by David Smith

Created on: September 20, 2009

Many people that go to their first event within the Society for Creative Anachronism and try to take in everything all at once. I cannot tell you how much folly this is, because if you are trying to get the full scope of the SCA in just one event, then you are going to go into information overload. Naturally, the first thing that people will notice is the heavy weapons fighting. There are many reasons for this, but the most prevalent reasons of the fighting being the most notable facet of the SCA is the excitement of the fighting. The noise that you will hear when two men are fighting is tremendous, and this does not take into account the art of melee combat, often pitting twenty-five on twenty-five or much greater numbers. One story that I can relate to this is one of my mentors in the SCA telling me about a demonstration at a school for the deaf. When the first sword hit the shield, several of the children looked to the teachers of the school commenting: "I can hear that." They were able to feel the vibrations of the shield strikes in their inner ears, thus they could effective "hear" the fighting while it was taking place. This endeared the fighting aspect of the SCA to those children.

Now, while fighting in the SCA is the most notable aspect of the society, there are so many more activities than just fighting that it would boggle the mind. At SCA functions, you can find arts and sciences that were commonly used in the middle ages (textiles, calligraphy, costuming, illumination, artwork, pottery, armor making, weapon smithing, furniture making, wood working, embroidery, weaving, dancing, music, and bardic activities, just to name a few). Also, there are those people that perform services that make the functions run smoothly. These people would include the autocrat of the event, basically the master of ceremonies, delegating the duties of an event to make sure that things run smoothly. The feastcrat, the cook for the event. Part of most weekend long events is a twelve course meal called a feast, and this person is responsible for making sure that the kitchen crew makes a spectacular feast that will feed even the hungriest warrior.

One of the main things that the SCA means to me is the bardic activities. A bard is a performer, usually with a story to tell. They play at feasts, they play at court when the Royalty is going to be late, and they play at revels. The performances can be anything from singing songs to the recitation of poetry. As this is my field

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>