Blackstone Raids 2009: A late review

To start, this was my third Blackstone Raids and I really had a great time at the ones before. I really had to think through my feelings about this years event. It was hot which has not been the case in my past two years there. Did this affect the way I felt about the event. I like the concept of the SCA but I hate the politics and the attitudes of the people that try be be important in the society because they have little outside of it. Was this an influence on how much disappointment I felt at the end of the event? I really had to consider these things and talk with the people I fought along side to see if I was seeing things in some kind of skewed way.

In the past two trips to Blackstone Raids it happened that I fought on the side of AEthelmearc. The fighting was great and people were taking their shots. The Middle was aggressive and and lines clashed and it was fun. AEthelmearc won most battles both years. I figured numbers were off because of home field advantage. I noticed very little rhino hide either of those first two years.

This year Atlantia split its forces due to numbers. Well since I was fighting with a mercenary group we were part of the force that went to the Middle Kingdom. Great I get to fight with the people I have fought against the past two years. Now I get to see the other side. I wonder if it is like this for them every year? Why do they continue to return to this event if it is? Like what you ask?

Let me start by saying that I may hit light for an Atlantian. I discussed this with a few of the people I regularly fight with and the say I hit hard enough and that some times I can hit harder than they would like. I understand that sometimes you are not sure in a melee if it was a shot or spear shaft that hit you. All that taken into account I have to question the honor of a large majority of the people we faced. One fighter left himself open while attacking a fighter to my right. I hit his helm and shoulder four times solid. I then hit his helm slightly to the back and he dropped to a knee. I figured he was dying until he tried to thrust at another fighter so I hit his sword arm and he looked up at me like he was wondering what I was doing. Was he clueless about melee fighting and thought he was only engaged with the person in front of him? Was the whole AEthelmearc army on that bridge that clueless? It was like that most of the time. Almost no one wanted to take a shot. The field battles were as bad. A fighter got around our line and hit my shield arm at the inside of the elbow really hard and said "You don't have to take that shot we were not engaged." Thanks, so you now want me to fight when my arm is numb and I can't use my shield? Honorable move Sir ShitHead.

So, a shield man closes on a spear man and they hold the spear vertical in front of them butt end on the ground and say nothing, have they yielded? No clue, so I put a light'ish rap to their helm. No response no defense. I put a second harder rap to their helm, no response. A third rap that moves their head and no response? I am confused people I am fighting with are confused. The rest of their group is dead. Suddenly I take a shot from a spear to my kidney from the back right side. Not engaged but I am pissed and walk off the field. The spear I was engaged with or what ever it was, joins the new line to continue fighting. I was told that they were hit several more times with no acknowledgment until another spear man chocked up on their spear and drove the person to the ground. I did not know we played immortals in the SCA.

Two of our guys were called dead for walking of the end of the world in a field battle. Next battle same marshal, a line of AEthelmearc fighters walks off the edge of the world to flank our group in front of the marshal; we yell to him and he says to them move back, they ignore him and he lets it go. Where is the honor?

That is how the fighting went. Why does the Middle bother to return year after year. Is it like that for them every year. Was this just a really odd and strange year? I had to take time away after that. Now, I plan to do three events then work on projects over the winter. I don't know if I will return to Blackstone Raids again.

Highlight - Had a nice Mexican dinner with friends at the Cozumel restaurant.

Chivalry and "Living History"

The Society for Creative Anachronism is an origination that strives to "re-create" the arts, skills and ideas of Medieval Europe. The belief is they can better understand the history through re-creation of the garb and playing dress up. In my opinion it is a flawed idea.

Lets start first with the idea of Chivalry. This is a concept that never really existed except in the writings of romantic minded authors. Even if it had truly existed it is an outdated concept. To be knighted is to be locked into servitude. It was for most of the time of knights something to be avoided. Once you became a knight you were required to do the bidding of your King, Lord or what ever. You were tied to the will of the church. You had to use your lands and wealth to support a number of troops. You had to carry a bigger burden of taxes so you had to take from the peasants that worked your lands.

Knights did not live to the code that we think of today as the "Code of Chivalry". These men were the leaders of troops that robbed and murdered at the will of the church against the non-believers. They stole and murdered for their king to increase his power and wealth. Those that did not try to avoid knighthood, embraced it as a means to power. It was as corrupt as any political system we have today.

What is taken as the "Code of Chivalry" today is what was later a set of rules for courtly manners for the upper classes. Think of this as the manners expected by society today among the "elite". The way it is taken in the SCA is a farce. And as to how it is really followed by the members of the Society can be seen it the way politics work in the SCA.

As for the "Living History" of the SCA, this is a joke. Except for some people doing arts and science, there is nothing of living like they did in the past. Even in the arts and sciences people take modern short cuts to make their projects. Gas forge instead of a bellows powered charcoal forge, modern instead of period needles, power tools such as saws and drills. All of these things take away from the understanding of how things were really done in the past.

SCA events are fun costume parties and that is all they are. There is a great amount of research done by some to make their costume authentic but it is still a costume. Until they spend more than a weekend or week at it, it is still a party. Until they separate themselves from all modern conveniences and use only things of the period they are trying to "re-create" it is just a game.

Now lets move to the martial arts. How are they recreating the feel of combat in the middle ages if they use plastic, aluminum and other modern materials to create the armor? You always here, "if they had it back then they would have used it". Well they did not have it so, you are not re-creating the feel of their combat. SCA combat is not a way to learn how it felt to fight in the middle ages, it is a modern sport. This delusion needs to end.

I enjoy fighting in the SCA and I enjoy the events but I realize that the research I do and my attempts at making a period kit will not give me the experiences of the Medieval people. I have a better understanding of how some things were done because I chose to make period tools and do the pieces in a period fashion. I can better see the complex nature of the thing but not the time.

All I am saying is that the SCA is a dream, a game and nothing more. Enjoy the party and enjoy the arts and sciences but don't think that you know anything about what it was really like to live in the Middle Ages.