I fought heavy list for a while. Does litigation count as a combat art?

Alays de Brantome, a 14th-century woman living in Carcassone in southern France.

Originally, I toyed with the idea of reserving the name just because I really liked the way the spelling looked. Then the plan was going to be for Alays to be Pascual's queen instead of Alys. :-) Now I've decided to use Alays for doing High Middle Ages clothing and maybe all of my heraldic work, while Alys remains my 16th-century fencer persona.

Alys Mackyntoich has a lot of baggage that Alays just doesn't. :-)

The perfect union of mind and body - of intent and execution - when everything is working correctly.

I’d like to drop 100 lbs and get to practice regularly. I’d like to be more in tune with using a schlager.

That I wasn’t hopeless. Although I might not have practiced so hard if I hadn’t been told initially that I would never be any good.

Love of the game and sheer bull-headed stubbornness.

• Don Danulf Donaldson - the guy who taught me
• Master Seosamh MacDonald an Cruca O’Maille - my all-time favorite sparring partner and guinea pig for new ideas
• Don Pascual del Mar - for reminding me that this is supposed to be fun

It depends. Teaching is awful when I’m trying to teach someone who doesn’t listen, won’t try or can’t be bothered to put in any effort. When I am working with someone who wants to learn (no matter how long it takes him or her to learn and internalize things), it’s a joy.

Teaching is a simple transaction: Here is how to do [thing]. Here is when to do [thing]. I'll teach just about anyone who wants to learn what I know.

Mentoring is a far more complex relationship that deals with many more issues and aspects of life. In the particular context of the SCA, I see my role as a mentor to include helping people figure out who they want to be in the Society, what they want to do, and how to accomplish it. A mentoring relationship is a more reciprocal relationship than pure "teaching" - I should be learning things from my protegees/cadets/etc. as well as teaching them what I have to teach.

Single combat.

By preference, distance and point work.

Changed, no. Explained more clearly, yes. I think we often sacrifice clarity in the rules in the name of brevity.

Convincing a bunch of fencing marshals to volunteer to line marshal the field battle, and convincing the Earl Marshal that we could do it and be effective, thereby starting a new "tradition".

"Calvinball" refers to the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, where Calvin and his toy stuffed tiger invented a game without any rules that used whatever equipment was close at hand. Wikipedia describes it pretty well.

So . . . around about the same time that the Calvin & Hobbes strip introduced Calvinball, several bored fighters decided to play Calvinball at practice. First, they selected the MacGuffin - in that case, an empty duffel bag. (The term MacGuffin comes from Alfred Hitchcock). Second, they declared the one and only rule: whoever is in possession/control of the MacGuffin gets to make any rule(s) he wants, until such time as someone else wrests the MacGuffin from him, usually through violence. Hilarity ensued.

As with so many things, our little cadre of crazy fencers quickly adapted this heavy list invention to fencing, and improved on it.

A good game of fencing Calvinball requires: (a) a sturdy MacGuffin that can stand up to being tossed around, sat on, parried with, etc.; (b) marshals with a sense of humor; and (c) a suitably twisted set of fencers to play. The "rules" are essentially the same as they were that fine spring day in Carolingia. Whoever is in possession of the MacGuffin gets to make a rule. Ideally, the person in possession of the MacGuffin should be in constant fear for his/her personal well-being because the rest of the players are trying to seize the MacGuffin for themselves. Much as in true Calvinball, scoring is arbitrary and irrational, the rules should never be the same twice, and twisted cunning should always triumph over athletic ability.

Disclaimer: Of course, as a responsible fencing marshal, I am not suggesting that Calvinball made-up rules should ever trump the safety rules of the lists.

I am above such base lures. :-) Although I did once tell the Earl Marshal that I would not object to his banning fencing if he would provide me with a tub of warm water, Epsom salts, and foot rubs from his cute squire.

Right now, simply by showing up with a sword in your hand. :-) Otherwise, the key to me is that I am impatient and easily bored.

The first (non-War Point) Fencing Champions at Pennsic. I was very nervous because I wasn’t sure that I really deserved to be on the team. For my first bout, I drew someone from the Midrealm named Ottar as my opponent. Right as we were starting, the Queen of the East (whose Champion I had been up to about a month prior) announced that she had to leave to get ready for the Royalty Dinner, but that she was going to stay a little longer just to watch me.

It was a best three out of five tourney. I think all three bouts took no more than two minutes in total. Three one shots. (Apparently, Ottar had never seen a bind and attack in single time with rapier and dagger before. Also, at the time, nice girls in the Midrealm didn’t fence aggressively. Ottar was a nice guy, if somewhat shell-shocked by the whole experience.) I bowed to Her Majesty and declared that I had dispatched my opponent as expeditiously as possible so that she would not be late for her dinner appointment. :-)

Now, this was the old, old Champions format: single elimination, but you kept fighting until one side’s entire Champions slate was defeated. After the first round, the East had 20+ fencers standing, the Mid had 6. Those last few guys were mostly Allies, and they were *tough.* The East got whittled down a bit, but managed to take out 5 of the 6 remaining Mid and Allies in fairly short order. The last Midrealm Ally standing was Tristan ap something Welsh from the Outlands. Now Don Tristan, but not then.

I was called as Tristan’s next opponent. Tristan got the choice of weapons form and picked case of rapier. Heh. Tristan had blinked and missed my fight with Ottar and was not expecting me or what I was going to do with my two swords. The first pass was another one shot - take and attack in single time and Tristan had a sword in his chest and a shocked expression. The next two passes, however, were epic battles. The final bout - and the one that secured victory for the East - ended up being a double kill after about a minute of solid, uninterrupted blade work. Cheering and hugging ensued.

After all of the congratulations, the Eastern Champions marched down to EK Royal and begged admission to see the Crown to announce our victory. The King and Queen invited us in (yes, they were in the middle of the Royalty Dinner). I got down on my knee before our Crown and declared, on behalf of all of the Champions, that we had fought and won honorably in their name at the very first Pennsic Fencing Champions. The entire assembled Royalty cheered for us.

The entire proceedings were exactly what a meeting of Champions should be - it was beautiful, it was clean, it was friendly. We were all so delighted even to be there, having this tournament, even though it didn’t count for anything but our own egos. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will ever be that way again, but I do wish that it would be.

• Master Bjorn Karlsson - who went out and won Crown in the East on the day he got his AARP card
• Mistress Brita Mairi Svensdottir - who has all of those virtues of calm and patience that I lack
• Mistress Rhiannon the Curious - who, after being KMoF of the East and then Seneschal of the East, still managed to find the strength and determination to be Kingdom Rapier Marshal of Aethelmearc these past few years

Drills, drills, drills, drills. Don’t give up.

• Master Seosamh Mac Donald an Cruca O’Maille
• Don Pascual del Mar
• Dona Marion del Okes
• Dona Lilias de Cheryngton
• Don Matteo Pesci
• Mistress Mercedes de Califia

Looking for a quote that is not on the Tadcaster page already. :-)

"Dude, you are so paying for my therapy."
"I don't think *I* need a strong female role model."