I was a preschool teacher for twenty years. Amee says this makes me a good marshal because I understand the five year old mind.

Edith Godfrend, a Saxon Sister of St. Walburga.

Alys asked me to create a persona with a plausible 12th-century name for the Sisters of St. Walburga.

The camaraderie of other fencers.

I’d like to be able to get into a "tourney mindset" at will.

My friends.

• Master Don Gregory Finche, who taught me to fence and introduced me to the study of period fencing manuals
• Dona Amee de Jardyn, whose drills I still find myself using with my own students
• Don Danulf Donaldson, who set a high standard I strove to match

Depends on what part of the job and how responsive the students/fencers are. I like teaching people who will listen to me and actually do the drills. I like doing authorizations. I get frustrated when all students want to do is bout without trying to learn anything, and I don’t really enjoy marshalling bouts or melees (except the Pennsic rapier woods battle, which I like).

Mentoring to me is a more intensive relationship. Teaching involves transmitting my knowledge about something specific to someone who is interested in learning that particular thing. Mentoring is helping someone grow, by both example and teaching. People who are looking for mentors are more likely to want to turn to the mentor with questions on all sorts of things, not just "How do I do this?", but also " Should I do this?", and "Why is the SCA this way?" Mentoring often involves the philosophy behind what we do as well as how to do it.

Melee. Although my absolute favorite kind of fighting is pick up bouts where you can engage in many passes and talk about what happened.

In-fighting – rapier and dagger is my favorite form.

Being a short person, in-fighting allows me to get in range of my long-armed opponents and control the bout. They usually want to keep me at arm's length (their range). If I am in close sometimes they cannot adjust to that style.

Youth rapier rules. There are several youngsters in our shire who are eager to learn fencing.

A short-sleeved T-tunic, pants and boots.

That’s hard to say, so I’ll pick some that stand out in my mind:

• Finally beating Danulf Donaldson in a tourney
• Me and my team winning the Atlantian five man melee tournament at Pennsic XXXIV
• Me and Enrique authorizing so many Midrealm fencers at Pennsic before the Midrealm allowed rapier combat that Alys threatened to pull our warrants if we did any more. Midrealm fencers still come up to me and tell me that I did their first authorization.

But the one that gets talked about the most (by him) is my first authorization as a marshal: Seosamh – he claims I almost failed him and that it’s all my fault.

When Alys (The Demon Queen of East Kingdom Fencing) was KMOF, she decided that all regional marshals had to have titles (I was Northern Regional Marshal at the time). I don’t remember if I chose the title or someone else did, but I know I was announced to the Crown as the Viking Goddess of Fence at a K&Q Rapier Champions by the then Brigantia Herald (Thomas de Castellan).

Beer and chocolate – that’s the usual loot for the Northguard. But it has to be good beer (in my case good root beer) and dark chocolate. Scotch also works.

Head shots.

No s**t, there we were … Pennsic XXXIV. Dalen Caradoc was trying to form a team for the Atlantian five man melee tournament. Unlike most years, that year’s rules allowed three OGRs to be on the team, and he asked me to be on the team with him, Orlando, Niccolo, and a Meridian fencer none of us knew. He also chose the name of our team: Brita’s Bad Boys. We were sent off to join our pool of about six teams. We agreed that Dalen and Orlando would be the harriers and the other three of us would stick together and concentrate on staying alive. I had my buckler, so I was in the center, trying to protect my two comrades, both of whom had greater reach than I did. We were not keeping track of how many wins we had, so we were surprised when we advanced to the next round.

In the second round, we faced a team we had faced before, and we lined up the same way we had the first time. "We know this," one of our opponents said. But as soon as the lay on was called, Dalen and Orlando changed places and flanked our opponents. Again, we did not keep track of how many bouts we had won, and Orlando and I were just looking forward to taking off our armor and going to dinner – we were astonished to find that we had made the finals.

In the finals we faced the Paris Glee Club, a bunch of Atlantian fencers who had pretty much the same team every year. Again, our group of three concentrated on staying alive, and when I looked around, Dalen had been killed, but he had taken Joffrey with him. I think Orlando had died as well, but had managed to take at least one of them, too. My comrades killed the rest of them – I am not sure that I actually killed anyone the whole tourney (although I threw shots), but in most of the bouts I managed to stay alive, which was my job.

The next year (Pennsic XXV) the rules only allowed 2 OGRs, but Dalen kept the name Brita’s Bad Boys and he, Orlando, Wyatt, Niccolo, and someone else advanced to the finals and were only beaten by the tourney winners.

• Don Brendan Olthursson Veassllurd, who showed me what service to fencing is
• Master Gregory Finche, who built his own forge, makes his own tools, and is constantly exploring new avenues of craftsmanship and study
• Mistress Rhiannon the Curious, although she said if I tell anyone that, she will barf on my boots

Anyone who is having fun and is not a rhinohide, but especially:

• Master Gregory Finche, who always gets excited if I defeat him with a move he taught me
• Don Charles Phillippe du Castledors, with whom I have a standing "date" at Pennsic to practice period heavy rapier combat
• Master Dylan ap Maelgwyn, from whom I always learn something
• Master Robert MacFarland (Ansteorra)
• Mistress Alys Mackyntoich: rapier and dagger vs.case

Rule #1: Don’t die. Rule #2: Kill the other guy.
Never let Rule #2 get in the way of Rule #1.

Gregory "Dwarf King" Finche. (Gregory is really a fairy tale dwarf - he is short, bearded and grumpy, and spends all his time in his cave workshop forging beautiful things which he sells for lots of money).

From when we were talking about allowing schlagers: "There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous fencers."

And my all-time favorite: "When dinner is served, the meeting is over."