[Ansteorra] Defender of the Flame

[Carl Chipman]

I apologize for the lateness of this post, but I wanted to send out
congratulations to the Canton of Glaslyn (and her Barony of the Steppes)
for a wonderful, wonderful event this weekend.  Many times in the
stories do we talk of being Heroes, but this weekend I (and many others)
truly got to feel like one for the first time.

For those who've never been, and I highly recommend that next year you
address such a situation, the tournament for the armoured combatants is
a sliding scale in which victory and triumph breed greater adversity.
The first round of the tournament, fighters were paired off and allowed
to fight a best two-out-of-three round.  The winners were then the
defenders in the subsequent rounds, while those who lost became the
attackers.

In each round, you, the defender, fought with your weapon of choice
versus a number of attackers carrying single handed sword only, starting
with two, and then increasing by one attacker every round.  If you fell
to the attackers, you would then join their ranks.  The winner would be
the defender who defeated the most attackers.

This year, Sir Romanius successfully defended his title of "Defender of
the Flame" by defeating 5 attackers, although he fell to six.  Me, Lord
Louie, and Master Airaklee Wolf were close all having valiantly defeated
4 opponents, but all three of us fell, although defiantly, to the 5
swords of our attackers.  Don Llewellyn held off three with his trusty
glaive, but the four monster attackers swarmed over him.

Also, of equal status to the Defender was the "Keeper of the Flame",
which was awarded to Lord Armand Dragonetti by the ladies of Glaslyn for
his chivalry, dapper smile, and dashing good manners.

I cannot speak upon the rapier portion, as it was held simultaneously
with the chivalric combat.

As much fun as the combat was, the display of the artisans put our
martial artistry in perspective.  Very rarely have I seen so many high
quality, well-documented, and just plain gorgeous entries in my life.
The hand-done scrolls by Airaklee's lady (I'm sorry your name has
slipped my mind), the wood-working with the earth-based pigments, the
glass etching all were phenomenal.  It was truly amazing.

Finally my compliments to the lord who ran the sideboard.  Although new
in the society he ran a wonderfully delicious fare throughout the day.
The chicken cacciatore was in particular especially well done.  This
chubby man left in fine spirits...

For any wanting to see pictures of the tournament, they can go to :

http://cchipman.homeip.net/Fighting/images/Defender%20of%20the%20Flame%2
02002/page_01.htm

Centurion Jean Paul de Sens,

Carl Chipman
Nomadics, Inc.
cchipman at nomadics.com
http://www.nomadics.com