[Ansteorra] Happenings at Guardian

[April Gillilan]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
This past weekend, Mooneschadowe hosted their annual Guardian tournament.  Although turnout was lower than in the past, everyone had a wonderful time.  There were, as usual, a large amount of competitions and just plain ol' havin' fun.


Before I spill the beans on who won what and who got what award, I would like to send out a special Thank You to all those people from Calontir who came down to play with us. Members of the Shire-March of Grimfells, the Barony of Vatavia, and the Barony of Forgotten Sea. You guys were great fun to hang out with and have given Mooneschadeen many more raucous stories to tell!  We sincerely hope to see more of ya'll in the future.   :)


To all the merchants who came and allowed people to spend money at our event, Thank You!  We have never had that many merchants, especially ones from as far away as Calontir and Steppes.  Hopefully you made enough money to get back home and will come again next year!


Last, I would like to thank all of those who helped Mooneschadowe pack everything up on Sunday.  Needless to say, after the scare we received during closing court, everyone was very shaken up and not thinking well.  For those who are interested, Nikhita was back to normal that evening and the doctor's say that it will most likely not happen again.  We are all praying that it won't.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all those who helped, and for those who stayed out of the way.


Now, on to the event!  Friday night, Lord Owen ap Aeddan hosted a Norse Wrestling competition by torchlight.  The winner was Alan from Namron.  Though young in years (I believe he is around ten), Alan won by throwing the most people out of the ring.  It was a great sight to see!  Also on Friday, Lady Helene Quivremont held a court dancing primer before the Ball on Saturday night.  There were almost as many people dancing as wrestling.


We began the morning Saturday with the Guardian at Arms tournament.  There were 12 fighters in the German Seven list competing for the honour of guarding Mooneschadowe with her sword Eclipse for the next year.  Sir Sheridan MacKinnon from Calontir, the first non-Ansteorran to win Guardian, won the tournament with six victories and only one defeat. The defeat however, was not true, for Sir Sheridan had drawn a bye-fight, and in Calontir bye-fights are typically non-destructive.  Sir Sheridan, thinking that his seventh round fight was non-destructive, attempted to match Sir Asoph and Sir Alrik Kanin in a one-on-two match with all three carrying spear.  In a truly spectacular fight, Sir Sheridan managed to wound Sir Asoph in the leg and to kill Sir Alrik, but was himself killed in the process by Sir Asoph. It was a wonderful spectacle to behold and an even greater proof of his prowess to do so well against two of the kingdom's best spearmen.  Through the mischievous match-making of the shire members, Sheridan came to be fighting for our own HL Rhiannon Redwolf, who was made Queen of Grace and Wisdom later that evening in court.


Saturday afternoon we held an Archery competition to determine the new Yeoman of Mooneschadowe.  The competition was a William Tell shoot run by HL Toinette de Cambrai, won by Lord Donald MacDonald of Vatavia, another of our Calontiri friends.  An honorable mention goes out to the same Alan of Namron who won the wrestling Friday night.  Although he did not win, he was not last, nor close to it!


During the tournament, an Arts and Sciences competition was held.  There were many awesome entries, but the populace voted for HL Oxlade MacKinnon to be our next Artisan.  He made a gorgeous box as a step-down prize for Sir Asoph.  The box is shaped like a triangle in order to hold Sir Asoph's friendship mug so that it will not break.  If you see Sir Asoph, ask him to show you the box.  It is truly a marvel.


I would also like to point out that the only reason Ox won the A&S competition was because Magdalena da Cadamosto, our illustrious feast steward, did not enter her completely period, and excruciatingly sumptuous feast.  Candied oranges, roast beef, chicken pasties, wonderful sauces, an exquisite rose-butter, chilled lemon-chicken; all these things are just a PART of a feast that I can not even begin to explain how good it was.  Suffice to say that I am very honored to have been bestowed with some of the leftovers.  I am soooo looking forward to lunch!    :)


The new Bard of Mooneschadowe is Lord Grimolf from Northkeep.  The judges were Lady Lilas and Lady Slaine from Mooneschadowe.  Unfortunately, Jean Paul and I did not get to see or hear the bardic (we were running the Chess Championship) so could someone fill in the details please?


A Chess Tournament was held on Saturday, with the final round being a live chess match after feast.  There were 16 entrants in the chess competition with participants running from ages from 9 to adult.  The finalists were Lord William from Mooneschadowe (in the finals for the second year in a row) and Brom from Weisenfeuer.  Each finalist had to recruit chess pieces for them to play the game, and this year's game was probably the most humorous one to date.  The copious amounts of homebrew made available during Magdelena's feast (by HL Oxlade) had bestowed a general sense of inebriety and rowdiness to the pieces, causing this to be one of the more raucous games in memory.  In the end, Brom's play proved the stronger, and took the game.  Congratulations to Brom!!


Court on Saturday night was somewhat short, but quite fun as always.  Many many thanks to our own Baroness Gunhilda for holding the court, and for Master Lucais for sitting in with her.  Paloma de Orozco (or "Ozorco" as Owen said) was awarded the Rising Star and both Rafe and Sabin Slater received their well-deserved Award of Arms.  Lady Emma de Featherstan received a Sable Crane, once again a well-deserved award.


In typical Mooneschadowe fashion, Saturday was not the end of the event!  On Sunday we had a full slate of activities, starting off with a Chivalric Newcomer's tournament.  Six new fighters, from Mooneschadowe, Weisenfeur, and Northkeep participated.  Gareth of Mooneschadowe was chosen the most honorable fighter by the gallery and won a helm made by Centurion Jean Paul, HL Marke von Mainz and the UBF Armorers. Bam-Bam from Northkeep and Newins from Weisenfeuer tied for the best Win-Loss record with both gentlemen having 4 wins and 1 loss.  The other participants were Dozer from Northkeep, Martin from Mooneschadowe, and Fenton form Weisenfeuer.


The Insegnante competition was also held on Sunday, chosen (as always) by the participating fighters and list mistresses based on who best represents the finest aspects of the rapier art.  HL Theresa Maria Giovanni is our new Insegnante, making Don Timothy le Corbusier our new Queen of Love and Beauty, a complete role reversal from four years ago!


We also recognized the most impressive performance by a new fighter during the Insegnante tournament.  I am very pleased to announce that HE Gunhilda Amberstar was chosen by the other fighters to receive that recognition.


In between rounds of the Insegnante competition a Youth Rapier tourney was held.  Lothar from Northkeep was the victor over two other youth fighters.

Last, but most certainly not least, was a Knife, Axe, Spear competition to determine the new Marksman of Mooneschadowe.  Many thanks to Ottokar for running it, and congratulations to Ottokar for winning it!  We apologize for the lack of information regarding this event, but there was a bit of a distraction during court at this time.

Once again, thanks to everyone for coming and having a great time.  The staff at The Ranch is already talking about making improvements to the site in case we want to use it again in the future.  It truly is a gorgeous site, and I hope to get pictures of the event on a web page soon.  If you have some, and want them posted, please send them to me or Jean Paul.

The tired, and soon to be well-fed again, Autocrats,

Gilyan Clonmacnoise

Jean Paul de Sens