Shrewsbury Harvest Faire 2014

There is a new tradition being started in southern Trimaris: Shrewsbury Faire. This event quickly got itself on my “do not miss list,” because of its laid back attitude, huge variety of classes and contests, and just generally being a great time. Shrewsbury is a market town in England that people would visit from all parts of the island to trade there. This was the original idea behind the bi-annual faire that Sangre del Sol proposed, and then they asked their neighbors to the south, Southkeep, to work together to make it great. Sangre hosted one in the summer that was a great success: the fighting was well attended by some of the best warriors in Southern Trimaris, and the contests gave the populace many things to take part in and see. The weekend of October 11th was the second faire, meant to be about all things harvest. The coordinators did a great job bringing the theme together. The list of events included: a burning man contest, a cordial brewing contest, a baking contest, a runway fashion show, apple bobbing, and a whole slew of classes that ranged from fiber arts to heraldic presentation.

My personal favourite part about the Shrewsbury events is the fact that while there is a ton of things going on, there is no sense of rushing. The whole event has a very relaxed feel, which allows you to move through it and enjoy it all. I think this has to do with the fact that it is concentrated on a relatively small site, which means that most of the activities are being done within eyesight of each other. If one is in the center pavillion enjoying a class, one can see where the fighters are practicing and where the archery competitions are going on. Normally, since I spend all of my time on the field, I don't get to see anything at kingdom events, as the only thing close to the lyst field is fighter support. Here, I could be practicing with the fighters and, if a break is called, I can easily walk over to the central pavillion and see what was going on there for a little bit.

This event also had the distinction of being the first time my father, Kjaran Issjor, and second time my brother, Ruik, had the chance to attend an event. It was amazing seeing that newcomer’s look in my dad’s eyes. Everything caught his interest as he tried to take everything in. I would really like to extend a thanks to the Autocrats, and everyone at the event for making my family feel so at home, even though they are still new to everything. My brother, after sometime perusing the various contests and merchant stalls, spent his day on the archery range mastering those deadly skills. They have both told me they had an amazing time and can't wait to do it again. Hopefully they will be able to make it to the event that Southkeep is running in February, Tourney of the Three Ships.

The fighting at Shrewsbury was more practice than anything rigid, we armoured up and got a chance to fight with 6-7 fighters visiting from other parts of Southern Trimaris. It was particularly nice to see Sean, who was one of the shieldmen I fought with at war, who I hadn't seen in a long time. The fighting itself was very good; I am continuing to work on perfecting my range, and some of the moves that are very specific to axes. The main move I’m trying to practice is the punch block that his Grace Duke Mittion was talking to me about at Seamarch Anniversary. I still haven’t gotten the hang of it, but the hope is I will be able to get some time to work on it at half speed in the not too distant future. I think I fared well throughout the practices, and I didn’t get quite as tired as I have been getting. The weather is starting to shift for the better, and I think that made a big difference. I will be starting a workout routine very soon, which should also help me keep up my endurance. Stay tuned for details in a future post.

Since I spent most of the day in armour, I didn’t get the chance to take any of the classes, but my Lady told me that she particularly enjoyed the class on medieval etiquette that was taught by the wonderful Eilionora Michelle O’Keefe, a dear friend of ours. I also didn’t get to try the baking competition, which my Lady tells me is nearly a sin against sweets on my part. I did, however, get to vote in the cordial competition, and that was amazing! There must have been 13 different entries varying from pomegranate-infused rum to a variety of meads. I’m not sure that all the entrants were cordials per se, but they all certainly leaned towards the sweeter side. In the end, I voted for a berry-flavoured drink that was a little sweet to be a normal drink for me, but certainly made a great dessert drink.

Finally, as the evening ran down, it was time for us to leave all our friends behind and go home. During the last Shrewsbury, we had the opportunity to camp, and we will likely do so again at the next one, as we find that going home after a great event is rough. We said goodbye just as the sun was going down, and the tantalizing scents of feast were starting to fill the air. It was a great day filled with close friends, and activities to fill the dance card of even the smallest attention span. Thank you very much to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible, I can’t wait until next time!

5000!

Today the blog hit 5000 views, when I started writing this I thought it would just be a little thing to keep track of what I am doing in the SCA, and my research into the Ulfheðinn. Time has passed and I have seen people from all over the world read it, and people I would have never expected approach me about it. Thank you all for visiting the blog, and humoring the ramblings of this young wolf. The fact that people have been reading is what has made it possible for me to keep motivated and write even when I felt like I didn’t feel like it.

What is in your armour bag?

Throughout my time in the SCA, I have seen a large variety of approaches to maintenance and care for your armour kit. Some people put a ton of effort into its appearance, and by extension, into maintaining it, while others throw together any group of bits and bobs that they feel might pass inspection and have little interest in how it looks. Even though my armour is mostly hidden, I fall very strongly into the first camp. Not only do I think that your appearance on the field adds/detracts from the atmosphere for everyone, but I strongly believe that part of being a warrior is maintaining your gear properly. You take care of your gear, and it will take care of you. We may not be fighting in life or death situations, but injury is possible and a well maintained kit can save you from that. To me, maintaining your gear starts before you ever get to an event, but what you actually carry in your armour bag is vitally important to keeping you going in case anything goes wrong at the event. This is especially important at longer events like Gulf Wars, where quick fixes might make the difference between having to sit out for the rest of the week or continuing to fight. In my bag, I carry everything that I could need to make minor repairs, and do maintenance and cleaning.

Contents

• Leather Gloves: I wear a set of padded gloves under my gauntlets, and carry a spare set in my bag in case of anything.
• Athletic Cup: This is the only part of my kit that I am going to put on this list specifically. That is because I carry an extra one. It sucks to get to an event and not be able to fight because you forgot your cup.
• Armour: I’ve gone over my armour in a previous post(Here), so I won't go into details here. I will say I double check it the night before an event to make sure I don’t forget anything.
• Favour from Beatrice: My Lady and I were hand-fasted some months ago. Our hand-fasting cloth was embroidered by each of us with runes that symbolize the oaths we made to each other. I use this cloth as her favour. Favours are a nice physical reminder of the person you are fighting for.
• WD40, Brillo Pad, and Oil Rag: These items are my cleaning kit. I use them to remove rust spots and to apply protection to the mild steel elements of my armour.
• Zip Ties: Zip ties are great for repairing buckle breaks or minor popped rivets.
• Duct Tape: Anything you can't zip tie together, you can lash to your body with duct tape. This is an ugly fix, and a last resort, but it it will you allow to finish out the day most of the time.
• Extra Lanyard: Single-handed weapons require a lanyard. Lanyards can snap: prevent having to find a last-minute replacement by carrying an extra in your bag.
• Eyeblack (not pictured): This is what I use for warpaint. I use it for war, and during procession. I wrote an earlier blog about it(Here).
• Extra Fighter's Card (not pictured): I carry a copy of my fighter's card in my pouch, and one in my bag. This is another one of those things that you can’t fight without.

My maintenance routine is pretty straightforward, but it starts before I even leave an event. Preventative measures go a long way to keeping things functional and clean. Before I pack my gear at an event, I make sure that all the pads have dried; if there isn’t enough time at the event, I make sure that the wet things are not packed into the bag. They are then set out to dry when I get home. Keeping the sweaty wet stuff away from the metal helps quite a bit in preventing rust, and keeps the bag from growing mold or anything else. I also spray my helm with WD40 and wipe it down with a rag to make sure that it is lightly coated; this keeps the helm in good working order. If I am not careful, the mild steel that makes up my helm can rust in a matter of hours. Cleaning it off and spraying it down keeps it safe. 

Living in Trimaris and using mild steel means that no matter how much preventative work you do, you WILL get rust, and your leather will need conditioning. This means that in addition to the work done at events before packing up, I have a regimen that I keeps the metal in my kit spotless (or close to it), and the leather well conditioned. This means my armour is always ready to use, and it will last me longer. First step to maintenance is to spread out a protective sheet on the surface I'll be working on, and then laying out my armour so I can inspect each piece. I am looking for anything that might need to be fixed or cleaned. I always make it a point to check the inside of my helmet where the padding is. I am looking for two things: rust that isn't easily visible, and the condition of the padding. Once I have given everything a good looking-over, I start by cleaning the metal parts of the armour. Cleaning is just removing the rust, which calls for WD40, a brillo pad, and plenty of elbow grease. The more regularly you clean your armour, the less effort it is with each cleaning. After all the metal parts have been taken care of, I move on to the leather. This is something that only needs to be done once in a while; I prefer once every three months (usually after each kingdom event): I apply a leather conditioner to keep the leather supple and prevent rot. The conditioner can be bought online, at a leatherworking store, or any place that sells leather products (jackets, saddles, or whatever else your black little heart frequents). When I'm done cleaning everything, I replace any straps or rivets that need attention and pack everything away to make sure it's ready for the next time.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, our armour isn’t a matter of life or death, but it is protective gear. More importantly it is our gear, and we are responsible for keeping it in good working order. Rule number one of the lists says:

Each fighter, recognizing the possibilities of physical injury to themselves in such combat, shall assume unto themselves all risk and liability for harm suffered by means of such combat. No fighter shall engage in combat unless and until they have inspected the field of combat and satisfied themselves that it is suitable for combat. Other participants shall likewise recognize the risks involved in their presence on or near the field of combat and shall assume unto themselves the liabilities thereof.

The basics of it is that you are responsible for yourself. This also comes back to the Nine Noble Virtues, specifically self-reliance. I want to be able to care for all my equipment myself to make sure that the only person I can blame if anything goes wrong is me. It also falls into the virtues of discipline, and industriousness. It sucks to be tired from an event, or rushing to get everything packed, but you still have to do things the right way. If you don’t, it's certainly going to cost you either money to replace the armour, or sweat equity to getting your kit back into proper working order. That is discipline. The work you put into keeping your kit in repair and making sure you have a good kit is industriousness. This is work that keeps your mind healthy and your spirit clean. Doing the work yourself lets you take pride in your labours, and in knowing it has been done right. These are the reasons I'm so big on armour maintenance, a lesson I was taught by the first person that ever trained me, back before I even got authorized. I messed up pretty bad on it at first, which gave me even more reason to make sure I don’t mess up again.

Do you guys have any maintenance tips or tricks? How about some horror stories about not taking care of your kit or seeing someone else not take care of their kit? Please share them in the comments below!

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Seamarch Anniversary 2014

Seven years ago I found the SCA; this was a huge revelation to me. I had never known such a place existed, or that I wasn't alone in my constant feeling of being stuck somewhere out of time.

My introduction to the SCA is probably a story with which many people are familiar: I attended a meeting. Coming to a public place and seeing this group of people in one corner of a Barnes and Noble cafe, and mustering the courage to walk up to them and say “ Hey, you guys wouldn't happen to be the group of people that get together on weekends and dress up funny, would you?”.

I was shocked at how quickly the group accepted me, and at how happy they were to have new people come in. The first person I met was Mistress Aibinn ingen Artain, the then-Seneschal of Southkeep. She and her husband, HL Donatello di Napole, were the first people I met. It wasn't long before we had taken up the whole cafe, and plans were being made for Southkeep to go up to the upcoming event, Seamarch Anniversary 2007. I didn't think that I would be able to make it; at the time I had no car, no garb, and very little money, but the members of the Shire made sure that I could go. Another newcomer, HL Petra di Africana, helped out by giving me a ride, and HL Herbert loaned me garb. This was my first event, and I met many of the people that would shape my early time in the SCA, including Duke Mittion and Mistress Finnguala. It was where I fell in love with all of the things that made up the Dream.

Since that long-ago day in borrowed garb and with newcomer's eyes, I  have always tried to make it to Seamarch Anniversary. It has special significance since it's my anniversary event. This year marks my fourth Seamarch Anniversary, as I missed three while I was inactive. Seamarch Anniversary 2012 was actually my Lady’s first event, and so the tradition continued.

This year marked the 35th Anniversary of Seamarch, a great occasion that they wanted to commemorate. From the moment we stepped on site, there was a cohesive theme: the full house. The site tokens were lovely playing cards, and each visitor got a random one. I received the Two of Spades and my Lady got the Queen of Diamonds.

The whole site smelled amazing as the grill had been going for some time, and already the food was starting to pile up. There were six tables piled high with all sorts of goodies for people to eat as the day progressed. On one of the tables, they also had an album with pictures from the last 35 years of Seamarch history. I loved seeing how friends have grown within the SCA and what came before. It was a relaxed schedule, which meant more for the enjoyment of old friends than for a strict day.

In a slight change from the way schedules usually work, the rapier tournament came first this day. The rules for the tournament were simple enough: the first person to wound all of their opponent's limbs won, but if you accidentally killed your opponent, you'd lose points.

The first two rounds passed rather well, if slowly, and the marshall and the populace decided to remove the special rules and allow the tourney to continue as normal. The final round of the tourney found Countess Sibilla Daine facing off against Lord Augustine van Kleve. It was a difficult match as Augustine uses a unique blade that makes his opponents wary from lay on, a long wickedly-curved sabre. Now, the blade itself is not as deadly as his proficiency with it, as not everyone can get the strange sword to perform so well. Her Excellency is known for being a great fighter at a long distance, which meant that both fighters had to be very careful with how they proceeded. After many lightning-quick encounters, with parries and attacks going in ways I couldn’t quite decipher, Augustine was left standing.

The heavy tournament was well attended with 7 fighters present: Duke Mittion, Sir Maximillion, Sir Gõcauo, Sergeant von Hessen, Lord Vikarr, Lord Cormac, and myself. The format was a round robin, meaning each fighter would go around the circle and face all the other fighters. This would make a total of 12 possible points. By chance, the circle ended up being nearly in order of precedence; the only person out of order was Sir Gõcauo, which meant that my first three opponents were Duke Mittion, Sir Maximillion, and Sergeant von Hessen. This made for very quick matches; I fared best against Sergeant von Hessen,  managing to defend myself sufficiently that he didn’t defeat me with just one shot. After these three fights came my turn in the middle; I started with Lord Vikarr and worked my way around. Lord Vikarr has grown as a fighter considerably since he first put on armour last year at TMT. We went through several exchanges before he was finally able to land a solid blow on me. Again, the more experienced fighters managed to nearly one-shot me, but this time I did manage to defend myself long enough against Sir Maximilion that I got an axe punch through his defence before he killed me. The only other fighter I managed to defeat was Lord Cormac, giving me a final score of two points. Duke Mition ended the day victorious with 10 out of 12 possible points. The whole tournament was a great show of chivalry, every single match in which an opponent lost a limb was followed by an act of chivalry, and at no point did anyone have any doubts about the calibration of the fighters.

Throughout all the fighting, even when I was having the most difficulty, Beatrice stood by the side of the field to offer inspiration and anything else I might need, which proved to be vital when, during my round in the middle, I got WD-40 in my eyes, a lesson not to clean your helm the night before a tourney. I finished out my round, but immediately had to get off the field remove my helmet. My Lady was right at my side and even offered me her dress to help clean my out my eyes; luckily someone was on hand with a spare scrap of fabric and her gown was saved from such a disservice.



When the fighting finished, we were called over to one side of the field to bear witness: Lord Vikarr Bjornsson had requested that Sir Gõcauo take him as a man-at-arms, and Sir Gõcauo had found him worthy of the title. Before all his friends in attendance, Vikarr swore to follow his Knight along his own path towards excellence and chivalry, to be a good student, and to always act in a manner that would reflect well on his teacher. Sir Gõcauo swore to teach, to guide him along the path to becoming a knight, and to help him become worthy of such an accolade. It was a great moment in the day to see a friend recognized in such a way, to see him take such a concrete step along his own path.

After the swearing of oaths was done, I made it a point to ask Sir Gõcauo about my fighting for the day, as he is one of the knights that I have fought the most and has seen me grow thus far. I asked him what I was doing wrong that the experienced fighters all managed to kill me more or less with the same head shot. As we were talking, Duke Mittion overheard us, and also lent his experience to the conversation. The consensus was that I was blading my stance to far, which was making my blocking axe ineffective for the head wrap. They gave me some tips on stance that I will be trying to work out, the main one being to try more of a boxer’s stance. The disadvantage to this would be that I shall need to be more on my toes to block the body shots.

Almost as if it had been politely waiting for us to finish up, just as all the outside activities wrapped up, the skies opened up and drenched the site with a downpour. Luckily, there was more than enough space in the pavillion, and that's where the food was. The rest of my time was spent chatting with old friends and swiping food off any of the dozens of plates that had been provided. Too soon we had to leave, because it was a long ride home, but we brought with us wonderful memories of a lovely event.

I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the Shire of Seamarch for continuing to host this wonderful event that means so much to my Lady and me. It was absolutely lovely, and I can’t wait to do it again next year.

Picture by Lady Ennelyne

Fall Coronation 2014

      It has been a very rough summer for me personally, and a slow summer (as most are in Trimaris) SCA-wise. Fall is coming, and that means that things are looking up on all fronts, and so I can come back to posting. The goal is to post biweekly from here on out; my previous weekly schedule was a little too ambitious for what I could do with my other obligations. Hopefully this new schedule will be more manageable. Now let's talk about Fall Coronation!

        This Fall Coronation marked the second time I have seen the line of King Kurn III ascend to the throne. Sadly due to circumstance regarding her divine nature, Her Royal Highness will be elevated to the rank of Queen at a later date. Her Highness comes from the lands of Aegyptus, and it could be seen in every aspect of the event. From the wandering priest of Sekmet to the cotton-garbed waterbearers. Every detail was attended to for this glorious occasion. I spent most of the event either in armour or working in the camp kitchen, so I sadly missed some things, but let's talk about what I did see.

This event also marked the first time that I have ever volunteered to feed the house; it was very much a learning experience. I have cooked in camps before, but never for a large group of people. This made all the difference in the world. There were a few major issues with the planning that could have been taken care of if I had more experience, things I will fix if I ever get the chance to cook for everyone again. The main issue was the storage and temperature control of anything that needed to be preserved. The other one was having enough cooking surface to get the food cooked before the previous items got cold: I wanted everyone to have hot meals.

For the sake of my sanity, I only offered breakfast and dinner each day with lunch being catch as catch can. The meals were designed to be easy to cook, easy to eat, and light on the pocket. For Saturday breakfast, I made Arepas, a corn cake that is meant to be sliced open and filled with various ingredients. The ones I made are from Venezuela (Colombians also have a recipe, although it's somewhat different), and I was taught to make them by my mother in law. These were a great idea and went off really well. John called them"bread made outof grits." As it was followed by "this is awesome," I will take it as a compliment. I don't know that I would change anything on them, although now that everyone knows what they, I might tell them to bring any special toppings they might want to try, that way they are more customized.

         Dinner was a little less adventurous: skyr-mashed potatoes and pork chops marinated in Mojo Criollo (a marinade made of sour orange, oregano, bay leaves, garlic, cumin and salt) and olive oil. My lesson on this meal was that not everyone eats carbs the way I do. I think I ended up with twice as much mashed potatoes as I needed, and they were the more difficult of the two parts of the meal to warm up and store. They also didn’t reheat as well as I would have hoped, so they ended up being drier than I would have liked, a complaint I had with a lot of the things I cooked this event. The taste on both the meat and the potatoes was good, and the camp seemed to have enjoyed it, so you'll forgive me if I mark this one as a quiet success.

Sunday opened up with what was everyone’s favourite meal of the weekend, waffles and bacon. It seems I am better at planning breakfasts than I am at other things, because both breakfasts went off really well. I would like to bring a little more waffle mix per person next time, as I feel I was just a little short. Everyone got one, but I am sure many would have liked seconds. Our fearless leader taught me a new and more efficient way to cook bacon, all at once, individual slices be damned! It worked out GREAT. I would've been sitting there the rest of the day trying to get through it all if it wasn’t for that tip. Next time, I think I'll bring more bacon: 3lbs were barely enough for 9 people.

     Dinner was a slow painful experience to cook. I decided to make Arroz con Pollo (chicken and rice), thinking I could cook the chicken at home and then slow-cook the rest at camp. Slow cook is the operative term, until someone pointed out the flaw in my logic of cooking surfaces: I had been trying to boil water for 3 hours… Once I was on the right path it was slightly faster, another 2 hours to get it table-ready. Which meant I was able to go and enjoy court, something that I had missed the rest of the weekend. Again, I feel the taste was right but the whole meal suffered from how long it took to cook, and the fact that I didn't anticipate it. If I was to make it again, I wouldn’t change anything except add another cup of chicken broth to give it more liquid to absorb, and use the right heating element.

      The final and biggest mistake I made throughout all of the meals: I forgot to plan for some kind of dessert. In the future, knowing that I can put together a decent meal plan on the cheap, I will endeavor to make dinner at least a three-course deal, so that it can compete somewhat with the experience of feast. Sunday night was particularly nice, because wandering bards even made their way to our camp and provided entertainment.

       Cooking aside, the next big take on my time (and arguably the main reason I go to events): fighting! Coronation events in Trimaris are particularly important because the champions for the new Crowns are chosen. This is true for all disciplines from equestrian to rapier. On the Chivalric field this means choosing two different champions: the Champion of Trimaris and the Spear Champion. While the Spear Champion is a position of much honour and heavily competed for, the Champion of Trimaris is considered to be the hardest tourney in our Kingdom. Many say it's even more difficult than Crown Lyst. As I said in my Spring Coronation post, in addition to being a tournament to determine the Champion of Trimaris in the upcoming war, it also holds the tradition of honouring a fallen Trimarian:

“This Helmet of Champions was made and fought in by Sergeant 1st Class Paul Ray Smith. Brother to Duke Solomon Spite. Best friend of Earl Gregory Ahearne. Compatriot to many. Paul gave his life April 4th, 2003 saving the lives of over 100 of his troops in Baghdad in the War on terror, the truest embodiment of a Hero. On April 4th, 2005, Paul received the highest honor awarded in our nation, the Medal of Honor. Let this helmet inspire your tour as Champion of Trimaris. Let no dishonor ever befall it.” 

      Those words are engraved upon the helm that is given to the winner of the tournament. The winner acts as the guardian of the helm, and is the person in charge of running the next Champion’s tourney six months later.

       This time the tournament was run in what I believe was called a Swiss format. Each fighter would fight 7 rounds, each a best two out of three. If you defeat your opponent without him beating you, it's worth 10 points. If you win two fights and lose one, you receive 7 points and your opponent receives 3 points. If somehow you managed to tie by means of a double kill, you each gain 5 points. This means that a perfect score would be worth 70 points. The pairings for each round are chosen from pools of people with similar scores, which means that the field quickly is divided into people of more or less equal skill levels. I fought 4 rounds before the heat conquered me. In my first round, I faced a squire of Duke Gunnar’s house, Klintr. The match went quickly: I was uncertain in my movements from too much time out of armour, and he was skilled enough to make sure I couldn’t get away with poor performance. I was defeated 2-0. The second round, I came against Lord Gunnolfr Jarnhauss. In this fight I was a little more on point, and was able to use my axes as the tools they were designed to be. I managed to strike one clean blow against my opponent, taking his arm. Unfortunately, in that same exchange, he took my head giving him the win, again 2-0. In the third round, I faced Feodor Heinemann. I had finally found my place and was able to get into A range more efficiently; this led to a double kill that we refought, because of some confusion and a 2-1 loss for myself. I felt that it was my best pairing of the tourney. My final fight was against a greatsword wielder named Alex. In this fight, I felt like I had control of the fight the whole time, and I was getting frustrated as I landed blow after blow cleanly on my opponent. When the match ended, also 2-1 in his favour, Alex pulled me aside and told me that my short axe was soft and that he couldn’t call my blows because of it. Suddenly the rest of the day started to make a little more sense. I knew I had landed blows that I thought were good earlier, but I let it be thinking that my opponents had gotten their shield in the way or I was out of range, the latter being something that happens to me often with the short axe, and the main reason I am desperate to get a pell to work on. It wasn’t until I fought someone with no shield that the problem became obvious. I was very grateful for the courtesy of letting me know what the problem was. I went and spoke with Jarl Ari, and HL Fenris later that night for ideas on how I could prevent this from happening the next day for the mother of all melees and the other tourneys. The long and short of it: remake the axe head. Which is now my current project, expect a post on that soon!

       This issue with the axe head is one of the reasons it's so important to keep your kit maintained. Unlike our ancestors, we aren’t fighting for our lives, but our armour can save us from injury. Our weapons being properly maintained can be the difference between a good shot and one that is considered light. This isn’t the first time I have seen something like this: last time, I was on the receiving end. At St Valentine’s Massacre earlier this year, I came across Lord Joshua le Charmant on the field. Now Josh normally hits hard, but on this day his blow didn’t connect quite right, so I wasn’t able to call it. He asked me about it, and I told him that it was light. It was left at that. Later on once everyone had gone home he untaped that sword, and saw the state it was in, thus solving the mystery of why the hit was no good.

       Sunday there were no tourneys for me to compete in, but the Crown had arranged for a massive melee battle that pitted the Knights of the Kingdom against everyone else. It was a timed scenario with four sections that needed to be captured. The first section was a field battle: once the field had been cleared, the attackers would move onto a redoubt with two doors, then a bridge, and finally a section of a castle wall with one entrance open from the start and one that would open part of the way into the attack. The attackers would have infinite resurrections, and the defenders would be able to resurrect and move back one station. Basically they could resurrect up until the last section. The defenders would split their army into quarters, one at each section. This also meant that as people resurrected at the next section, the defending army would get larger. Meaning that in the field battle, the defenders would only have a quarter of their forces, but when those forces were defeated, they would resurrect in the redoubt. This would give them half their army in the redoubt. The same would be done when they were defeated in the redoubt giving the bridge three quarters of the army, and then again leaving the whole defending force in the castle with no more resurrections. Each side would take a turn at being on the attack and see how quickly they could move through the sections.

        Given the issues with my axe from the previous day, and the fact that two weapon isn’t particularly useful in this kind of melee, I borrowed a hewing spear from Jarl Ari. This was the first time I had fought with a glaive; all of my previous two-handed experience was either great sword or two handed axe. It was a learning curve. It took the entire field battle for me to figure out the most effective way to attack from behind my shield brothers. By the time I made it to the redoubt I had died 3 times, but I was starting to get the hang of things. I only died 3 more times in the time it took us to conquer the stations. I am not sure if I was effective in killing anyone as the Knights were very outnumbered, and anytime one died it was under a hail of blows from the unbelted warriors. That being said, I was able to use my spear to leverage people, hook shields, entangle spears and generally make a nuisance of myself. The biggest thing I learned while fighting with the hewing spear was that people hate spearmen. I have never been hit as hard as during this battle, I was finally bruised through my zoombang pads.

         The final score for the two rounds was Knights 6:02 and Unbelted 8:03. We managed to get within 2 minutes of the Knights' time, which was a lot better than many expected us to do. That being said, we could have done better. Many of the unbelts hesitated when presented with the heroes of Trimaris. I recall one moment in the field battle when 5 unbelts faced off against Duke Gregory Ahearn. They all hesitated unsure of how to proceed on such a dangerous target. This hesitation gave His Grace all the time he needed: he charged forward swinging, and 3 of the unbelts were down before the rest managed to move. He was only taken down by a group of spears surrounding him. I am sure scenes like this played out around the field. Those 5 unbelts could likely have taken him with less casualties if they had charged, but they were worried about what would happen. This was their undoing. Hopefully, we will get more chances to do things that make us face opponents or numbers that would intimidate us to build the courage of the Trimarian army. It was one of our strengths at war, the enemy would hesitate and we would pounce. Now we need the new crop of warriors to be able to pounce when they don’t have the heroes behind them.

       Overall, the event was amazing. It was a ton of fun, and beautifully planned. I honestly enjoyed the combat and aside from the blistering heat, I have no complaints. I would like to extend a very hearty thank you to Alejandro de León for allowing my Lady and me to borrow one of his tents, since we still haven’t managed to get a new one, and a thank you to House Stormborn for letting me feed them all weekend long. Grimault was terribly missed, but work called. A great time was had and I can’t wait until next time!

What to wear!

I have spoken at length about what I wear for armour, and what weapons would have been appropriate for my period. I haven't spoken at all about the “soft kit”, garb. Looking good on the battlefield is important, but even at the best events, it's only a small portion of your time. While there is nothing wrong with starting off in pajama pants and a t-tunic, part of what helps build the Dream is working towards improving every aspect of your persona; garb, armour, campsite, etc. My garb has gone through tons of changes over the last 2 years. I started off in borrowed clothes, pajama

pants, and engineer boots. I have moved on, and now even my tunics are being made in period patterns. It took time and research. I am hoping writing this out will help other people get their garb together quicker by putting everything in one spot. This is my head-to-toe norse/rus garb list.

Head

Accessories as a whole are what make an outfit stand out. The difference between being just a generic Viking cosplay, and a solidly researched Rus ulfheðinn is all in how you add details to it. 

I find it is always best to start from the top: hats! I for one am a huge fan of hats, both in the SCA and mundanely. For me, the 4-6 panel Rus fur-lined hat was something that I searched for for a long long time. It was actually the first real accessory that I bought, and even just throwing it on with the terrible garb I had at the time made a big difference. 

From what I have looked into, there are two types of hats that have been found: the panel hat and the conical hat. The first is more commonly seen, a small skull cap made from 4-6 panels, and often trimmed with fur. The conical hat is the “Santa” or cossack hat. My hat was purchased otherwise I would likely have gone with a conical hat. The hats that have been found have been made of wool, which means not only do the look really good, but they also do wonders for keeping you warm. In most cases, unless the weather is really miserable, I can just wear my normal garb and my hat to stay warm. Downside, I really need to make a summerweight hat. One of the conical hat tips found at birka had silk in it, which may be proof of a silk hat. I may make one in the future to see how it feels.

Shoulders

This has been one of the really rough ones on me: cloaks. I have looked around and around, and thus far been unable to find something proving the Norse had hooded cloak, which is sad because they look great. Instead, they used wool rectangles folded through some sort of confusing dark magic into a cloak. I have not yet figured out the trick for this one! Important thing: Norse cloaks were worn pinned at the shoulder to keep the sword arm free. I have found this to be very comfortable. The cloak is held shut with a penannular brooch, also called a celtic brooch. These brooches exist in many different time periods and have many different styles. Mine is made of agry twisted iron. 

Recently, I've found proof for a hood that matches my period (~940CE) pretty closely, found in Skjold Harbour. This is a hooded mantle similar to what we have seen for the liripipe hoods of the later medieval periods. I have been told by many people that these types of hood are great for keeping you warm. I personally haven't seen weather that would force me to add even more warm clothing over the cloak and hat, but the coldest I have ever been at an event is just below 30 degrees fahrenheit. 

Chest

Tunics, tunics, and more tunics, the evidence points to norsemen wearing an under tunic and an over tunic. Personally, due to the absurd heat in Trimaris ", I make it a point to own overtunics with ¾-length sleeves. This is one of those leaps of conjecture. The Norse travelled through all sorts of climates, so I find it mind

boggling to think they never thought of or used shorter sleeves. That being said, all the extant pieces are long sleeved. I currently own several tunics, most of which aren’t based on a period pattern but are done in the “t-tunic” pattern. These are slowly being phased out as my lady graces me with more and more amazing hand-sewn pieces to use. The pattern that she uses is based off of the Birka find, and uses a large rectangle for the front and back of the tunic with 2 gores, 2 gussets, and separate sleeves. I am a simple man, so as of now, the only trim on my tunics is fabric of a contrasting colour. However, her current project has a very decorative and impressive neckline. 

For materials, the extant tunics have been made of wool with a lighter material for the undertunic. However, it's known that the Norse traded extensively and loved to show off their wealth. Wool, silk, and linen are the most common materials in period, and I could see any of them being used by the Northmen in their clothing. I would avoid using cotton, since it would have been rare in period, and the cottons that we have now are quite different. I personally use muslin in my under tunics because it breathes, and my over tunics are a variety of fabrics. As of yet, I do not have a silk tunic. 

Legs

For pants, the ancestors had two styles and they seem to depend heavily on the region. There were slacks, similar to drawstring pants that can be found anywhere, and the Rus pants. Being that my persona is from the area near Holmgård, Rus pants were the way to go. I also find them more comfortable. These pants are pretty straight forward to make, they are essentially two large rectangles of fabric joined to make the top portion. Each one is a side of the pant, and the calf portions are smaller, more fitted rectangles called cannons. The joining of the large rectangle to the cannons gathers the fabric. The pants are topped off with a drawstring to hold them up. These are more or less one-size-fits-all if you buy them made, they are just that huge. Mine, I believe, are 90in around at the waist. I have a pair that I made and they have been very serviceable, but the pairs that my lady bought me for last Yule have a couple of things that I will be incorporating into my next pair. First, a drawstring around the top of the cannons, which allows you to tie them in place so they aren’t slipping down. Second, the drawstring is long, absurdly long, but this keeps me from having to sit there for 15 minutes trying to pull the string out after it disappears into the vast abyss that is the ton of fabric of these pants. For materials, the same rules apply as for the tunics, only in this case I (personally) would never use wool. Keep to the linen. 

Now, onto what I think are one of the most important parts of the properly dressed Norseman: winnegas. These leg wraps finish up the look, and keep you looking good. I have two different pairs: one for fighting and one for looking good. The fighting pair are literally just a set of fleece horse leg wraps in black. I wrap them so the velcro isn't visible, and they pass the ten foot rule without any issues. I haven’t the money to ruin a pair of the nicer ones on the field, so these are the "stunt doubles". They are also the pair I bought first, since they were cheaper. The non-fighting ones are hand-woven wool that my lady purchased for Yule (sensing a pattern? I look good mostly because of her support). The wool ones have a herringbone pattern which would have been common in period, and a copper hook to hold them up. 

Shoes

Shoes are made of leather. This means that they are one of the items that we have some more concrete information on. I use a pair of Viking toggle boots based on the Jorvik finds. The differences between mine and the historical versions are a reinforced heel and a lugged sole. These adaptations don’t detract from the appearance of the shoe and make it more durable for fighting. 

This ran a little longer than expected; I was hoping to be able to get into some extant jewelry, but that will have to wait for a future post. Remember though, the Vikings loved bling! They were wealthy and they liked to show it off. Bright colours, expensive jewelry, furs, anything they could find. 

At some point in the future I will likely go into details about each item, if there is anything item you think I need to do some more research on, let me know in the comments. Also if I got anything wrong let me know! I am still trying to learn.

Edit: It was pointed out to me that in the pictures I still have things that are period accurate. The studded tunic in the first picture is a second hand tunic. There is no proof for this kind of decoration as cool as it looks. In the last picture the belt is thicker than what has been found in period. The tunic has already been replaced, the belt will be replaced when money allows.

Links

Shoes, Belts, and other leather accessories: Viking Leather Crafts

http://www.vikingleathercrafts.com/index.php

Tunic, Pants and the like: Linen Garb

https://www.linengarb.com/

Winnegas, and Clothing: Revival Clothing

http://www.revivalclothing.com/

Bling: Raymonds Quietpress

https://www.quietpress.com/

Patterns:http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/viktunic.html

Pictures:
Last picture: Mildryth Eilesberie
First picture: Beatrice Whitecombe

Warpaint

The time has come for me to go fully into the land of conjecture! I’ve been kicking this topic around for a while and have yet to be able to get anything concrete on it. Warpaint was used by the ancient Norse warriors. It’s a toss-up: some people use texts by al-Tartushi and ibn Fadlan to say “yes they did”, others point to those same texts and say that they are only proof of makeup, not war paint. Both viewpoints have their merits. The documents were written during peaceful meetings, so descriptions of makeup would not be warpaint; but having the technology to make eyeblack means that it’s only a small jump to actually using it at war, especially given contact with people that did use it in war. There is also talk about facial tattoos as markings that never disappear. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to make the leap of conjecture (yes, I know it’s a leap) that the warpaint isn’t mentioned in the sagas because it was normal. Warriors painted their faces to scare their enemies, it wouldn’t be the only thing that the ancestors did to give themselves a psychological advantage. There is evidence of filing teeth and accounts of terrible battle cries. All these things chalk up to a culture in which war paint would not be out of place. 

I’m going to break this down into three parts: what was used elsewhere in period, what might have been used in the North in period, and what I actually use. I’ll start off with what I actually use. Currently, I’m using a type of eyeblack used by athletes to take glare off their eyes. It can be purchased at most sporting goods stores, and the one I have comes in a tube which makes it easy to apply. It’s quite similar to greasepaint, and the texture is probably not too far off from one of the fat- or wax-based versions from history. Once I had found what I was going to use, I started working out different patterns that I could wear, and because it’s barely visible in my helm, I have taken to just using a black bar across my eyes. The end result is the illusion of seeing only the whites of my eyes and black shadows through the eye slits in my helm. When I was at Gulf Wars, I added teeth to the mask for show when waiting between battles. Since there is no evidence or accounts of what might have been used, my design process has been based on things that would have been simple to apply. I am going to start working on a design that represents ulfheðinn, something reminiscent of a wolf. 

On to what was actually used elsewhere in history: I have spoken with several friends in regards to what was used in their areas. One who researches Egyptian culture told me that in ancient Egypt, the make-up consisted of a binding agent such as animal fats or oil, and a pigment. Their pigments were typically made of minerals. To get a good black, they used lead galena which was (at the time) unknown to be toxic. The makeup made from lead was called kohl, and not only used for cosmetic reasons, but practical ones as well, such as to reduce glare and keep insects away from the eyes. 

A little bit closer to my own region, Tacitus makes several mentions of a Germanic tribe, the Harii, blackening their skin to blend into the night and terrify their foes. I was able to find a recipe that is thought to be Anglo-Saxon in origin, and a little closer to my time period. It uses beeswax and oil as the binding agent, and charcoal as the pigment.  All of these ingredients would have been plentiful in the Northlands. Beeswax would have been easy to get, since apiculture was common, and charcoal is everywhere. This second recipe could easily have been traded with a person living in Rus lands.

All in all, the idea of ulfheðinn using facepaint/body paint isn’t that big a leap. Makeup of similar types exist through all regions and most periods of history, which means that the technology was there. An even more direct link is the theory that the Harii, the tribe mentioned by Tacitus, are thought to be an early version of the Odinic Warrior Cult, the same tradition that ulfheðinn represent. Throughout history, warriors have sought to terrify their enemies, to win the battle of the eyes before the lines are ever met. The ancestors would have been no different. In the meantime, while we wait for more proof, the practical reasons of eyeblack are more than enough for me to wear it. 

Do you guys like warpaint? Have you seen evidence for its use or against? Let me know in the comments!

Spring Coronation 2014

Ancestors, the Gulf Wars posts have me a week behind on my schedule, so this week I will be talking about Spring Coronation. Next week I will get back to being useful and talking about things I am doing, rather than events we've attended.

Spring Coronation last year was my Lady’s second kingdom event, and only her third camp away. I was really surprised she wanted to go, because it falls on her birthday weekend. She sacrificed a big party down in Miami to go enjoy the event. This year she wanted the best of both, and so I was tasked with getting as many of our friends to the event as possible so that we could celebrate her birthday there. Her requests were simple: cake, friends, and fun. I managed to succeed on all counts, and I even gave her the bonus of TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR. This event had the worst rain and wind of any event that I had been to. It was so terrible, that out of all the tents in our campsite, five ended up in the trash by the end of the event, and most of our friends were invited to share cabins with other people for the sake of having a dry place to sleep. Even with the natural disasters, this was one of the most fun events I have had in a long while. 

We started off really well: the van was packed and everything was right on schedule. Our arrival on site was early enough that we had plenty of sunlight to set everything up, but not enough time to be ready for evening court, which we came to regret when Lord Highgate came calling to inform us that we were required to attend Their Majesties immediately (thanks for coming to get us!). We rushed off to court, and found ourselves a spot in the back so we didn't interrupt. Soon after, Their Majesties called forward both Beatrice and myself. They had chosen to honour us with their thanks for the service we rendered at Gulf Wars. Beatrice, for always being at the Queen’s side and ensuring that she was feeling well enough to fulfill all of her commitments, was welcomed into the Order of the Emerald Seas. I was awarded the Crown’s Order of Gratitude for my services. We were so happy to serve that it seemed almost unfair that we were being given awards for it. We're humbled by Jung Mie and Yoan's gratitude, and we look forward to serving them again as friends and retainers. Their Majesties treated us so well at war, and it was just our pleasure to help out wherever we could. After court, a beautiful temple was set up in the area that would become the lyst field the next day. The lovely Thalassia Hellenis was going to be elevated the next day to the Order of the Pelican, and she had chosen to sit a vigil to hear the wisdom and kind words of her friends. So much care was taken in how everything was set up. The decorations were beautiful and the food was so good. 

Friday night heralded the storms, and while our tent stayed dry, our good friend Grimault was not so fortunate. Around 3 in the morning he finally gave up, and to avoid the huffing and puffing of the weather, the first little pig moved into our tent. The rest of the night passed without incident and we were all ready for the morning. 

When we woke up, we realized that maybe we should have looked at the weather reports. Other Trimarians with more sense had probably done this. The site was nearly empty. In our own group of tents, in addition to Grimault’s tent leaking like a sieve, John’s tent had also sprung many leaks. These were the first two casualties of the weather. Not putting too much thought into it, we carried on with our day and went to breakfast, followed by morning court. 

As we sat in court and listened to Their Royal Majesties proceed through the business of the day, a fog crept up and we could no longer see the thrones. A disembodied voice called out “Thus ends the court of Yoan Moon Yang and Jung Mie”, and as the fog cleared, the Thrones sat empty, the crowns laid upon them, and before us were two beautiful cranes. They began to fly out of the court and dance in the fields. Again the voice came “Their Majesties have ascended to heaven, the Thrones sit empty”. At this announcement, the Barons and Baronesses began to discuss the proper course of action. The Kingdom is always under threat for its beauty and resources, the Thrones can not remain empty. Each Barony extolled its virtues, experience, youth, dance, and the conversation became heated. So much so that they did not hear the drums. An army approached. 

The horns and drums heralded the approach of Gunnar Oxnamegin, Prince of Trimaris, rightful heir to the kingdom. They chanted the strength of their armies, and the fate of any who opposed true and proper succession. His Highness came to the Baronies, and they were cowed by his strength, each saying that they had intended only to hold the seat until he came forward. Omce order was restored, St Martin came forward to anoint the Royal Successor, he kneeled a prince and rose a King. Calling forward his lady, he elevated her to his side, Queen Bryndis the Flower of Trimaris. The Kingdom secured, Their Majesties called forth the peerages each in turn to swear fealty. Finally when the populace is called forward everyone present came forth to swear before the new Crowns of Trimaris. Thus ended the first court of our new Majesties. 

Immediately following court, the warriors of Trimaris were called to the field. Today, as is the tradition in our fair kingdom, a tournament would be held to determine the Champion of Trimaris. In addition to the prestige of being the Champion, the winner of the tournament is given the honour of keeping and protecting a relic of our kingdom for as long as he holds the title. The helm of a true hero, the helm of Champions. Engraved upon the helm are the following words, a memoriam to a fallen friend, brother, and warrior: 

“This Helmet of Champions was made and fought in by Sergeant 1st Class Paul Ray Smith Brother to Duke Solomon Spite. Best friend of Earl Gregory Ahearne. Compatriot to many. Paul gave his life April 4th, 2003 saving the lives of over 100 of his troops in Baghdad in the War on terror, the truest embodiment of a Hero. On April 4th, 2005, Paul received the highest honor awarded in our nation, the Medal of Honor. Let this helmet inspire your tour as Champion of Trimaris. Let no dishonor ever befall it.” 

This is the second time I fought in this tournament. The importance of it was lost on me the first time, as I didn’t know the story of the helm. This time, I made it a point to fight harder than ever to respect the people that had come before me. The format this year was set up to be a speed tourney, we were racing against the weather. In the first round, I drew THL Valgardr Gunnarsson, the same gentle who is always so kind to let me use his pictures. This was the first time we had met on the field of combat, and I was a little worried since he is squired to Sir Killian, who had beaten me so soundly at Scots Welsh. It was hard fought, but I think that my unusual fighting style is what gave me the advantage. I was able to defeat him after taking his legs. My second fight was against Baron Garan Halftrelson. We had met at Gulf Wars and I knew him to be a good person, but I also knew he was injured. This led me to make the always fatal mistake of underestimating my opponent. The only good thing is he didn’t make me pay for long. A quick slot shot through my defenses and I was done. The fight that eliminated me was against Lord  Logan Ó Ech Dubh. I had wanted to fight Lord Logan for sometime, he is a very fast fighter and I wanted to see how I would fare against him. From the moment the fight started, I knew that it was going to be one that is determined by a small mistake. I was able to keep him somewhat tangled up with my axes, but couldn’t find a break in his defence. We would attack and then separate; on the third pass, my defences didn’t come up quite fast enough and he was able to land a solid shot to my helm. The tournament proceeded at pace, and while I didn’t see the final round, I was later informed that Sir Takamatsu Sadamitsu no kami Tadayoshi was the new Champion.

Almost as soon as I was eliminated, the skies opened up and the storm started in full force. The tournament was moved indoors, and I went to make sure that my Lady and Grimault were ok. Once we were all safe in the feast hall, we enjoyed our lunch. No sooner had I sat down to eat than the weather got even worse. What had started as just a heavy rain now had terrible gusts and a tornado warning. I ran out to our tent to tie it down and make sure it was secured, getting terribly soaked in the process. I thought I had been pretty successful and sat back down to enjoy my lunch. Then I heard a call ring out from Vikarr “ Rurik, your tent just flew away!”. Running back out, I saw that my tent had been pushed 30ft by the gusts shattering many of the plastic joints and tearing the fabric. To my enormous embarrassment, it was also pushed onto our friends, Mildryth Eilesberie and Edward Mandeville's tent, collapsing one side of it. Rushing to make the best of the

situation, Edward and I collapsed the poles of my tent while Grimault helped get things to the dry areas. It wasn’t until later that we noticed that the position of my tent flooded theirs. Vikarr and Kjartan’s tent had also begun to leak terribly so they emptied it to save their stuff. It wasn’t staked down, so soon after it was emptied, it was flipped over, also causing damage to the poles and fabric. No sooner had the elements finished ravaging our camp than the storm stopped. Ruined tents all around, we started the process of getting everything taken care of. Our friends in house Stormborn showed up, and between us all we tore through the fabric of our tent and unloaded it into the van. Luckily most of the stuff was dry, and so it wasn’t a total loss. Jarl Ari extended a kind invitation to stay the night in their cabin, and so all the issues were taken care of for the time being. Replacing the tent would be a problem for another time. So, the rest of the little pigs moved into the house of brick.

Dealing with all the issues of the tent meant that we nearly missed the evening court. Luckily, we arrived in time to see our beloved friend Finnguala inghean Alister be sung Happy Birthday by the whole court, and then in a correction of what can only have been an oversight, she was elevated to the Order of the Pelican, rightly deserved for all of her service to the Kingdom. Mama Finn was one of the first people I met in the society at Seamarch Anniversary 7 years ago, she always made it a point to make me feel welcome. When I returned to Trimaris, she was again overwhelmingly kind both to me and to my Lady. I can never thank her enough for the guidance she has given us, and I am so happy that I was able to be there to see her honoured in this way. It seems that the gods were being kind to us, because after the rough weather we were able to see first Mama Finn be elevated and then another wonderful friend, THL Milesenda de Bourges announced to join the Order of the Laurel. It was a very good court.

Afterwards, we retreated to the feast hall. Feast was a delicious parade of meat! It started with poached hake, and continued to feed us every flavour of protein. My personal favourite was either the roast beef with the berry sauce, or the kettle worms. Kettle worms, I came to learn (despite the slightly off-putting name) are a delicious type of sausage. My Lady favoured the bacon wrapped chicken and the greens that came with the hake. Throughout feast, we were treated to bardic entertainment, two of which stood out very strongly. Brennan the Misguided had returned to Trimaris on a visit, and he graced us by singing Trimarian Blood. This is one of my favourite songs ever, but even this treat couldn’t compare to the haunting melody that was the last singer of feast. I don't know her name, and I think the song was called “Some Gave All”, but she sang of the sacrifice of soldiers and the honour of those who would put the freedom and safety of the rest of us. The hall was absolutely silent as her voice filled the air with her song. It was truly moving. 

When feast was done, I went into the kitchen to get the surprise cake that I had brought up for my lady. Then we went to the cabin, where we spent the rest of the night eating cake surrounded by friends and trading stories of battles fought. In the midst of all this, I was given two tasks: one from Fenris and one from Jarl Ari. These tasks are going to be the topic of future blog posts as I try to get them accomplished. 

That was Spring Coronation for us. Terrible weather, mass destruction, but an amazing time shared with friends. No amount of rain could dampen the fun that we had. What's the worst weather you have ever had to deal with at event? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you know the name of the singer or her song please let me know, I would like to credit her properly.

Photos by:

1,6 Lady Beatrice Whitecombe

3,7 THL Tristum de Kerjean

2 Edward Mandeville

5 Margery O'hAirt 

Gulf Wars XXIII Conclusion

It is time to finish up my thoughts on war. From the moment I first joined the SCA, I've looked forward to going to Gulf Wars. Her Excellency Countess Rebecca, who first teased me with the idea of a place where being born out of time is not a weirdness but the status quo, told me all about her experiences at war. This just whetted my appetite, made me want it all the more. It took me around 6 years of playing to finally be in a place in mundane life that allowed me to go. It was rough and it took a lot of planning, but with the constant support of my Lady Beatrice, we were able to get ourselves to Lumberton. 

I am going to do this Gulf Wars wrap-up by focusing mostly on what I learned from my first Gulf Wars, which can be broken down into three main areas: scheduling, fighting, and camping. I thought that I'd done a fair bit of all of these so that war wouldn’t be such a huge shock, and while we survived without making a fool of myself, there are tons of places that I could have done much better. Some of my worst mistakes came from thinking that this would be no different than a regular long weekend camping trip. The majority came from wanting to do everything at once. My own lack of organization was the biggest issue as far as setting up the campsite, and scheduling. 

Alright, let's start off with our campsite: Gulf Wars was the most we had ever done with our tent and our campsite. We bought solar powered stake lights to illuminate the area and save people from tripping over the line for our porch, and we had packed more things than usual in anticipation of the tent being our home for a week. Our packing list included survival supplies, more drawers, and more tables. This gave us plenty of “countertop” space to make the tent a functional home. Overall, our internal set up of the tent was really good. It allowed us plenty of space and access to all of our stuff. The only really bad thing was the angle of the hill we were on, and there was nothing that could be done about that. 

My camping lessons came in preparing the campsit, for example making sure the ground isn't full of razor sharp things, and that there is good runoff for water. Next time I camp, I will be sure to check the ground really well to avoid damage to the tent. To aid in this I am going to be buying a brighter lantern and an entrenching tool. These should be good enough for most weekend trips, and for war I will have other things available as needed. 

The current concern is that at Spring Coronation, our tent was destroyed (the retelling of that epic event will be next week's post, so stay tuned!). This means that we will be buying a new tent. After a ton of research, seesawing, budgeting, and thinking, we decided to buy a period tent, which means it's entirely possible that everything I know about tenting to this point will need to relearned. Let's see how it goes!

The next set of lessons came early on: organization. Leading up to war, Beatrice and I had been pouring over the schedule, picking classes we wanted to take, deciding how much time we needed between activities, and trying to figure out when we would see each other. Our choices were tremendously overambitious. We wanted to do 6+ things a day, plus all the other duties, and volunteer. This just wasn’t possible. Once we were on site, we decided our main priority was helping out the Royals with anything they needed. They were a little understaffed, and we were fortunate enough to be able to help. That being said, we picked the classes we wanted to do regardless, and scheduled our volunteer times around them. Still, I feel like we wasted a ton of time, and I know that we missed out on some great opportunities. For next war, the plan will be to pick one class per day that we really want to take, and schedule the rest of the day around it. This will let us take at least 6 classes, and get the chance to really enjoy that aspect of the war.

Now, on to fighting: it's the main thing people think of about war, and yet it was not a huge part of my experience. Now, don't get me wrong: he fighting was great! Plus I only missed one battle; but the thing is that the total experience was really what made the war for me: time spent with Their Majesties, time spent with all my friends, and time spent just wandering the site in awe. Since I didn’t get any real one-on-one time at war, everything I learned was in regards to war fighting. The main lesson that I learned was just in getting acclimated to the different pace of the scenarios. Even when the tactics are similar, each scenario plays very differently. I'm sure they can even feel very different year to year. For example, this year the town battle was a holding action, we pushed the enemy into a position and we held them there. This made the battle one where my main objective was just staying alive, and generally obstructing progress. The ravine battle has a similar idea, we push to where we hold the points and then defend. My job there was to stand in front of the objective, and when enemy forces were looking like they were massing, call for reinforcements or participate in a charge to break them up. It was a much more active battle for me. 

I learned three lessons on equipment, two of them thanks to the ravine battle. While sitting on the line, I had time to look around my feet, and I noticed that there were tons of thrown weapons sitting on the ground. Working with Vikarr, I started picking up the ones that were in reach. The new gauntlets let me switch the axe to the hand that is holding the shield, which left me with one hand free to chuck things. It was pretty helpful being able to make archers duck, or just aggravate spearmen. I don't know that anyone took any of the hits, or even if I connected, but I did see some people duck, and to be honest that's just another way I can aggravate the enemy while on the wall. For next year, my goal is to make at least two thrown axes and get some practice with them, as well as a belt holder, which will keep them accessible. Again, I am not expecting to get a ton of kills with them, but if I can make one archer question the safety of their position, it will keep the spears on my side a little safer. I have heard some disadvantages to thrown weapons, mainly that people don't call the shots and that they can be thrown back. To me, the first sort of counteracts the second. If they are hardly effective, then them being thrown back isn't a huge issue. The second ravine lesson involved daggers. Apparently there is a dagger party in the last five minutes of the ravine battle. This is something I need to be involved in, and towards that end I will be making myself a seax to be sure to be able to jump in next year. My final equipment lesson is the easiest one to take care of: I need a bandana. My hair is terrible: it's not long enough to put in a ponytail or short enough to stay out of my eyes; a bandana should take care of that issue as well as give me a little more padding, which has been an issue in larger battles, as the back of my head starts to hurt once I have been in my helmet for a few hours. 

These were my war lessons. Hopefully I will be able to put them to use and perform better next war. What are your biggest survival war tips? Post them in the comments below!

Pictures by THL Valgardr Gunnarsson

Gulf Wars XXIII pt 2

Now onto the second half of Gulf Wars XXIII!

Thursday

When the sun rose on Thursday, our tent was covered in frost, which to a native Miami boy is a strange thing to see, so I ran and grabbed pictures of it. Once the shock had worn off, Beatrice and I kissed and went our separate ways. She headed off to find the Queen, and I was off to fight in the field battle. 

I was quite eager to get onto the field. Fenris had given me a smaller axe to replace my parrying axe as my main weapon. It was shorter, lighter, and quite a bit faster, so I was just chomping at the bit to bring it out and see what happened. In my eagerness, I arrived to the field about 20 minutes before muster. Silver lining? I got to see the last portion of the mounted combat, and Sgt Caitriona’s valiant stand against 4 opponents. She maneuvered her horse skillfully to keep her opponents from being able to corner her, and was able to stave off their attacks for 5 minutes before they cornered her. 

Once the mounted combat was done and the field was cleaned up, I was able to make my way to the top of the field and look ever what was going on. Ansteorra had already formed up on the other side of the field, they had the advantage of setting up while the combat was still going. They looked really impressive, black and gold lined up, siege weapons ready to be deployed. When the Trimarians began to arrive, I actually found myself a little disappointed in the lack of togetherness we had in our appearance. Whereas Ansteorra had a feel of uniformity to it, we were more mismatched within ourselves. Luckily, there are some larger groups that really put it together: Clan Ross, the Trimarian Legion, House Arnhalla, and the Moose Lodge to name a few. Our appearance doesn’t take away from the fighting ability, though! I have always likened Trimaris to the Highlands: a place of powerful clans ruled by mighty warlords. When the time comes to fight a mutual enemy, we band together and do really well, but still remain very individual. Honestly, we just like fighting and are just as happy fighting each other as anything else. 

When at last both sides were lined up, it seemed that even though Trimaris had secured more allies than Ansteorra, the sides were roughly even in numbers. Which is good, to paraphrase the King of Meridies: the best fights are the ones where everyone is having a good time. That's made easier when neither side has a huge advantage. Trimaris formed the center of our line with Calontir to one side and Mid Realm to the other. This gave us what seemed to be a very strong battle line. We were assigned to be reinforcements as needed so we watched as the march forward began. Soon after lay on was called, the siege weapons and archers opened up. Cries of "rock!" began to be heard through the line as we attempted to maintain cohesion while not getting clobbered by the incoming fire from the artillery.

When the lines finally crashed together, our flank was hit very hard and was taken apart. This was where we filled in to try and plug the gaps. The first couple of minutes of the battle looked very hairy for the Trimarian forces, but we were able to get things back together after a few strong pushes. I was able to stay in the fight nearly until the end where I was killed in one of the counter charges to keep the opponents off balance.

In the next round, Ansteorra took a refused flank formation and was able to destroy us rather quickly. I was killed early on in the push when they did a column charge and destroyed our right flank. Third round saw Trimaris win again, with our lines forming up in such a way as to repel the charges more efficiently. I think Ansteorra had more seige weapons, but we had more archers. This made the odd numbered rounds tilt in our favour. Tons of respect to the Trimarian archers, their aim is deadly. In the third and fifth rounds, I was assigned to be a mobile pavise for Luthor Dross, a crossbowman attached to Sgt von Hessen, and a long time friend of mine. Other archers, seeing that I was staying back and playing rear line defense, started to guide me and stay behind where I was so they could shoot a little bit safer. In the third round, I was taken out by a breakthrough about halfway through the fight, and in the fifth round I lasted nearly to the end working with Luthor. It wasn’t until things got good and mixed up that I was killed by an archer to the back of the head. This was a mistake on my part, it seems, since I was later told you didn’t have to take missile shots to the head that weren’t to the face. Still it was a good time, and I had fun working with my friend to make sure he could rain death on our foemen.

When the points were looked at, Trimaris won the first, third, fourth, and fifth round, giving us the warpoint for the field battle. It was very hard fought, and in each round right up to the end it could have gone either way. 

From the field, I was able to meet up again with my Lady, and we got ready to attend the King and Queen at the Champion’s Tourney. As tiny as that little parasol is, I will say that I would much rather hold a shield up, than hold the parasol outstretched. It gets really heavy, really quick. That being said, their Royal Majesties are really low maintenance: the harder part is reminding them they need to eat/drink, rather than running around doing errands. This meant that we were able to watch the Tourney from a good vantage point, while performing our duties. The fights themselves ranged from over-too-quick to masterful plays of strategy. The match between Don Mattias vs. Don Robert comes to mind as a great example of the interplay that goes on in fencing as they try and find an opening.  Ansteorra came out ahead in both of the disciplines, receiving two war points and making the war a very close race. 

After the Tourney, it was time for court. Normally, Trimarian courts are held in standard outdoor pavillions, the type with poured concrete floors and a tin roof. These are nice structures, but there is a lot to be said for a court held in the middle of an encampment of Trimarians. It was different, I still haven’t decided better or

worse, but different. It felt more real, there was less to detract from the experience, even with the camp chairs and other mundane items. The only major negative I saw was that it was a little more difficult to hear the announcements because it was out in the open.

The court opened with statements of Gratitude from the crown, and then a reminder about the Codex of War: a journal that keeps the name of every Trimarian who fights at war, regardless of discipline. In the scope of the Kingdom, it is a new tradition: only 3 years old, but I think it is a good one. Hopefully it will continue to be upheld, since it is a great piece of history for us to be able to look back on. Once the codex was announced and people were given a moment to sign it, the King and Queen called up two wonderful ladies who had travelled all the way from the Kingdom of the East to lend their services as retainers. We spent a ton of time with these lovely ladies, and they were absolute pleasures to talk to. They were also a ton of help in keeping things going. Sadly, I am terrible with names, and I cannot remember theirs. They received awards of gratitude from Their Majesties for all that they did. A new friend, Joiha Bugg, received her AOA. Also in this court were two newly minted Lords from Southkeep. Both Augustine von Kleve and Vikarr Bjornsson received their AOAs. They truly deserved it, and I was overjoyed to be present for my friends receiving such an honour. 

The most impressive moments of the court to me, though, were the awardings of the Lion D’Or. Two were given out, one to Sgt. Caitriona for her bravery and skill on the equestrian field, and one to Fenris Swordbreaker. I already mentioned Caitriona’s actions, but Fenris’ I didn’t get to witness first hand; the story was told to me later. The tale as I have heard it:

Fenris was given direct orders to protect the Queen at all costs during the rapier ravine battle. This meant that wherever she was, he was right behind her. Several times, this meant sprinting to res point himself to get back to her, or following her to res point even though he was still alive. He took his duty to protect his Queen very seriously, and woe be to the foeman who tried to bring her harm. At some point during the battle, they had made their way to the center and were fighting with the Mid Realm troops, when suddenly

there was a hold called, and all the two handed swords were told to get off the field. This included Her Royal Majesty of the Mid Realm. Naturally, all of the Mid Realmers followed their sovereign off the field. Our Queen went up the ravine to speak with her Royal cousin, but not before letting Fenris know of her displeasure. “When the lay on is called take them out, all of them” I heard it said were her words.

She spoke to the Mid Realmers, and vowed to correct this dishonour done to their Queen. As soon as lay on was called, she led by example. Howling a battle cry, she threw herself down the slope into the enemy. The Mid Realmers inspired by her bravery charged down behind her. She struck the enemy lines and fought bravely, but was felled. Already, the marshalls had called no more resurrections, the battle had only 5 more minutes. It didn’t last that long: between the shadow of death that Fenris had become, and the inspired forces of the Mid Realmers, they rolled the enemy line and won the field.

Due to her actions, the King and Queen of Mid Realm opened a court right there on the field, and presented Queen Jung Mie with the highest fighting award in the Mid Realm, the Dragon’s Tooth. Well deserved to our Warrior Queen! Vivat!

His part in this tale and his loyal service to Her Royal Majesty earned Fenris his Lion D’Or, a rare Trimarian fighting award of great prestige, each one earned through heroic deeds in battle. 

The rest of the night was spent celebrating with our friends, and then off to bed. The battle continued the next day.

Friday

Friday was my big concern, from the first time I looked at the schedule. There were two chivalric fights scheduled, including the one I'd been told was the worst meat grinder of the war: the ravine battle. Before I could get to that particular bag of worms, I had to survive the bridge battle. Now the bridge battle seems pretty simple and straightforward: three bridges, no resurrection, no fording, 5 rounds, with archery on the odd rounds, last man standing wins. The tough part comes in the bottlenecks. The fighting is fierce because it's condensed over such a small space. For the bridge scenarios, since Sven and Fenris are assault troops, we were assigned once more as reserve forces ready to be deployed at a weak point, either to break through or to shore up our own weaknesses. 

Almost from the jump, it became obvious that Ansteorra had our number in this scenario. For whatever

reason, we were unable to counter their tactics, and spent all five rounds on the back foot. We did manage to hold off from a clean sweep by winning the second and fifth rounds. This was a straight grinder: a shields-up, push-on fight. My favourite moment on the bridges was watching the Moose Lodge place a hard charge onto a bridge where we were losing badly. Their charge was so effective that it turned the tide on that bridge. I also had the opportunity to follow in and do a little damage, until I was violently ejected from the bridge.

After the bridge battles, we took a rest while getting ready for the ravine battle. Conveniently, while the other

battles had been on the other end of the campsite from our camp, the ravine was only a short walk. This let me get back to camp and get some repairs done, and still have enough time to rest.

When I arrived at the ravine, both sides were pretty much ready. Trimaris was still getting their pavises and additional ammo ready. This was going to be a long battle, a test of endurance. To make it easier on the archers, thousands of bolts and arrows are placed in stashes near our deployment zone so they can be quickly retrieved when you res. The ravine battle has a pretty chaotic feel to it, so my orders were to find a commander after each res and go where I was told rather than trying to link up with my unit. This meant that my task would be shoring up the line whenever the commanders spotted a weakness or charging into the enemy to disperse any forces they are building up. 

That would all have to wait until after my first objective. Jarl Ari looks at me and he says “When lay on is called, I want you to run full tilt towards the center objective.” Luckily he wasn’t expecting me to go alone and Shawn, a new fighter from Seamarch, was also on the mission. The goal was to get there and claim it a step or two ahead of the enemy, which would make it difficult for them to claim it back. As we are getting ready for what will surely end in a beatdown when the enemy army hits us, we are joined by three other fighters: Sir Takamatsu, Sir Subadai, and Sgt Caitriona. What was a suicide mission suddenly seemed like it might have a chance to do some damage. They gave us some advice on the best running down the ravine as well as picking a good path. 

The horn sounds and we're running pell mell. Shawn is the fastest in the group, followed less than a step behind by Sir Takamatsu. I have never seen a samurai run so fast! Shawn hit the point and put his shield up. Taka took up attack position behind him. I was a step behind Taka, and as soon as I caught up, I locked shields with Shawn. It was impressive to see the enemy army charge down at us. When they saw the small unit defending, they slowed for only a step or two, unsure. That hesitation was all we needed: the rest of Trimaris and her allies arrived, and that was the closest we allowed them to the flags for the rest of the battle. 

To me, the ravine was the most fun I had at war. The battle was hard and it always felt like we were playing against the clock. Even though we had the advantage early on and held it, there was always a moment between resses when I would look out and check on the status of the flags. This led to a sense of urgency in everything that was done. Add this overall sense of the battle to the fact that I spent the majority of it shield-linked with Vikarr, and it leads to a damn good time. We stood shield to shield a few feet ahead of the middle flag. Other shield men came and went on either side of us, and at one point his other side was defended by a tree, but we stayed strong. Everytime they charged we would hunker down, and push back. Our spears and glaives in the second rank made sure that we just had to hold a moment before the attackers were dead. This kept us alive a long long time. We stayed on the line so long that towards the end of the battle, Sir Subadai relieved us to go get water and rest. We took a few moments to get hydrated and then came back to it. Soon after that, I was called to help on the left flank. The left flank was mostly spear duelling, but it did give me a chance to see Augustine, Jarl Ari, and Duke Mittion laying into the enemy with spears and hammers.

When no more resses were called, many of the fighters had spread word that the fight would be ended as a dagger fight. Due to lack of dagger, I didn’t get to participate, but next year this will be remedied. 

As I was coming off the field, I was told that my lady had retired to the tent, she was feeling ill. I made my way to her to check in with her. She let me know that she was uncertain if she could stay another two days at war due to a cold. We made the choice that we would see how she was doing in the morning, and that if she was not up to it, we would break camp and head home early. 

Friday night was the Known World Party, and we were on retainer duty. The decorations were great, so much fire and a sight to see. This was the most people I had ever seen in one place in garb. Everywhere you looked, different periods were getting together and having a good time. Even beyond the time travelling aspect of things, the Known World Party showed that it was just a large group of friends. Everyone there enjoying their hobby and then partying with friends that they only get to see once a year. Everywhere you wandered through the party, there was the rhythm of drums and the sounds of happy conversation. I would say it was the most fun I had at war, but the truth was that it was after the party had dispersed and we went to the Green Dragon that I had the most fun. Sitting inside, like I said last week, is to be outside of time. I

was relaxing there with one eye on His Royal Majesty in case he needed anything, and looking at my Lady. She was a vision. I had initially been worried about her being uncomfortable in the later period garb, but it fit her like a second skin. We stayed at the Green Dragon well into the night, until last call was given and we had emptied our cups. Then, Countess Sibilla, my Lady, and I escorted His Royal Majesty back to his cabin, and then went ourselves to turn in and rest.

Saturday

When we woke up Saturday, Beatrice was suffering, so we broke camp and headed home. I greatly regret not being able to take part in the fort battle. That siege is what I wanted to fight in the most. The good thing about leaving early was that we avoided the hazardous driving conditions that seemed to pop up on Sunday. Apparently, someone replaced the asphalt on I-10 with ice: there were dozens of accidents and bad weather. This made the drive home very difficult and treacherous for our friends heading home. My lady is still sick as of the writing of this, which makes me sure of our choice to leave camp early. She needed the rest. 

That's my recounting of Gulf Wars XXIII. Because this post ran so long, I will be doing a sort of after-action report in my next one. I want to write about the things I learned, and just as importantly, the shopping list of things I want to be sure we have for next war. If you have any suggestions for things everybody needs at war, help a couple newbies out and let me know down in the comments!

Pictures by:

1, 2 Lady Ennelyne von Hessen

3,7 Viscountess  Elashava bas Riva

4 THL Valgard Gunnarsson

5 Viscountess Danielle de la Roche from Kingdom of Gleann Abhann (http://kungaloosh.smugmug.com/Gulf-Wars/Gulf-Wars-2014/)

6 Vasilissa of Meridies