 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
The enthusiastic turnout for the first tournament had proved that a roomier site was needed for the proposed second tournament. It was proposed to hold the tourney in the Joaquin Miller Park to the east of Berkeley. However, in order to reserve a site in Tilden the band of medievalists had to apply to the Park Service as an organization, for which a name was needed. Marion and Walter Breen (Elfrida and Walter of Greenwalls) came up with the name of the Society for Creation Anachronism, because the group was trying to recreate the ways of the middle ages as it could have been, which would certainly be considered an anachronism in twentieth century Berkeley, and the goal was creativity. This name was accepted and so the Society for Creative Anachronism was formed. The Breens were autocrats for the second tourney.
The second tourney was held in Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland, California, on June 25, 1966. Once again lists were held. Fulk de Wyvern defeated Edwin Bersark in the finals, winning the right to crown his lady, Mary of Tamar, Queen of Love and Beauty. It was decided to keep on having tournaments. At this event it was found that aluminum pipes made flat were not good swords as they bent. That summer, at a “1066 Party”, Siegfried von Hoflichskeit and Marynel of Darkhaven were married in the first Society wedding, with all in medievals. (At the second tourney Alfonso de Castile showed up with the Consortium Antiguum to perform.)
 Fulk de Wyvern Azure, a fess Or between three wiverns argent. |
 Mary of Tamar Or, two levriers rampant addorsed, tails couped, sable. |
Annotations:
“Of course, this is the early tourney I missed. Seems they had some silly
rule about having to have a costume ...
“I was, however, under the impression that
Fulk fought Karl vom Acht (Owen Hannifen) in the finals. Perhaps I am remembering
it badly and Owen was in the semi-finals. I heard the story from him, after all,
and it was his first event. However, he did well enough that when the first knights'
list came up, he was on it. Not too bad for a (then) Angeleno who could only come
up every few months or so.
“I understood, too, that the aluminum pipe swords
left a heckuva welt when they hit. Of course, everyone was still wearing
costumes, not padding.
“It was probably around this time that the UC
Berkeley fencing department began to be wary of SCAers. Seems a bunch of
their saber helmets went missing ...” – Stefan de Loraine
“For years afterward they still had a problem about that ... Was it our guys who took them???” – James Greyhelm“No idea, as I was not part of the Berkeley Mafia at the time. The fencing department certainly blamed the SCA. Perhaps some of their people attended an event, saw the helmets, and assumed they had been taken from UCB. I seem to recall that some of them had UCB markings on them. Long after we had homemade steel helmets, fencing students were being warned to look out for SCAers trying to take UCB fencing helmets.” – Stefan de Lorraine, who fought in a combination army helmet liner and catcher's mask and padded the back of his neck JUST before getting hit there very hard ...“Hey, I made the damned thing. I was vastly proud of it at the time. All you had to do was avoid getting hit on the side of the head at the ear level or below or on the back of the head or neck. Sends chills down my spine thinking of wearing it in combat now.” – Steven McEanruig
“The warnings to guard against getting your saber helmet stolen were still current at U.C. Berkeley as late as AS VII when I was taking saber there. As a newly minted knight I felt it necessary to set the department straight. I met with the two primary instructors and explained that saber masks had not been legal for SCA combat for years and offered to demonstrate what was currently being used. On the last day of the quarter I and another SCAer from the epee class brought our gear to school, suited up and proceeded to whale and whack upon each other with a great deal of gusto and a variety of weapons. The warnings ceased as far as I know from that day on.” – Kevin Peregrynne
“To my great regret, because of having a deadline to meet, I couldn't be at
the very first tourney, but was only able to take Astrid there and afterward bring
her home. What I saw and heard was enough to show me this was going to be a
lot of fun and the whole family would want to join in.
“So I started preparing for the second event.
At Karen's suggestion, I bought an old wool sweater at the Goodwill and sprayed
it with aluminum paint to look sort of like a mail shirt. My helmet from
long-gone days motorcycling around overseas was to cover my head. I fitted a
sheet metal faceplate to it and draped a metallic-looking cloth behind to hide
the leather [this was an old design of brainbucket -- KA] and be a coif.
The helmet itself I padded to protect the spoofing arms painted on it.
Even so, there's a dent on top that must have been acquired that day.
Spray-painted work gloves served for gauntlets. A shield cut from plywood was
green with a raven thereon; the principles of heraldry weren't yet being applied,
and I liked the idea of a raven on Tower green. A light wooden ax, wielded
one-handed, seems to have been my only weapon, though here a snapshot must do
for memory. Hiking boots were and remained my footwear.
“I got thoroughly trounced, and the poor three-ply
shield ended in splinters, but the tourney was nevertheless a grand occasion and,
like probably everybody else, I sought to do better thereafter.
“The third was at Cragmont Park in Berkeley.
After a while I noticed a couple of police officers. They stayed for half
an hour or so, but since there didn't seem to be anything the matter,
my household gave them no particular attention. We only learned the full story later.
“In those days Berkeley was a cauldron of what called
itself protest. A sheet styled the Berkeley Barb was among its raucous voices.
Word of what had been seen came to the editors, who eagerly started to write a
feature piece on how a few poor medievalists couldn't enjoy their innocent sport
without being harassed by the brutal cops. Somebody who had been there explained
that, actually, the officers had stopped by to warn that several cars were
illegally parked and had better be moved if the owners didn't want tickets.
They got so fascinated that they lingered as long as they could just to watch.
The black member of the team, especially, made critical remarks about the handling
of various weapons. That was all. So the Barb ran a headline:
FUZZ COZY UP WITH FEUDALISTS
(Although, naturally, a number of our younger
members counted themselves among the rebellious, our relationship with police was
always cordial. There was even some talk about giving them some shields and
instruction, because none of us condoned mob violence, but evidently nothing came
of it.)
“About that time or before, members were asked to
choose medieval names. I settled on Bela of Eastmarch. The place name came from
the fact that at that time our house was farther east than anyone else's, in
Orinda. This in turn suggested an Eastern European cognomen, and "Bela" was,
in a way, my small tribute to the Hungarian Revolution ten years earlier. The
persona was thus more or less a rural Magyar knight who'd heard tales of these
here new-fangled tournament things and come northwest to see what they were
all about. (SCA knighthood wasn't instituted till later.) However, I made
no special effort to act it out. My lady became Karina of the Far West and
our daughter was Astrid of Hawk Ridge, the street above ours [running along
a ridge - KA] being El Gavilan.
“In my forties, with most opponents ten or
more years younger, I generally lost my battles. Then classes and practice sessions
began in Berkeley. I attended pretty faithfully and improved until I was winning
enough to be among the first who were knighted in the Society. My lady took
a special role as a herald, since she has a strong voice and theatrical experience
had taught her how to make it carry. This led her to research in the general
field of heraldry, in which she'd long been interested, and she became a leading
member of the College and eventually chief herald of the West. [Actually, of
the Known World, when it consisted of four kingdoms plus dependencies in
Outremer. - KA] In time the work load grew too heavy, but she left the office
in good hands.
“She was also an excellent artificer, designed our
pavilion, and tailored the covering. I believe it was the first to be relatively
easy to set up, take down, and transport, its core being a collapsible aluminum frame
strung with clotheslines. Of course, still better models appeared later, but
we stayed with this. We carried the whole works in a long gray bag on top of
our car, where it resembled a gun so much that we dubbed it the Gray Mauser.
The car sported the vanity plate WYVERN, reflecting her arms. My own arms,
which she also created, were canting -- Azure, a saltire (aka cross of St. Andrew)
argent, between two suns or in pale.
“For my part, I was the woodworker, among other
things making the folding table on which we set forth our viands. My new
shield, five-ply and metal-bordered, proved durable, if a bit heavy. I made a
number of swords, at first from oak and fairly realistic in appearance -- some so
much so as to be strictly for show -- then from rattan shen that became regulation.
I also turned another motorcycle helmet, bought second hand, into what I think
was the first helmet in which a man could safely fight wearing glasses. It
wasn't much for looks, a sort of truncated pig-faced basinet, but it too
served me for as long as I joined combat.” – Bela of Eastmarch (via Karina)
[That summer, at a “1066 Party” ...] "Separate event – not wedding!" – Henrik of Havn
“I missed the second tournament due to summer camp from Air Force ROTC. I did get several letters about it from Stefan and Felice of Mayhem House, both of which letters helped me get through the camp, where I was not precisely the most eager military type around.” – Steven MacEanruig
Description of this event,
© Copyright 1980 by William R. Keyes (Wilhelm von Schlüssel)
This is from The History of the West Kingdom, Volume 1 (the only
volume produced). When reading this text, please keep in mind the following
disclaimer:
Disclaimer: This history may have errors in it, as much of the detail is “remembered” history, or as one of the cover pages of the original type-written manuscript states “The material within is derived from the information printed in The Crown Prints and in The Page, and from the memories of the participants.” The original document was typed on onion-skin paper, with hand-written notes (often in the margins). All attempts have been made to reconcile the notes with the original document.
Annotations, when they are added, are from The Annotated History of the West, Volume 1, which is the same text as Master Wilhelm's mentioned above, with commentary from members of the SCA who were active at the time of the event, and are added to help clarify questions and expand on what happened and why. This volume is copyright © Ken Mayer (Hirsch von Henford).
The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).
