Ragnarok XXX

By Jake Bova

Tarburz takes the field.

Good news everyone! I made it safely home from the battlefields of Ragnarok XXX. As much as I already miss it, I’m so happy to be finally home, away from the rain and the mud and the mire.

For those of you who haven’t followed my tales, Ragnarok is the premiere annual Dagorhir fighting event. For over thirty years now, for just one week each year, the various Realms of Dagorhir throughout the country gather for the final glorious battle: Ragnarok! Well they call it a final battle but really it’s smack dab right in the middle of the fighting season. This year almost two thousand fighters from across the nation left the real world behind to enter the realm of mighty heroes. A realm of the fantastic, where warrior maidens and grizzled veterans fight side by side with Elves and Orcs. The event itself is a living, breathing celebration of Tolkien’s works and of the European history that inspired those works. Triumphs and defeats, parades and parties, tournaments and pit fighting, dancing, feasting, song, melees and more lead up to the final battle and celebration.

While the weather this year was unfair and bordered on the edge of calamity, the festivities still waged on. Fighters from the Columbus College of Art & Design, outlying colleges, and communities around central Ohio took the field en masse to fortify and make a home for the week. There we entrenched ourselves against the weather and roving bands of marauders hellbent on stealing our banner and disrupting our good times. But our good times could not be stopped! We marched to the field in the hundreds and fought bravely to earn our seat at the tavern every night. It was glorious to behold and lucky for you and I, I caught some of the festivities on film and am more than happy to share!

Photos courtesy of Jake Bova and Jenna M. Miller Photography.