2005-08-27 - 1:54 a.m.
I had a dream of posting a nice picture of my knighting along with this entry, but since I still haven�t found any, I�ll go with this one instead. I�m sure Dunstan would find it more appropriate anyway.
So, wow.
I�ll try to be more eloquent about the whole thing, but that is the straight reaction. The realization of this long held goal turned out to be more fantastic than I could have ever imagined.
I�ve wanted to be a knight since my very first event. It was a small regional fighter practice in Kansas, I think it was near Manhattan. I know it was 1993, I should try look back in the records and find out the details of the event.
I don�t remember much of the day, I�m going to try and add as much detail here as I can as a little more slips away everyday. (It is very possible that I�m combining more than one event here, but if so they were definitely the first events I went to)
My friend Jason and I had driven up early in the morning, there was ice on the trees, and in the early morning light the trees in the valleys were pretty magical. We were in my 1976 Cutlass Supreme, maroon in color with tons of rust, and a once white top, now something more like yellow.
I don�t remember exactly what we did when we first go there, probably just hung around and smoked (a habit I continued until Jill and I got married) I remember that there was a late breakfast or an early lunch, the site was fee was $3.00 and $1.00 more for the lunch.
I remember that Jason and I showed up with about $5.00 each, whatever else we had went into the gas tank, (of course in 1993 gas cost 0.97 cents a gallon) It was a pretty big decision to spend a dollar on lunch, since we could also buy cigarettes for about a dollar as well. But we were hungry and lunch seemed like a pretty good idea.
Standing in line to get our bowl of soup and some bread, the guy in the front of the line pays for his meal, and then says he�d also like to pay for everyone else in line. He didn�t say it out loud or make a big deal out of it or anything, just a small act of generosity. There were only about ten people in line, it wasn�t anything extravagant, but I certainly remember how grateful Jason and were to hang on to our dollars.
That man was Duke Conn MacNiell
I didn�t know what a duke was, or really what a knight was for that matter, but I knew that I wanted to be like that guy.
I didn�t fight that day, I don�t even think I had begun making armor yet. I had fought at a local practice with loaner armor, and I wasn�t that impressed. I don�t even think I was really interested in being a heavy fighter. I remember spending most of that day working on a leather pouch, (the very same leather pouch that I�ve worn for the last 12 years. It was actually sewn on to my squire belt and had to be cut off so I could return my belt to my Knight via the Crown of Calontir)
At the end of the day people started talking about a post revel, and asking us if we wanted to go.
�What�s a post revel?�
�It�s just a party, there will be some singing and a lot of drinking�
�We�re there!�
The post revel was in Hal�s house, and it was jammed packed with people. I�m sure that there were more people at the revel than there were at the event. It was an absolute blast, people were singing and having a great time. At some point this guy pulled out a bodhran and started singing these amazing songs. Everyone was seated around his feet and he was clearly the star of the show. It was the same guy that bought us lunch.
It�s clear that he made a huge impression on me; I decided then and there that I was going to be exactly like him. I had been working on a Japanese persona for a while, that went out the window and I became a late 12th century crusader. I got a hold of a tape he had put out and learned every single word of his songs. Over the next few months I went to every event I could, I got a set of armor thrown together, it was terrible but it worked. I was really bitten by the SCA bug.
As I learned more about what it took to become a knight I decided that I would become his squire, only to find out that he was about to leave the kingdom.
�Now what?� I thought
I decided that if I could not be Conn�s squire, than I would find is Knight (like Luke searching for Yoda on Dagobah.)
The problem was that no one had seen Conn�s Knight for a long time. The Knight that had squired Duke Conn was also the Knight that squired Duke Valens, Master Pavel, and Sir Eric. (very big names if you know Calontir)
About a year later I was at a demo in Nebraska, (apple days maybe?) there was this old knight sitting on a low stonewall and I went over and sat next to him. He asked me for a smoke, we talked for a bit and I finally admitted that I didn�t know who he was.
He chuckled a bit and said that he was Syr Ternon. Seeing that I still didn�t recognize him he said �You probably know some of my squires, Erich, Valens, Pavel, Conn��
I hope I kept my cool, I really don�t remember, I�m sure I almost fell off the wall we were sting on. We talked a bit more that day, I met Ruaidhri, my soon to be elder squire brother. (I also met Sharon there but that is a story all by itself)
I think he told me to find him at Lilies War that year. That or we corresponded later.
At Lilies war I looked him up and we hung out for the first day or so. (Though I had been fighting for almost a year I wasn�t authorized yet as I need the kingdom earl marshal to witness my authorization)
During the day I asked him what he looked for in his squires. (A not so subtle way of saying �please let me be your squire!�) He said that he had to like his squires, and that I was doing alright there, and that he would need to watch me for a year before he made his decision. Then we went out and looked at squire belts for some new squires he was taking that war.
That evening I attended the squiring of Jawhar, Moon, and unbeknownst to myself, Justus.
He called up Jawhar and moon and then me, (I was just as surprised as I would be 10 years later.) Here is a picture of the event.
If you look closely you can see that Ternon is wearing the white belt that I would wear at my knighting 10 years later.
I�ll come back to this history from time to time, I wanted to begin at the beginning for this post. Next time I�ll go over that first Lilies war and my first year as a squire.
Justus
