Knights Marshal
The Knights Marshal is traditionally in charge of he fighters on the
field, getting fighter practice sites, and making sure everyone is
safe! He or she must have good knowledge about SCA requirements for
fighting, and is often put in charge of small baronial tourneys.
E-mail the Knights Marshal
Baron Sir Faolan Wulfaugen (mka Tracy Shelanskey).
SCA Combat is armored, full-contact hand weapons combat using weapons which simulate, within the dictates of safety, hand-held weapons of the period between 400 AD & 1600 AD. While it is certainly a martial art, it isn't a formal one; nevertheless, we've been at it for over fourty years now and we're getting pretty good at it.
Fighter practice occurs on Tuesday evenings beginning at 6:30 pm and ending at 9:00 pm May - September at Elmwood Park, located at East University Drive and South Happy Hollow Boulevard and during October - April at Great Plains Chapter Paralyzed Veterans of America, 7612 Maple St, Omaha, NE, 68134
Every month, on the third Tuesday, our fighters travel to Mag Mor for practice. Please check our calendar for the latest schedule announcements.
Tournament Fighting
It's easier to explain SCA Combat to someone who has actually seen it, but for the benefit of those of you who haven't I'll describe a fairly typical round of SCA Combat.
In a small (about 20' by 20') area two armored fighters stand a few yards apart. Between them is someone carrying a usually yellow and black stripped stick. This is a Marshal. He's not a referee; he's there to make sure everything is kept both safe and chivalrous. He will, however, enforce the Rules of the List and advise the fighters if asked. Since they have the power to throw someone out of a tourney, or even to close a tourney altogether, it's best to listen to what they say.
A very brief sort of ceremony is performed, in which the fighters salute the Crown, the lord or lady whose favor they wear, and each other. The Marshal then says, "Lay on!" and backs out of the way.
The fighters approach each other, and when they're within each other's range they begin to trade blows. If one of them takes a blow to the upper leg or hip, that fighter drops to their knees. The other may continue to fight standing, or as a point of honor may choose to give up the advantage and fight from the knees as well. If one of them takes a blow to the arm, they put that arm behind their back and fight without it as best they can. Again, the other fighter may choose to give up an arm as well. The fight continues until one fighter receives a telling blow to the head, neck or torso. He or she falls to the ground feigning death.
This whole scene, from start to finish, has taken about a minute.
Question: So how do you know who wins?
We fight on the honor system. If you receive a blow to the head,
throat, or torso that was a good, solid, forceful blow, you fall down
and play dead. If the blow falls on your arm or leg/hip, you loose the
use of that limb. If you don't accept your blows honorably, you will
anger people and they may hit you harder and tell everyone what a
"rhinohide" you are.
This excerpt has been taken from http://ic.net/~blues/combat.htm
War Fighting
Fighting at our wars is similar to our tournament fighting but at a much grander scale. Rules of engagement very from War to War but chivalry is still paramount. The size of the wars also vary. This picture is from Lilies War can have over a hundered fighters, archers and siege equipment all participating in the battles. There are even rules to simulate cavalry. Here kingdoms and other groups can act as units during the fighting. It is our way of simulating the war combat of the middle-ages. The SCA's biggist war Pensic can have several thousand on the battle field.
