From The Page (April, 1982):
Are you bored with fighting in grass and sunny climes?
Are you eager for adventure in mountains realms?
Are you looking for excitement and challenge?
Then the place for you is Alaska, August 13th & 14th.
between Lord Hirsch von Henford and Mistress Sharane du Kondrack of House Hennforde.
Both parties are hiring mercenaries skilled in armed combat, archery, and the arts and sciences.
Events include; A quest created by Lord Adam Elfchaser, mundanely a professor of mythology and folklore; Royal Round archery, archers' battles in yon green wood, a naval battle on dry land, as well as Pavillion Marauding, a game of skill and wild activitiy created by Mistress Sharane and of course lots of food, drink, dancing and bardic well into the night. (What Night? Night in Alaska during the summer?)
Inquires may be sent to:
Mistress Sharane de Kondrack
(contact info omitted)
or
Lord Hirsch von Henford
(contact info omitted)
EOO: An Equal Opportunity Overlord
Personal Reminisces:
"When I started in the SCA in Eskalya, my first summer (1977), it was as a part of Sharane's household, House Henford/Hennforde/whatever (the spelling changed depending on who you talked to, I think). When I registered my name and arms (in 1980), I had no idea that this might cause problems for Sharane later. Without getting into details, the point of using "von Henford" was to show the household I had started in, as a tribute, and it was sort of alliterative with my first name. That was the only real thought I had about using that particular name as my second name.
"So, the year before this war, Sharane tried to register a badge for her household, to be told that the name was already registered, to me! I would guess, knowing Sharane, that at first she was a bit miffed or put out.
"In the years since Winter's Gate had been founded (1978), we had had a fairly genial war between the Eskalya and Winter's Gate annually. However, due to some misunderstandings by some relatively new people, some of the good-natured insults that were traditionally traded back and forth between the two groups to build up to the war got out of hand, and got personal (and real).
"It was decided after the war in 1981, that perhaps we should stop for awhile, because people were really upset and angry with each other, and that was not the point. However, having a war was something that, as any fighter understands, can be a lot of fun. SO, Sharane decided that the whole name mix-up would be a fun reason to have a war, we could make it a mercenary war so that it wasn't between Winter's Gate and Eskalya, and we could avoid any idiocy that had been stirred up the previous year that way.
"The only problem is that I was a college student, and Sharane was an entrepeneur -- she had money and I didn't. We worked that out, "paying" mercenaries was done in a variety of ways, including my making jewelry for the Selveirgard Trolls (the five of them who fought) later to their specs. I think most of the others got paid a bottle of beer, or something like that ... it didn't really matter that much what they got paid, just that they got paid!
"By the time the war happened, we had relatively even sides, except that Sharane paid for Duke Radnor to come up and fight on her side. EEEP! This meant that Kylson fought for Sharane, because he didn't want to fight against Radnor (the two had become fast friends over the years). Sigh.
"So, while numerically, the sides were close to even, by power-fighter standards, well, Brendan Shimmeringstar was on my side, but that was about it.
"My side won the first battle by virtue of surprise tactics. The trolls had not shown up, as far as I knew, and so I was down five fighters. Oh well. Things happen. The first battle was fought on the beach of a dry lakebed. (I don't think anyone knew the plan the Trolls had hatched, and they caught both sides by surprise ...) The two sides formed up, my "team" on the right and Sharane's "team" on the left. The cry of "Charge" happened, and they started running toward each other, when suddenly from behind Sharane's team, coming out of the woods, were the trolls, led by Ulric von Matanuska, yelling "CHARGE!". Sharane's team stopped confused, looked behind them and saw the trolls, then noticed that my team hadn't stopped! OH NO! Well, they got hit hard. They took out a good number of my team, but eventually it came down to about 8 or so fighters versus Radnor. Radnor, being the sly person he is, used a tactic that sometimes works -- he asked the fighters if they would fight him honorably, one at a time? Well, the word "honor" was in there, and he suckered a few of the fighters into this. Someone managed to leg him, but that wasn't a real deterent to His Grace's fighting skills. Suddenly Aveloc figured it out, and said something like "Screw THIS!" and they all charged Radnor. In a flying, twisting leap, Aveloc managed to get in a good solid headshot on Radnor, but His Grace managed to kill Aveloc in mid-air as well.
"After that, well, the fighters had fun. The rest of the scenarios weren't so good for my fighters -- except it really was about having a good time, and that seemed to happen. Sharane declared the war a draw in the evening (I tried to complain that we had managed to steal her banner without her knowing it, but she felt it was a draw anyway, and considering how many battles my team lost, well, a draw is better than a "loss", I suppose).
"The fighting was good, the food was good, the revelry was good. All in all it was a pretty succesful event.
"This event was also an important one for Oertha, but we didn't realize it at the time. The Region was swiftly working toward becoming a Principality. We hadn't yet reached that point, but we were working on it (the armory would come later). The name had been selected and registered with the College of Arms, and all that. We had a few members of the Order of Chivalry and the Order of the Pelican. We had no Laurels.
"While Their Majesties James and Verena could not attend the event, they sent William the Lucky and I believe Hilary of Serendip. One reason that they came (besides being welcome visitors to Oertha anyway) was to scope out potential Laurels, and if they found someone who they felt was worthy, to do the ceremony in the name of the King and Queen and with Their blessing, and of course to report back as soon as possible after.
"Aryana Silknfyre was the first Laurel in Oertha. I personally was very happy for her, because I always liked Aryana. There were (due to standard Oerthan Politics) some ill-feelings, but honestly, I think anyone who had been named the first Laurel would have had some of that happen. Since that time, Oertha has enough Laurels that it's not an issue, but of course, being the first ..." -- Hirsch von Henford
Description of this event (if any) taken from The Page or personal reminisces.
The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).