HodegonPage

Hodegon was started in 1998 when Egfroth moved from Mildura to Frankston, 45km south east of Melbourne. The first members came from the local role-playing group, who responded with great enthusiasm when Egfroth asked permission to put up a poster in the local comic shop at which they used to meet. Practice was first undertaken in combination with Vlachernai garrison, but the 86 km round trip became wearing, and moves were made to get a local base.

Hodegon's first public display was at the Dandenong Show in the first half of 1998, and was followed by another, at very short notice, for the Berwick Sister City celebrations on 4 July 1998 - The town has sister cities of Ioannina in Greece, Springfield in the US and Berwick on Tweed (on the Scottish-English border) and the Hodegon group changed its focus suddenly by 250 years to portray the conflict between the Berwick militia and the army of Edward I of England at the battle of Berwick in 1296. And yes, it was Egfroth who went up to the girls of the Springfield basketball team and asked them, all agog, if they'd ever, you know, actually met the Simpsons . . .

The group was briefly based in Frankston and initially known as the Dark Alliance, having members from Nordmannia, Thessaloniki, Antioch and the Ordo Equesto de Cervus Aureus. Simon Haywood is the only member of the role-playing group still in the NVG, but others joined from various sources.

Shortly afterwards Jenny and Gary Baker from the OECA joined, and Jenny offered the garrison a home at the Old Cheese Factory, a historic site near Berwick east of Melbourne. The management were very sympathetic to re-enactors (Jenny was one of them), and the Cheese Factory hosted Napoleonic, American Civil War, Australian Colonial and Mediaeval re-enactors, allowing them to camp on site, carry out battle maneuvres etc.

Inaugural training day of the Dark Alliance, Ballam Park, Frankston. Early 1998 From left: Robert Ely, Pauline Johnson, Simon Haywood, Leah Sharp. Egfroth took the photo.

Various names were discussed for the new garrison. From its inception it was envisioned as a group of Varangian Guardsmen garrisoned in the City of Constantinople. There was evidence that Varangians had been posted at the Khalke Gate near the Imperial Palace complex, at the Mangana Arsenal complex on the Bosphorus Straits, and in the Hodegon monastery nearby. Though Egfroth would have much preferred Khalke, or Mangana, the others decided on Hodegon (mainly because it was was easier to pronounce).

In preparation for the 1999 Mediaeval Convention, and because the NVG were supposedly Imperial Guardsmen but didn't have an Emperor to guard, Egfroth declared himself Emperor in early 1999, and made the Grand Entrance at the Friday night Feast. As well as presenting a Gift to Snorri, his Brother Emperor of the West, (it was Craig Sitch in mediaeval undies) Egfroth mostly distinguished himself by being assassinated twice, the first time while his bodyguards were distracted trying to treacherously increase their pay; the second time by his own bodyguards because he refused to pay them for letting him get assassinated the first time. Since then, Egfroth has let power go to his head completely, using the Imperial Plural, referring to himself as Our Clemency, and generally poncing it up.

Hodegon Garrison's Imperial Court (with a few blow-ins)
(photo courtesy of, and copyright by, Kindly Old Uncle Dick of Colonial Photographic Studios, Backstabbers' Guild of Australia etc.

At the 2001 Convention fort battle, Hodegon formed the Doona Guard to protect Doona Man, and used the staff sling for the first time at a Convention battle, taking out one Marshal, two of our own men, and two of the enemy. As we killed as many of the enemy as we did of our own, we regarded it as a victory. We also just missed the video photographer. And oh, yes, at both the 1999 and 2001 Convention fort battles, Hodegon brought out the shovels and began a tunnel to get under the fort wall. In the second, we went on strike after 5 minutes' digging because the fort's defenders were not union members, and it was declared "black" until further notice.

After Hodegon had been about a year at the Old Cheese Factory, new management came in, much less sympathetic towards re-enactors; in fact they seemed to regard them as a nuisance to be got rid of as soon as possible. We up stakes and moved to Gary and Jenny's home at Belgrave Heights in the Dandenong Ranges, where we still train to this day.

Hodegon also introduced at the 1999 Convention, and repeated it in 2001, a blindfold procession, guided by the Holy ikon of the Theotokos Ton Hodegon, as was done by the monks of the original Hodegon monastery.

In October 2000, on his way to attend the Hastings 2000 re-enactment in England, Egfroth visited Constantinople. His mission: to find and photograph the original Hodegon Monastery. The photo below gives proof of success, but don't ask about how it was obtained.

Simon Haywood was elected President, and also our Commanding Officer, and proceeded to put together an incredibly poncy suit of Byzantine armour, the glitter from which blinds anyone within viewing distance.