Category: SCA

Society for Creative Anachronism posts

Book Review – The Greatest Knight

On July 24, 2016

This is one of my infrequent book reviews where I make a recommendation on a book you could enjoy on a trip you are about to take. I try and recommend lighter and easier to enjoy books and I provide a link to the book on Amazon.com in kindle format in my reviews so you can download it right away if you are reading this in an airport and are interested. I actually use Audible.com a fair bit and listen too books when driving or traveling (link is also below), but I find reading more efficient and I still read 4-5 books a month.

For those that access my blog via a computer or other device that has a full browser that shows the full site, you will notice that I have a statue of a knight as my banner image across the top. That knight is William Marshal and I recently finished a book called “The Greatest Knight:The Remarkable Life of William Marshal” that tells his story. The book is written by Thomas Asbridge, a noted historian who has written several other books on the Crusades.

William Marshal was a younger son of a minor noble in England. Born in 1146, he lived in the era of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and he served both of them and their sons, Henry, Richard the Lionhearted and John (the king who was so terrible that no other British King has been named John since), and finally as Regent for John’s son Henry who became Henry III of England. He died around the age of 72 in 1219. He was almost killed at the age of by King Steven when his father had given him up as a hostage to the King and then promptly broke his word. When King Steven threatened to kill him, William’s father told him to go ahead, saying ‘I still have the hammer and anvil with witch to forge still more and better sons.” King Steven decided to spare him and he went on to have a remarkable career.

Asbridge bases his book on a book dating from just after William’s death called “The History of William Marshal” which was commissioned by his family and disappeared from history only to be recovered in the very late 1800’s. The advantage of this source material compared to other histories of the time is that it was not written by the clergy and it represents the point of view of the nobles and knightly class who had very different goals than the Church.

Hostage, youngest son, poor knight, servant of kings and the realm, tournament champion, the story of William Marshal and his time is very interesting. The book moves along at a good pace and paints pictures with enough detail that the important facts are clear but not so detailed that it gets bogged down.

William Marshal was so deeply involved in British history from the 1160’s to 1219, and so much happened then that the writer easily could have fallen deeply into various rabbit holes and bogged the story down. Fortunately this does not happen. Instead, a vivid and engaging story of the greatest knight is told and by the end the reader is left with no doubt as to why the title applies to William Marshal. He not only was a great warrior, he was a key person behind the Magna Carta which is considered to be a significant constitutional document for England and thus for much of the Western world.

If I had to sum up the lesson that William Marshal can teach us today, it is that being true to your word and duties, even when difficult, is the right course of action. Several times during his life he had to choose between duty to his King or an easier path that would lead to more immediate, material reward. In every case, William chose duty and loyalty. That is not to say he liked his King in all cases (he did not appear to like John at all) but he still knew what his duty was and made the difficulty but right choice every day.

The author fills in the historical details of people and places when needed, but he does not get in the way of this rags to riches story. William started off almost penniless and ended as one of the most powerful and richest men in England. He was a sports star of his day, a noted and respected tournament champion and he also was a feared and renowned warrior. He inspired great personal loyalty in his friends and allies and they were steadfast in their support of him.

I recommend the book. The story is interesting and well written. The history of those times is fascinating. And the main focus, William, is deserving of his fame. What would William Marshal do?

The Greatest Knight (Kindle)

A Squire and their Knight

By Michael

On April 7, 2016

In Hobbies, SCA

The one regret that I have for my “career” in the SCA is that my actual career has made me move all over the place, every two years or so. These moves have taken me to Asia and back twice and across the country several times. Because of that. Even though I have been asked a few times, I have never been able to properly commit to a knight/squire relationship. I was squired to a Master at Arms before I was knighted and I have observed several decades of relationships over the 30+ years I have been a fighter, so here is my blog on this topic. Much of what I will discuss applies to choosing a mentor outside the SCA for career or other pursuits, but this is mainly targeted at the core SCA relationship – Knight and Squire.

I generally try to avoid the discussion of which Peerage in the SCA is better. As a matter of pure fact, we are all equal. As anyone who has been in the SCA long enough to really understand us, you know it is not just the legal paperwork that says it, the SCA would be a poor sports club without the arts and service that adds to what the SCA needs to be special. One thing that is true about the Chivalry is that we are the most visible Peerage doing what we were selected for. Most SCA events are built around a tournament or war and that means fighting. The fighting Peers and the storybook Peers are the Chivalry. Deeply engrained into the storybook are squires to knights. The humble page that becomes a squire and later a knight is the coming of age story for centuries and centuries and the SCA provides an excellent stage for the play to be shown to a new audience.

I am going to use Knight to mean Chivalry for the rest of this blog. I was squired to a Master-at-Arms but I don’t think typing out both for the rest of this blog will add to this discussion.

It is my firm belief that almost all bad Knight/Squire relationships are the fault of the Knight. The problem is normally caused by a Knight accepting the relationship without making sure they are the right person for the squire. Sometimes in less populated areas there is no choice as there is no one else closer, but there are some Knights that are too concerned about building a household and not enough about training a future Knight. Some cannot commit the time needed. This is not to say that the squire may not work out for reasons particular to the squire, but in a teacher/student relationship you need to be able to commit the time to teach. Often times you are not showing a particular technique, you might just steer them to the right person to learn from. You should always be able to work on the soft skills as well as the physical ones. I have seen to many cases of someone becoming a Squire and then their Knight moving away 6 month later and the Knight knew it was coming. I have seen a little too much of Knights trying to grab hold of someone that starts showing promise without remembering that the Squire should benefit the most from the relationship.

For me, I have had to satisfy myself with teaching at practices as I have moved every 2-3 years for the last 20 and no move has been reasonably local. I cannot take a squire that I cannot commit to. I need to be there. In a company, I can train and mentor someone and rely on the company process itself to do the rest of the work if I move on. Since the training is not physical, I do not to do a lot of in person time and I can continue a mentors hip even. If we do not work at the same company, I can continue a mentor relationship. It does not work so well for a squire. At worst, you need to be there when they finally come up for awards.

I started in Montreal and was pretty much in the first small group I was (and am) quite driven and I wanted to be a Knight. The Knight/squire relationship was very public and obvious in the first few events I went to and I wanted that relationship. I had hit is off with another suburban guy that was quite driven that lived in Rhode Island. He was suited to Master Feral, who to this day is still legendary. I went to my first Pennsic and served as “man at arms” to my new friend Jaye Brooks (Duke Sir Lucan now). I liked it and liked the spirit of the Northern Army group. Feral was pretty far away (6 hours drive) so I needed to find someone local to squire to.

The two choices (both in Vermont) were Master Randal and Master Tearlach. They both had traveled up to Montreal to do some training and to hang around and get to know us. Randy was driven, fought hard, wanted to win Crowns. In my mind, what I needed and certainly what I wanted. Someone I figured would push me very hard and who I could learn the fastest from. Little did I know, but Randal and Tearlach had already talked to each other and Randy thought he was a little far away and not really interested in a new squire as well but Tearlach was. So Tearlach asked Sonny (Master Allyn – my best friend from before we even found the SCA) and me to be his squires. I turned him down. Sonny came to talk to me and told me that Randy was not interested in taking me on as a squire and to think about who showed up more often, made more armor for us and who was actually interested in doing something for us to the point that he had just offered his highest commitment of time.

I did not know it then, but the one that looked to be a strange fit for me ended up being the right person. That was solely due to Tearlach keeping his end of the commitment even in the face of the challenges my personality and drive added. I did my part for sure, I put the hours in, travelled and did not dishonor myself or him on the field. Sonny and I became one of the now many “Northern Region Death Twins” (the first were actually twins or at least brothers so it fit a little better) and killed prime target after prime target as directed by our commanders.

Even though Tearlach has always been known as a polearms fighter more than any other weapon form, he had a huge influence on my main form which is sword and shield. Early in our relationship and quite possibly even before I became his squire, I broke the strap on my heater shield and he leant me one of his shields. Tearlach has a pretty unique shield shape and to this day I use it. We explained to me where the shield came from, but that was a while ago and he was good enough to remind me.

Master Tearlach: “In my early days as a fighter, Feral would come up a few times a year with the then cutting edge techniques from Siegfried’s practices. Partially a moulinet from a hanging guard then a strike to the opposite (weapon) side then a shot to whatever opened up. My technique was therefore always 6 months stale. I borrowed the double ended kite from the much earlier Celts and Roman auxiliaries. Those were typically center gripped but some were strapped. I then developed my own style as a counter, using this shield and an opening strike to the weapon side, totally nullifying the hanging guard attack.( I invented the “fan strike” which had been used by the Filipinos since at least the 15th century) While polearm is my usual weapon I am probably just as good with sword and shield. When I was doing tournaments I used sword and shield to go as deeply as possible. If I made it to the quarter finals I usually would switch to pole, which I could use more effectively against top tier swordsmen.”

A lot of what I do today is still based on this. I rely more on a timing shot, a sort of “flip snap” designed to skip a little to get over a shield edge and hit the target. The shot is pure timing and works by being where the block is not. My other main shot is an opening strike to the weapon side which Tearlach’s shield is very well suited for. To be honest, the shield is not very efficient as it is thin near my head and legs, I could do almost everything I do now with a regular kite and a kite is much more defensive.

Returning to my main point, Tearlach was a Knight who was willing to make the commitment he needed to so I would develop to my potential. I rejected him and he took it in stride. About a year before I was Knighted I told him that I thought we were no longer Master and Squire, that he and I were close friends and equals and I stopped wearing my baldric until my Knighting ceremony. Even today the influence that relationship had on me is apparent. I came from a Catholic family right down to attending an all boy Jesuit High School. Tearlach certainly was alternative in religion and other lifestyle choices that only my liberal parents had done any work preparing me for (the Jesuits actually did a good job of opening my mind to the many ways people can see God).

I certainly frustrated him on a regular basis. I listened and tried what I was being taught, but I always insisted on doing other things my way. He was way stronger than me and much larger, but I always tried to fight him super close where he could use his weight to maximum advantage. The thing that made Tearlach different was that he simply punished me in practice until I developed a style that worked well in close. I was not lectured, told I was wrong or asked to stop. I was doing the other things I was being taught, and then I figured out how to merge with the polearm haft and grab it. I then spent years beating him in singles fights, most of which involved him throwing me from side to side as I threw shots whenever my feet actually were touching the ground.

(A much younger Tearlach. At that time I was a short hair suit wearer. I guess I still am that, now that I think of it. he was the closest to a “hippy” I had ever met. Don’t think he was ever actually a “hippy”, and he was kind of serious and bookish when relaxing at home.)

I have seen many other styles of Knight to Squire work. I have seen very military houses with everyone stepping in formation and pretty much saluting. I have seen the loose style that Tearlach and others up North used in which the joke amongst the Squires was teasing the more traditional relationship where the Squire would carry their Knight’s gear by telling them that it was expected of us to tell our Knights to carry their own damned armor bag.

If you are going to take someone on as a Squire, I really hope that you are up to the commitment. I learned a lot of how to be successful off the field from Tearlach. Successful in my accounting career, not just in the SCA. My parents laid a good foundation, but Tearlach and his friends showed me what being accepted into a group where prowess mattered meant. If you take a Squire, you are not only accepting them, you are bringing them into your close circle of friends and you need to be sure that is the right thing to do. Outside the SCA, if you are mentoring someone, then make sure they benefit the most from the relationship and that you bring them into your circle of peers so they can see what that feels like and what they need to reach to truly be part of it.

30 years of SCA fighting

By Michael

On February 11, 2016

In Hobbies, SCA

I joined the SCA when I was 18. I am in the home stretch to 50 now. So have been fighting for over 30 years. I think I was knighted about 8 years in. Probably could have happened sooner but the editor between my brain and mouth was not as good back then. And, I am sure, some people were just jealous about how handsome I was.

Well, that couldn’t have been true, so better editing is what I will go with.

I consider myself to be a pretty solid knight. Never won a Crown but I have lived and travelled all over the place and I have always given a good account of myself. I try and follow the spirit of the people that taught me and teach anyone who asks. I guess that includes sharing some stories and advice here.

I expect that I will write a lot about the SCA on the blog. It stands for the Society for Creative Anachronism. You can find out the basic information at http://www.sca.org . It is very hard to explain exactly what the club is because it is different for each person in it, but the basics are it is a Middle Ages recreation club. Not quite like the Civil War reenactors because it is very rare that even the theme or the start of a battle is the same as a historical one, but some members of the SCA are as serious about every little detail of the clothes they wear as anyone in any other history group.

For me, the heart of the SCA is that it allowed me to become a knight. My main love is armored fighting. Armored meaning wearing armor and fighting with swords and other medieval weapons. The weapons are made of rattan (a type of wood that is slightly flexible and breaks in a much safer fashion than other types of wood) and the combat is full force and blows are hard enough to dent steel (well at least 16 gauge steel, and maybe 14 gauge. 12 gauge is pretty safe.). The fights are real in that they are not choreographed or decided in advance and it is not just a touch kill system like modern fencing. There still is a certain amount of “counting coup” in the fighting as a hard blow to the head or torso kills your opponent and it is highly unlikely that one such blow on an armored opponent would have actually killed them but the rules do work well enough.

So here is the start of some stories and advice and I will slowly add my thoughts into this blog and may not stick to Thursdays for hobbies only and might post further SCA items on other days.

The first question I get asked quite often by people just starting is how do you learn to fight and get good? I can assure you that I was no athletic standout. I played only house league hockey and baseball growing up and am to this day not the most balanced and smooth fighter out there.

There is a pretty simple answer to that question. You need to actually fight to get good and the sooner you start and the more you do the better you will get.

My personal example is this. I found the SCA in Montreal at a war gaming tournament I was running in my CEGEP days. I was 16 and 17 in CEGEP (community college) so I am not 100% sure how I am stuck on me joining when I was 18, but I guess it is because it was the summer between CEGEP and university that fought for the first time.

My qualification bout was my very first fight ever. I had joined the SCA and managed to get my hands on the known world handbook and the basic armor standards, I had found a place in Montreal that sold rattan and bought enough for a sword. The recommendation then was to split a piece in half and use it, with a little carving, to make a cross guard. So I did that. I did not carve the hand grip.

I made a heater shield out of plywood and attached leather straps to it using some soft leather I had. I made carpet armor and modified hockey equipment to protect my shoulders, elbows and knees. I used hockey gloves to protect my hands. I had no helmet and there might have been one in the entire shire. I walked around in my backyard holding my shield and tried to imagine what actual fighting would be. I hit the tree in my front yard turning it into a pell and tried to swing like the “snap” was described. I did this for weeks, every day, getting ready for the very first event I was going to. Master Tearlach was coming and he was going to run qualification bouts.

I went to the event and borrowed a loaner helm that Master Tearlach has made. I think it was an army helm with sides riveted to it. Tearlach was a big and pretty scary guy to me, but I have always been able,to overcome that. I squared off for my qualification bout. The very first blow on my shield snapped both straps. I had not known that I would,need much stronger leather for straps. No one had hit me before. Tearlach leant me a shield (and that was the fateful day I started using a Tearlach coffin kite) and I went right back out there. I fought. I swung. I blocked. I took the blows that hit me. I was deemed safe and qualified.

After my qualification bout, Tearlach asked for my sword. With one grip he realized that I had not carved the grip. He didn’t say a thing, he just took a knife, carved it really quickly, and handed the sword back to me.

I fought as much as I could that afternoon, basically whenever I could borrow the helm.

Since then I have fought and fought and fought. Practice, tournaments, wars. Pell work. Sometimes still walking around and imagining it. Hours and hours and hours of pell work. Doing it. Fighting. Not talk about it, not posting on the internet about it, not trying to make the perfect armor before doing it. Crappy carpet armor. Cuirbolli and plastic body armor that I made myself (pretty bad looking but protective). Ugly white helm with Templar red crosses which changed to blue after my first Pennsic friendly fire experience.

The love of battle filing my heart, my blood on fire with the glory and exchange of blows. Dropping into the Void and striking my opponent dead from the heart of emptiness.

So my answer to that question is get your ass out there and fight. Borrow armor. Travel. Make it to tournaments and wars. Be the first in armor and the last out of armor. Never stop. Fighting makes you good. Teachers help and the right form makes improvement faster but fight.

Another question I get often from beginners is now do you hold a sword. To that question, I rely on Miyamoto Musashi.

From The Book of Five Rings, The Scroll of Water

“The Way of Gripping the Sword

You should grip the sword holding the thumb and index finger as though they were floating, the middle finger neither tight nor slack, the ring and little fingers very tight. It is bad to have an empty space inside your hand. Hold the sword with the thought of slashing your opponent. When you slash your opponent, the posture of the hand remains the same, and your hands must not tense up. It is with the sense of just slightly moving your thumb and index finger that you beat back your opponent’s sword, that you receive it, strike it, or exert pressure on it. In all these cases, you should grip the sword with the thought of slashing. Whether you are training at slashing an object or in the thick of combat, the way of holding the sword remains the same—it is held with the intent of slashing your opponent. In sum, it is not good to let the hand or the sword become fixed or frozen. A fixed hand is a dead hand; a hand that does not become fixed is alive. It is necessary to master this well.”

I often go back to The Book of Five Rings and it is my personal inspiration on how to be both a better swordsman and a better person. Musashi is brilliant at describing how to fight and his advice translates very well to SCA fighting.

I also can say that I sometimes shift my grip and hold tighter with my index and ring finger and get the whip and direction change from tightening my bottom fingers, but I much prefer the ring and little finger as my anchor fingers just like Musashi recommends.

The Book of Five Rings is very good and I recommend that any SCA fighter read it. Constantly repeated in it is the advice to do what is written. To practice. To fight. Or in another way, learn how to win.

“The Principle of Combat

In strategy it is by the principle of combat155 that you will know victory with the sword. I do not have to write about the details. The important thing is to train well and learn how to win. This has to do with sword techniques that express the true way of strategy. The rest must be transmitted orally.”

My final topic for this week is on speed in SCA fighting. Many beginners think that speed is really important. They get hit by a blow from an experienced fighter and they think it is all because of speed. Actually, in my experience, it is not raw speed that is the most important but timing and rhythm. Time a shot to match the rhythm of how they move is more important than raw speed that ends up right at someone’s shield.

Again, Musashi says it better than I can.

“ Speed is not part of the true way of strategy. When you say “fast,” this means a lag has occurred in relation to the cadence of things; that is what is meant by “fast” or “slow.” In whatever the domain, the movements of a good, accomplished practitioner do not appear fast. For example, there are messengers who cover forty or fifty leagues at the run in a single day, but they do not run fast from morning till night. Whereas, a beginner cannot cover such a long distance, even if he has the wind to run the whole day.

In Noh theater, when a beginner sings following a good, accomplished practitioner,276 he has the impression of lagging behind and sings with the feeling of haste. In the same way, in the drumbeat for “Old Pine” (“Oimatsu”),which is a slow melody, a beginner has the feeling of lagging behind and having to catch up. “Takasago” is a rather fast song, but it is not appropriate to play the drum too fast. Speed is the beginning of a fall, because it produces a deviation in the cadence. Of course, excessive slowness is also bad. The movements of a good, accomplished practitioner look slow, but there is no dead space between his movements. Whatever the domain, the movements of an expert never appear hurried. Through these examples, you should understand a principle of the way.

In the way of strategy, it is bad to try for speed. I will explain. In places such as a marsh or deep rice paddy, you cannot move either your body or your legs fast. This is all the more true for the sword—you must not try to cut with speed. If you try to cut with a fast movement, the sword—which is neither a fan nor a knife—will not cut because of the speed. You must understand that well. In group strategy also, it is bad to think of hurrying up in order to attain speed. If you possess the attitude of mind of “holding down on the headrest,” you will never be late. If your adversaries act too fast, you apply the opposite approach, you calm yourself and avoid imitating them. You must train yourself well in developing this state of mind.”

Speed is nice but relying on speed and thinking that speed is the way to victory will lose you way more fights than you think it well. Be fast enough, not the fastest.

The Book of Five Rings quotes are from a translation called The Complete Book of Five Rings and it can easily be found via online booksellers. There are other translations and most are good enough. I highly suggest you buy and read the book.

Website with an online, free copy of The Book of Five Rings

The Book of Five Rings

Books, either in paper or on Kindle (all links go to Amazon.com)

The version I quote here:

The Complete Book of Five Rings

The Complete Book of Five Rings – Kindle version

The translation I first read

A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy – Kindle Version

An account of Musashi’s life

The Lone Samuari: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi

Fictionalized versions of Musashi’s life