years now, the professional march team has been working on the battles, and we work according to the rules of world championships, in particular, “Battle of the Nations”. And, yes, the festival participants are members of the Ukrainian national historical medieval battles team, which became the strongest in the world in the nomination “21 vs 21”. We are glad that famous fighters come to us, and they are very interesting to watch “, – says Yurii Slavik. He says: they are struggling to balance sport against historicity, combining these elements. So, the organizers wished the festival camp had not only a proper entourage, but also lived by certain rules, for example, to be as close to medieval life as it is possible, to get rid of plastic, etc.
“The Via Cassa Club, our Slovak friends, work just like this: their direction is “living history”, they reproduce a specific period, and even a scenario, including daily realities. We want it. By the way, “Silver Tatosh”, though devoted to the Middle Ages, is aimed at the reconstruction of the second half of the XIV – the first half of the XV century. This is a bright period in the history of Transcarpathia, which is connected with the Kingdom of Hungary. Here are the Drugeths, the Perenis, the Anjou dynasty, etc … We would like to see the reenactors of this era and of Europe, but we do not restrict ourselves. The purpose is to show the spirit of the period itself and, probably, from the point of view of different lands and even peoples. In this way, the audience has a wider picture. But there is an idea to form a scenario with the participation of some historical actors. Let’s say the buhurt will not be just a clash of two “walls”, but a reproduction of a certain fight that took place in history. Even though it’s a show, but it tells about the history. Yes, we plan, for example, to arrange a night assault “, – tells the organizer of the “Silver Tatosh”.
Sashko Shershun narrates: “It is interesting to see how Ukrainian clubs are trying to find something interesting from their own territory. Reproduce the elements of the armor and in general the legend of their own lands of a certain historical period. Yes, we have boys from Volyn here, who reproduce elements of the warrior armor of the Galicia-Volhynia Principality and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the equipment; Lviv is adopting the example of the Galicia–Volhynia warriors of the later period, when there were Lithuanians and Poles, and fighters from Eastern Ukraine, let’s say, from Kharkiv, fought both in the European and in the steppe armor. After all, Ukraine is a contact zone for civilizations, and Rus, and Lithuanians, and Cossacks often fought against the steppe and adopted a lot of their things, this is also a part of our history, and it is very exciting to see it with our own eyes. And it is interesting to watch that people who came for sport, to participate in fights, reproduce a bit of historical memory”. In this context, Sashko cannot but mention the success of the Ukrainian national team at the World Championship in Historical Medieval Battles “Battle of the Nations”, which broke up the Russian leadership there: “We are witnessing significant moments. For the first time the girls beat Russian women in the nomination “3 vs 3”, and last year our men’s team won in the category “21 vs 21”. Finally, they broke this obscure eagerness for historical inferiority, stopped pronouncing the thesis about respect for the enemy – and won. Great success in the performances of Ukrainians succeeded in the competitions of the “Ancient” Federation, founded by Americans and Poles. It’s great to see the participants of these historic events in our battles, here, at the “Silver Tatosh”!”
“My most vivid impressions? Maybe the first concert of the festival with the participation of the incredible Hungarian band Bordo Sarkany (“Red Dragon”), it was unforgettable. Of course, horse tournaments added emotions. Every performance can be performed, in the end, repeat the scenario, but battles are unique. Every buhurt, every “shield-sword” battle is an event for me. Each fighter and each team writes its story, which is impossible to play a second time”, says the herald of the “Silver Tatosh”.
The festival of both historical medieval battles and medieval culture in general – this is how the “Silver Tatosh” is described. “We started with the classic elements of the program: dance, music and, of course, battles. From the very beginning we dreamed of horse performances. Our Tatosh is a winged horse from the Transcarpathian fairy tales, which could instantly transfer its owner, the knight Brynda, the owner of Bronkivskyi castle, over long distances. And horses must be at the festival! And a knight without a horse is not really a knight. In the third year, horse breeders from Lviv joined us. They are “Karetnyi dvir” – the great specialists. And this year, we finally had not only a show but also real jousting. It was happening according to our own script “, – says Yurii Slavik.
Of course, during jousting, knights were fighting for love of the Festival Queen. Even though the participant of the tournament, Sir Lancelot, could already put the hearts of many women participants into his treasury, but the intrigue was that the best rider was Valentyna. So, no romantic stories happened: in the fight of knights the woman won, and the queen of the tournament remained only a princess …
… Lectures by the historians about the Middle Ages, a literary part, an archery tournament, quests for children, a concert program, a thematic fair, a town that recreates those daily realities, and even a kitchen, where, for example, you cannot find potatoes, because there were no potatoes in that era, which is the theme of the holiday – today the “Silver Tatosh” is rich and diverse. A kind of the “time machine”, deployed in the courtyard of the ancient and mysterious, however, “living” castle…
Yurii Slavik says: “Why is it worth doing? For me personally – first of all because it is a dream, everything started with a childish romantic desire, which was so strong that it did not leave me up to this day. And maybe, it allows this dream to come true, no matter what. But in general, this should be done for… If I had visited a festival like this as a child, then I would definitely have been interested in history. Yes, I am interested in it anyway, but somebody probably has that smaller germ, which can flourish because of this event. Concrete result: in the first years of the “Tatosh”, there were 3-4 reenactors in Transcarpathia, and now there are dozens of them. And most of the participants of the “Order of Saint Mykolai” came to us because of the festival. These activities perform social functions, show children and young people a certain alternative of everyday life, things that develop them both physically and intellectually, spiritually and morally. That is why our main guests are children. I believe that the “Silver Tatosh” is an inspiration to learn history and love our native land”.
After a break from the “Silver Tatosh”, the “Order of Saint Mykolai” will take part in the restoration of the wedding of Ilona Zrini and Imre Tekeli in the Mukachevo castle, and will further expand the festival map and take on the organization of the “Druget Fest”. “We want to make a small event, cozy, but rich and very, very historic”, – told the initiators. During the holiday, named after the most famous owners of the Uzhhorod castle, even an assault of the fortress is planned. But this, as they say, is another story, which we will have the opportunity to witness in August. And then you can implement the ideas, or even the dreams associated with other castles of Transcarpathia – modern and ancient at the same time, perhaps, the best place in Ukraine to launch the “time machine”…
Text by: Alla Khaiatova
Photo by: Serhii Hudak
