What got you into Castles?

[LEGOFREAK]

not just castle Lego, but castles, armor, swords etc.
see, a couple of days ago my son and I were going through my bookshelf, and I have a few:) books on castles, knights, heraldry, that sort of thing, when my son asked me why I like castles. I thought he meant Lego, so I started to explain that when I was a kid blah blah blah, when he said no, he was asking about real castles.
So I had to stop and think.
what is it about real castles? I mean, after all, who would really want to go back to a time with almost no understanding of health issues, a time where the mighty ruled the weak?

so anyway, what I think for myself is that the idea of the chivalrous knight has always fascinated, and inspired me.
In stories I read growing up the Paladin was always one of my favorite characters, almost unattainable in being, but an excellent ideal to strive for.
And of course a Knight had to have a castle.
Armor is amazing as well, if you study how it changed over the centuries and such, and I can imagine how someone wearing armor may just feel invincible. That is of course a powerful attraction right there, especially for someone like me, who as a kid felt very vulnerable due to illness and such.
Castles are beautiful in their own right of course, and every time I see a real one (pics only alas!) I think, how awesome that humans could get together and make something like that for their defense, without modern power tools and such!
(of course I also get in awe when I see them building a new overpass... but those dudes have machines, so I am only 98% impressed )

ok - so enough of my rambling.

how 'bout you?

Freak

[The Hordesman]

Ive allways found our time the time of the weak and cowardly- our weapons consist of awkward sniper rifles, automatic weapons and finally the biggest idiotic weapon of them all; the nuclear warhead. These weapons can kill alot of people without them realizing it, and troops are cowardly enough to camouflage themselves- bandits and barbarians do that! And all these things shows no skill at all. Therefore, I like returning to the ages when combat was a true art; the fights were serious, but you needed to reload along time if you wanted to snipe, and bows took on your strength to draw. Men in awesome armors runned around with cool heraldric emblems, melee weapons of various sorts, true heroes and villains instead of political blockheads, yes! Castles and fantasy all the way!

Sorry if I offend anyone, but the only good thing about this era is the freedom, most other stuff is crap, especially warfare. I do like wargames on pc, but hates modern warfare with cowardly camouflage.

[TwoTonic Knight]

When my brother went off to kindergarten, my mother bought me a pack of plastic knights to amuse myself. I happily played with them for hours. I always had an interest in medieval stuff thereafter, but it didn't really get serious until two things: Tolkien and D&D (no "A", no ™).

Tolkien inspired reading on real medieval history. With D&D, the rules were so spotty it encouraged looking things up for yourself to fill in the holes. Then you had to design your own towns, castles, societies, and what not, all of which you had to research yourself (there was only the brown box with the three books, "adventure modules" were unknown). It all snowballed from there.

[Jacob C.]

I think it's a mixture of things which sparked my interest into medieval history.
But the biggest factor is probably the Library.
I would always look for inspiration in books for building my lego castles.
I would hit the library to find books on castles which could give me an idea of design techniques & had beautiful pictures which would influence my building.

Movies like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves & the Cartoon version of Robin Hood also influenced me as a kid.

Probably the first thing which sparked my interest in castles would be the old Spanish Fort at St. Augustine Florida.
For most of my childhood I lived about two hours away from the city, so my family took numerous trips there.
I specifically remember my dad yelling at me for walking so close to the moat. (I almost fell in on one occasion)
As a little kid, you feel pretty tiny compared to this massive Fort standing in front of you. I took a trip back there a couple years ago and it looks a lot smaller than I remember.

Thats all I can really think of for now!

[eNiGMa]

For as long as I can remember, my dad always gave us little "lessons" on Scottish history, mainly with the geographical areas. We used to actually build Lego Castle sets as a family! My brother always built the catapult, I'd do the minifigs, and so on. I guess those two are the main things that got me into castles. When I became old enough, I decided to do a bit of research on my own on Scottish history. After getting my fill, I went on the Medieval history in general. One thing led to another, and here I am now!

[TheOrk]

I remember around when I was three or four I saw the movies Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and Brave Heart. At he same time I got my first LEGO sets. I was hooked.
As I grew older I was just spending more and more time doing something medieval. Watching movies or reading books. Thats basically it.

[Azaghal]

Tolkien inspired reading on real medieval history.

Yes! Although now my interest leans toward the early Iron Age - Fall of Rome Era Northern Europe. (Celts!)

[ottoatm]

For me, it was a series of books that were somewhat "choose your own adventure" and somewhat "D&D" - called "Lone Wolf". I bought every book (around 12) in the series and loved it all. I would still recommend it to anyone who wants to do some light reading, although I'm not sure how hard/easy the books are to get these days. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Joe_Dever.htm

After that, it was the amazing Terry Brooks.

[TwoTonic Knight]

Tolkien inspired reading on real medieval history.

Yes! Although now my interest leans toward the early Iron Age - Fall of Rome Era Northern Europe. (Celts!)

Oh, that was Greek Mythology meets WRG Ancients, 3rd edition for me.

[Jojo]

Hello!


For some peculiar reason I always felt our modern times at the most half as fascinating and intriguing as ancient times. Back then people were closer to the core of everything. Times were hard. People suffered from diseases, starving, bad treatment from enemies and from their own lords. But they outlasted all of that. They knew they wouldn't see the completed edifice when they set the cornerstone of a cathedral, but they kept building nevertheless. When fighting they actually looked their combatants into the eyes. Things that are ordinary to us were luxury to them and they really appreciated them.

When I was a kid I was in awe when I was standing in front of a castle that was several hundred years old, because that's more time than I was able to comprehend. And I simply liked the fashion from the mediaeval and baroque era (speaking of the "pirates" theme here). I couldn't get enough of films about knights and pirates, also films about Romans which got my interest through Asterix.

And than, when I was 7, LEGO released the grey Castles. That alone would be enough, wouldn't it?


Bye
Jojo

[Neverroads]

For me too being surrounded by history sparked my imagination. I live close to Utrecht that was founded by Romans, took over by Fries, than Franks and from the 9th C AD was the place where the bishops spread their gospels throughout the northern parts of the Netherlands. It saw richess, went poor, and gone up again. The very thought all this took place over such time and that in some places and buildings so many generations of people have lived and worked is something that inspired me to learn about history... and yes, than to rebuild in LEGO

Casper

[JPinoy]

I've been into Military and Space stuff at first. But when I got bored of pretending that laser beams were being fired, I though the old hack and slash was pretty good. There was more visual action in playing with Lego Castle vs the other themes.

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From Lego Castle, I got into the idea making larger armies and larger fortified places. That got me into Ancient times with their grand armies and fortified city-states.

Now I've mixed my Ancients Civilization theme with a bit of Sci-Fi and Mythology.

[Murgen]

Castles, knights and quests, they have always fascinated me.

I grew up in a family with older siblings (8,10,12 years older). I can remember them reading me the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings as bedtime stories before I could read.

I was hooked. Later on, I came to realize that a big part of the appeal of castles and knights was the idea of taking responsibility for your fate. The brave and courageous CAN change things, at least the stories tell us. Even looking at historical battles fought up to around the time of the reformation, brave leaders and courageous troops could accomplish great deeds.

It was gunpowder that destroyed that, and lead to modern warfare where you don't have to "look your enemy in the eyes" to kill them. We lost the measure of strength, of fortitude, of courage against the odds. It's sad, really.

Castles represent, to me, the idea of taking your fate in your hands against the universe.

[eNiGMa]

Later on, I came to realize that a big part of the appeal of castles and knights was the idea of taking responsibility for your fate. The brave and courageous CAN change things, at least the stories tell us. Even looking at historical battles fought up to around the time of the reformation, brave leaders and courageous troops could accomplish great deeds.

It was gunpowder that destroyed that, and lead to modern warfare where you don't have to "look your enemy in the eyes" to kill them. We lost the measure of strength, of fortitude, of courage against the odds. It's sad, really.

Castles represent, to me, the idea of taking your fate in your hands against the universe.

I couldn't resist saying this: Well said!

[venvorskar]

I used to be into StarWars for a wihle, but then Lord of the Rings was released in theatres and I went to see it. After that I was hooked!:D Then, I was not into Lego's that much, but my brother had some and I tried them out. I started buying more and more untill I had a huge collection.