The Armour Archive

Someone recently when I was at the Met in NYC browsing for books, asked me if there were any alternatives to the SCA, available nationally preferably, where combat is similar in terms of being full contact with limited safety rules like the SCA, but no pulled blows, no choreography and the armour is much more authentic in terms of design and materials. He was interested in something soley geared toward European battle and tournament harnesses worn in the middle ages. Basically no fantasy armour, no pre-medieval Roman period armours, etc.

He did not care about some of the SCA concepts, so he hoped for a group that could include not only the armour worn by knights and the nobility, but by anybody who would be on a battlefield or tournament, regardless of class or rank, though the questioner was interested in maille or better for himself personally.

I told him that unless things have changed in the last few years, there were no such groups on a national scale. I told him there were various tournament companies and smaller regional or local groups, but nothing on a larger scale.

Am I correct about this? I just automatically gave the answer I have always given, but I have been fairly inactive for several years. Please tell me if I am wrong. My best answer was to join the SCA and look for a tourney company locally that participates nationally, but he just wasn't interested in the SCA, he had been there and done that before.

Hi Richard,

Yes and No. There is no blanket orginization - that said, nearly every HWMA group regularly communicates with, and sets up seminars, tournaments, and the like, on both a national and international level.

If the groups acted in isolation, that would be a point of concern - only being 'small,local, or regional', but given the cross participation it rreally is not. Think in terms of the smaller HWMA groups (and in the US reenactment groups) as being shires, households, and the like, training locally, but participating wih each other with fair frequency, wihout some umbrella orginization as a beaurocratic framework.

------------------
Bob R.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Richard Blackmoore:
<B>Someone recently when I was at the Met in NYC browsing for books, asked me if there were any alternatives to the SCA, available nationally preferably, where combat is similar in terms of being full contact with limited safety rules like the SCA, but no pulled blows, no choreography and the armour is much more authentic in terms of design and materials. He was interested in something soley geared toward European battle and tournament harnesses worn in the middle ages. Basically no fantasy armour, no pre-medieval Roman period armours, etc.

He did not care about some of the SCA concepts, so he hoped for a group that could include not only the armour worn by knights and the nobility, but by anybody who would be on a battlefield or tournament, regardless of class or rank, though the questioner was interested in maille or better for himself personally.

I told him that unless things have changed in the last few years, there were no such groups on a national scale. I told him there were various tournament companies and smaller regional or local groups, but nothing on a larger scale.

Am I correct about this? I just automatically gave the answer I have always given, but I have been fairly inactive for several years. Please tell me if I am wrong. My best answer was to join the SCA and look for a tourney company locally that participates nationally, but he just wasn't interested in the SCA, he had been there and done that before.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No. But there are a few national events at which the small groups come together.

Western Martial Arts Workshop (WMAW)
Livermore Symposium
Lansing

A good place to find out about these events is at: www.swordforum.com in the Historic European Swordsmanship forum (they have a sub-forum for event announcements). One of the events is in New York (I forget which one). He would also be close to Canada and could go to some of the AEMMA events there. AEMMA is, so far as I know, the only organization that does full-speed, uncoreographed fighting to standards that exceed the SCA.