A Question for Everyone

[Lori Jones]

> Hello fellow Ansteorrans, the list has been rather slow lately (or I 
> have somehow gotten off it) so I am going to pose a question to everyone 
> out there.  The older players might have a better answer, but I will 
> read anyone's reply.  My question is: Does Ansteorra knight on the 
> field? Why, why not? Has it happened before?
 
> Gilyan
> Mooneschadowe

Here's an answer from one "older" player - at least, if you mean in 
terms of how long someone has been playing.  I've been around 
the SCA for about ten years, which, though not a long time by some 
people's standards, it seems a long time to me.  Not that I'm old, 
or anything...

I've seen several field knightings since I've been in the SCA.  
Of those I've seen, they seem to fall into two categories: knighting 
on the field of war and knighting on the tournament field.  When I 
think of tourney field knightings, I remember Sir Frederick von 
Sternwald's knighting by His then-Majesty Gerard at Eldern Hills some 
7+ years ago.  The tournament was a swiss style and the knighting 
took place between fights in one of the later rounds (at least, 
that's how I remember it).  The King called all the knights onto the 
field and actually performed the knighting ceremony then and there 
without any advanced warning to the populace.  

Of the other variety, the war field knightings, I've seen several.  
The most recent was at Pennsic XXV, when Daniel BlackAxe was made a 
knight after the open field battle.  The second most recent, Sir 
Conrad of Castleton's, was done at Gulf Wars several years ago (at 
least, I think it's been that long).  His was announced to the 
populace & planned well in advance of the war; the ceremony took 
place before the open field battle.

By far the most outstanding field knighting I've seen happened some 8 
years ago at the war with the Outlands.  In the final battle of the 
weekend, a woods battle that lasted a *very* long time, two 
combatants were all that remained of Ansteorra's forces against the 
Outlands contingent which still numbered in excess of 40 (and that 
might be estimating a little low).  Ld Burke MacDonald and Ld Asiph 
Heart fought valiantly as Outlands sent out matched teams against 
them for honor combat.  Asiph was felled during one battle and Burke 
was left to face each Outlander alone.  It became obvious as Burke 
became more and more tired and the fights went on that he intended to 
continue fighting until he was killed or killed all remaining 
Outlands forces.  His then-Majesty Mikael and the King of the 
Outlands intervened and ended the combat, calling Burke to attend 
them there by the side of the field.  It was there that Burke was 
made a knight by the King of Ansteorra, as well as the King of the 
Outlands (who requested the privilege of bestowing the accolade 
beside Mikael).  Pretty impressive, huh?  Well, it seemed that way to 
me at the time.  Gilyan, here's a little note FYI.  Burke was, at the 
time, the (7th?) Guardian of Mooneschadowe.

Katrionna "Kat" MacLochlainn
Wiesenfeuer (but originally from Mooneschadowe), Ansteorra