One of the chief activities is SCA style combat, which uses rattan weapons to make possible a vigorous style of fighting. I don't think that the SCA style can honestly be called an historical one; it evolved from some logical but mistaken assumptions about the effects of weapons and armor. Thanks to intelligent and scholarly martial artists we know a lot more about late medieval combat at the very least.
But SCA combat has its virtues. You can stage a hard-hitting analog of medieval combat with a minimum of serious injuries. Many SCA fighters have never broken a bone, even after many years of competition. And it has a certain aesthetic appeal.
This aesthetic element was brought home to me on the weekend. I was discussing various combat systems that now exist with someone who fences in the "cut and thrust" style, in which real steel swords are used. He and I both agreed that we did not see the point of certain modern jousters and martial artists who have adopted medieval styles, who use something like medieval weaponry and medieval techniques, but scorn dressing up in medieval costume, since what they are doing is in their minds a purely modern thing. The two of us didn't see the point. It may or may not make any sense to fight in a medieval or pseudo–medieval style just for the fun of it, but to do the same thing in 21st century dress and high tech armor just has no meaning for me at all.
And that same day I was lucky enough to see the fruits of medieval aestheticism, SCA style. One of our standard fighting activities involves a small earth and wood fort that we built some years back. One of the challenges of using it is coming up with scenarios that make a certain tactical sense, even though the number of fighters involved is seldom over 20. On Saturday afternoon, some good scenarios were devised and played over and over until everyone was good and tired.
It may be the fact that I am now retired from fighting for good and all, but I found this fighting to be really quite amazing. To my educated eyes, everybody involved looked like they really knew what they were doing. That struck me because with few exceptions, the fighters were what passes for average in our corner of the SCA. There were no famous knights, except one, and he is not nearly as famous as he deserves to be as a master of the pole weapon. There were also a number of quite new fighters, and they picked up on the clues of their more experienced neighbors like there was nothing to it. For me, it was an impressive and moving moment.
>He and I both agreed that we did not see the point of certain modern jousters and martial artists who have adopted medieval styles, who use something like medieval weaponry and medieval techniques, but scorn dressing up in medieval costume, since what they are doing is in their minds a purely modern thing. The two of us didn't see the point
ReplyDeleteReally? Name two such groups.
(one is imagining that famous picture of the Green Berets pulling a bowstring...and wondering really, no real world application?)
No, thats not fair....I can name one for sure which does not use medieval techniques at all, does not follow any real documented chivalric rules of behavior, seeming to be based on a sort of nutty Victorian idea of chivalric virtue, and yet is quite popular. But I DO know of a couple of jousting troupes which seem to do a better job of it. For them,safety trumps quality in many aspects, and admittedly they don't have a medieval disposable attitude towards horses and men. They don't do a lot of stuff which is patently unsafe to the horses, and their armour is overly heavy, but then, is that really so unusual? But they tend to be made up of no more than 15 members each, so for them, it is an uphill battle to barely look good.
(and they themselves hated the "Iron Man" based armour used in the tv show...grin! Hollywood...snort. Their "real" armour is much better)
>But SCA combat has its virtues. You can stage a hard-hitting analog of medieval combat with a minimum of serious injuries.
Agreed. The ability to "go nuts" with a club without worrying about hurting your opponent is very attractive. Sort of like a video game or laser tag. Kind of fun to watch. Reminds me of go-cart driving....a vague analogue of real racing.
I would also point out that "average" is pretty darned good by yesteryear standards. The quality of SCA sport has improved linearly for the last 25 years. A new guy coming in now has his work cut out for him to try and get halfway competent on the field.
All in all, I agree with your assement that the quality of the fighting in our beloved society has improved along with the improvement in costuming. Mostly I think such improvements is most often thanks to the leadership-by-example of some outstanding people, and some very hard work by marshals.
What I would like to see more of during the big wars would be the medieval attitudes. Your study and published papers on what real Chivalry actually IS, is invaluable, but I fear, often blown off as "not the way we play the game". Too bad IMHO. Do you suppose there would be any need to bring medieval attitudes into the society to replace the ersatz ones which seem to have been invented by Garry Gigax and Robert E. Howard? Or any way you could? That seems to be the real thing truly lacking.
Oh, that and decent shoes and hats.
Thanks for creating blog on Muhlberger's World History.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting information. Thanks for posting.
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