Just one single rowan berry.

Rowan, she/her. I write sometimes, and made this blog to keep it all in one place.

[asinglerowanberry]

I write short stories, poems, and hopefully one day, novels too. I made this blog so I can keep all my work in one place. Knowing me, I will also be knightblogging on main. It's a hazard that comes with HEMA and horse riding being my two sports.

I'll update this post later with a tag list for easy searching.

[asinglerowanberry]

okay after doing quarterstaff for the first time today i did realize something. i am simply a polearm girlie. there is just such a HUGE difference in my first day of montante and first day of quarterstaff where even tho im still doing all the beginner mistakes and dont know whats going on, i am having the time of my LIFE and cant stop smiling. versus my first day of meyer rappier where i was like. okay im exercising i guess..... (apologies to all my one handed weapons friends but they simply do not spark joy for me in the same way)

[asinglerowanberry]

they should invent a quarterstaff that is safe to spar with

[asinglerowanberry]

My contribution to Guyu: Harvest Rain zine from @ensquare-events! I had a great time celebrating spring rain with everyone. Download the zine here. (Transcript below the cut.)

haiku for sequoia sempervirens

warm fog-swept embrace

these mist-crowned guards see rain twice

sink into wet earth

footprints of wildfire--

water drips to feathered sprays

green sprouts push striped black

the hardened mothers

fire and rain raise their children

twin daughters look up

a single raindrop

on the end of a needle--

we wait for the fall

[ensquare-events]

Guyu: Harvest Rain is now available to read for free!

🌦️ download here

☔ multifandom/original zine featuring 60 pages of art and writing about growth and the rainy spring

🌸 front cover art (original) by @mnemonicmask | background/back cover art (chiikawa) by buttermilkbear

[asinglerowanberry]

i explained the concept of Horsey Hema to my horse trainer and he was actually so down for it lol. he even told me to bring some foam swords sometime and i was like Dude Don't Play Bc I Am So Fucking Serious About This. My Life Will Not Be Complete Until I Swing Swords From Atop A Horse.

[asinglerowanberry]

consensus in my HEMA discord server seems to be that you're ready to take your red ribbon test when you start complaining at length in the server about how meyer doesnt make any sense and things that are labeled as different actions are actually the same and nothing makes any coherent sense and is labeled poorly etc etc

[asinglerowanberry]

possibly the worst thing about montante is that it can't be done from horseback

[asinglerowanberry]

hey guys one like and i buy a synthetic montante from blackfencer [i like my own post] oh haha that's crazy guess i have to order a synthetic montante

[asinglerowanberry]

i must bow to the whims of the people.....

[knightwithakay]

do you study figueiredo when you do montante? my club is currently working through his rules and most of them make sense but theres a couple where we're like. what on earth is this possibly used for. anyway if you dont do figueiredo then which sources do you use instead?

our primary text is actually Godinho! His Arte de Esgrima has sections for multiple weapons including montante. The thing I find really great about that is that all the rules are VERY explicitly for specific situations; he has a couple of funny asides that are like "if the situation isn't exactly as described, don't use this one. Use the one for that situation instead."

we have started on Figueiredo, but only the first couple of rules so far-- I don't actually own the text, but I can see how it might be tough to find the actually practical applications lol. I'm curious if there are specific ones you're interested in, because it may be that my mentor (or his mentor, my grand-montante) have some thoughts!

[asinglerowanberry]

We tried to workshop rule 2 today (both simple and composed) and we kept getting stuck on like. Sure I get what you're describing dude, but in what situation is this remotely useful? Are we trying to draw our opponent(s) into a specific action? Like what's going on.... There's so many rules that are like "this is for clearing a wide street" or "this is for facing a guy with a shield" or so on and rule two just does not have that. We were discussing rule two as maybe a setup for some later stuff, but haven't been able to come to a consensus.

I will have to check out Godinho! Our class only explicitly teaches Figgy, but our study groups are always happy to workshop random things from different sources.

[knightwithakay]

Oooh hm. My immediate take, based on both the placement in the order (very nearly the first thing you learn) and the footwork (which has you advancing and then retreating so you end up back where you started) does make me think that this is more of a flow drill / movement exercise than necessarily a specific situational tactic.

Especially if the other rules do have explicit situational context, and this one doesn't, it suggests to me that either the context should be obvious and it just isn't to our modern brains or that this doesn't really have a specific purpose and is just to get the moveset in you for later. But I'll poll the folks and get back to you :)

[asinglerowanberry]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly :) and I'd love to hear what your other montante folks think as well. One thing I love about montante class is that we get to go "hey here are the partial historical sources we're working from and we may not have all the info or context, so let's play around until we understand the context or make our own context!" it feels sometimes like historical restoration, using modern materials to fill in the gaps in the historical record. my montante class in particular loves workshopping and playing around, and we've grown from one student to six students just in the last six months, so I'm super duper excited to see where we can go from here!!

[knightwithakay]

do you study figueiredo when you do montante? my club is currently working through his rules and most of them make sense but theres a couple where we're like. what on earth is this possibly used for. anyway if you dont do figueiredo then which sources do you use instead?

our primary text is actually Godinho! His Arte de Esgrima has sections for multiple weapons including montante. The thing I find really great about that is that all the rules are VERY explicitly for specific situations; he has a couple of funny asides that are like "if the situation isn't exactly as described, don't use this one. Use the one for that situation instead."

we have started on Figueiredo, but only the first couple of rules so far-- I don't actually own the text, but I can see how it might be tough to find the actually practical applications lol. I'm curious if there are specific ones you're interested in, because it may be that my mentor (or his mentor, my grand-montante) have some thoughts!

[asinglerowanberry]

We tried to workshop rule 2 today (both simple and composed) and we kept getting stuck on like. Sure I get what you're describing dude, but in what situation is this remotely useful? Are we trying to draw our opponent(s) into a specific action? Like what's going on.... There's so many rules that are like "this is for clearing a wide street" or "this is for facing a guy with a shield" or so on and rule two just does not have that. We were discussing rule two as maybe a setup for some later stuff, but haven't been able to come to a consensus.

I will have to check out Godinho! Our class only explicitly teaches Figgy, but our study groups are always happy to workshop random things from different sources.

[asinglerowanberry]

hey guys one like and i buy a synthetic montante from blackfencer [i like my own post] oh haha that's crazy guess i have to order a synthetic montante

[asinglerowanberry]

had to take a month off montante due to life happening but when i got back, the instructor was like i've been waiting until you're back!! today we will end on Montante Vs Pike and well. to be loved is to be known.

[cordaxmerc]

went fiore upon these hoes. pulled a meyer on the opps. hit em with the six forbidden cuts n some more. this shit aint nothing to me man

[nderasori]

new feder got me moving like an invasive species. this shit is genuine Castille. If the hilt breaks, the foreign exchange market will take a 28% hit. smoked a Meyerist so good the meat fell off his bones, hit him with a prellhau so clean he saw next week's stock market. this shit ain't nothin to me, man

[asinglerowanberry]

i've only been doing liberty for a few months but it really does make me feel like the protag of a horse girl movie. we have a ~bond~ and the horse can read my mind. i wonder if it will ever stop feeling unreal. like wdym i can relax my shoulders and a horse twenty feet away from me will immediately drop from a canter to a trot. how is that not fake actually.

[asinglerowanberry]

i think i've never felt gender euphoria in my life until the day we did montante vs pike

[asinglerowanberry]

Under the Foundations

From @mcczines Damsel Day / Sapphic Knight digital zine. See the whole zine here.

-

Estrid well-deserved her posting as Head Engineer, having seen through two successful sieges under her command and witnessed half a dozen more. She knew dirt, walls, and engines better than she knew the back of her hand, seeing as that body part was usually covered in mud and thus hidden from her view.

She did not deserve this, she thought as her second, the Deputy Engineer, stood awkwardly in front of her, waiting for her command after receiving the unfortunate news.

“By the river,” she said, hoping that maybe she had an unnoticed head wound and heard incorrectly.

“Yes, captain, they’ve camped by the river,” her second said, twisting her hands nervously.

“On the wrong side of the ditches we spent the last week digging?” Estrid asked, in the tone of someone already halfway to the executioner’s block.

“Dame Anabel and her three hundred spearwomen have arrived and have settled on the far side of our fortifications,” her second confirmed.

Estrid paused, counting to ten in her head before she exploded at her wonderful deputy, instead of the person who surely deserved it.

The thing was, the Baroness commanding this ongoing siege would be glad to see Dame Anabel, because Dame Anabel surely brought with her the bannerwomen of her liege the Duchess of Wedgewood. This siege against Castle Stagwatch had gone for six months thus far with no clear end in sight, so Dame Anabel and her three hundred spearwomen would be a welcome sight to all. The camp had struggled with the sortie from the defenders, and concerns about an allied counter-siege were the reason for the ditches in the first place. Reinforcements would ease those worries.

Estrid would have been eased alongside, had it not been Dame Anabel in particular.

Estrid had met Dame Anabel many times before, on various campaigns led by various ladies of varying skill, and every time she had been annoyed. Dame Anabel was arrogant, but even worse, was unquestionably skilled enough to validate such sentiments. Every battlefield was irrevocably changed the moment her destrier set one hoof on it. To make matters worse, Dame Anabel was fascinated by Estrid. Dame Anabel always insisted on bowing and kneeling–like Estrid was some sort of noblewoman!--and formally proposing courtship, usually accompanied by dramatic gifts that Estrid didn’t want anyhow. What was she supposed to do with a bouquet of wild roses? Let them wilt in her tent while she was out in the field shouting orders all day?

Estrid refused the offer of formal courtship every time Dame Anabel asked, because it was ridiculous and excessive, and Estrid was busy with her job anyway. Let Dame Anabel court some other fancy knight, and they could be matching with their shining armor atop their massive destriers. Estrid was happy with her mud and her ditches and her perfectly-braced tunnels.

“Take me to her,” Estrid said, and her second in command ducked out of the tent, happy to escape the conversation.

They crossed the camp together. There had been two sorties from the castle defenders, but other than that, the siege was the deathly boring waiting game that any siege was. The Baroness wanted the siege done with quickly, because there were concerns of another fortified town sending reinforcements if they waited too long. Estrid, used to the turbulent moods of nobles, had acted accordingly and begun three tunnels so she would not be delayed by unexpected changes in ground composition. However, she had few sappers in this complement, and had to make do with different groups of spearwomen as the bulk of her diggers. Some of these women were more strong than they were observant, which had the effect of one of their tunnels nearly collapsing the night before. Estrid and her deputy had rushed to brace it with lumber before it collapsed entirely, and progress was slowed since.

Estrid crossed her lines of ditches–beautiful ditches! In perfectly angled rows! Nearly unassailable!--to find Dame Anabel in a small cluster of armored women, set off to the side of the rest busily setting up camp. Dame Anabel looked up to see them heading towards her, and broke away.

Dame Anabel approached. She looked…different.

Normally Dame Anabel was resplendent in the finest plate armor forged by the most renowned blacksmiths, accompanied by her shining sword and atop her gleaming warhorse. The queen surely had mirrors less reflective than Dame Anabel’s breastplate. Her liege the Duchess spared no expense for her vassals, and Dame Anabel was the best of them all.

But now, crossing the makeshift camp to approach Estrid, Dame Anabel looked…relaxed. Almost casual.

She was wearing a studded leather jerkin rather than plate armor, and her gloves had only one small plate on the back of the hand, rather than the full fingered gauntlets she normally wore. Her boots were of the highest quality, but dusty from travel and well worn. She had left her helmet behind, and wore her hair in a simple plait.

Dame Anabel looked…well, she looked good. Estrid glanced to the side as Dame Anabel reached her, Estrid’s teeth set against the inside of her lip to keep her expression level.

“Dame Anabel,” Estrid said as politely as she could, through gritted teeth. Why bother spending a week digging ditches until her hands bled, if Dame Anabel was going to camp on the other side and render any protection moot?

“Engineer Estrid,” Dame Anabel replied. “I have some people for you to meet,” she told Estrid, and waved the group of women forward.

Estrid recalled, suddenly, her responses to the three times Dame Anabel had offered a formal courtship. To the first, she had replied “Not right now,” and when Dame Anabel tried again scant months later, politely said, “I am not too sure of this being the best idea.”

The third time Dame Anabel tried, Estrid recalled with fervent shame, and she was still quite embarrassed at her own behavior. Dame Anabel approached her at the worst time, when Estrid was near collapse from no sleep after four days of frantically coordinating the Engineer Corps–and all their engines!--across two rivers. One of the engines had collapsed, and Estrid was near tears from the frustration of it all, which was of course when Dame Anabel approached her with a bouquet of wild roses.

“Can’t you bring me anything useful?” Estrid snapped, and then stormed off before Dame Anabel could witness her breaking into sobs.

Estrid was naturally horrified at her own behavior, but hadn’t seen Dame Anabel since and thus had no time to apologize.

Dame Anabel, rather than become offended at Estrid’s atrocious manners, apparently took the advice to heart.

Dame Anabel had brought her not only a squad of experienced sappers, but another score of experienced diggers, women with shoulders broader than oxen and thighs to match.

Estrid revised her estimation of Dame Anabel, who must only have been so late because she had to travel further afield to find these sappers. There were no such people nearby, or Estrid would have already recruited them for the siege.

With these women, she could have the tunnels completed in a day or two, rather than her previously estimated eight. And she could do it much more safely, without worrying that a collapsed tunnel would kill a whole squad at once.

Estrid’s second broke off to speak to the sappers about their plans for the tunnels, leaving Estrid and Dame Anabel alone.

“You’re late, Dame Anabel,” Estrid said. Surely the Baroness had been expecting her, or rather the Duchess’s bannerwomen, weeks ago.

“Had to gather the best for you,” Dame Anabel said, flashing her a crooked smile. “And you must call me Anabel,” she said, more quietly.

Estrid looked at Dame Anabel–looked at Anabel–and saw her tense expression, fingers tapping against each other, and boot scuffing against the ground. Anabel was, Estrid realized, nervous.

That couldn’t be right. Dame Anabel, nervous? She was a renowned knight, undefeated in tournaments and a terror on the battlefield. She was prized by her liege, beloved by villagers everywhere, and highly respected by her fellow knights. She had just arrived to a siege that she surely would break by the end of the week. What could Anabel have to fear?

Estrid glanced at the sappers again, then back at Anabel, who held the vibrating posture of someone who desperately wanted to say something but was holding back.

Oh no, Estrid thought with dawning horror. This was to be Anabel’s fourth formal offer of courtship. But she must be afraid of a fourth rejection, and thus was hesitating.

Estrid wrestled down the first gut reaction, which was that such a thing must of course be rejected. But…Anabel had brought sappers for her. Had thought about what might be most useful for her in her stressful job, and gone to great lengths to procure it. Had even come to her, without armor, so that Estrid might feel more at ease.

Estrid took a deep breath. She still didn’t think formal courtship was for people like her. And still she thought that surely there was someone else better suited for the most illustrious knight in the land. But Anabel had brought her sappers and experienced miners, so the least Estrid could do was meet her halfway.

“Dame Anabel, vassal to the Duchess of Wedgewood,” Estrid began. She dredged up the more formal language from the scree piled in her mind. “Having found myself with so high an opinion of your goodness, I am emboldened to ask the greatest favor it is in your power to bestow. Would you do me the honor of allowing me to court you?”

Estrid was blessed to see Anabel’s expression turn like the blossoming of a flower, pure delight unfurling across her features.

“Head Engineer Estrid of Southglen,” Anabel said. “Holding you in the highest esteem, I will of course accept the privilege of your favor, returned in full regard.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, with matched beaming smiles and brimming emotions, before Estrid sobered.

“You must move your bannerwomen,” Estrid said. “You have ruined my fortification lines like this. Surely it was obvious you cannot camp this near to the river.”

Anabel leaned back, hand on her hip, and had the audacity to wink. “Naturally,” she said, still smiling. “But how else was I to get you to meet with me immediately upon arrival?”

Estrid spluttered as Anabel turned to leave. Before she did, Anabel tossed over her shoulder, “I will see you when the siege is broken, yes?”

Estrid refused to dignify that with a response, as she spun to return to her tent and fortification plans.

She had a siege to win.