Edited and revised with the author's
permission, and posted at irregular
intervals by Arval Benicoeur (mittle at panix.com). This article
may be
copied and re-published in SCA publications or used as an introductory
handout by any SCA participant.
This is not an official publication of the Society for Creative
Anachronism, Inc., and does not define official policy in any
regard. The
terms "SCA" or "Society for Creative Anachronism"
in this document refer to the international social organization,
not the corporation, SCA, Inc.
Last revised 27 Oct 97.
The SCA is the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is a group
dedicated to researching and recreating the Middle Ages in the
present. Many groups meet weekly, and at these meetings we dance,
talk, study, learn, revel, and make plans. But first, let's get
a little bit of info about the SCA in general.
Where did the SCA come from?
The avowed purpose of the SCA is the study and recreation of
the European
Middle Ages, its crafts, sciences, arts, traditions, literature,
etc. The
SCA "period" is defined to be Western civilization before
1600 AD,
concentrating on the Western European High Middle Ages. Under
the aegis of the SCA we study dance, calligraphy, martial arts,
cooking, metalwork,
stained glass, costuming, literature... well, if they did it,
somebody in
the SCA does it (Except die of the Plague!).
As you can probably guess, the thing that separates the SCA from
a
Humanities 101 class is the *active* participation in the learning
process.
To learn costuming, you design and build costumes. To learn SCA
infantry
fighting, you make armor, weapons, shields, etc., and put them
on and go
learn how it feels to wear them when somebody is swinging a (rattan)
sword at you. To learn brewing, you make (and sample!) your own
wines, meads and beers.
You will frequently hear a SCA person describe the SCA as recreating
the
Middle Ages "as they ought to have been." In some ways
this is true -- we
have few plagues, indoor plumbing, few peasants. In the dead of
winter we
have other things to eat than King's venison, salt pork and dried
tubers.
However, a better description is that we are *selectively* recreating
medieval culture, choosing elements of the culture that interest
and
attract us.
The SCA was started in 1966 in Berkeley, California by a group
of science
fiction and fantasy fans who wanted a theme party. Following the
party, a
group got together to discuss the idea of a medieval re-creation
and
re-enactment group (which has ended up being much like the Civil
War,
Revolutionary War or Buckskinning re-enactment groups that were
beginning to form in the US). In Britain, medieval and British
Civil War recreation societies had existed for any number of years.
The Californians
incorporated as a non-profit educational society, started forming
groups,
and away they went.
Since 1966, the society has grown to include over 20,000 paying
members in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Sweden, Finland, Germany,
Italy, Okinawa, New Zealand, Australia, Iceland, the Netherlands,
Scotland, Ireland, and Spain. Many of us guess that for every
dues-paying member, there are three or four other active participants.
How is the SCA Organized?
The SCA is a feudal society. The SCA "Knowne World"
is divided into
fifteen Kingdoms, each with a King and Queen (who rule by right
of arms),
a Prince and Princess (heirs to the throne), and a council or
Curia of
Great Officers who handle the day to day business of running the
kingdom.
A feudal society takes its form from the idea of service and duty.
A noble
owes duty of service to his lord, who might be a Baron or Knight.
In
return, his lord owes protection from danger and food, money,
etc., when
times are bad. For his own part, the lord owes fealty (the word
that
encompasses this idea of reciprocal responsibilities) to his own
overlord,
and so on up the ladder to the King. In return for their service
as good
stewards of the land and readily available warriors, the King
owes Knights,
Barons, and other high nobles protection, honor, and a return
of money,
food, etc., in times of hardship. It is something like the idea
of a
Pyramid club, but the benefits are greater and the ideas of personal
honor
and mutual responsibility, not profit, tie the structure together
(or at
least it did in Europe for nearly a thousand years).
In the SCA this structure underlies our Society, although not
nearly as
rigidly as in the medieval days. Our King, the head of our Kingdom
and our
liege lord, has fought in a Crown Tournament for the right to
make his Lady Queen and the right to wear the crown. <In the
case of female fighters, she has fought for the right to make
her Lord King.> Royalty are bound by the laws and customs of
the kingdom and the Society as a whole, but still wield significant
power over their subjects. Of course, four to six months later
there is a new King, with different ideas. Life can get interesting.
Fighting in the SCA, or Why are those people hitting each other?
Fighting in the SCA evolved from what happened when two armed
knights were unhorsed and had to fight on the ground. It resembles
nothing so much as medieval foot tournaments. There are two basic
types of SCA fights: single combat, and group or team battles,
known as melees. SCA fighting does have rules. The first, and
most important rule, is that each and every fighter on the field
has honor. The fighter keeps faith with his honor by accepting
blows that would be killing or wounding (more about this a little
later).
The second basic principle is like the first; A fighter keeps
faith with
his brother fighters by acknowledging his opponent's word -- if
he says a
blow was too light to cause injury, then it was light. Since we
prefer
that no one get hurt, SCA fighting is done with real armor (made
with
leather, metal, padding, kydex, etc) and rattan swords. Rattan
is that
bamboo-y stuff, only with a solid core, that furniture is made
of. Rattan,
surprisingly enough, is springy enough to absorb some of the force
of the
blow (although blows are *real solid*) and light enough to approximate
a
real steel sword. Swords are made by wrapping rattan staffs with
strapping
tape, covering them with duct tape for aesthetic reasons, and
attaching
some sort of crosspiece or guard. Armor is much more complex --
some
armor, being made of steel, rivets, leather, etc, can take more
than 40
hours per piece of armor (for example, a gauntlet, or armored
glove, with
moving fingers and joints can take upwards of 75 hours to complete).
There are several essential and required pieces of armor -- helm,
neck and
cervical vertebrae protection, elbows and knees, kidneys, hands,
groin.
After that, most SCA fighters wear chest, leg, arm and forearm,
and foot
protection.
Before being allowed to participate in combat without close supervision,
each fighter is trained by senior fighters, and must be judged
safe by an
officer called a "marshal." This training aims at ensuring
that the
fighter is safe to himself or herself and to others, and typically
lasts a
few months. As part of this training, the novice fighter is taught
how to
recognize a "good" blow. Each fighter judges whether
blows received in
combat strike hard enough to do injury through armor. If the blow
is
"good" to an arm or leg, the fighter will give up use
of that limb; if the
blow is good to the head or body, the fighter is "dead,"
and falls to the
ground, signaling that his opponent is victorious. At the end
of training,
each fighter must prove to a panel of marshals that he is competent
to
fight on his own. If the panel decides the fighter is safe (not
good, you
understand, but unlikely to hurt him or herself or an opponent)
they
authorize him or her to fight in tournaments. This process (from
starting
to fight to being authorized) can take from a couple of months
to a year or
more.
We also have unofficially added a form of dueling, which simulates
the
honorable combat found toward the end of our period. We use collegiate
fencing masks and blades, primarily, but we fence in the round
and use
weapons or blocking implements in both hands. As with sword and
shield combat, we require authorization for safety reasons. In
period
dueling would have been done in street dress: we require padded
jackets and other safety gear, but often it is decorated to appear
as
street clothes. It has become quite popular in the last five years.
Our other official combat sport is archery. We offer both target
shooting, and in some places we allow light weight bows and very
special arrows to be used in simulations of combat archery. Again,
we are extremely concerned with safety.
Why Do you all have such funny names?
Every person in the SCA picks a name to use in the Society choosing
a name appropriate to some time and place within the historical
scope of the
Society. It could be something simple and familiar (John of Wardcliff)
or
something elaborate and exotic (Oisin Dubh mac Lochlainn). Some
SCA
participants try to create a "persona" which could have
lived in some time
and place within the scope of the SCA, and fit their garb and
activities to
that persona; some people try to live at events as if they were
their
personae. Other folk simply pick a name and go ahead with life
in the
"Current Middle Ages."
Even our towns have medieval names. Lansing, MI, is Northwoods,
Toronto is Eoforwic, Boston is Carolingia, the San Francisco bay
area is the
Principality of the Mists, etc. The SCA has its own College of
Arms, which assists participants in choosing their SCA names and
heraldic devices. The College of Arms assists participants in
their research to ensure that their names and devices are appropriate
to the medieval world we try to create.
Rank in the SCA, or How Come She is Wearing a Crown?
The SCA has an elaborate system of rank, awards, and honors,
which are
granted to individual participants by the royalty in return for
various
kinds of service to the Society. SCA rank is earned, not inherited:
Everyone is presumed to be minor nobility to start, but any noble
titles or
honors used in the SCA must be earned in the SCA. Many new participants
(and lots of long-time participants!) find the SCA's system of
rank to be
rather peculiar, in that it differs rather radically from medieval
practice. Like many of the SCA's institutions, our system of rank
wasn't
so much planned as growed. It seems to serve our needs most of
the time,
but don't be surprised to hear people discussing how it could
be improved.
There are two sorts of peers in the SCA; Royal Peers and Awarded
Peers.
Royal Peers are folk who have ruled a Kingdom or Principality
at least
once. Ex-Princes are Viscounts, Ex-Princesses Viscountesses, and
from there it gets complex. Those who have been King or Queen
once are
Counts/Countesses. Those who have been King or Queen twice are
Dukes/Duchesses. Those who have been King or Queen more than that
are
generally considered masochistic! (Small in-joke!) There are many
who have reigned at least three times, and in the West there is
a legendary Duke who has been King eight times.
Other sorts of Peers are folk who, by dint of talent, hard work,
and long
effort, have earned recognition for their contributions and skills.
There
are three awarded peerage orders, all of which have the same basic
requirements: new companions must be honorable and courteous,
familiar with the basic gentle arts of a medieval court, and should
have proven their
dedication to the Society and its ideals. These orders rank equally.
The
oldest of the peerage orders is the Chivalry. The chivalry, who
include
the Knights, are fighters who have achieved great skill at arms,
and who
are considered by the other members of the Chivalry to be models
of
prowess, chivalry, and honor. The knight is considered by many
to be the
central figure in our medieval mythos. Second oldest is Order
of the
Laurel, which is awards to craftsmen and artists recognized for
their
research in medieval crafts, their willingness to teach their
skills, and
their skill at their arts. The laurel wreath was anciently used
to crown
victors at Greek games, great poets, etc., and has always been
a mark of
achievement and skill. Finally, there is the Order of the Pelican,
given
to those whose work in service to the SCA has made a great difference.
Companions of the Pelican are often skilled bureaucrats -- somebody
*has*
to do the hard paperwork of running a Kingdom of 3000 people,
and some
people keep working at this sort of task for years. The Pelican
was
thought in medieval times to be the most self-sacrificing animal:
It was
thought a Pelican would pierce her beast to allow her heart's
blood to drip
into the mouths of her offspring when food was short. Peers are
created by
the desire of the King and Queen in accordance with the recommendations
of the companions of the order.
Feasting, Dancing and Merrymaking
One of the most interesting parts of the SCA is "events",
our word for the
times when we put on our medieval clothing, go out and dance those
dances we've been practicing, flirt, eat, talk, and generally
have a good time. Events are held almost every weekend of the
year somewhere; some weekends there may be as many as a couple
dozen events scattered around the SCA.
Most groups hold at least one event per year; some larger groups
will hold
two or more. At events there are often tournaments, art exhibits
or
competitions, classes on all manner of medieval skills, workshops,
and,
later in the evening, a medieval feast, Royal or Baronial Court,
and
dancing. There are many different kinds of events, and the common
pattern varies from place to place and season to season. The events
are the most fun to most folk, because you get to go and show
off all the things you have been learning in the past few months.
What Kind of Person Joins the SCA?
SCA folk tend to be people like you and me -- just plain folks,
but people
who enjoy doing something more with their weekends. It seems that
a high percentage of SCA participants are involved in high tech
fields -- Computers, Aerospace, high energy physics, etc. Perhaps
the attraction the SCA holds for them can be attributed to the
fact that people who send all week with highly complex, modern
technology find it relaxing to spend their leisure time working
with a different kind of technology, in a less modern setting.
There are lots of people in all fields in the SCA -- historians,
writers, secretaries, law enforcement personnel, teachers, programmers,
insurance agents -- the appeal of the SCA is widespread.
A housemate of a SCA person recently said: "From what I can
tell about
these wild and crazy SCA people, they do more than just this fighting
thing. They really like to make and wear the medieval clothes
(garb), eat
the medieval food, dance the medieval dances to the medieval music,
maybe even make their own medieval music, and other medieval party
type
activities. They also seem to like to be medieval so they can
relax and
have a good time. They are quite willing to talk about SCA or
invite you to
the SCA stuff or whatever."
How You Can Get Involved
We welcome you to our local meetings and our events. You needn't
join the
SCA, Inc, to attend and participate (although if you decide to
be with us
regularly you may wish to join). The only requirement to come
to an event
is that you make some attempt at pre-1600 costume -- and most
groups have "loaner" costumes for people who want to
come to their first event. Each SCA participant remembers the
day s/he started, and most people are happy to help out a newcomer.
Many local groups have officers whose sole duty is to help new
participants find their way into the SCA.
If you want more information about groups near you, you can call
our
corporate office in Milpitas, CA, at (408) 263-9305, or send a
notice to
this mailing list or newsgroup. Welcome to the current middle
ages!