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
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