Varus and the Lost Legions in Sagnlandet Lejre - A Re-enactment Success?

Abstract

In July 2009 a battle took place in Sagnlandet Lejre, in the heart of Zealand in Denmark. The battle was a dramatized re-enactment of the historical battle of Teutoburg forest in Niedersachsen in the year 9 AD - also known as the Varus Battle. Why should such a re-enactment event take place in Denmark - over 100 kilometres from the presumed site of the historic battle? And why was this event different from the hundreds of other re-enacted battles that take place all over Europe every summer? And the most important question - was the event a success and by what criteria should the success of a re-enactment event be measured? In this article a number of dilemmas, which are invariably linked with attempting to re-enact specific historic events for a modern audiences, are discussed and the event "Varus and the Lost Legions" as it took place in 2009, forms the centre point.

Keywords

• event
• war
• living history
• army
• roman era
• denmark