War Stories II

Assorted Pennsic highlights in no particular order:

The last-minute Burgundian outfit based on Thursfield worked really well. I wore it to Atlantian court and while it was really too hot to be wearing that kind of thing, I was happy with the way the gown wore. I also seem to have finally developed the necessary kinesthetic sense to wear the hat successfully -- I didn't walk into overhangs or do anything else to cause me to lose my headgear. I still need to work on the mechanics of the wide belts, but I am a step closer on that count.

All of the new tunics I made for the Viking looked good (the hem on one is inexplicably wavy, but it looks OK when he belts it and blouses judiciously), and the ones he wore to fight all held up under the strain.

The Viking pulled off rather a cute little trick during the Calontir/Midrealm friendship battle after the bridge battles. He's originally from Calontir and always musters with Calontir for the bridge battle, and since Calontir was fighting again that afternoon he wasn't going to miss that. He managed to con two of the other men-at-arms in our camp into showing up for the friendship battle as well and arranged with one of the sergeants of Calontir (someone from his old shire) to use them as a heavy skirmishing unit. They charged ahead of the scuta (a really sharp-looking cross charge) and did some pretty significant damage to the Midrealm line before they were killed and got to hang out under a dayshade and drink bug juice. The Midrealmers were clearly not expecting Calontir to use heavy skirmishers and you could see their front rank blink when the charge started.

Apparently the king of Calontir was not clued in until the last minute about the Atlantian skirmishers in his army, because he came up to our boys before the battle began and told them to get back behind the scuta.

"No, Your Majesty, we're supposed to be out here."
"Why?"
"Because we're a charge unit."
His Majesty of Calontir stared at them with that "Boys, you ain't right" look in his eyes. "Where are you from?."
"Atlantia, Your Majesty."
"Oh. All right then."

(The Viking does fight with Atlantia too -- he mustered with Calontir only for the attack part of the castle battle and the bridge, and he sort of regretted not mustering with Atlantia for the castle battle, since Atlantia got to charge the gate and Bright Hills was at the head of the charge).

One of our good friends was made a fyrdman of Calontir on the field before Castle Battle II, which was very cool. (The fyrd is one of their fighting orders). He beamed for the remainder of the war.

The Viking bought me a bow for my birthday. It's a basic fiberglass starter bow, nothing too fancy, but good enough to get me started in archery. Target archery is one of those things I have always wanted to do, and never gotten around to, but since I am getting back toward the research on mediaeval hunting which originally drove my persona, this seems like a good time to get started.

I asked one of my campmates to consider becoming my apprentice. She's relatively new to the SCA, but an experienced 18th-C reenactor. She lives in Bright Hills, our interests overlap, and (best of all) our personalities are compatible. She's thinking it over; I told her that I didn't need an answer in two minutes, two weeks or even two months. She was really pleased and excited to be asked, and in the meantime she knows she can call on me for advice and help whenever she needs to, regardless of whether she takes a green belt from me or not.

This is my last day off before work starts again. Two WEEKS of meetings before we even see a student. Something's wrong with that.

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