Annotated "History of the West" - The History of the Kingdom of The ...

The Origin and History of the Society for Creative Anachronism and the Kingdom of the West
mobile then!) and Warren the Strange raised his shield. I stood on his shield and hit him - I then got speared by Ian MacEye, and
he got killed by Kevin. Lots of fun. In the second melee - I walked up to the wall and Robert of Dunharrow whirled his maul over his
head and hit my shield, destroying it (no 360 degree rule) and then hit my head with the second blow (a total of 720 degrees ...).
I enjoyed the hell out it.
“It got so hot that Hourai and Dai fought in the Irrigation canal up to their necks in the water.
“Sunday morning, after her Coronation on Saturday, Queen Ardis woke up and cheerfully yelled to the world that she had been
'Royally Screwed'. Long trip home. Lots of grumbles about having to drive too far to a tourney.” – James Greyhelm
1 “James' description of the opening barrier fight is quite accurate. He, flanked by myself and Sir Earl of Morris (both with
greatswords), had decided that a berserk charge right into the middle of the 'civilized' defenses was appropriate barbarian
tactics. As the heralds went through the usual pre-melee litany the three of us joined by other young enthusiasts howled,
jumped up and down and pounded our shields and the ground with our weapons. At the 'Lay on!' command we charged
straight for the middle embrasure. James, without breaking stride, leapt onto the parapet and onto Warren's shield. Earl and
I covered his flanks by slashing across the tops of the embrasures from behind him and to his sides. As James killed Warren
and stepped down he was stabbed by Ian MacEye (I had forgotten his name) who I promptly nailed on the return stroke with
my sword. Earl and I jumped up onto the hay and cleared enough space for a bridgehead and almost without a pause "the
barbarians are within the walls!" rang out. I got my first kill of a knight during one of the barrier battles that day (Sir Bela was
looking the wrong way), but I can't state for sure that it was during the first one.” – Kevin Peregrynne
2 “Agree with Duke James' account of Sheriff's deputies at Oakdale. Their attitude altered quickly when David H. handed them
his card. However, he was, I think, Deputy City Attorney of Campbell, not Sunnyvale. (Since we're recording this for posterity -
think of the 3 million SCA members in AS CC reading it - we should try to be as precise as we can.)” – Robert of Dunharrow
D “The First Overnight: I was wondering when we'd get to that ... Now I think it got nicknamed "The Purgatorio", but maybe that was
after the fact, or that may have applied to other summer overnights. Anyway, it WAS hot. Yes, Steven Blackeagle offered to champion
me at the Queen's Court on Saturday night, but I thought the abduction was before then? Maybe not. Anyway, I was gently thrown
over the front of the saddle, feet on one side of the horse, head on the other, and my dress got torn at the waist. And of course it
was all planned. "Would you like to be abducted?"” – Astrid of Hawk Ridge
E “Looks like it's time for me to jump in here. It seems like it was around spring or early summer in Portland, OR (Barony Of Three
Mts) when I first read in the local paper that the SCA had just started a Barony in town. The folks interviewed, as I recall, were
Frederick of Holland and Lady Nicorlynn. The article told of the SCA, what it was and what it was trying to do. I read that about 5
times, just sat there and said to myself, "I got to do this". It was just the sort of thing I was looking for. I called and set up a time to
talk with Fleig (Frederick of Holland) and Lady Nicorlynn and that’s all it took for me. I have no idea how long we talked but it must
have been for some time, all the "newbie" questions etc. I went to a fighter practice, that next week I think, and let Flieg beat me up
real good, didn't want to quit. Got introduced to Sir Fredrick of the West Tower shortly there after and bent his ear for the rest of the
winter.
“There were some others in the Barony at that time but when winter hit they all went their own ways to come out next spring.
That first winter it was Frederick and myself and it was wonderful. We had a basement in downtown Portland that we would practice
in, rather impossible to do outside (rain, snow etc). We got together at least twice a week and work. I had made a round shield (20")
out of 1" thick plywood to train with. By midwinter I was getting very hard to kill. This paid off at the Crown Tourney of ASV which I'll
get to later. As I recall we had a tourney in the fall of ASIV just outside of Portland. Frederick informed us that Edwin Bersark was
going to attend this event. None of us had ever meet Edwin and Frederick had a great time filling us with horror stories of Edwin's
prowess. On the day of the event, I was introduced to this rather hairy individual, a bit shorter than me as Edwin (the terror, if you
were around Frederick much). I looked at him and thought, "this wont be so bad, I can handle this". I was using a high form with
the shield at that time and it was working rather well for me. First fight with Edwin: He took a step back and looked me over, took
a swing at my shield side, stepped around to my sword side and killed me. Nothing to it. As I walked off the field I was thinking that
I had better go back to basics. Edwin had a great time killing me all weekend (2 day event) but by Sunday afternoon he had to work
at it. I went home with a bruise that went from my armpit to my knee on the left side but was back at it by the next week. I was loving
it.
“This was the start of Three Mts and the expansion of the West Kingdom to the north. You'll hear from me when the Spring
Tourney of ASV comes around. That was the first Crown I ever attended.” – Jerald of Galloway
F “Houri and Dai did fight in the irrigation ditch, much to their later regret when both got quite ill (possibly insecticide residue in the
water?).
“As I got the story, the local Saturday night pickup truck and beer crowd tried to heckle us and threatened to come back after
dark with their switch blades and farm implements and show us real men in action (I guess the combination of swords and skirts
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