I’ve been back in the Society for Creative Anachronisms for almost a year now after several years of very low activity. When I started participating again I felt it wouldn’t be all that hard to step back into the organization because I had all my old clothing and armour and other equipment. Unfortunately my old gear was not in as good a shape as I hoped. Some of it needed replaced and most of it needed repair. Another factor that made things difficult was the fact that I was no longer a new member. My personal standards for authenticity are higher which made getting my gear back together more difficult.
The SCA is an interesting organization in that it allows it’s members to “play at their own pace”. The minimal standards for historic impression is set extremely low. The armour standards are based primarily around safety concerns. The basic guideline for authenticity in the Society is “a reasonable attempt at pre-17th century” which is interpreted pretty loosely Society wide. In the past this has allowed the SCA to attract a wide variety of participants who could then improve their own impressions of their “medieval” persona as they saw fit. I’m not sure that’s the case these days but that’s not a topic for this article.
The last time I was highly active in the SCA I had a very advanced “soft kit” (clothing) and a somewhat advanced “hard kit” (arms and armour). My soft kit was good enough I could have participated on the basic level of a number of living history groups. To be honest I would have not been able to participate on the level of the best groups but I was up to standards for basic living history. My hard kit was getting there and was certainly a pretty nice SCA kit. I at least looked basically like what my persona would have looked like. You could look at my kit and tell I was portraying an early to mid 14th century northern European with the exception of some modifications to meet SCA safety standards like the bar grill on my bassinet and my mitten gauntlets.
The problem I’m having now is that I need to so serious repairs to my armour which maintaining not only my own standards of authenticity but my ability to take the field. I don’t want to stop fighting for very long or at all but I don’t want my standards to back slide either. I do have the advantage of having a lot of spare parts for my armour but I still only have one full kit so the fact that it’s warn out is still a problem. I am working on a basic 2nd crusade kit which I can probably get together but my early 14th century kit is going to require a complete re-working. Ideally I’ll be able to improve on my main kit as I repair it but like I said I don’t want to be off the field for long.
I attended the Tournament of the Horse and Falcon this weekend in the Barony of Forgotten Sea, Calontir. The tournament itself was great. It’s a five man melee tournament fought as a round robin so pleanty of fighting and there were just enough teams to make a good tournament and be able to finish. On the seccond day of the events I got armoured up early and went looking for pickups. I found Baron Wulfrick on the list field and asked he if he would participate in my quest. He agreed and we had a good training session. I think I’m improving a bit as I work on this quest and I think it’s already helping my fighting.
Thank you Baron Wulfrick for taking the time to help me with my quest!
p.s. sorry about the video quality. I’m having trouble with my software.
Well I made it out to an event finally. Life kept getting in the way of my other travels. Unfortunately there were no knights so I could not advance my quest but we did manage to do a little fighting at the event. I also shot a little archery which I rarely get a chance to do. The feast was excellent. Some of the best tasting dishes I’ve had in the SCA.
Origionally I was going to go to Saint George in Oak Heart but I had some friends who wanted to go to an event but could only day trip so I chose the even 45 minutes away rather than almost three hours away.
Here is a video I made at the event.
Next event is Melees and Madness which should give me more oppertunities to advance my quest.
Recently there has been some discussion on the Armour Archive about some changes being made to the SCA rules of the list regarding covering blatantly modern material and equipment. The usual arguments have cropped up about how hard and expensive it is for people like the much lamented “poor college student” to put together a nice looking harness. Apparently some folks even think a tunic and baggy pants are too far out reach for these poor kids. Many of the regular member think this is a stretch.
Any reasonable hobby has a price point to enter. The SCA is no different. If your having trouble figuring out how your going to cover your basic needs like keeping a roof over your head or feeding yourself then taking up a new hobby probably isn’t such a hot idea. It has been my experience that getting started in a typical hobby usually runs a minimum of $200-$500. That’s a fairly decent budget for a starter kit and there is no reason that starter kit can’t look decent with a little extra research and effort. If you scrounge a bit you can even trim that.
I recently picked up a helm (the one pictured above) from another Armour Archive member Hjalmr for $80.00. It’s a very basic early 14th century great helm which should be suitable for creating a knightly impression from the first quarter or so of the century. I’m planning to build a “knightly” looking kit around it for about $100 minus the gauntlets. When I’m done I will add in the price of the helm and gauntlets for a total harness cost.
I’ve known Syr Reimond for quite some time and even before he was knighted I saw him as an excellent example of knightly virtue. I come from a small shire and we have rarely had Knights at our fighter practice but of late we have been trying to get people from other groups to come down and fight with us. Syr Reimond visited our group this last weekend and gave us all some training time. He even loaned my brother and law half his harness so that he could fight for the first time. Since I have been too busy to attend an event in a while I was glad to have the oppertunity to get another fight in for my quest.
In an effort to get prepared for this war and tournament season I decided to take stock of my armour. Not just what I am wearing on the field at the time but also the “best” pieces I have in my inventory. Of course there are several piece here that are not padded or strapped but they could be set up fairly easily. With any luck I’ll have at least an extra harness or two put together by the end of this year so I can provide armour to some of my noble cousins that have not yet acquired theirs.
Years ago when I was a wee lad of 11 or 12 I went to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival and while I was there I found a shop called “Talon Armoury”. Even back in those days I loved armour so I had to go check this place out. Inside was the most amazing array of armour including a full suit of Maximillian armour inside a glass case. The shop was run by Master Glendour a Laurel in the Kingdom of Calontir. He was quite patient with myself and my friends despite the fact we were getting our grubby finger prints all over his nicely finished armour. He answered all our questions about the armour and how he made it and then he told us about a group called The Society for Creative Anachronisms who were running a big demo on the site. I think I spent the entire day there running back and forth between the SCA demo and Master Glendours shop. A few years later I found out there was a SCA group just an hours drive from my home so I joined up.
Master Glendour was also knighted a few years ago in the Kingdom of Calontir so when I saw him at the Toys for Tots tournament I knew I had to ask him to be the first knight to accept my 100 Knights 100 Fights challenge which he graciously accepted. I was honored not only because Master Glendour is such and excellent knight who embodies the knightly virtues in every way but also because it was he who introduced me to the SCA and armouring.
On the 17th of October this year I became an authorized fighter again in the Kingdom of Calontir after several years of inactivity. I am squired to Jarl Thjothrekr Eriksson formally of Calontir now of the West Kingdom. I have not seen my knight in person for several years now although we do communicate from time to time.
Now that we are both active again I expect our communication to become more frequent. However this does not change the fact that we are living much further apart and as such I will rarely have opportunities to benefit from his direct teaching with regards to my fighting skills. So I have devised a personal feat of arms that I hope will help me increase my prowess and learn as much as I can. I plan to challenge 100 Knights to fight with me and instruct me in areas where I am lacking.
My plan is not to fight a single bout with these Knights but a series of bouts which I also plan on recording with a HD video camera. I also hope to do a short interview with each Knight about what they think I need to improve on and hopefully also what knighthood means to them. I also plan to chronicle this feat on this blog.
My sole purpose for doing this is to become a better squire and man at arms so that I may better serve my King and Kingdom. Hopefully other fighters around the known world from the lessons and insight as well. I don’t plan on setting a deadline for myself. The quest will end only after I have completed 100 recorded bouts.
A Squire's Tale 