New to the SCA

A beginner's journey from fighting at a local practice in the Fall of 2013, to working toward heavy weapons authorization and a pursuit in the arts and sciences. I'm slowly growing in this journey and hope to authorize so I may fight with my friends in the shield wall! Wassail! ~ Bjørn Flárskegg Héribani

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The Arts and Sciences

Toward the end of next month I will finally be devoting more times towards things outside of fighting. I plan to teach a class on how to make period drinking horns at an A&S faire during Mounted War Games, an event being co-organized by my shire in Peru, Indiana. I of course also intend to be a heavy fighter contestant in the multi-disciplinary tournament. xD

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Rules of the List, and other important information to both share, and reference. 

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Train.. It's the only way to keep the "rust" off. If you can't make some practices, do pell work. 1-6 drills, circle and foot work drills. Slow work and shot mechanics. Go through a pell workout sheet. The only thing better is time in your armor, laying stick.

I've been doing pell exercise's and my friend, Captain Ulrich mentioned that my form is looking a lot better. A pell workout sheet is an excellent idea, and I should expand it to include more foot work drills. Thank you for the advice, sir!

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Germanfest

The Shire of Shadowed Stars and Raven Company did a demonstration at Germanfest in my town. We all had a lot of fun, and I finally got my fighting fix in!

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Needing to Swing a Stick

I haven't been to a practice or event in almost a month and a half. I've had deaths in my family, and in my girlfriend's family. So I've been to funerals and other things and haven't had a time to settle down and plan to get my ass to a practice, and I'm itching to swing a stick. So my question to other SCA fighters is this, what can someone do to not get so much rust on their skill that they get their butts whooped at their first practice out in a while. PS, I've had a bit of mead so I hope this post makes sense. Please send your recommendations to my inbox. Thanks!

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Crown Tournament 2014: Midrealm

I attended my first Crown Tournament for the SCA. I mainly wanted to go out and lend support to my friend and kinsman, Captain Ulrich of Wiard. He was fighting in the tournament and he initially got me interested in the SCA and has been my fighting mentor, alongside Sergeant Fegus MacPherson. The event was in Tipton, Indiana in the Barony of Sternfeld on the 4-H Fairgrounds there. Their excellencies, Baron Ulfr Imason and his lady, Baroness Odile De Brienne were amazing hosts for the Tournament and their Majesties. I got to meet her majesty, Queen Amalie after being a guard to the royal chambers. I also swore allegiance to King Cameron and Queen Amalie which I thought was fun, honorable, and all around awesome. I also met several knights, barons, and even had the honor to meet Count Callach, the former king of the Midrealm. Saturday was a lot of fun due to my friend Lord Sig being in the Novice Tournament. After that I also had the privilege to hear Duke Brannos speak to some of the fighters and even got to see him fight. I also met someone who I had heard of and spoken online with, Master Sigulf, a Pelican and Laurel and amazing bead maker. Being a viking persona I was obviously interested in the viking and Frankish beads. He and I, and my lady Odelina, my friends Gavin and Colina all hit it off and had a blast. He told us many funny stories about Pennsic and about his prodigy and our friend, Lady Maggie MacKeith who has helped us newbies greatly! And then there was Sunday, the fight! The tournament kicked off with brutal heat, but I had a light linen tunic that was loaned to me which helped, but I still got sick from the heat. Lots of people had shade but I was honored to be helping Ulrich when he got off the list by giving him ice, water, etc. Ulrich fought both honorably and extremely well in the preliminaries despite the heat and an injury to his knee, and even went on to be the only unbelted fighter in the final four!!!!  You can see some of his fights here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLsJS-7BdZk V. Sir Ish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7se1BaVrje8 V. Sir Gunnar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlZNNl532AQ

He was defeated by Sir Gunnar Redboar in the semi-finals, honorably and we are extremely proud of Ulrich for going so far in the tournament. I'll be training to be get better so I can challenge him every so often so that we can both progress as better fighters. I want to see my good friend with a crown, darn it! After the heat, all the hard battles, and all the war cries, the fighting was ended when Sir Gunnar was defeated by our new Prince, Sir Cadogan Blades now Prince Cadogan Blades. After the crowning of Cadogan and his lady my lady and I left to freshen up and then attended Court and the following feast before heading home.

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Oh.. by the way

                     I'm now a member of the Dragon Army!

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My initial authorization fight. I am now a member of the Dragon Army! HOOBAH!

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Pictures from the event of our shire. Also, I authorized to fight heavy weapons, sword and board!

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My fighting group in the Shire of Shadowed Stars

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My viking shield for SCA combat

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Finally getting more of my own gear, like the shield, and a lot of armor, just need to get some garb that fits.

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Me getting some garb (sorta) and posing with my friend Jason's shield.  We've been practicing indoors, and I wore a wool tunic and quickly overheated. I can't wait for some colder outdoor events to use this tunic.

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My earliest photos of me in the janky loaner gear for the SCA group in my town. As appreciative as I was to have armor to use, I couldn't help but realize I was pretty hideous! lol  Since then I have a lot of my own armor, but I still need a gorget, arm protection, and gauntlets. I also need some better garb to toss over my gear. By the way, that's a guy that normally does rapier, and even though I was new I kicked his butt, which felt nice. He got some good hits in too, and I was proud that he decided to fight heavy weapons too!