Meditation

Part of what I have started to do to help bring my new path is to meditate. Meditation or prayer comes down to be about the same thing to me: you are calling your spirit into focus on the task at hand; trying to gather your energies and center your person. In doing these things, you refill your reserves to be able to handle the trials of life as a whole. 

Discipline leads to Industriousness, Industriousness creates Self Reliance, Self Reliance allows Hospitality.

Discipline creates Courage, forges Honour, speaks Truth, and holds the Faith.

My meditations are short, only ten minutes. Personally I know that if I try to take more than that, it will get thrown aside in the hustle and bustle of daily life. These ten minutes are used to concentrate on the Nine Noble Virtues. The meditation each day focuses on a virtue, the virtue I think I need the most that day. Since all the changes I’m attempting are based on Discipline, I created a mantra that shows how, through Discipline, all the Virtues come to be. 

This is how I do my more standard meditations, but I also use a fighting meditation to clear my mind and help build muscle memory while working the pell. This is similar to katas used in Eastern martial arts. It allows the body to work through the motions without focusing on all the distractions around. Through the kata, actions become second nature, your combinations flow effortlessly. Since the kata is all about creating muscle memory, it is imperative that your form is the focus of the exercise, otherwise you can do more damage than good.

I use this to remind myself that only by following the path of Discipline can I achieve my goals to become the man I want to be. In between each repetition of the overall mantra, I focus on the virtue of the day, what it means to me, and how I am going to embrace the virtue to succeed in my day. For example, Self Reliance: only through Self Reliance can I build myself into the father that I want to be for my girls. My own strength will show them the path that they should follow, and give them the sense of stability needed to grow. Now, there are some who would say this sounds like philosophy that doesn't belong in heathenism. While our ancestors might not have used the words kata or meditation, we know that they believed in battle trances and in prayers. These ideas are not so far removed, it’s just a matter of phrasing. Personally, I also believe that the people that ranged across nearly the entire world would have picked up things from other places and used it to their advantage. Part of being a warrior is picking up tools to keep your fighting edge sharp. 

Goals:

• Meditate to strengthen the resolve to carry on in this path.

• Use the 10 minutes a day to focus my energies on whatever problems need to be tackled that day

Nine Noble Virtues- Self Reliance

One of my earliest blog posts was about the Nine Noble Virtues overall, in an attempt to get things together a little more in my life and to correct the course that I have been on I am going to start writing blog posts focusing on each of the virtues. These will likely be shorter than older posts, and are more than anything a meditation on what each of these virtues mean to me.

Before I get into the first one which will be self reliance I would like to say that I have been away a long time from writing(13 months), and I can make all the excuses in the world but it comes down to one simple fact. I allowed myself to become overwhelmed by the world around me. With each additional thing that came onto my plate I let go of the very things that kept me stable. Time to take back my life, time to get back on the path, time to live Tru.

Today I am focusing on Self Reliance:

The ability to survive without anyone else is the truest expression of freedom. Self reliance is important because it means that you’ve achieved the success that will allow you to genuinely improve yourself, and to help others. It is a hierarchy of needs: if you are struggling to get the basics, you can never reach greatness. Worse still, if you are begging just to get through, you haven’t reached the point where you can improve on the parts of your character that need work.

At first look, this is a selfish virtue: “I am self reliant, I need no one, BLARGH!” The reality of it is, self-reliance is also the first step towards hospitality. Once you have provided for yourself, you can begin to help others grow and provide for themselves. It’s like your friendly flight attendant says: “If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask first, and then assist the other person.” You can’t help anyone if you’re gasping for air.

This is what I wrote in the original post on self reliance, and it touches on the important parts of this virtue for me. Without self reliance you aren’t free to be yourself, and worse you don’t have the ability to care for others. This latter is part of the reason I am starting with this virtue, I have lost the ability to care for others through losing the ability to care for myself. The basics of how I lost my way was I listened to what others thought my path should be, I made compromises in my life thinking that it would be better for my family. This was my biggest mistake, I was trying so hard to take care of my Lady and children that I put aside myself which meant that I had no way to actually complete the goals ahead of me. My Lady is full of wisdom and one of her most brilliant chastisements/encouragements is to look me in the eyes and say “You are so busy trying to take care of me that you are failing to take care of me”. I was so busy trying to be what I thought was needed, so busy putting effort into a path that wasn’t mine that I couldn’t actually give my family the things that they had come to expect from me.

Now the time has come to change that and find my way once more. I have charted a new course, and over the next couple of months I will be sharing it with you. It starts with self reliance, by caring for myself and getting en route I will have the ability to care for my family, my pack, and my clan.

Goals

• Increase self reliance, by using organizational system that will help me remember the things I need to do.
• Work hard on the path I need to take to get my career in motion.
• Stop relying on others to make things right.

Scots/Welsh War 2015

Hello again everyone! Wow, I can’t believe it’s been four months since I got the chance to post. Before I get into my latest actual post, let me give a quick recap on what I have missed posting on: the main reason for my absence was that four days after my last post, my family and I moved into a new home. While this change has been great for my family, it has meant that between the move, my normal SCA activities, and the holidays, I’ve been busier than I thought I could survive. Survive I did, and while I wasn’t able to post everything I have been doing, I definitely haven’t stopped working towards improving my fighting. I’ve fought at three events since my last post, not counting practices. In addition to fighting at events, the new home meant that I had enough space to make a pell, which means that I have been practicing almost every night to improve my muscle memory and dial in my range, which thus far has always been one of my weaknesses. I’ll be making a full post on my workout in the not too distant future, but for now, here are some basics: a simple bucket pell, it consists of 6ft long, 4x4 post in a 5gal bucket filled with a sack of cement. I wrapped blue camp foam around the target areas, and began to get some work on. My current drill:

• Head
• Serving Shot
• Off-Hand Punch
• Cross Body
• Main-hand Punch
• Off-Hand Punch
• Wrap
• Body
• Serving Shot
• Cross Body
• Wrap
• Legs
• Serving Shot
• Cross Body
• Wrap

I go through this set at least ten times before moving on to other combinations. A typical workout on the pell is between 15-20 minutes. My oldest daughter is also starting to get into heavy fighting, and so she’s working the pell with me. When our pell work is done, we practice fighting together. While it’s really different fighting her and she is just starting to learn, the additional activity really helps with building endurance. The fact that she’s so small also helps to build accuracy. The last thing I use (and it also helps me improve while fighting her) is an even shorter weapon than normal, meaning that I have to work on getting close, another of my weaknesses.

This last weekend was Scots/Welsh War, and this is my event. Beyond any event that I attend, this is the one that has held the most significance for me throughout the years, either as a challenge or because of momentous happenings. Last year, I told you about my first war practice back in Trimaris, and how I gave everything to get there. This is my fifth Scots Welsh, and it seems that I have broken the tradition of hard times arriving. While we arrived late, there was no stress involved because we were cabining with House Stormborn. While I still prefer the privacy that tents provide, it is certainly nice to arrive at 1 a.m. with 34F weather and not have to set up camp. All we had to do was unload the necessities and climb in bed.

This year’s unofficial challenge was repairing the zoomnbang shirt that had become irreparably damaged at my last event, Hero of the Chalice. After almost two years of constant fighting, the pads were barely attached to the shirt, and so the time had finally come to make good on my threat and make an undershirt with the rescued pads attached to it. Of course, by that I mean that my lovely Lady, Beatrice Whitcombe, was kind enough to make me something so I can look good on the field, and not be forced to duct tape the pads to the shirt. The challenge was drafting, cutting, and constructing the undershirt in 5 days or less. This meant that Saturday morning, she was putting the finishing touches on it.

Unlike last year, where the war practice was combined with the Baronial Champion Tourney, this year Scots/Welsh was back to normal. This meant that it showcased a kingdom preparing for war. In addition to the war scenarios, Scots/Welsh also hosts the Kingdom winter Art/Sci competition. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it into the hall to see the entries this year. This is something that I mean to fix next year. It is my opinion that one should be well rounded, which includes both Art/Sci and Service as much as fighting. From what I heard, the entries in all categories were absolutely stunning. In particular, Lady Whitcombe regrets that I was unable to see a set of carved bone tools done in a style that would be appropriate for my persona.

On the field, the main advantage of war practice standing alone was that we could fight longer and have more energy for the war scenarios, of which four were planned. I was unable to join the field until the bridge battle, because my armour wasn’t done. The fact that I arrived late also meant I didn't have much ramp up: I ran onto the field, got inspected and jumped in the shield wall. That being said, I don't know if it was a matter of perception, but this Scots/Welsh was the best attended that I had seen since that first one long ago. I was particularly impressed with the numbers the Moose Lodge brought out, at least 4-5 heavy shields. This meant that each scenario had a ton of fighters on each side, which makes for a good practice.

The bridge battle was a little bit of a blur to me because of the way I arrived to the field. I didn’t start to get my bearings until we started the next scenario, the island fight: the goal is to control an island in the middle of a river. The island had a covered bridge leading to it from either side, making it a straight shot if not for the opposing warriors in the way. It was designed to practice taking land quickly and fighting in bottlenecks. The way the bridges opened up meant that you had to adapt quickly to the way the battle line was moving. Add to that the fact that Knights were allowed to ford the river, and it made it very difficult to defend the island itself. This led to a constant back-and-forth with the victor of each round being determined by who had the gas to make a push before time ran out. We ran the island fight 3 or 4 times, both sides fighting so hard that I can’t even recall who won the individual matches: I just remember running back and forth to resurrection point, pressing into the line as best I could, and making sure that I followed commands.

I was able to get a couple of kills throughout the scenarios, targets of opportunity since my main objective as a shield man is to hold the line and keep the spears safe to do their work. All three of my kills happened because of the chaos that would ensue once the white team pushed onto the island, lines would split and I would find myself shoulder to shoulder with a member of the blue team. It would be my duty to take them out to help the line reform. When all was said and done, both teams were exhausted after a battle well fought. There were a couple of mistakes made on both sides, but overall it looked good.

The final scenario of the day was something that I had never experienced before, a story-based scenario with very specific objectives. The basic premise was that all the available fighters would be split into three teams, every round a different team would take turns being the Germans while the other two were the Romans. The Germans had unlimited resurrections, while the Romans had only one life each. The objectives were pretty straightforward: the Romans were on an escort quest. They had a Senator with them who couldn’t fight and could only move at a walk and only when escorted, and a King who could act normally and fight. Each round had two possible points for each side. For the Romans, the points were awarded when both the King and the Senator arrived at the fort safely; the Germans had to kill the King and capture the Senator. Capturing the Senator was done by having three German fighters place hands upon him. The way the scenario was designed made it difficult for the Germans to win. It took good planning and functioning as a unit. While the Germans had the advantage of unlimited lives, bringing those numbers to cause attrition was difficult because of the distances being travelled. Any time I was on the Roman team, Sir Killian Bruce was chosen to lead the small force of troops assigned to protect and escort the Senator, and I was chosen to accompany him as a heavy shield. Our task was to get the Senator to the fort before the King was killed, so that the King could then disengage and make his way to the fort as well. We succeeded in getting the Senator to the fort in every round, but the king didn’t make it one round. This gave us a total of 5 points for our times as the defender. Our two rounds as attacker were more difficult. In the first go, we attempted to blockade the fort and keep the Romans from getting through. While it was a good plan, our execution lacked some meaningful speed bump to kill some Romans before they got closer to the fort. This ended with them getting the Senator to the fort even though we killed the King. The second go around, we put only 5 heavy shields at the fort itself as a slowing tactic, while the rest of the forces harried the Romans throughout their march. This time, we were able to get both attacking points. Overall the scenario was a blast, it was thoroughly enjoyable acting as a bodyguard and being successful in getting our charge to where they needed to be. In the end the red team (which I was on) scored the most points, the deciding factor being our successful attack round.

Feast was another testament to how well things were planned out at the event. The theme for feast was the voyage of Marco Polo, and so it took us through his journey with each remove representing a different stop along his path. It was delicious, and throughout the whole experience the stewards provided entertainment that was amusing but did not limit one’s ability to talk at the table or enjoy the feast.

When feast was done, the household retreated to our cabin to hang out and recount tales of glories past. This event marked one year that I had been fighting alongside House Stormborn, and so my trial period has come to an end. After a household vote, it was decided that I would be allowed to join as a Man-at-Arms. This is an enormous step for me along my path, legitimizing my relationship with the house and my place in their fighting unit. If I continue to grow and prove myself, I have the opportunity to earn a Squire’s belt. At some point in the coming months, I will have an official oath swearing, cementing my place in the house as the Junior Man-at-Arms. For now, I have passed the trial and that feels pretty damn good. Jarl Ari, and Countess Sibilla have accepted Bea and I like family, and have helped us every step of the way even before any sort of official relationship was proposed. It feels right to continue to build that bond as a family. As a token for successfully completing my trial period, I was given a new name: Skinnlagr, and as is the tradition, a gift on my name-giving day: a new short axe from Danial von Hessen, another person who has watched me grow and helped me along my journey with advice and assistance whenever I got a bit tangled. Thank you all for the support along the way. I look forward to continuing to make each and every one of you proud as I grow within the SCA. Sergeant von Hessen, I promise to put the gift to good use at my first opportunity.

Thus ended my Scots/Welsh, yet another event full of strong memories. Every year it means more to me, and I have more fun as I grow and improve in all aspects of my SCA life. I can’t wait to see my chosen family at Tourney of Three Ships. I hope some of you out there reading can also make the long trek down to the Southern wilds of Trimaris. We promise you a great time!

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