Near the end. The buzzards are circling where I on my back can see them. Arild Barrett and Bruce Dunkle have joined me nearby in "death." The English have stood off the Normans and are taunting the knights to come closer. The only Norman footmen left apparently are "Egil Arinbjornson" (Jim Schutte) with the papal banner, and Paul Murphy.
A wounded "Ulsted" (John Steelquist) on the left slumps in the saddle; "Alexis" (Dave Wise) faces the advancing English on the right; Sveni the horsegelder timidly follows up in the rear (actually, it was her horse which was the problem; unaccustomed to fighting as yet).
The end: Murphy and Schutte down; Dave Wise takes the papal banner and rides off defiantly: "On another day we shall have our revenge." (words to that effect; the ending brought applause from the bystanders) The surviving English, Trevor Clemons (holding the spear which he took from my corpse to chase horses with), Liz Langthorn and Stephen Allen ("Harold Godwinson" for these three "Hastings" bashes) hold the field.
Dave Wise.
Beginning of the "circle fight"; where the last man standing is the winner.
Trevor Clemons and I square off.
My wife managed to take three pics of this one duel, so that indicates that it lasted at least a little while. I remember distinctly where I made a fatal mistake. After circling and looking for openings, I thought Trevor's longer, heavier spear should give me an edge if I could get in close: so I tried a little trick which had worked for me twice before: I tossed my spear up and grabbed it overhand close to the ferrule, and stepped in close to jab in from high up over the top of the shield. Trouble was, Trevor did similar and did it better. My first clue that I was in trouble was when he shortened the grip on his spear and body blocked my shield.
Before I could step back, Trevor's shield interdicted my spear, which I had quickly dropped back into an underhand grip, preparatory to breaking off and starting over; then his spear poked me palpably. A second poke put me down and I fell headlong on the grass, from which position I watched the rest of the duels play out.
A grinning"Kari" (Eddie Hurman) watches as "Gunnar" (Ian Judd) polishes off Dave Wise with a nicely captured underhand crosscut. (This circle fight was "without treachery", i.e. Kari must wait to battle the winner.)
Zoom in on the same.
Kari and Gunnar whacking each other full-strength, putting more holes in the loaner shields, putting on a real show.
The fight went on a while: Stephen Allen watching.
Kari finishes off Gunnar by cutting his throat, so the spectator on the right can get a nice dramatic shot.
When the dead were summoned to "arise", I got to my elbows and saw not two feet in front of my face a pile of horse droppings: "Oo, that was close!" I said in my best Pippin imitation.
Next we did a teams circle fight, with treachery. That meant that even a guy "on your side" could snick you in the back if he wanted to. But I didn't see any of that happen. "Kari" was our leader, and Arild Barrett and "Bjarki" (Kevin von Feldt) and I advance on the rear of an embattled team.
But before we got there they were done in and we backed off, waiting for the teams to finish off each other as much as possible before getting stuck in.
Then another team showed up and we turned to fight them; but the victorious team now in our rear got there faster than I figured on (that is the biggest trouble when learning this: knowing what is happening in your rear; your sense of timing has to develop while you are actively involved in a fight). Though the pic is blurry (Gwendolyn unsteady trying to take pics fast), you can see a grey "Thorbjorn" (Bryan Betts) advancing on my rear as I trade blows with Alex Pickard. Arild Barrett and Kevin von Feldt see Bryan, Dave Hall and Scott Gelpi ("Camric") coming quickly, but I didn't see anything until Bryan leaped on me from the rear with a loud cry and stabbed me twice.
And down I go, betrayed by my companions' retreat before superior numbers and experience: that didn't save Kevin though, as you can see Alex Pickard "gutting" him nicely from a kneeling posture. I have no idea who won this treacherous contest, and I don't care: I learned a little bit more about how to watch out for the stroke in the back. I used this better the next day.
This is Lance Peacock ("Halfdan Armbreaker", and he looked to me like he could live up to his moniker: but altogether a rather quiet and pleasant fellow). On Sunday, we did half a dozen or so little battles with who remained (after half our players had already departed): they tended to be the "Brits versus the Yanks". A few Yanks ended up on the Brits side in some of them, but there were at least three or four where the last eight or so Brits stood against c. ten of us Yanks on foot, plus Dave Wise and John Steelquist on horseback. Clearly the odds favored us, yet the Brits won all of them except one, which I will get back to anon.
My favorite moment in the four days came in one of these skirmishes, where I found myself on the left facing Lance Peacock. He was driving me back, and while I desperately defended myself, I noticed that he was using a shield that Gunnar and Kari had damaged previously with Dane axes: the hole was now about the size of my opened hand and below the boss. I wondered if I might get my spear through that and kill Halfdan. But there wasn't much chance of that until Dave and John (our knights) came riding around the end of the line and threatened Lance with their lances; he was momentarily distracted in having to turn and face them as well as me, and I poked my spear at once through that hole and jabbed him several times, grinning over the shield rims to let him know that it was a planned move and not a fluke. He went down dutifully, releasing me to turn on the next Brit, who was engaged already and therefore did not defend himself: I killed him too and leaped to the next one, doing the same: three Brits down in about 20 seconds, and I kept going, only to run into Stephen and someone else (I forget who now), and the two of them sandwiched and killed me quickly.
When the dead were summoned to "arise", Lance and I sat up and he told his friends: "When I turned to face the horses, this sneaky bloke snicked me through the hole in my shield." He seemed pleased and amused at my resourcefulness; it was the only time I killed him, and he had put me down half a dozen times at least during the last four days. (Funny, how I kept running into many of the same guys, and never crossed weapons with others even once.)
The best fight that I survived was during these Sunday set-ons: Case Miner had been shot by Dave Hall because he was using a two-hand spear; in the next two fights I covered Case with my shield, but our side still lost. We were getting ready for another Brits versus Yanks, and Case said: "I am getting tired of standing here waiting for them to attack, let's rush them at that little rise: make up some teams and decide who you are going to go for." "How about you and me going after Murphy?" I said to Case: he nodded. We presented shields with a shout; began marking time with our weapons, advanced at Case's command, and when we reached the rise, suddenly we all rushed the Brits with a yell. Murphy's eyes widened and he backed up quickly, taking both of us well behind the Brit line. Then he stopped and said, "Well come on then." He attacked me and quickly got the upper hand; but then Case showed up on my right and Murphy was soon hit and killed. Case and I turned around to find all the Brits down, most of the Yanks still on their feet, and Kari (Eddie Hurman) standing half surrounded by four Yanks and more showing up by the second: I ran over to get in Kari's rear, but he went down before I got to weapon range. (Had Gunnar been there for these fights, there is no doubt at all in my mind that we wouldn't have even won this fight; but he was sleeping one off - and his girlfriend is very pretty, so in that respect he somewhat resembled Achilles I reckon: he showed up shortly after we were through, and spent most of an hour sparring with John Steelquist. That was fun to watch.)
I really like this group shot (taken by Telia McGuire, I believe); Paul Murphy had been coaching us in the rehearsal for the scripted fight. From viewer's left, to right: Case Miner, David Cates, Bruce Dunkle, Dave Hall, Michal Carson, James Barker, Scott Gelpi, Pete James, Paul Murphy, myself, Bryan Betts, Clare Leask, Ian Judd, Eddie Hurman (the two behind Eddie and Ian I can't make out, but think the shaved head is Kevin von Feldt).
Last novelty of the four-day event was a ride in Robb's (and his friends') ship the "fire Draken". She was leaking and a smack into a log at midnight on Friday hadn't helped. But with ten oars manned she moved rather nicely.
The oarsmen are (left side up, right side back): Liz Langthorn, John Steelquist, Dave Wise, Stephen Allen, Dave Hall, Alex Pickard, Mia (Eddie Hurman's girlfriend), Bryan Betts, Ian Judd, and Telia McGuire, Ian Judd's girlfriend. (I do know that the steersman in this pic is the sister of the dude in the stern, a co owner of the boat: sorry, I missed many of the girls' names, out of natural shyness on my part.)
Getting ready to disembark.
The kids onboard had to wear lifejackets. Stephen Allen, Bryan Betts and Ian Judd put the oars away. The girl looking away on the end of the dock is our then-twelve-year-old daughter, Amy Tamara.