ES - fighting in the West

Paul Mitchell Paul_Mitchell at Filemaker.com
Mon Apr 19 08:45:13 PDT 1999


Amy & Bill Morris recently said:

>As the smoke of nostalgia clears from the air....
>
>   When I was originally taught to fight in the Region of Calontir 19
>years ago the described style was the most common. As Calontir was then
>part of the Middle we were under their shield limits, 24 inches in any
>dimension.  I have to say that it seemed to encourage a wider variety of
>weapons and styles.  I saw a lot more mace, axe, and two handed weapon
>fought.  

<snip>

Ansteorrans tend to place a bit more emphasis on authenticity on
the field.  Thus, we don't walk on our knees (someone whose thighs
are so hurt that he can't stand won't be walking anywhere on his
knees, and the arm that was struck is the arm that is lost.

Likewise, shield size restrictions just isn't something you find
in many period tourneys.  Some kingdoms place minimum requirements
on shield _weight_ (a shield of a certain size must weigh at least
x number of pounds), but there is shockingly little documentation
for the weights of combat shields; apparantly there are no surviving
examples.

Finally of course, we have heat like the East and Middle don't
get.  We wear less armor, and so many choose larger shields to
make up for it.


>   On a related question, could the Crown decree a shield size limit for
>Ansteorra?  Has this ever been done?  If so I would be interested in
>hearing about it.

King Mikael II, as I recall, placed a shield size limit on Crown
Tourney in that reign, I think something equivalent in area to
a 24"x24" heater shield, though narrower shields could be longer.

Placing a shield size limit on all tournies in Ansteorra would
be a singularly unpopular thing, if for no other reason than
the expense and inconvenience of having to make new shields.  And
the next king would likely change it back.

No kingdom I've ever lived was particularly interested in 
changing to be like other kingdoms.  Ansteorra is certainly
no different in this respect.

- Galen
============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.



More information about the Elfsea mailing list