[Hellsgate] Thank you for a magic moment

[Casey Weed]

Rarely... very rarely... a moment happens at an SCA event that shakes me
from my jaded state of nearly 30 years.

When I joined this club at the tender age of 13 I saw a tavern fight break
out at Estrella between two men that made me suspend my sense of disbelief
for a few minutes- it transported me to the world of heroes and
swashbucklers and I never forgot that clanging, brawling, fisticuff brush
up.  I think the idea of 'Hanse' may have sprung from the moment I saw one
of them blast the other with a whole chicken upside the head during the
kerfuffle.  It was marvelous.

At another Estrella, Master Jovian, Gnith, and myself were on the field
stabbing Bad Guys and wreaking havoc when a fighter from the Kingdom of the
West stepped through the desert brush in a perfect replica of a crusader kit
from 1200- dripping in riveted chain mail and topped with the prettiest and
most terrifying totenkampf helmet, it looked like he stepped out of a giant
illuminated manuscript.  I was so awed by how real he looked that I had to
stop Jovian to point him out.  He created a window for us into the past that
gives me chills to this day.  I could not strike him; I was filled with the
feeling a commoner must have felt when confronted by a king in his full
regalia during a medieval battle.  We saluted him and let him pass and
neither of us will ever forget him or the moment he created for us.

Anyone who ever had the pleasure of attending Tourney de Lyoness in
Bjornsborg got to see moments like these: the release of doves as the White
Knight (who never removed his helm to disclose his identity) took the field;
as Thorgaard InSvarti, Lion of Ansteorra, charged six men at once on the
bridge and beat them all down in glorious viking violence; as we watched the
artful theater of Baroness Mari and King Drake during courts that could have
been written in the pages of Mallory.  I have high hopes that the upcoming
Lions there will revive the spirit of those times.

And yesterday, Hellsgate... that sleepy little nook of a town north of the
Great Barony of Bryn Gwlad... put on a show that took me away again.

I have no idea how many of you put work into Master Timur's procession and
ceremony but it was, perhaps, one of the greatest peerage elevation
ceremonies I have ever seen.  From the heralding, to the costume, to the
pomp... nobody who was at that court will remember any other thing that
happened as vividly as that spectacle.  I got the rare treat of forgetting
where and when I was as that little heathen friend of mine was carried up
the aisle by his 'thralls'.

Some might be tempted to thank Timur alone for the experience but I happen
to know for certain what kind of work and how many hands have to go into
that kind of show.  It was bigger than one man, bigger than one family... I
saw the faces of your group sprinkled in that awesome parade.

Fine job, Hellsgate.  Well done.  Thank you for covering my face with a
smile and bringing a gleam to eyes that rarely get such a magical treat.
 When you help make a moment like that you fill the heart of our club with
fire and blood and make it's beating sound like thunder in the ears of
everyone who sees what you have done.  You have the right to be proud and I
will be talking about it for a very long time.

Your Grateful Friend,

Sir Dieterich Kempenich von Eltz