Hobbit's five armies clash in Czech forest
Spears crossed, swords touched and arrows flew in a Czech forest over the weekend as hundreds of fans of the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien reenacted the major battle of his Hobbit. The organisers of the annual Battle of the Five Armies gathering, launched in 2000, said that over 1,000 participants came to a forest near the Czech town of Doksy, 80 kilometres (49.71 miles) north from Prague. Men and women dressed according to descriptions in Tolkien's books and other fantasy stories fought with wooden replicas of historic weaponry, with points wrapped in plastic to avoid injuries. Although inspired by well known stories from the Middle Earth, the battles don't have their results set, and it has happened several times that the evil side actually won. But that does not matter too much as the people come mainly to immerse in the stories they love and to meet other fans.
