From The Page (December? 1969):
The Barony of Atenveldt
WILL BE HAVING THEIR FIRST TOURNAMENT ON DEC. 7TH, 1969, FROM 10 A.M. TILL DUSK,
AT McCORMICK PARK, SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA. (See reverse side for map) REVELS WILL FOLLOW
AT THE RESIDENCE OF RICHARD IRONSTEED ...
From the History (by Wilhelm):
Held at McCormick Park, Scottsdale, AZ. Harold Breakstone, Laurel King of Arms, presided as emissary from King Henrik. Thirty-five people showed up, including twelve fighters. The winner of the double elimination lists was Ivan of Navarette. Thomas of Littleton won the archery contest. William of the Shire offered a satire on the founding of the Barony. Revels followed at the home of Richard Ironsteed, the Herald. Atenveldt was the first Barony.
Annotations:
“Not sure, but I think Richard the Short was at this event, too.
He was working in Albuquerque at the time. Or perhaps it was the
next Atenveldt event he attended. I remember getting a report from
Harold (we worked at the same company) afterwards.
“I was told by Michael of Moria that
which of the two of them, Michael or Richard became the Seneschal and
which the Herald was just about a flip of the coin. For that matter,
he also said that the two of them came back from BayCon with the idea
of starting a fanzine or starting an SCA chapter, and decided on
the SCA chapter.
“Afraid I know almost nothing about what
was taking place in Portland at the time, though I had known
Frederick when he lived in the same house with Harold of Breakstone in
San Francisco.” – Stefan de Lorraine, who is about to
take flight (chronologically)...
“Well, finally something I can comment on, from memory (and some
research). The Dec. 7, 1969 event was Atenveldt's first but Duke
Richard was not there. He did come to the next event as I
remember it. I remember clearly as he stayed at my (parents’)
house. Michael of Moria did become the Seneschal and Richard Ironsteed
the Herald. Rick had been at a Science Fiction convention in the West
(Mike had not actually gone on this trip however) with the intention
of starting a "fanzine" locally; Rick brought back some Tournaments Illuminated
in a stack of "fanzines." Mike picked out a TI and said "hey Rick, lets to
this instead!" This line became famous as often, when things got
a little crazy, as the Barony-Principality-Kingdom-grew, one could
hear Moria repeat the phrase with irony and varying degrees of enthusiasm.
“Just a comment, we had two helms that
we shared hat day; one fighter after another (boy, that was fun)
and two mattress pad sur coats. Other than two borrowed swords, two
shields and the helmets that was all the armor we had. I was in
the archery contest and had an archery arm guard and put in on
my sword arm as a vambrace ... that was it for armor.
“At the next event Duke Richard
was hit in the groin with a great sword. After a few minutes
he pulled his baseball cup out and showed me where it had
broken in half from the shot. Up to that time, we had not worn
baseball cups ... but we started the next day.
“Ah, the good old days.” – Arthur of Lockehaven
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).