We made the local paper (pic of me)

[Guest]

Canton of Hawkwood made the local independenant newspaper... I'm the guy on the left.

http://home.armourarchive.org/members/broadway/fencing.gif

Article reads as follows:
(all typo's mine)

All fun, no plague
By ALLI MARSHALL

"People say we're accurately re-enacting the Renaissance," observes Society for Creative

Anachronisms member Duncan MacGregor. "I say we re-enact the romantic idea of the

Renaissance - there's no plague and no real bloodshed."

In case the name doesn't ring a bell, the SCA is a historical-research group that focuses

on medieval times and customs. But don't let the term "research" fool you - this motley

crew of bards, knights, lords and ladies doesn't restrict its studies to dim corners of the

library. In fact, you're most likely to see them clashing swords at Weaver Park on Sunday

afternoons, just as they've been doing for nearly 27 years.

"There are 35 or 40 dues-paying members locally," Duncan reports, and maybe twice as many

nonpaying members."

Membership costs $35 a year (with discounts available for students, families and groups).

Members get a year's subscription to their "kingdom's" newsletter and the right to hold

office in SCA groups, to participate in combat, and to receive awards in competitions.

But you don't have to be a member to attend meetings or events.
"If you play in the SCA, you choose a time period, and you choose a persona based on

medieval Europe," Svanr Mel explains as he prepares for a round of rapier fighting.
Everyone who plays is a noble; everyone has a title,' he adds.

A key part of membership is choosing a medieval pseudonym and an "armory," or heraldic

insignia. SCA guidelines specify that names and insignia shouldn't be too modern. Also,

members are discouraged from naming themselves after anyone famous (so Robin Hood, for

example, is off limits). Names and armories are registered through the SCA and each chapter

registers its officers and nobility.

The whole world, in fact, is reconfigured into kingdoms. Asheville, for instance, is in

the Kingdom of Atiantia, which covers Maryland, most of Virginia, North and South Carolina

and part of Georgia. The local chapter is known as the Canton of Hawkwood.

Svanr, who's been with the group since '91, recalls how he got involved: "I heard about

this place in the park. These guys were fighting with sticks and armor, and it was cool."
He continues: "It's in your hometown; its everywhere. No one will hassle you about wear-

ing glasses or the wrong shoes if you come to an event. As if to illustrate his point, he's

wearing sneakers and jeans with a medieval jacket. There are rules, however. 'At events,

they try to have a 'nonmodern-crap' area. You can't have a beer bottle --- that's not

period. Everyone's drinking from a chalice.'

Duncan, a Dungeons and Dragons fan in high school, came across an address for SCA and wrote

off for information. Months later, the response caught up with him at college, and he

attended a local meeting. Now, more than two decades later, Duncan reveals, 'This is how I

met my wife and best friends."

In order to re-create the Renaissance experience, many SCA folks broaden their knowledge of

the time period by practicing the arts, sci- ences and pastimes of that,era. Members study

such diverse arts as brewing, calligraphy and illumination, dance, falconry, weaving and

embroidery, music and minstrelsy.

"What's kept me involved is the learning of crafts and skills," Duncan admits. "I've

studied period manuscripts for rapier combat, and as a result" I can read facsimiles of

Elizabethan English."

Summertime brings a lot of SCA events to the kingdom (check out www.SCA.org for more info);

a chance for members to 'show off their skills and for curious onlookers to get a taste of

what it's all about. 'Events are fun, theres fighting, the court, food, music and bards.

Music is really important," Duncan notes. 'It's like real-life D&D ... only better."

=====

------------------
Matthew Broadway
(SCA: Dante de la Vallée)

[Ned Chaney]

Fencing??? FOP!!!

------------------
Quid Curone

[Rev. George]

<i> No one will hassle you about wear-
ing glasses or the wrong shoes if you come to an event. As if to illustrate his point, he's
wearing sneakers and jeans with a medieval jacket. There are rules, however. 'At events,
they try to have a 'nonmodern-crap' area. You can't have a beer bottle --- that's notperiod. Everyone's drinking from a chalice.' </i>

Somethign about this passage disturbs me.

-+G