"Any one make any Morris Dancers?" Topic

After watching some fantastic Pagan Morris Dancers today I was wondering if any one makes these in any scale?

Cheers,
Elric.

I recall somebody was looking for models of some undead morris dancers last year, but I have no idea of possible end results.

Griefbringer

link

<<undead morris dancers>>

As opposed to……?

Eh ?

Garibaldi's redshirts = morris dancers ?

No, you'll have to explain that one it's gone right ober my head

Well there is many types of morris dance but I have never heard of pagan morris!

BTW What scale figures were you loooking for?

i always thought that Morris Dancers were something made up by Monty Python.
Imagine my shock to learn otherwise!

Well there is many types of morris dance but I have never heard of pagan morris!

The true meaning of pagan is country dweller (i.e. not a city dweller) – from latin paganus.

As Morris is based on old rural dance traditions it is 'pagan'.

I am a fan of Terry Pratchett's Black Morris… and no, that isn't a bloke from Jamaica!

No, my quest for undead morris dancers actually started this year. I think.

They are on the Wargames Factory Liberty & Union page under fantasy, but so far, only Michael & I have said we'd buy any, so no hope there.

Not heard of any miniatures of not-undead morris dancers, sorry.

I once spent a day learning the local Morris dances*, John. Perfectly real. It's good fun, but bloody knackering.

*For some reason, my neck of the woods is one of a few places where it didn't die out, so lots of modern Morris dancing revivalists apparently dance our dances, wherever in England they come from (as their own have been lost). I don't know why we never stopped Morris dancing in the Welsh Marches like everyone else did. Lack of imagination, or sheer bloody-mindedness I reckon.

I'm guessing the latter.

"[The undead morris dancers] are on the Wargames Factory Liberty & Union page under fantasy, but so far, only Michael & I have said we'd buy any, so no hope there."

And I only committed to buying some to make her happy…

Since The Morris is a celebration of nature, springtime (The May in particular), rebirth, and, let's face it, virility, I'd have thought all Morris dancers were in a pagan tradition (whether they admit it or not….)

"Oh do not tell the Priest of our art
For they would call it a sin
But we have been out in the woods all night
A conjurin' Summer in"

What would you use them for?

Best I can find are from the model railway sets and on is currently one ebay auction

As for what you would use them for:

1) Dr Who fought them as agents of the Master
2) An underground clan using the dance to pass messages (well bees do it)
3) Latest initiation for a Goth cult link

Andrew
blog.kings-sleep.me.uk

There are recognised types of morris dance many developed in different regions of England

the oldest version of Morris is the Cotswold style they are the chaps who go arround waving handkerchiefs

The Border Morris, from the counties that border on Wales (Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and part of Gloucestershire) are the fellows with blackened faces and clash sticks during the dance

In North West Morris, common in Lancashire and Cheshire, the dancing tends to be more processional than ring-based, and performers typically wear Lancashire-style clogs. Costumes are particularly vividly coloured.

Molly is an East Anglian Morris, danced in Cambridgeshire and Essex. It is a much more comedic version of Morris, with dancers typically dressed unceremoniously in work clothes, and one man – the Molly – dressed as a woman.

"what you would use them for?"

Can you think of anything more terrifying than zombie morris dancers? (except perhaps zombie clowns?)

Elric- you say any scale – any preferences?

Why can we not have figures of the cloggies – as Bill Tidy did 30 years ago = rules are simple (e.g throw 6 to execute a double Armstrong on the leader of the other troupe thus marmalising his tackle.)

Can you think of anything more terrifying than zombie morris dancers? (except perhaps zombie clowns?)

What about morris-dancing clowns?

Griefbringer

Zombie morris dancing clowns!

Or, if these figures are also OO, midget zombie morris dancing clowns!

"what you would use them for?"

Even the undead army deserves its own camp-followers.

And halloween displays.

Many thanks for all the replies. Looks as though there are none around though. Scale wise I am interested in 28mm and 40mm and the reason for my interest came from these guys;

witchmen.com

As I work with one of them and thought it would make a fine present for him if I could locate some and put them into a diorama.

What would you use them for?

target practice…??

Morris dancing is derived from 16th century "Moorish" dancing..So any idea of it being ancient /pagan/druidic is complete b@ll@cks!!
However I do think Morris dancers come somewhere on a scale of sadness below bus spotters so i doubt there will be many made in 25mm!!!

Proof would be nice Archstanton73
I think the most positive thing that can be said for the idea is that it 'is widely accepted' but then – so are a lot of things that are wrong.

This one does the rounds every so often, a bit like the British two fingered salute deriving from archers waving their bowstring fingers at Frenchmen after Crecy, Poitiers Agincourt etc. Lovely story, no evidence.

So saying that the idea of Morris dancing being ancient is complete b@ll@cks is … well complete b@ll@cks.

We don't know, so don't be so certain of uncertainty.
As for 'sadness' try listening to joe public on the subject of wargamers sometime and keep a quiet counsel.
Cheerypip and toodleoo old thing.

At least we missed out the Bacup Coconut Dancers.

A local speciality – impossible in the south or colonial realms.

Why can't we have these: coconutters.co.uk/index.htm

Sapirilla, steak 'n' cowheel pie, proper ale, Uncle Joe's, 13 a-side rugby,red cabbage with tatty hash, chips 'n' gravey, etc
you lot don't know what life is like

Au contraire – my mother used to take me into the UCP (United Cattle Products) Cafeteria for tripe and chips if we weren't going to have a pudding basin of chips & beans (haricot no sauce) for tea.
If it was tatty 'ash weather she would make parkin when we got home (although you had to wait weeks for it to 'mature'.
As for clog Morris – what about t'Macclesfield Whip? Which may give a clue as to where this culinary excess occurred.

"My advice is to try everything once, except for incest and Morris dancing."

- attributed to various folks including Winston Churchill and Thomas Beecham.

I do not know if the warning extends to undead Morris dancing.

But I did once see a troupe of entertainers perform elaborately co-ordinated maneuvers in a small fleet of Morris Minors. Does that count? I was interested only because I owned a Morris Minor at the time. It's the only car I've ever had that I didn't lose money on. Bought it cheap, it ran for 3 years with next to no maintenance – there was nothing to go wrong – and sold it for more than I paid for it. Every other vehicle I have ever owned, new or old, has been a money pit.

If you wanted 25mm / 28mm you could use the Foundry Victorian range figure in smock and add some bits to him? Blacken face etc?

Just remember if you indulge in such perversities, that it is the law for the accordian player to play a single, drawn-out chord before the start. This is order to warn the general public that Morris is about to be perpetrated and that you have five seconds to get to minimum safe distance.

"what you would use them for?"

It seems to me that they would fit in well with the new Eureka string quartet, in a suitable setting. Like sedan chair racing.

What I want to know is, has anyone been able to make Morris dance?…

Just seen that Grpping Beast are to release Morris Dancers

well DAF I would like some , this is a link to a WIP that could well use some Undead Morris Dancers
link and a lsee narrated bit
link

Elric, from what I recall, the Geneva Convention of 1946 specifically prohibited Morris Dancing as a cruel and unusual punishment inflicted upon German prisoners of war under the thin disguise of 'cultural activities.'

I'm afraid you'll have to be reported to the 'thorities…

Check out the back cover of the January issue of Wargames Illustrated.
wwww.grippingbeast.com

There's one "W" too many in that link mate. Along with gripping beast making a really good set of Morris dancers, Cold War's Z55 is an undead Morris dancer. cold-war.co.uk

Personally whilst I wouldn't dare participate myself Morris Dancers are one of the many traditions we in England used to have and luckily this one is surviving. Good luck to anyone who wants to do it and from what I seen of Morris Dancing it's hard work, fun and involves quite a lot of drink.

Brilliant and how anyone from the wargamers fraternity can mock them is beyond me.

Craig

how anyone from the wargamers fraternity can mock them is beyond me.

My parents were very heavily involved in the English Traditional Dance Movement – doing Playford 18thC Country dances. They were delighted when I married a female Morris dancer.

I remember we used to call the UK "Naval Wargames Society" NavRail because of the number of us who were interested in preserved railways.

Didn't the engines sink?

Morris Dancers are the spawn of satan! I genuinely have a phobia of them – Morrisophobia? This probably stems from a visit to Ironbridge in Shropshire where I encountered dozens of bearded geography teachers with corduroy plus-fours, desert boots and bells. Some of them were blacked up too.

You just want a chance to mow down some Morris Dancers in a game, don't you?
Not sure mocking them is a good idea – guys who dress like that must be tough, in the "A Boy Named Sue" sense. And they carry big sticks!
GW might make some chaos morris dancers if you ask nicely. Might really freak out poor Stoodley, though….