From the Children's Crusade

This past weekend was Banner War. Normally, this is where the various households of the Barony compete with each other. This year there was an unusual (I’m going to guess unprecedented) entry: Youth Armored Combat.

In the SCA, we train our children from an early age to kill. Starting out well before their teens with glorified pool noodles called ‘boffers’, and working up to scaled-down versions of adult armor and weapons, the next generation of knights get an early start. Youth Armored Combat is the ‘upper level’ of this progression, one step shy of adult heavy combat.

I suppose some people may find this disturbing, but I frankly find it quite refreshing, as while exact results vary YAC members tend to be better people than the general run of children these days. Sure, they hit people with sticks – but only if the people being hit have sticks too. There is also a great deal to be said for conditioning children to come to a screeching halt at the command “HOLD!”

YAC, understandably, gained considerable support from both households and mercenaries (I joined their cause for a glass of wine and a cookie), and based on Saturday evening’s court were well on their way to winning the war.

I spent much of Saturday working on my mon die and making my first bunch (small bead). The former went quite well thanks to some guidance from Master Raymond, the latter proved quite tricky.

While there are many ways to make punches here’s the one I’m using. You start with concrete nails (chosen because they are readily available steel chunks in about the right size and shape). Heat to cherry-red at the tip then let cool to soften them. Easy. Now using files and sandpaper form the tip into the right shape. Very, very hard. This is handwork to a higher standard than many machine processes will produce – the goal is a perfectly hemispherical head of just the right size. Still working on this. Once the shape is right (do a gentle test punch on soft metal), harden with the torch (tip to cherry red again and quench), clean, and then temper (heat back from the tip until it is just turning yellow and quench). This will produce a punch hard enough to use on your die without wearing down too quickly.

I competed in the Vox Off after a number of years of meaning to without getting around to it. Vox Off is voice heraldry in its various forms – court, field, town cry, and presentation. Each contestant is given a number of pieces to read (getting about 30 seconds prior to starting to speak to review the material for each) at various distances from the judges (5 to 40 yards). You are graded on how well you could be understood, your pronunciation of proper names (including the odd Welsh or Gaelic one to trip you up), your general tone and style (different for the different forms) and in the case of field heraldry what you say. Field heraldry is acting as an announcer for a tournament. Each fighter generally writes their name and title(s) on a card and hands it to you. You then get to figure out how to properly announce them and in what order (“Duke Sir Sharpsword, Sergeant to Baroness Wisdom” gets announced as “Duke Sharpsword” and needs to be introduced before “Count Bigshield”). The material ranges from perfectly serious (actual award presentations) to humorous (fencers being advised not to trip over their own lace and ruffles while entering the field) to fiendishly difficult (Norse and Middle English passages). Two of us read the oath Tolkien used for Gondor’s knights of the Citadel (used by some SCA groups as an oath of fealty). I had to read section of a Norse Edas (translated to modern English; they’re not THAT evil) in a format I’d never encountered before. As you may have gathered, the contest is as much about finding and training new heralds as it is about seeing who can speak loudly and clearly. Three of us entered, and I came out the winner! Being a veteran bard was a big help. I thus was able to score three warpoints for YAC. Total of five points to YAC and one to Redstone for Vox.

Redstone also put their banner up, as did a few other houses whose names I didn’t get. Methelstede helped run YACs entry, and Red Plague was, surprisingly enough, absent.

Overall, much more successful than the real children’s crusade. Not that that was a high bar to reach…