They come for the fighting — and the dancing. They come for the feasting, and because they get to wear cool clothes. They come to play, to socialize, to learn.

Mostly, they come because they have fallen in love with a time so removed from our own that many people never give it a thought — yet it's a time that laid our foundations and shaped our thoughts in important and intriguing ways.

Welcome to the Current Middle Ages — or as some say, the Middle Ages "as they ought to have been."

This is the period researched and re-created by members of the Society for Creative Anachronism. They study martial arts, dance, calligraphy, cooking, stained glass, metalwork, costuming, literature and almost everything else that happened in Western civilization from roughly 400 to 1600 A.D. As they like to say, if someone in the Middle Ages did it, somebody in the SCA does it — everything except die of the plague, of course.

Since it was founded in 1966 in Berkeley, Calif., by some science-fiction and fantasy fans, SCA has grown into an international organization with more than 24,000 dues-paying members. For its purposes, SCA has divided the "knowne world" into 17 kingdoms, each made up of principalities, baronies and shires.

The Kingdom of Artemisia, which includes most of Utah, Montana, southern Idaho, western Colorado and Wyoming, achieved kingdom status in 1997, explains Baron Tryggvar Halfdon (known in the "mundane" world as Jeff Anderson), who leads a part of that kingdom, the Barony of Loch Salann, which encompasses the metro Salt Lake area and has around 120 members. There are three other baronies and a number of shires in Utah.

Loch Salann holds weekly meetings, where the medieval folk socialize, perfect their crafts, practice fighting. Special events, often with other baronies, sometimes involving the whole kingdom, are held five or six times a year.

The way it works it this: Each person chooses a personae who fits the time period and creates a life for that person. "You choose the country and the time period. You develop a name, come up with the clothing," says Halfdon, a 10th-century Viking. "So, I try to do everything a Viking would have done — fighting, card weaving, archery, singing — everything but rowing the boat and pillaging the coast of France."

It's a hobby, he says, and like any hobby, "you can get as deep into it as you want."

"I love the arts and sciences," adds his Baroness, Brenna Chaimbeul (otherwise known as Michelle Carey). The Vikings were known for their rough ways, but they also valued art and culture. "I love making and re-creating the things they would have used during that period. Viking knitting, for example, was done with a single needle."