Simply Superb. Nicole Allen, Greg Mele and the rest of the Chicago Swordplay Guild have outdone themselves to sponsor what was without question one of the finest WMA events thus far.  Beginning with the choice of site—the Episcpoal retreat at the Dekovan foundation in Racine, Wisconsin—and carrying through the myriad of classes, presentations, free fencing, tournaments and many opportunities for downright silly fun, one could not but have a splendid time. 

But the truly great thing about these events is not of course the venue—nor even is it the fighting/fencing/whatever-you-want-to-call-it—it’s the people. And there too the event excelled, bringing people and fostering new connections to further build out this splendid community we’re building upon the shoulders of some really fine people.  Whether it was snatching a few moments with old friends like Aaron Toman, Joe Radding or Christian Tobler—or getting to know some really fine new ones such as Peter Johnsson (whom I think is perhaps the world’s finest medieval swordsmith working today), the event was a whirlwind of people-fighting-training-people—and I doubt anyone can say that they found things wanting. 

Before the event commenced the outstanding direction by Nicole Allen and the rest of the Chicago Swordplay Guild helped to realize an ambitious vision built upon the roots of the event set up by Greg Mele and Pete Kautz before WMAW 1999, and upon the experiences of SSI / Houston and WMAW 2000 (Toronto), WMAW 2001 (New York) and the two Livermore events—one in 2001 and the other this year in 2002. From the beautifully crafted look and feel of the website, graphics and shirts (thanks to the equally decorative and intelligent CSG Scholar Ashley Bishop) to the pre-event polling and database support provided by Dave Peck and John O’Meara and a few others, the pre-event communication exceeds anything that has been done so far and will be very hard to top. 

By selecting the Dekovan site several things were accomplished. First, the site created the ambiance that helps everyone to stay in a mindset that is cooperative and evocative of the elegance we seek by studying the sword. Second, by renting Taylor Hall—with 60 beds—not only could the instructors be housed without cost to them but also the social fabric of the event could be extended well beyond the usual 10 or 11pm closing time for the main halls—indeed, I found myself up chatting and philosophizing until 4 or 5 every night, unwilling to give up a minute of contact—they are just too precious.

I have fond memories of the Dekovan site from my old SCA days, and with luck, we’ll have more events there. The Dekovan staff was not only helpful but apparently effusive in their praise for our group’s decorum (?!) and genuineness, and we’re welcome back any time. The only site issues were that, like Livermore, two classes in one big space (Gym rooms A and B) were difficult because the instructor’s voices trampled one another, so in many cases the weather held and one or both classes generally migrated to the outdoor (and beautiful) green. The site did provide in addition to this space the Great Hall, where the vendors and another large class could be held, and this was done with great effect, giving four concurrent tracks. This is something we did too at Livermore, though this year one will be an EMA track. 

With respect to the classes themselves, I cannot say that I’ve seen better. In my usual mode I took only a few, unwilling to over-write material from too much data. I did, however, take Bob Charron’s crossed swords class, and it was the cleanest presentation of his material I’ve yet, seen; maybe the cleanest in the Medieval side of the WMA community. My compliments to Bob for his ability to build one sub-technique upon another and to handle a class of 50 or so while adhering to his lesson plan and conveying enough to build a solid core from which students could build. And as with everyone else, I’m hungry for Bob’s books. 

I also took the first half of Stephen Hand’s I.33 class. This was also wonderful, for Stephen has done what few have accomplished for any of the medieval masters—he has distilled the principals of the system and in working through only the first four plates of the manuscript has distilled the keys needed to develop a sword-and-buckler technique in harmony with the rest of the manuscript. Unfortunately I had to leave early, as I had reached the point where only more drill could set the elements of necessary footwork in place, but it was enough to begin and I think we’ll see more I.33 at Livermore; not only with Stephen, but with Paul Wagner as well. 

I As I watched other classes, it became clear that the quality of presentations continues to grow. With instructors with the caliber of Ramon & Jeanette Acosta-Martinez, Cosimo Bruno, Dave Cvet, Jeffrey Forgang, Stephen Hand, Craig Johnson, Steaphen Fick, Sean Hayes, Ian Johnson, Paul MacDonald, Ken Pfrenger, Andrea Lupo Sinclair, Milo Thurston, Brad Waller, Bill Wilson, Tom Leoni and Pete Kautz, how could one lose? 

My own “Ponderous, Cruel & Mortal” class was a bit more chaotic than I’d like, with just under 50 students for a class originally projected for 24. But the students were patient and afterwards expressed great enthusiasm, and we did get to spend two and a half wonderful hours building some basic skills with the azza doing coups, tours de bras, thrusts, displacements, and some elementary grapples and levering attacks. I hope that at least a few of you will go on to harness up and practice the axst further, since there was some real talent displayed amongst the student core. For myself, future classes in hache will focus on specific elements; say, “Displacements with the Hache” or, in the case of Livermore 2003, “Streitaxst (poleaxe) plays from Talhoffer 1467”. The survey will remain, but it needs to be cut down still further, something I think all of the medieval instructors have discovered at one time or another. For those of you who took the class, suggestions are more than warmly welcomed. Oh, and a GREAT thanks to Steve Hick, my “Ben” for the class, who was great—except that he cannot be thrown. The man proved to me here and as my partner in the I.33 class to be an “elephant” on ball-bearings; his graceful footwork should not be possible for a man of his size—but there it is.

Other than in classes, I had the opportunity to cross swords with my old friend Christian Tobler, always a distinct pleasure. I have to say that this is perhaps some of the event experiences that I always cherish the most, that intimate connection upon the field under the stress of an exchange, drawing one another to ever-higher levels of prowess and understanding. 

Testing the Aluminum Swords
On this occasion, in the dark, Christian and I were testing the new Valentine Armouries aluminum fechtschule swords, and we were pleasantly surprised by how they moved even though neither of us liked the cross-centered balance point. If these swords were shorter by perhaps 3” in the handle, and the balance moved 2” out onto the blade, then they would be fine. Their combination of simplicity, low cost, manufacturer guarantee, and relatively low weight (compared to rebated steel swords, which are usually heavier by a significant margin) make them ideal for use as aluminum wasters. Within the Schola Saint George we will be using them, I believe, as the training weaponof choice for blossfechten study, and they will be the standard in next year’s blossfechten tournament at Livermore 2003. During the course of the right we took several bings to the point of the elbow and hand, with no bruising. The blades did not chip, nor did they make that funny dull clunking that the –6 series aluminum usually does. They did tend to rise awfully fast from Alber in opposition to cuts from above in vom Tag, but that was due to the cross-centered balance point. If that’s fixed, then we have a very cool training weapon. Note that these were the 3/16” stock; I think the ¼” ones would be too heavy and would hit a bit harder, no good for training tools. 

Christian and I were surprised to receive applause after our test bouts; though the flow of the fights was good. A thank you to those who encouraged our play!

Free Sparring with Pete Kautz
Pete had also been studying the German system, working with Christian’s material, so I knew this would be a fun and challenging set of bouts. We again used the aluminum weapons, trying again to work within the German system. It was interesting to try to stay within the bounds of Liectenauer’s verses, given the pull over into Liberi’s seductive posta, but by and large we managed it and, as expected, had a WONDERFUL time. Pete was far more comfortable (big surprise) after closing, while I determined that in a sparring match I would not allow this to happen—under any circumstances—but that if it did, I would not try to wrestle but would bend all energies to getting the halfsword point back online. I also managed to figure out how and when to use the krumphau from a shrankhut position—the first time I’ve seen a good window of opportunity for it in a pass. So I got a great deal out of the fight from both the technical and celebration perspectives, and I look forward to working more with Pete so that he can turn me into a pretzel and so that I can turn him into a pincushion. Later we had some play with the rebated ball-tipped spears and this too was a great deal of fun—Pete’s control and obvious joy at the exchange fed my own, and we had a wonderful time. 

Playing with the Hache
Happily, there were a lot of people who wanted to play with the hache, extending (or more likely clarifying) what we covered in class. First was Steve Hick, who worked with me a couple of plates from Talhoffer 1459 that had been giving me fits, but that we deciphered together in a matter of minutes. Some of the leaves are out of order! 

I was also able to play with some very old friends, armourer par excellance Aaron Toman (aka SCA the legendary Valerius Paencalvus), my friend and another armouring student of Aaron’s Chuck  Davis (aka SCA Master Cadwallen), Pete Kautz and a bunch of other folks as well as a more advanced bout with Ian Johnson—we always have fun working through things together as our styles mesh well—to all of these and the four or five others who called me out to play on the green with what has become my favorite weapon (for now), thanks!

I am always up for play with the azza, so if you see me around and have the chance, let’s play!

Of Vendors and Swordsmiths
On the professional front, it was a very great pleasure to meet Peter Johnsson, whose work reproducing stunningly accurate and “alive” medieval swords is I believe I have already said—the best in the world today. Peter’s attention to detail was matched by an unbelievable willingness to give of his knowledge and to make it interesting as he proved in his talk, but also to do so with the utmost in sincerity and humility, a fine expression of the chivalric ideals we all espouse. It will be a great pleasure working with Pete in the future. 

There were a bunch of fine vendors present, too, including Tinker, Gus Trim, Craig Johnson from Arms & Armor, Hal Siegel from Therion Arms, Christian D’Arcy from PurpleHeart Armouries, Paul MacDonald, Brian Wilson of Darkwood Armoury and the folks from Albion Arms. It was great to talk with all of you, though of course there wasn’t nearly enough time to spend. Or money.

But the vendor list was very great and of a very high caliber; our own Chivalry Bookshelf booth did well, and I would offer my thanks to the community for this. As we continue to bring out titles, we deeply appreciate the support from the community and will try to do our best to keep them coming. SPADA, Arte of Defense, Jousts & Touarnaments, Chivalrous Conqueror, Highland Broadsword and Fillipo Vadi are all now in production!

The Medieval Tournament
This year, to support Greg as the main entrepreneur for the tournament, we worked together on the rules. We were determined to advance the blossfechten tournament alongside the armoured one, and with great success this was done at WMAW for the first time. The combatants, armed in a gambeson, steel helmet and gauntlets fought with the impact-absorbing CSG weapons, and this was generally successful. Many of the CSG folks in particular displayed an excellent grasp of medieval technique, the prizes going to Ashley Bishop (overall) and to Jain Schuster (Technical).  Dave, Keith and Jesse also did very, very well; all of the CSG combatants were a credit to the CSG in general and to their trainer, Greg Mele, in particular. Keep it up!

My thanks to Ian Johnson, Keith Jennings and Dave Peck, Bob Charron, Nicholas Cioran, Christian Tobler and to Steaphen Fick for acting with me as defenders for the blossfechten. This crew did a fantasic job at bringing out the best in our challengers—and I think we generally succeeded in our job here. A finer group of defenders I could not ask for. Thank you also to Nicole for her fine work with the lists, to Greg for his good work as judge, for Aaron Toman and Charles Davis for their marshalling, and to the four arming sergeants who kept the pace close on a very tight time budget. 

At Livermore, we will have the blossfechten tournament alongside the rapier one, this time using the aluminum weapons (with some form of mesh face defense) or the CSG-style weapons with the standard grilles. 

The armoured list was perhaps less well refined, to be expected when many of the combatants could not thrust. I believe that the biggest challenge to the WMA community currently lies not in getting combatants to step off-line and to attempt to execute techniques—here Livermore and WMAW 2002 showed remarkable improvement over the same events in 2001—but rather in equipping the majority of armoured combatants to allow them to use thrusting in harness. 

To be sure, most medieval feats of arms employed “counted blows,” not “counted thrusts-to-the-armpit,” indicating a disconnect between the objectives of medieval tournament sponsors and WMAW sponsors. We see this strongly reflected in the difference between tournaments sponsored by the Tournaments Companies such as the Company of Saint George or the Company of Saint Michael and those sponsored by WMA schools such as the CSG or the Schola Saint George. What we in the WMA community seek is not for combatants to give and receive blows, but rather to execute the techniques recorded in the fechtbücher. This is not a small task, as many of the techniques are meant for anything but friendly combat—the term compano aside—though the principles of the medieval masters can and should be applied. 

If we begin to see competent halfswording, stepping off-line, counter attacks in single time, techniques from both the German and Italian traditions from binden or en croisade, regardless of whether or not we use grappling—then I’ll be very pleased. Ultimately, I think we’ll describe combats without grappling as à plaisance, while those than employ it will be à plaisance sans encumbrance. 

All in all, some fine engagements with much learning on both sides—and some fine deeds of prowess to record. I was very pleased with all of my opponents, especially Kel, Jain, and Ashley. I look forward not only to meeting them again, but to engaging with those I’ve not met before, such as Anton, David, Jesse, Colin, and Steaphen. Well met!

Missed Friends
As usual, there were more friends and friends-to-be about than could be jammed into to three days. Amongst those I missed in this regard were Milo Thurston, Tom Leoni, Paul MacDonald, Ramon & Jeannette, David and Anton. Perhaps, just perhaps, we’ll get more time in Livermore 2003. And so for now, we’re off to plan!

Brian R. Price

Schola / Company of Saint George