Double Wars & road trip adventures
Jun. 13th, 2022 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaOk, it took a couple of weeks to finish writing this...
Getting ready for Double Wars was complicated by the fact that I am still working in a town a couple of hours away, so days I work I am not at home at all, so nothing gets accomplished at home. As a result, the weekend before we left, as we were busy cooking food to take with us, and making stuff, and packing, and everything, we looked at the clock, and I made the hard decision to skip folk dance. I really should have gone; we need to do a fair bit more practicing together to get the new dances ready for performances for Spelmansstämman and Midsommer. However, I would have had to leave the house at 14:00 to catch the bus north on time for dance at 18:00, and then nothing further in the way of Double Wars prep would have been done by me that day. Instead, I stayed home, and got in six more hours of work before sleep, and caught the morning bus up for work instead.
During those six hours I made four batches of the yummy buttery flatbread that I love so much and is perfect to take to camping events, which meant that every time I ate any at the event, or in the car to and from I was glad I had missed dance.
Buttery Flatbread
2.75 c flour
0.5 teaspoons sugar
0.5 teaspoon baking powder
0.25 teaspoon salt
0.5 cups butter (113 g)
0.5 c thick yoghurt (or filmjölk)
0.5 c water
Mix well, break off 1 tablespoon of dough at a time, roll out very thin (at least 15 cm diameter for each) and bake at 200 C (400 F) for 3 to 5 minutes till just a hint of golden colour appears in spots.
I pack them into wooden boxes. One for me, one for him, and a couple spare with which to refill our personal boxes on site. Because he didn’t eat his as quickly as I ate mine, we even had a few left for the trip home.
Thursday: packing
Even with those extra six hours the Sunday before the event we weren’t able to get on the road as early as we had originally hoped. The plan was for me to pack and load the car whilst he worked on Thursday, and then start driving soon after he got home. It was a good plan. Like all good plans, it didn’t quite hold up to reality.
Instead, I was only mostly packed when he got home, and the only things in the car were the things we’d left there after the test pack on the weekend, to check if all the chests we wanted to bring would even fit. He was feeling tired (no surprise, given how late we’d been up the night before, plus working all day), as was I, so we finished up the last of the packing, took a nap, and then loaded the car. Everything fit. By then it was 23:00. The car looked to be sitting a bit lower than ideal. We tried driving, the back mudflaps scraped on the ground, we circled around the block, parked the car, unloaded enough stuff back into the house to be able to drive without bottoming out, and did the half an hour drive out to his work to pick up a trailer. Since we had the trailer, we also stopped by his dad’s to pick up the sheet metal that Keldor’s brother needs to finish fixing his roof—he’d bought some from Keldor’s job when last he was up here, but not all of it fit in the car to take home, so he’d had to leave it till next opportunity. This being the next opportunity, we took it with us.
By the time we finished loading the trailer and covering everything with a huge tarp (which came with the house) and strapping it into place, and then putting the back seat back into the car, and tossing the pillows and blankets into the back seat to make a nest it was 01:30 on Friday morning, a fine time to start a road trip, since there is pretty much no traffic.
Friday-driving
Since we had that lovely nest in the back seat, we took turns sleeping—I got four naps, each about 1 hour, and he got three. The rest of the 21 hour trip we both sat up front and kept one another company, with stops only for petrol/toilet, plus a very short stop at Skulleberget, where he napped whilst I took an 11 minute walk up the hill (not more than half way towards the cave) and back before we continued on south again.
One of the stops for a toilet there happened to be a really big secondhand store, so we went in and took a look, and left with a rug for the tent (30 SEK), a candle lantern (10 SEK) a pair of wooden shoes (50 sek), and a small enameled iron pot (50 sek).
With that long of a journey, even with the naps before and during the trip, we were both really tired when we arrived on site at 23:30 Friday evening. As a result, rather than setting up the tent directly, which would have been smart, since it wasn’t raining, and the ground was dry, we curled up in the back seat to sleep, and woke up hours later to rain. Oops.
Saturday: set up
We managed to get the tent up anyway, and things into the tent without getting them too wet, and soon we settled in to our home away from home. We were the Norra Nordmark camp (since the three northern shires hadn’t yet voted on the name we want for the Barony we are forming at the time we registered for the event), located in the center of the period encampment area. We were only four tents plus “sun” shade in our camp. The week before the event one of us asked if anyone was bringing a fire pit. When we realized that none of us had one, Keldor added one more project to his list, and adapted Duke Frederick's Firepit Design http://dragonwing.biz/col9905.htm to make an 8-pice firepit for our camp. Given the rain, it was really nice to have it, especially under the sunshade, which kept the heat in.
Saturday was mostly getting settled in, relaxing, and catching up with friends. I did take a shift working as a retainer during dinner, but that night it was only the Baron of Aarnimetsä that needed anything, which made it easy. Then we went to bed early, and slept for 8 hours.
Sunday: Coronet
Sunday morning we got up nice and early and got directly into armour. Then I went and got authorized as a fighter—the first time in nine years. My armour is older than the guy who authorized me. I did my first authorization fight against Jarl Æriker. At one point in the fight I took his arm, then I hit him in the head. At that point the marshal said “it is traditional to ask if they yield”, to which I replied “yes, but when will I ever get another chance to hit Æriker in the head?” and they both laughed. Then I did a second authorization, for two-handed weapons. I have been training a bit with them at home, but wearing hockey gloves, which we didn’t even bring to the event. So instead, I borrowed Keldor’s gauntlets for that fight. His gauntlets are the sort wherein the plates attach directly to the leather gloves, which is great for being able to move one’s hands. However, it turns out that my hands are enough smaller than his that there is nearly a couple of cm gap between the end of my fingers and the end of the glove. As a result, there was one time the top plate hopped up, then shifted backwards thanks to that slack, which meant that when Sir Krake’s sword hit my gauntlet just then I shouted “ow” because the very end of my finger had been pinched. Luckily, the damage was only to the very, very end of my finger, beyond the bone, so while it did bleed (which is better than raising a blood-blister), it didn’t cause any serious damage. I promised the marshals that if I were to borrow the gauntlet again, I would wrap the end in duct tape so that it wouldn’t be possible for the plate to hop over the end of my finger again. However, after passing that authorization, I opted to fight only sword and shield for the tourney.
Authorization fights over, meant that it was time to get ready for Nordmark Coronet Tournament. That was when I really missed the Western Approach to camping, wherein the pavilions and their associated sunshades surround the fighting field. Instead of camping right there by the side of the tournament, we had to carry over a bench filled with snacks for the day, our “banners” and fighting gear. Our camp was a good 200 meters from the list field, and, given the rain the day before, the road was quite muddy.
While all of the people doing the announcements and boasts for the fighters were good, I feel that we had the best—we were sung in to their highness’es presence by Gerdis, Norrskensbard, while Odal and Olfur carried the metal shields on a stick decorated with our coat of arms that we had instead of banners (because Keldor can cut scrap metal for such projects quickly and easily at work, but finding time to sew banners didn’t happen before the event).
The tournament was 8 fighters, which they split into two different round-robin lists, with each pair of fighters needing to win two of three bouts to determine the victor of each pair. Then the two best fighters from each list went on to a single semi-final bout, followed by final round between the two who won their semi-final bouts. As a result, while every fighter who entered fought at least six bouts, no one fought more than five of the eight fighters entered in the tournament.
It having been ages since I fought in a tournament, my personal victory conditions were 1) make the other fighters work to kill me, and 2) if possible, lay stick on someone. I achieved both of these goals. I was never one-shotted, and during my fight with Margareta I even won the second of our three bouts. During my fight with Stigot he killed me twice, then said “once more for fun?”, I happily agreed, and that third time he reduced the level at which he fought to just barely above my own, which meant that I was able to leg him, and, as he dropped towards his knees, I, not properly realizing that he was dropping, hit him in the face. Since he went on to win the day, I can now honestly claim to have hit the victor of the tournament in the face during the tournament. Bragging rights are so often more about context than anything else.
My beloved champion, Keldor, and I always saluted one another by walking to the edge of the field, where our inspiration was waiting, and giving them a hug and pressing our helmet face plates together. This resulted in some cute photos. Keldor’s goal for the day was to make it to semi-finals, which he did, so we were both happy with the day. After the tournament he happily did pick-up fights, and I changed out of armour, since, while we have made the armour useable, we haven’t actually achieved comfortable with it, yet. So I sat on the sidelines working on projects with the delightful Ellisif while Keldor and her husband Jon went out to play with their greatswords together, and we all had a wonderful time.
We spent that evening happily in the hot tub, enjoying good conversation and song, where my legs decided they could forgive me for subjecting them first to a long road trip, and then to running back and forth across camp and fighting. Despite having slept nine and a half hours between Saturday and Sunday, we were tired enough to go to bed before midnight on Sunday, and slept for another eight and a half hours.
Monday: bardic
While there were a number of classes and activities on the schedule for Monday that had sounded interesting, the only one during the day that we actually made it to was Duchess Elina’s class on fighting and how differences between the genders can make huge differences in how we best throw sword blows. I hadn’t seen Elina in nearly 20 years (it was 2003 that I moved from the West to Lochac), so while some of what she covered in the class was review, some of it was either new since then, or I hadn’t remembered it. Especially bit about how a woman’s leg sits typically 4 cm deeper into the hip socket than does a man’s, which results in his shoulders and hips sitting parallel with each other at the end of a snap shot thrown with the sword food forward, while hers are parallel when the same shot is thrown shield food forwards.
Both Stephen and Elina were surprised to see me, since they remembered my moving to Australia, but hadn’t noticed that I later moved to Drachenwald. Never mind that we are connected on FB—that app isn’t always the best at letting people actually stay in touch.
At the start of Monday evening’s court Keldor asked me what I thought would happen at court. I replied that they would welcome us, say how great it is to be at an in-person event again, remind us to help out with cleaning and gate shift duties, and give at least three awards. This prediction turned out to be spot on—and, in addition to the three awards, they also presented a backlog scroll. A nice, short, warm-up court, to prep us for the longer courts that were to come. As soon as court was over, we went back to camp, built up the fire, and hosted a bardic circle, which ran to a bit after midnight, after which I did my yoga and did one lap through camp before sleeping for almost seven hours.
Tuesday: a laurel vigil
I typed the above directly after returning from the event, when the memory was still fresh. I am returning to this fully two week later, so from here things might be a bit hazy as to which day was which, if it isn't on the official event schedule.
We attended more of Elina’s and Stephen's fighting classes, which, while out of armour, did include some practical hands-on stuff, sometimes throwing blows against an armoured fighter to see the difference in power generated by two different techniques.
That evening I was attending court for the Prince and Princess of Nordmark, which meant I had a great view of Estrid's face when she was called into court, clearly wondering why. Then, when the Crown gently teased her about having heard her opinions on court, she laughed, and more when the Herald read some bad Latin, which was then translated as "Estrid is nice, very, very nice" … "so we are giving her this scroll". . . Then the herald switched to a more serious tone and started on "It is necessary to discuss with you concerning the orders of peerage", and Estrid's jaw dropped, and her hands floated to cover her mouth in surprise as he called forth the order of the Laurel.
Then we whisked her off to the Vigil tent, where she was more surprised to see the many gifts that had been prepared. First there was a ritual washing of the hands and an explanation of the evening, asking her if she has wishes as to the order in which people will visit her, and a request to be thinking about who she might like to speak for her. Then most of us left and she was dressed in a white vigil dress made for the occasion, a harpist set up outside her door, and, one or two at a time, starting with the King and Queen, people begin their short visits to the candidate. Meanwhile, outside her tent people chatted and ate the snacks provided. I got into an interesting conversation with the King of Calontir and his sons about life in Drachenwald and some of the advantages of the European model of the University system. Lots of other interesting conversations over the evening, of course. Eventually it was my turn to speak with the candidate, and then I went to find my sweetie, still in the hot tub, located behind the royal pavilion, so he’d listened to court from there.
I don't recall if that was one of the nights I also soaked in the hot tub, or if he got out and we went straight to do our evening yoga (in the hall, since the floor there is better than in the tent), but I do recall that his flexibility was way better than it normally is, which isn't surprising, as he'd just spent five hours in the hot tub, with an occasional break for the sauna.
Wednesday: lots of court
We didn't do the Nordic 1000 tourney. It has a "meat grinder" format wherein fighters line up and fight whomever is in the ring when they arrive. The loser of each bout goes to the end of the line, while the winner faces the next in line. A great format if you want to get in lots of fighting in a short time, especially if you are good enough to hold the field for a while. But I love best the pageantry and salutes of a more formal tournament, so I chose not to fight, and my champion chose likewise. Instead we prepared for the Laurels Sponsored Prize Display, which he was entering (with some Damascus knives and an inlaid axe), and which I was attending as a Laurel.
After the display I wound up taking a short nap before Court. This was the court where we presented Trenneälvar, the hopefully someday Barony in the North of Nordmark, and the coat of arms we have voted on and will be submitting to the college of heralds. I also revealed St. Sven, the patron saint for the Barony, who is miraculous recovered from the unfortunate decapitation by axe and has been transformed from a small four legged reindeer to a noble sea reindeer with a fish tail, and a key in its hooves (thus combining symbolism from all three Shires in the area). The Prince and Princesses encouraged our work in forming the Barony and presented me with the Key for the office of Acting Seneschal responsible for the paperwork during this time of formation.
The next day being Crown Tourney, we went to sleep before midnight and got in a full eight hours.
Thursday: Crown.Tourney
Since we'd fought for one another in Coronet on Sunday, we'd hoped to do the same for Crown. However, we'd written our letter of intent for Crown before we realised that my armour would be fixed up enough to be usable at the event, so that letter mentioned that he would fight and I would be the consort. The letter of intent for Coronet was written a couple of weeks later, and thus said that, assuming I was successful in re- authorising before the tourney, we would both fight for the other. I did send their Majesties a direct message letting them know that I could also fight (if I get authorised on time) if it pleases them, and they liked the idea. However, none of us remembered to also tell the Seneschal, so the paperwork hadn't been done to let me fight, so I just spent the day as a consort. And jad ever so much fun with it! I love being a consort, especially for a fighter with whom I am in love, especially for a fighter who dances with joy on the battlefield.
My fighter made semi-finals, and I was proud of him, and delighted to see him fight with honour. It was also fun to watch the other fighters. Jon fitz Jon, especially was fun to watch as he bounced his way happily from victory to victory, making it all the way through the round-robin portion of the lists undefeated. Then, in finals he struck Sir Avery, who called it good, but Jon went on to say "no, it bounced off your shield, and I am pretty sure it was flat by the time it struck you". He insisted on resuming the fight, and Avery went on to win the tournament, but, seeing the joy and pride in his lady's eyes for his honour and skill, I think that Jon was also a winner that day.
Friday: Warday
I am not interested in War fighting, so I sent Keldor, who loves war fighting, off to play, and I relaxed around camp, tidying up, working on projects, harvesting nettles, ramslök, and chives to cook over the fire with scrambled eggs and cheese (can recommend!) and missing the classes I had planned to attend. A lovely day.
That night I attended Court for the Baron of Aarnimetsä, and thus had a good view for the Investiture of Prince Stigot and Princess Jovi, and the Viscounties for Fardäng and Ingrid during Nordmark Court, and for the Pelican during Drachenwald Court. However, by the time Court was over I was feeling rather tired, and went to bed just after 22:00.
Saturday: take it easy
Many people had already broken down their camp, but we weren’t planning on leaving till Sunday. So we spent a largely lazy day. Quite early on in the day I cut some of the soft linen I had purchased at market on Thursday and then we spent all day lounging on the couches in the hall with a handful of other people, many of us working on projects. It was delightful, and my tunic got nearly half way done. Eventually we did yoga and headed back to camp. Pausing briefly at a couple of parties to say hello, but we were still in bed by 23:00.
Sunday: day one of the drive home
We woke to a mostly dry tent since it hadn't rained since early the day before. So we packed up quickly and loaded the car and trailer. Then we went up to the hall to use the toilet and considered doing a lap around the site to help out and say some goodbyes. Just as we mentioned that it started gently raining, so we returned to the car, got in, and no sooner than we had closed the car doors it started pouring down the heaviest tain I'd seen all week. Feeling bad for the few folk left who hadn't finished packing yet, we drove off into the downpour.
Not long thereafter the sun came out, and we enjoyed are drive through the southern Swedish countryside. Seven hours later, after stopping at Brahehus Castle and Rökstenen to see the sites we arrived at Keldor's sister's house, where we spent a pleasant evening (including a warm shower) and slept nearly eight hours.
Monday (day two of the drive home)
We drove first to Keldor's brother's house, where we dropped off the sheet metal for his roof that we'd been able to bring when we did the last-minute switch to bringing a trailer. Then we took the inland road through Falun and up to Delsbo, where my friend Hjalmar is staying for work just now, in a lovely cabin that his company is providing. Neither Keldor nor I had ever taken that road before. It was an 8 hour day (including stops) through really pretty countryside. Often farmlands, sometimes forests, and many hundreds of houses cute enough to point out to one another.
Then a delightful evening spent with Hjalmar and Sophie, including a walk in to town from the cabin, and plenty of sewing before our evening yoga, followed by a good seven hours of sleep.
Tuesday (day three of the drive home)
Sophie rode with us the next morning as far as her home in Härnösand, spending the first part of the trip listening to a work meeting on the phone, which ended just before we stopped at the petrol station just before Sundsvall, so we were able to enjoy her company for part of the drive.
After we dropped her off we went on to Skuleberget and stopped to climb up to the cave (about ¾ of an hour, but we were at the park 1.5 hours) of course, and then we continued north, stopping in Umeå to pick up some groceries, and some berry plants for the garden. Eventually reaching home nearly 10 hours after departing the cabin that morning.
We got the trailer unloaded right away, and the pillows from the back seat, but then it started raining, and we decided the rest of the unloading could wait till the next day.
afterword While we heard of a handfull of people after the event testing positive for Covid, neither of us had any symptoms and we tested negative. However, the following Monday there appeared a rash around the spot on my tummy where we had extracted something small and black and "too small to be a tick" during one afternoon of the event. Yup. Thatvwas a tick. That rash perfectly matched the google images for Borrelia. The doctor confirmed this diagnosis and gave me 10 days of antibiotics, and the rash is clearing up. Luckily, I didn't get any orher symptoms. I know at least one other from the event also got antibiotics for Borrelia. Hope no one else had a problem.
Getting ready for Double Wars was complicated by the fact that I am still working in a town a couple of hours away, so days I work I am not at home at all, so nothing gets accomplished at home. As a result, the weekend before we left, as we were busy cooking food to take with us, and making stuff, and packing, and everything, we looked at the clock, and I made the hard decision to skip folk dance. I really should have gone; we need to do a fair bit more practicing together to get the new dances ready for performances for Spelmansstämman and Midsommer. However, I would have had to leave the house at 14:00 to catch the bus north on time for dance at 18:00, and then nothing further in the way of Double Wars prep would have been done by me that day. Instead, I stayed home, and got in six more hours of work before sleep, and caught the morning bus up for work instead.
During those six hours I made four batches of the yummy buttery flatbread that I love so much and is perfect to take to camping events, which meant that every time I ate any at the event, or in the car to and from I was glad I had missed dance.
Buttery Flatbread
2.75 c flour
0.5 teaspoons sugar
0.5 teaspoon baking powder
0.25 teaspoon salt
0.5 cups butter (113 g)
0.5 c thick yoghurt (or filmjölk)
0.5 c water
Mix well, break off 1 tablespoon of dough at a time, roll out very thin (at least 15 cm diameter for each) and bake at 200 C (400 F) for 3 to 5 minutes till just a hint of golden colour appears in spots.
I pack them into wooden boxes. One for me, one for him, and a couple spare with which to refill our personal boxes on site. Because he didn’t eat his as quickly as I ate mine, we even had a few left for the trip home.
Thursday: packing
Even with those extra six hours the Sunday before the event we weren’t able to get on the road as early as we had originally hoped. The plan was for me to pack and load the car whilst he worked on Thursday, and then start driving soon after he got home. It was a good plan. Like all good plans, it didn’t quite hold up to reality.
Instead, I was only mostly packed when he got home, and the only things in the car were the things we’d left there after the test pack on the weekend, to check if all the chests we wanted to bring would even fit. He was feeling tired (no surprise, given how late we’d been up the night before, plus working all day), as was I, so we finished up the last of the packing, took a nap, and then loaded the car. Everything fit. By then it was 23:00. The car looked to be sitting a bit lower than ideal. We tried driving, the back mudflaps scraped on the ground, we circled around the block, parked the car, unloaded enough stuff back into the house to be able to drive without bottoming out, and did the half an hour drive out to his work to pick up a trailer. Since we had the trailer, we also stopped by his dad’s to pick up the sheet metal that Keldor’s brother needs to finish fixing his roof—he’d bought some from Keldor’s job when last he was up here, but not all of it fit in the car to take home, so he’d had to leave it till next opportunity. This being the next opportunity, we took it with us.
By the time we finished loading the trailer and covering everything with a huge tarp (which came with the house) and strapping it into place, and then putting the back seat back into the car, and tossing the pillows and blankets into the back seat to make a nest it was 01:30 on Friday morning, a fine time to start a road trip, since there is pretty much no traffic.
Friday-driving
Since we had that lovely nest in the back seat, we took turns sleeping—I got four naps, each about 1 hour, and he got three. The rest of the 21 hour trip we both sat up front and kept one another company, with stops only for petrol/toilet, plus a very short stop at Skulleberget, where he napped whilst I took an 11 minute walk up the hill (not more than half way towards the cave) and back before we continued on south again.
One of the stops for a toilet there happened to be a really big secondhand store, so we went in and took a look, and left with a rug for the tent (30 SEK), a candle lantern (10 SEK) a pair of wooden shoes (50 sek), and a small enameled iron pot (50 sek).
With that long of a journey, even with the naps before and during the trip, we were both really tired when we arrived on site at 23:30 Friday evening. As a result, rather than setting up the tent directly, which would have been smart, since it wasn’t raining, and the ground was dry, we curled up in the back seat to sleep, and woke up hours later to rain. Oops.
Saturday: set up
We managed to get the tent up anyway, and things into the tent without getting them too wet, and soon we settled in to our home away from home. We were the Norra Nordmark camp (since the three northern shires hadn’t yet voted on the name we want for the Barony we are forming at the time we registered for the event), located in the center of the period encampment area. We were only four tents plus “sun” shade in our camp. The week before the event one of us asked if anyone was bringing a fire pit. When we realized that none of us had one, Keldor added one more project to his list, and adapted Duke Frederick's Firepit Design http://dragonwing.biz/col9905.htm to make an 8-pice firepit for our camp. Given the rain, it was really nice to have it, especially under the sunshade, which kept the heat in.
Saturday was mostly getting settled in, relaxing, and catching up with friends. I did take a shift working as a retainer during dinner, but that night it was only the Baron of Aarnimetsä that needed anything, which made it easy. Then we went to bed early, and slept for 8 hours.
Sunday: Coronet
Sunday morning we got up nice and early and got directly into armour. Then I went and got authorized as a fighter—the first time in nine years. My armour is older than the guy who authorized me. I did my first authorization fight against Jarl Æriker. At one point in the fight I took his arm, then I hit him in the head. At that point the marshal said “it is traditional to ask if they yield”, to which I replied “yes, but when will I ever get another chance to hit Æriker in the head?” and they both laughed. Then I did a second authorization, for two-handed weapons. I have been training a bit with them at home, but wearing hockey gloves, which we didn’t even bring to the event. So instead, I borrowed Keldor’s gauntlets for that fight. His gauntlets are the sort wherein the plates attach directly to the leather gloves, which is great for being able to move one’s hands. However, it turns out that my hands are enough smaller than his that there is nearly a couple of cm gap between the end of my fingers and the end of the glove. As a result, there was one time the top plate hopped up, then shifted backwards thanks to that slack, which meant that when Sir Krake’s sword hit my gauntlet just then I shouted “ow” because the very end of my finger had been pinched. Luckily, the damage was only to the very, very end of my finger, beyond the bone, so while it did bleed (which is better than raising a blood-blister), it didn’t cause any serious damage. I promised the marshals that if I were to borrow the gauntlet again, I would wrap the end in duct tape so that it wouldn’t be possible for the plate to hop over the end of my finger again. However, after passing that authorization, I opted to fight only sword and shield for the tourney.
Authorization fights over, meant that it was time to get ready for Nordmark Coronet Tournament. That was when I really missed the Western Approach to camping, wherein the pavilions and their associated sunshades surround the fighting field. Instead of camping right there by the side of the tournament, we had to carry over a bench filled with snacks for the day, our “banners” and fighting gear. Our camp was a good 200 meters from the list field, and, given the rain the day before, the road was quite muddy.
While all of the people doing the announcements and boasts for the fighters were good, I feel that we had the best—we were sung in to their highness’es presence by Gerdis, Norrskensbard, while Odal and Olfur carried the metal shields on a stick decorated with our coat of arms that we had instead of banners (because Keldor can cut scrap metal for such projects quickly and easily at work, but finding time to sew banners didn’t happen before the event).
The tournament was 8 fighters, which they split into two different round-robin lists, with each pair of fighters needing to win two of three bouts to determine the victor of each pair. Then the two best fighters from each list went on to a single semi-final bout, followed by final round between the two who won their semi-final bouts. As a result, while every fighter who entered fought at least six bouts, no one fought more than five of the eight fighters entered in the tournament.
It having been ages since I fought in a tournament, my personal victory conditions were 1) make the other fighters work to kill me, and 2) if possible, lay stick on someone. I achieved both of these goals. I was never one-shotted, and during my fight with Margareta I even won the second of our three bouts. During my fight with Stigot he killed me twice, then said “once more for fun?”, I happily agreed, and that third time he reduced the level at which he fought to just barely above my own, which meant that I was able to leg him, and, as he dropped towards his knees, I, not properly realizing that he was dropping, hit him in the face. Since he went on to win the day, I can now honestly claim to have hit the victor of the tournament in the face during the tournament. Bragging rights are so often more about context than anything else.
My beloved champion, Keldor, and I always saluted one another by walking to the edge of the field, where our inspiration was waiting, and giving them a hug and pressing our helmet face plates together. This resulted in some cute photos. Keldor’s goal for the day was to make it to semi-finals, which he did, so we were both happy with the day. After the tournament he happily did pick-up fights, and I changed out of armour, since, while we have made the armour useable, we haven’t actually achieved comfortable with it, yet. So I sat on the sidelines working on projects with the delightful Ellisif while Keldor and her husband Jon went out to play with their greatswords together, and we all had a wonderful time.
We spent that evening happily in the hot tub, enjoying good conversation and song, where my legs decided they could forgive me for subjecting them first to a long road trip, and then to running back and forth across camp and fighting. Despite having slept nine and a half hours between Saturday and Sunday, we were tired enough to go to bed before midnight on Sunday, and slept for another eight and a half hours.
Monday: bardic
While there were a number of classes and activities on the schedule for Monday that had sounded interesting, the only one during the day that we actually made it to was Duchess Elina’s class on fighting and how differences between the genders can make huge differences in how we best throw sword blows. I hadn’t seen Elina in nearly 20 years (it was 2003 that I moved from the West to Lochac), so while some of what she covered in the class was review, some of it was either new since then, or I hadn’t remembered it. Especially bit about how a woman’s leg sits typically 4 cm deeper into the hip socket than does a man’s, which results in his shoulders and hips sitting parallel with each other at the end of a snap shot thrown with the sword food forward, while hers are parallel when the same shot is thrown shield food forwards.
Both Stephen and Elina were surprised to see me, since they remembered my moving to Australia, but hadn’t noticed that I later moved to Drachenwald. Never mind that we are connected on FB—that app isn’t always the best at letting people actually stay in touch.
At the start of Monday evening’s court Keldor asked me what I thought would happen at court. I replied that they would welcome us, say how great it is to be at an in-person event again, remind us to help out with cleaning and gate shift duties, and give at least three awards. This prediction turned out to be spot on—and, in addition to the three awards, they also presented a backlog scroll. A nice, short, warm-up court, to prep us for the longer courts that were to come. As soon as court was over, we went back to camp, built up the fire, and hosted a bardic circle, which ran to a bit after midnight, after which I did my yoga and did one lap through camp before sleeping for almost seven hours.
Tuesday: a laurel vigil
I typed the above directly after returning from the event, when the memory was still fresh. I am returning to this fully two week later, so from here things might be a bit hazy as to which day was which, if it isn't on the official event schedule.
We attended more of Elina’s and Stephen's fighting classes, which, while out of armour, did include some practical hands-on stuff, sometimes throwing blows against an armoured fighter to see the difference in power generated by two different techniques.
That evening I was attending court for the Prince and Princess of Nordmark, which meant I had a great view of Estrid's face when she was called into court, clearly wondering why. Then, when the Crown gently teased her about having heard her opinions on court, she laughed, and more when the Herald read some bad Latin, which was then translated as "Estrid is nice, very, very nice" … "so we are giving her this scroll". . . Then the herald switched to a more serious tone and started on "It is necessary to discuss with you concerning the orders of peerage", and Estrid's jaw dropped, and her hands floated to cover her mouth in surprise as he called forth the order of the Laurel.
Then we whisked her off to the Vigil tent, where she was more surprised to see the many gifts that had been prepared. First there was a ritual washing of the hands and an explanation of the evening, asking her if she has wishes as to the order in which people will visit her, and a request to be thinking about who she might like to speak for her. Then most of us left and she was dressed in a white vigil dress made for the occasion, a harpist set up outside her door, and, one or two at a time, starting with the King and Queen, people begin their short visits to the candidate. Meanwhile, outside her tent people chatted and ate the snacks provided. I got into an interesting conversation with the King of Calontir and his sons about life in Drachenwald and some of the advantages of the European model of the University system. Lots of other interesting conversations over the evening, of course. Eventually it was my turn to speak with the candidate, and then I went to find my sweetie, still in the hot tub, located behind the royal pavilion, so he’d listened to court from there.
I don't recall if that was one of the nights I also soaked in the hot tub, or if he got out and we went straight to do our evening yoga (in the hall, since the floor there is better than in the tent), but I do recall that his flexibility was way better than it normally is, which isn't surprising, as he'd just spent five hours in the hot tub, with an occasional break for the sauna.
Wednesday: lots of court
We didn't do the Nordic 1000 tourney. It has a "meat grinder" format wherein fighters line up and fight whomever is in the ring when they arrive. The loser of each bout goes to the end of the line, while the winner faces the next in line. A great format if you want to get in lots of fighting in a short time, especially if you are good enough to hold the field for a while. But I love best the pageantry and salutes of a more formal tournament, so I chose not to fight, and my champion chose likewise. Instead we prepared for the Laurels Sponsored Prize Display, which he was entering (with some Damascus knives and an inlaid axe), and which I was attending as a Laurel.
After the display I wound up taking a short nap before Court. This was the court where we presented Trenneälvar, the hopefully someday Barony in the North of Nordmark, and the coat of arms we have voted on and will be submitting to the college of heralds. I also revealed St. Sven, the patron saint for the Barony, who is miraculous recovered from the unfortunate decapitation by axe and has been transformed from a small four legged reindeer to a noble sea reindeer with a fish tail, and a key in its hooves (thus combining symbolism from all three Shires in the area). The Prince and Princesses encouraged our work in forming the Barony and presented me with the Key for the office of Acting Seneschal responsible for the paperwork during this time of formation.
The next day being Crown Tourney, we went to sleep before midnight and got in a full eight hours.
Thursday: Crown.Tourney
Since we'd fought for one another in Coronet on Sunday, we'd hoped to do the same for Crown. However, we'd written our letter of intent for Crown before we realised that my armour would be fixed up enough to be usable at the event, so that letter mentioned that he would fight and I would be the consort. The letter of intent for Coronet was written a couple of weeks later, and thus said that, assuming I was successful in re- authorising before the tourney, we would both fight for the other. I did send their Majesties a direct message letting them know that I could also fight (if I get authorised on time) if it pleases them, and they liked the idea. However, none of us remembered to also tell the Seneschal, so the paperwork hadn't been done to let me fight, so I just spent the day as a consort. And jad ever so much fun with it! I love being a consort, especially for a fighter with whom I am in love, especially for a fighter who dances with joy on the battlefield.
My fighter made semi-finals, and I was proud of him, and delighted to see him fight with honour. It was also fun to watch the other fighters. Jon fitz Jon, especially was fun to watch as he bounced his way happily from victory to victory, making it all the way through the round-robin portion of the lists undefeated. Then, in finals he struck Sir Avery, who called it good, but Jon went on to say "no, it bounced off your shield, and I am pretty sure it was flat by the time it struck you". He insisted on resuming the fight, and Avery went on to win the tournament, but, seeing the joy and pride in his lady's eyes for his honour and skill, I think that Jon was also a winner that day.
Friday: Warday
I am not interested in War fighting, so I sent Keldor, who loves war fighting, off to play, and I relaxed around camp, tidying up, working on projects, harvesting nettles, ramslök, and chives to cook over the fire with scrambled eggs and cheese (can recommend!) and missing the classes I had planned to attend. A lovely day.
That night I attended Court for the Baron of Aarnimetsä, and thus had a good view for the Investiture of Prince Stigot and Princess Jovi, and the Viscounties for Fardäng and Ingrid during Nordmark Court, and for the Pelican during Drachenwald Court. However, by the time Court was over I was feeling rather tired, and went to bed just after 22:00.
Saturday: take it easy
Many people had already broken down their camp, but we weren’t planning on leaving till Sunday. So we spent a largely lazy day. Quite early on in the day I cut some of the soft linen I had purchased at market on Thursday and then we spent all day lounging on the couches in the hall with a handful of other people, many of us working on projects. It was delightful, and my tunic got nearly half way done. Eventually we did yoga and headed back to camp. Pausing briefly at a couple of parties to say hello, but we were still in bed by 23:00.
Sunday: day one of the drive home
We woke to a mostly dry tent since it hadn't rained since early the day before. So we packed up quickly and loaded the car and trailer. Then we went up to the hall to use the toilet and considered doing a lap around the site to help out and say some goodbyes. Just as we mentioned that it started gently raining, so we returned to the car, got in, and no sooner than we had closed the car doors it started pouring down the heaviest tain I'd seen all week. Feeling bad for the few folk left who hadn't finished packing yet, we drove off into the downpour.
Not long thereafter the sun came out, and we enjoyed are drive through the southern Swedish countryside. Seven hours later, after stopping at Brahehus Castle and Rökstenen to see the sites we arrived at Keldor's sister's house, where we spent a pleasant evening (including a warm shower) and slept nearly eight hours.
Monday (day two of the drive home)
We drove first to Keldor's brother's house, where we dropped off the sheet metal for his roof that we'd been able to bring when we did the last-minute switch to bringing a trailer. Then we took the inland road through Falun and up to Delsbo, where my friend Hjalmar is staying for work just now, in a lovely cabin that his company is providing. Neither Keldor nor I had ever taken that road before. It was an 8 hour day (including stops) through really pretty countryside. Often farmlands, sometimes forests, and many hundreds of houses cute enough to point out to one another.
Then a delightful evening spent with Hjalmar and Sophie, including a walk in to town from the cabin, and plenty of sewing before our evening yoga, followed by a good seven hours of sleep.
Tuesday (day three of the drive home)
Sophie rode with us the next morning as far as her home in Härnösand, spending the first part of the trip listening to a work meeting on the phone, which ended just before we stopped at the petrol station just before Sundsvall, so we were able to enjoy her company for part of the drive.
After we dropped her off we went on to Skuleberget and stopped to climb up to the cave (about ¾ of an hour, but we were at the park 1.5 hours) of course, and then we continued north, stopping in Umeå to pick up some groceries, and some berry plants for the garden. Eventually reaching home nearly 10 hours after departing the cabin that morning.
We got the trailer unloaded right away, and the pillows from the back seat, but then it started raining, and we decided the rest of the unloading could wait till the next day.
afterword While we heard of a handfull of people after the event testing positive for Covid, neither of us had any symptoms and we tested negative. However, the following Monday there appeared a rash around the spot on my tummy where we had extracted something small and black and "too small to be a tick" during one afternoon of the event. Yup. Thatvwas a tick. That rash perfectly matched the google images for Borrelia. The doctor confirmed this diagnosis and gave me 10 days of antibiotics, and the rash is clearing up. Luckily, I didn't get any orher symptoms. I know at least one other from the event also got antibiotics for Borrelia. Hope no one else had a problem.