ES - For those interested in fighting...

[Mike C. Baker]

>Since (correct me if I'm wrong here) we're done with fighter 
>practice for the next month or so, I'd like to offer a
>question for discussion among those who have an opinion
>on the topic:
>
>What is the importance of winning in SCA combat?

Galen, I've read the other responses given thus far.  I find few 
faults or omissions, but would give one reinforcement and 
variation upon that offered by Arabella.

Winners are the source of hero-tales, and provide the grist 
for the storyteller's mill and the poet's pen.  In this context,
however, even one who loses can be made a winner -- 
after a fashion.  Who, having heard the tale, can speak of 
Eric Bark-eater in true fashion and not remember his 
feat of the moment as being a victory?  (Well, I would 
call it a victory to lay an opponent low with mirth as 
readily as by a flurry of blows...)

Victors, or sometimes even those who strive toward 
victory, provide we-who-are-bard with the stuff of 
heroic dreams which can be hammered into song 
as well. Not only in humorous kind, of course.  The 
"Song of the Shield-Wall", "Farewell to Ansteorra", 
and many others speak of winners and losers, 
war-crafty folk who live and who die through the 
strength of their arms and the wit of their brains.

To win is marvelous, to fight with honor glorious, 
and to lose gracefully a thing of great value.

><Ben Stein monotone>
>Anybody?  Anybody?  Anybody?
></Ben Stein monotone>

Llereth wants to compete on Ben's game show -- for the express 
purpose of being given the privilege of firing Jimmy the Wonder-Twit.

THAT would be a victory worth seeing!

Mike C. Baker
SCA: Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra (Steppes, Ansteorra)
"Other": Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard)
My opinions are my own -- who else would want them?
e-mail: kihe at ticnet.com OR kihe at rocketmail.com


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