NSTIW

Norman Medieval Fair 1984 and 1985

by Talen Gustaf von Marienburg

My very first "Tourney" fight was at MedFair back in 1984. It was a beautiful day, and the winner of the bout held the field. That winner was His Majesty, Charles Inman MacMoore II. As a matter of fact, he had held the field the entire time; there were no longer any challengers as he'd beaten them all. I stepped forward, having stood in my borrowed armor for quite a while as I watched each challenger fall. I knew I was in way over my head, but Lord Rafael Diego de Burgos, my mentor, insisted I go.

"Might as well jump in feet first," he said.

Inman was standing in the middle of the field, impatiently waiting for any challenger. Rafael walked up to him and whispered to him that this was my first fight. The look on his face, nay the look of his entire body, spoke volumes. Pretty sure I killed his shield with the one blow I struck, then he one-shotted me in the helm. Apparently, he felt pity upon my exposed thigh.

The next month I bought a helm from him.

That summer I discovered a love of the melee, and the following spring, MedFair rolled around again. We were working 5-man melee teams, and my team held the field. Our next challenger? His Majesty, Charles Inman MacMoore III, two knights and two squires. None of us were squires, let alone knights.

We actually were doing well, considering. Our shields were holding against a knight and two squires, another knight was down, and I threatened their flank. Unfortunately, I lost track of Inman. As I turned and stepped to my right, I saw the end of his spear inches away from my helm. The end of that spear combined with the hard step I had taken struck with such force that I flew backwards, my nose now firmly placed against the inside of my visor as the metal of the helm had bent. By the time I got up, the rest of my team was down. Pretty sure Inman killed them all.

It took two people to pull that helm off of me, and it cut my nose as well. There was no way I could get it back on. By then, the Marshals had called a break, and Inman had returned to his pavilion. I walked over there, helm in hand. His eye was twinkling, I swear it was. I showed him the helm and said, “You made it, you bent it, now how do I fix it?”

He took it from me, looked at it for a second and handed it back to me. “Jump up and down on it,” he said. Then he turned away, finished with me.

You know what? It worked. I laid it on its side, jumped up and down on that 12-guage steel helm until it bent out enough to wear it again. Now, here’s the rest of the story.

Many knights have worn that helm when they first started training. I am not one of them, but I started training them before a knight took them and added the polish. It was now my loaner helm. That helm is well known in the Northern Region. We called it the Bug-Eyed Helm. It’s the one that had the perforated mesh visor. An Inman spun-dome helm. Last I saw, it was still being used as a loaner helm in Mooneschadowe, training future knights.

Namron Beltane, 1993

Provided by Elric Dracwin
Beltane was being held at Taylor Lake in the incipient group of Loch Windt. A strong storm came in Saturday evening with high winds, lighting, and twisters nearby. People were huddling in their tents or in Mistress Valia's GP Medium tent to stay dry. Mouse the jester went to his dome tent to get a bottle of mead he received for winning the "biggest spang" contest that day. His was a full sized spang costume that he wore. I think it was made by Mistress Gwyneth of Ramsey Mere. After exiting his tent he was standing in water, zipping up his tent when lighting stuck the tree next to it. My household was camped across the road from him. The lighting strike was so loud that we all jumped and shouted. He was brought into the GP Medium tent and laid down with his head in Dominique's lap. His first words were, "Well, that was a hell of a thing". We were all convinced the Spang Gods were jealous and smited him. He hung that costume on the dead tree every Beltane for years to come as a peace offering to the Spang Gods.