A Long Day's Journey Into Knight

My friend, Eric, is being knighted this evening. No, I'm not in England and this doesn't involve a governmentally recognized monarchy. Eric is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). This is a group that studies medieval history and will recreate the clothing, skills and traditions of that history. Each person in the organization will take on a persona from the period they are studying. Eric's persona, for instance, is named Owen (there's a whole bunch of ap this and ap that after that but I don't know it) and he's a fighter... who will be pronounced a knight at court this evening.

Knighthood in the SCA is a top-level recognition of aptitude, attitude, knowledge, ability, effort and achievement. One friend likened it to a black belt in karate (interrestingly enough, it involves a white belt). To someone in the SCA, it's a big deal. Eric Owen has been trying to achieve knighthood since the day I met him about three years ago.

Right now, Owen is sitting in vigil. He is receiving friends and well-wishers and taking time to chat with them before court this evening. It's another one of those historical things.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm not a member of the SCA. Although I know a good deal about it for being mundane (what they call non-players), I'm not immersed enough to understand most of the traditions. The only reason I know as much as I do is because a lot of my friends over the past 15 years have been involved and I enjoy attending some of the regional rennaisance festivals. You pick up a few things here and there.

The local group is holding their Guardian event at a boy scout camp in the area. As I write this, I am sitting in my truck with the A/C running. It's about 95 degrees (F) out here and, frankly, I'm a little bored at the moment.

The group held weapon tournaments earlier in the day. They use padded sticks as swords. They won't kill you but they still hurt. And, yes, they do suit up in armor. I showed up for those and took some video. A bard competition and archery competition just kicked off about 5 minutes ago but I've basically been sitting around doing nothing for the past two hours.

You see, after the tournaments, the members all mingle among different tents and swap stories of past SCA events, how the fighting on the day went, and what's been going on in their mundane lives. Since I'm not a regular, I have no stories to swap and, since I barely know anyone, no one to swap them with. I barely know the SCA names of the friends I have who are members. And I'm never sure which name to call them when speaking of them to other members.

At any rate, it's about three hours before anything else significant starts. I think I may take a nap. Oh, wait, Carl Rafe is back. I think I'll go see what he's up to.