[Artemisia] Observations of West Kingdom Video (was: Question for Kurtis/William)

[Tamar Black Sea]

First off: I have a feeling this is one of those discussions where it's 
really hard to mimic a conversational tone. Some of us liked the show, 
some didn't. That's ok.

Regarding the evolution of armored combat:

The West Kingdom video was a blast to watch. Fighting has definitely 
changed! There was some cool stuff happening, but still; what a 
difference. If anyone else takes a look at this video, I'd be curious to 
know if you see what I'm seeing.

The fighter at about 4:21 appears to have an unusually open-faced helm 
(as in, no protective bars over the eyes.) I couldn't tell if it was due 
to the film being grainy, or if the bars really weren't there.

The fighter at 9:30 is wearing chain mail! I didn't think chain mail was 
manageable in the early days. It must have been really, really, heavy. :-)

The technique.....Wow! Times have changed. It was a lot of fun to be 
able to see this. I can't help but wonder if torn rotator cuffs were the 
norm.

I took a quick glance at other parts of the West Kingdom's History page. 
One of the quotes dated back to pre-Scadian times and jumped of the 
page. It reminded me that the aesthetic for the early days of the 
Society was informed by all sorts of strange and wonderful things. 
Here's the quote:
""Paul and I (Jon DeCles and Edwin Bersark [Paul Zimmer]) were living in 
the Old Lovecraftian Farmhouse in Upstate New York. To this place came 
Dave (Siegfried von Hofflichskeit) and Ken (Fulk deWyvern). Mind you, 
this was all long before the SCA had been thought of.  "

Lovecraft ......that takes me back :-)

Thanks for sharing this Sean; it was great to see.

-tamar





On 11/17/2011 7:18 AM, Sean Oppenheimer wrote:
> In case you missed it, here is a bit of a start for Tamar and others
>
> http://history.westkingdom.org/Year13/Video/JuneCrown.htm
>
> It is fascinating to me to consider that this video was filmed a mere 4 years before my love affair with the current middle ages began.  I remember the carpet armor, the freon can and army pot helmets.
>
> I started fighting a bit less than eight years after this video was taken.  For some reason, the fighting that was happening when I got started seems to have been VASTLY improved in that time.  I am constantly preaching about the evolution of our sport.  Our fighting really needs to be better than it was 47 years ago.  Likewise, our sport should be more refined now that it was 20 years, 10 years, even 5 years ago.  And I believe it is.  The sport, as a martial art is much more refined.  The armor continues to improve.  The overall look and feel of our fighters is much more medeival now than it was when we became a Kingdom.  I was recently tagged in a photo from an Uprising in 1996 or 1997.  I was amazed at how much better my look is now.
>
> But, that's kind of the point isn't it?
>
> Sean
>
>> In a similar light, the way the SCA learned....pretty much
>> everything.....about armored combat was to get in there and do it. I
>> don't know if anyone has written a history about the development of this
>> fighting form; but I think it would be an AWESOME read if they did. I
>> can imagine that every step of the way, issues like switching from hard
>> wood sticks to rattan, the development of helms as we use them today,
>> shield construction, and dozens of other implementation details had
>> their roots in the school of hard knocks. There are probably even a
>> bunch of fighters here in this kingdom who were part of that evolution.
>> This is our history, and I'll bet you money that there's a great story
>> in there.
>>
>> Anyway, best of luck to you and happy trails :-)
>> -tamar
>>
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