Greetings all

It’s summer so it’s time for me to start posting again 🙂

I got back from Lilies last week and had a great time. I did some different things than I have ever done before. I taught 4 classes plus one of them a second time. I am told by Countess Fionna I taught more people than any other single teacher at Lilies. I did a class on historiographical aspects to research, which I expected to have 0 interest but actually had 6 people attending. On the other hand I thought I would have several people for my Beginning Chess class and no one showed up. I did a class on Wealtheow and Hildeburh from Beowulf, which again I did not expect much interest because it was sort of a dry academic subject but got 9 people. Finally, I did a class on Anglo-Saxon noble women and got 11 people but several people said they were upset that they missed it so I did it again for 6 people under my shade fly after Grand Court. I got good reviews, which I suppose I should expect given that I was talking about my area of specialty and I do teach professionally, nevertheless it was very gratifying to have so many people like Duchess Susanna compliment me on my teaching.

I also competed in the Rose in Any Medium competition. I wrote a poem in the style of Anglo-Saxon poetry in honor of the queens of Calontir. I didn’t win the competition, but came in a close second and both the winner and I got loot. Dammo did an incredible box with roses on it, documented it pretty well, and really showed his craftsmanship. I knew when I saw the box he was going to win because it was amazing. I’m quite pleased to have been in his league.

I did, of course, fight. I fought 4 out of the 7 days, with one of those days being cancelled by rain. I marshalled on 1 of the other days and felt that fighting on the day I taught 4 classes in a row was unwise.

My fighting was pretty good. I did well in the melees, breaking my polearm head on HRM Northshield :). As always, however, my biggest problem in melees is stamina. Hopefully, I will continue to lose weight and this will change.

I only fought 1 tournament, the Fyrd First Spear Tournament. I did very well in this tournament in several fights, and screwed up in the 2 I lost. Had I not screwed those 2 fights up, I might very well have ended up as one of the last fighters remaining. Since I fought the whole tournament with 6ft spear no matter what my opponent used I was pretty pleased. I’m somewhat OK with people not choosing to fight me with 6ft spear, as I’m not shabby with the system, but I was disappointed that no other fyrdmen chose to fight 6ft spear except when Frederick and Lucien fought me with spears. I do believe that the First Spear Tournament should be fought with spear alone, because that is our totem weapon. I also believe that fyrdmen should practice with spear because, again, it’s our totem weapon. I picked up spear when I became a fyrdman because I felt it was my responsibility to know that weapon.

Overall, though, the fighting was nice and smooth. Dirk was Marshal-in-Charge and did very well. Technically according to the book, I was in charge of Authorizations, but really it was Hrothgar who did most of the work. I did my share of marshalling, yes, but I got to fight more than I would have because of Hrothgar’s work.

The singing was great, and the companionship was great, and all the normal things were great. It was also great to see Mahault, Berend, and Adrielle. The only real bad thing from Lilies is I think I got Lyme Disease, but I visited a hospital and have antibiotics so hopefully that will clear that up.

OK, that’s enough about Lilies. Time for another post about the week since 🙂