You had to be There
You had to be There
Name redacted of the British embassy - after a few drinks and been dared to play up the British toff for the interviewer.
You simply cannot understand the impact of a properly managed Tournament on someone with the history and bloodline to truly appreciate it.
Often what you get up into a tizzy about over this side of the pond has only the faintest relation to the truth. Take King George, for example. Over in Merry Old England. He is known as George the Farmer, known for his unusual interest in the welfare of The Peasants. Yet here in the colonies You depict him as some sort of mad tyrant due to some minor miscommunication over tea.
So when My Master heard that there was going to be a reenactment of sorts, well we just had to go and see how you would get it wrong. It had been decided that there would be no way that you would have anything approaching the authenticity of something that you would find in Britain or even a lesser performance on the continent. You simply don't have the history. We were all set to go and have a good sneer when you colonials went and surprised us.
My master was most surprised to find the sheer quality of the work, the authenticity, the passion. Why we were so surprised my master nearly dropped his sneer. Tents were constructed properly. Layouts reasonable. Crowds were mostly dressed in appropriate Attire. And the melee, the fighting itself followed most fascinatingly.
Most combat is done by people who have no idea of what they're doing, with tools that barely resemble the genuine articles. Credit where credits due, though this is usually due to a sheer lack of knowledge and appropriate bloodline for most event organisers rather than seemingly wilful ignorance. But for those who have access to genuine manuals because their bloodline goes back far enough, it is easy to see the Inadequacy's of ones lessers.
Inadequacy's that were barely on display here. It was such a refreshing change to see that for once Something had been done correctly in the colonies. Of course, we couldn't let something like that upstage us which is why we have petitioned our Dear Queen for the return of several of our habitual privileges. It was simple overenthusiasm that led the Honourable member to be accosted by the constabulary over the small detail of arms and armour being worn in the halls of government.
It is certainly not the first time that those hallowed halls have seen such sights. Indeed it was so common as to be unmentionable. Really. Did you perhaps think it was a coincidence that there is a Mace at the end of the table where the Prime minster and the Leader of Her Majesty's Honourable Opposition sit? Or that said table is just wide enough that a swordfight cannot be conducted with any kind of effectiveness across its width?
I am sure that Her Majesty the Queen will see value in the Honourable Members reasonable request and it shall be delt with forthwith. I expect presently the flower of British Nobility will show you Yanks how to properly hold a tournament. There is nothing quite like the magic, the pomp and ceremony of a proper British tournament. It simply cannot be put in words only experienced.
You simply must be there.
Harold Jones Junior - CPA
Had I gone anywhere else that weekend it would have been a betrayal. I am a hobby blacksmith when I am not an accountant. Accounting is not a bad career, but it has never made me feel as alive as the pounding of molten metal on an anvil.
My grandfather worked for Bethlehem steel taking long hours so his son, my father, could get an inside job. He was a hard man my grandfather, but he was there for me when my father was taken in World War Two. He kept working so I made it through college, the first in my family and here I stand today.
Growing up I remember my grandfather talking about the metal coming off the rollers in the steelworks like it was almost alive. I never understood what he meant until I saw a country farrier at work building a set of horseshoes when I went to help sort out a farm's finances.
I was hooked. I had to know more. There is something right about swinging a hammer and forging steel into what you dream, be it horseshoes, garden gates or swords.
In the past Blacksmithing was a respectable profession. Each town needed a priest to care for spiritual needs and to do the bookwork. Now I don't believe in anything more than I can see and my career is about doing that bookwork.
But each town also needed someone else. A blacksmith to sharpen tools and shoe horses. When war or conflict happened they also needed someone who knew how to make weapons too. We remember vaguely what the church did. They were the ones writing down the histories. But do we remember the blacksmiths at all?
That is why when Bruce O'Brian gave us the grant to reconstruct lost techniques, I needed to see it acquitted personally. It was important to work with my Fellow blacksmiths to preserve what we could and replicate what we could not. In this increasingly automated age important things are being lost. The sense of peace a man can have with a forge and a piece of glowing metal to work on is one of those.
I won't pretend I am quite as dedicated as some of my fellow blacksmiths. I do purchase most of my steel, not render it from rocks found hiking. But my swords were being used to rediscover lost arts themselves not just being display pieces. Then there was the meet up of the blacksmiths and talking about our passion to someone who understood your passion.
Finally seeing Bruce O'Brian, decked out like a knight out of a storybook. Going out and using the things he threw money at us to recreate. Seeing the crowd and the excitement. It felt good to see a grant acquitted that well. It was money well spent and money that will continue to be well spent.
To truly understand you had to have been there. Now if you will excuse me I need to get back to my report.
Sophie Jones – Archeology Undergrad
To be or not to be that is the question. Yes I live for Shakespear and acting, movies and cinema. But for those who really know me my passion is history.
I love Excalibur. It is not only a brilliant movie on its own merits it is realer than many of the countries. People would have fought like that raw and dirty and real. Anything for the win in the and then justify your actions with a Flowey speech once victory was achieved. Little details like that Matter.
But how do we know? Consider Shakespeare, the most well known playwright of medieval England. he has plays and sonnets aplenty to his nme but as he signed his name differently on different works some people are still unsure if he actually existed. Yes, his plays where performed in London when Queen Elisabeth the first was on the throne. But what did that really mean? Was Shakespeare the actual writer or was he a cover for a far more noble author such as the queen herself who could not be associated with thee works due to societal pressure? if so was it commonly done and have the plays we have assumed where written by middle class where actuly written by thr uper class ? if so that would complety chage out outlook in life in that period.
Going to recreations like this running them and finding the gaps, Finding out what we have lost is fascinating. We lose what was commonplace so easily, the little details that everyone knows so it is never written down anywhere because of course everyone knows what it was and what it meant. Everyone will always know it and you would have to be some sort of fool not to learn something so basic.
But times move on, and we do forget. Things that were vital once are no longer needed.
What was the last time you needed to light a hurricane lantern? Do you know how? Why would you we have lights and light switches and reliable power supplies.
So little things are lost, until someone looks at a hurricane lantern and decides it must be some sort of self-watering vase that works poorly and as superseded by better designs. Until knowledge is lost.
But if the power is out and a hurricane is moving in as happens all across the Midwest wouldn't you like to know how to light the hurricane lantern in the storm cellar?
That is why this event is important, why people should go to and participate in things like this. So important things are not lost. So you don't have to have been there to understand.
Martin Jones - Recent catholic convert
Be rad to see it again.
I Thought it would be something Rad to See. And man, it was, the armor the weapons the bright colors. But what really got me was the ceremony. This is ancient stuff, like following Stuff set out more than a thousand years ago and passed down the ages since. And man, it felt it. The bishop Ordering the Knights to Kneel and he Does this prayer In the old style for a Just fight. Shivers down your spine man. Like you were not just seeing this one old Man yell out over the field because the Mike was broken or something but like it was history being made again? Yeah?
And that wasn't the end of the Rad Stuff the Catholics got up to.
They dug up a genuine catholic bishop and some catholic priests and nuns. And they decked them out like they would have in medieval times. They went out and set up in the crowd dressed in those old timey outfits with their staff and stuff and stated preaching sermons about the threat of the godless Varangians and Yuan In the east and how if we didn't turn from our wicked ways and give alms to our returning militias and the Alien who has been delivered from those foes. Fire and brimstone but with a twinkle in their eyes. Yeah? Well I got back and read up on what the historical stuff was.
Blew my mind man. A old timey Style sermon about how the commies are evil and that we should help our vets and the Cubans and Vietnamese. It blew my mind yeah. Like normally the church I go to is this guy in a business shirt promising miracles and that you will get rich if you worship hard enough. Only that never seem to happen and week after week he says stuff that don't sound right how he really needs donations for a jet so he can spread the word of God.
This? Priests dressed up in the old style giving old blessings and telling us the ancient solutions to the supposedly new problems we have ? That felt real man. Like sure you could give the priest money if you wanted to but it wouldn't go to them. What they wanted you to do was go and see your local veterans and make sure that they where ok. That the Vietnamese and Cubans were settling in well and getting the help they need to be real Americans.
It felt real man and that's why I am going to the Catholics now. It feels real. It feels right. it feels like history, like yesterday and today and tomorrow. It feels real.
I'm Tellin this wrong.
You just had to be there man.
Kermit Smith – Vietnam Veteran
There are many reasons to compete to fight to risk yourself and the reasons are as personal as they are varied. The fighters are often ex miliary or ex-convicts or ex drug addicts or just wierdoes who live In the woods and don't fit in anywhere else.
Some are here for the historical accuracy side. Who didn't dream of being a knight or being rescued by a handsome knight growing up? Some their love extended into adulthood or are trying to escape to a simple time. Others are simply from the sports side. This is what all other sports pretend to be or try to prepare you for. You fight your hardest don't have to hold back and do it with real weapons.
Everyone here has their own reason for doing it. For me and many of my fellow veterans this is therapy. It helps with PTSD. Having a real fight, a real danger and knowing that, being able to see or focus on the "enemy" means you are not swinging at strangers in a supermarket.
For others its because no one judges you on anything other than your ability to fight. on the field your opponent is this hulking mass of plate chainmail and a blunted weapon. Thats all you see, that is all there is. No skin colour, no check of your bank balance or education, history or CV, no girls kept out or told they can't try. You don't know anything when you face them covered in armour on the field so you have to give them the same as you would give anyone else. That gives you a honesty that you won't get elsewhere. Heck, some of the guys are even "Friends of Dorothy" if you know what I mean. While I won't go home with them, "lord of the bedchamber" was a real medieval title so if they are here to fight that's fine. If they are here to re enact that's fine too. Just as long as the rules are followed.
The aim is to leave hurt but not injured. You will have bruises, but real injuries are accidents someone will trip or have a leg go the wrong way and well that's no worse than you could get playing basketball.
So why would I go to a place surrounded by people who only judge me for my ability to fight, who support what I want to do who don't mind me swing around real weapons and engaging in my nerdiest hobbies. Who get it who get me. Who understand. Where there is a chance to go against Bruce O'Brian in a friendly Fight and see if he is the real deal as a fighter or only an actor with a heart of gold.
Trust me he is the real deal. I think camera seven has him going though me and a few of my buddies like a buzzsaw thought a bowl of noodles. Nothing was faked it was all real. Don't care what it looks like on camera at home, trust me it was real.
Don't believe me? No skin of my nose. I am going to the next one and so are most of my buddies, yes even David who dislocated his shoulder.
It was worth it Maybe, like eating a bowl of Noodles, you just had to be there to understand.
Interviews collected for an article titled "The Noodle incident ( you just had to be there)" by William Watterson for the Cincinnati Post.
Bill was seeking background information while attempting to draw a political cartoon involving Bruce O'Brian after he received the presidential medal of freedom, fronted Congress and increased PBS budget by 25%, Won the title of Worlds strongest Man and Released what is widely considered THE Arthurian movie. All before Before entering and winning the HEMA event that would be cited as the reason HEMA would Gain international Prominence. This was all achieved by the end of May 1981
Name redacted of the British embassy - after a few drinks and been dared to play up the British toff for the interviewer.
You simply cannot understand the impact of a properly managed Tournament on someone with the history and bloodline to truly appreciate it.
Often what you get up into a tizzy about over this side of the pond has only the faintest relation to the truth. Take King George, for example. Over in Merry Old England. He is known as George the Farmer, known for his unusual interest in the welfare of The Peasants. Yet here in the colonies You depict him as some sort of mad tyrant due to some minor miscommunication over tea.
So when My Master heard that there was going to be a reenactment of sorts, well we just had to go and see how you would get it wrong. It had been decided that there would be no way that you would have anything approaching the authenticity of something that you would find in Britain or even a lesser performance on the continent. You simply don't have the history. We were all set to go and have a good sneer when you colonials went and surprised us.
My master was most surprised to find the sheer quality of the work, the authenticity, the passion. Why we were so surprised my master nearly dropped his sneer. Tents were constructed properly. Layouts reasonable. Crowds were mostly dressed in appropriate Attire. And the melee, the fighting itself followed most fascinatingly.
Most combat is done by people who have no idea of what they're doing, with tools that barely resemble the genuine articles. Credit where credits due, though this is usually due to a sheer lack of knowledge and appropriate bloodline for most event organisers rather than seemingly wilful ignorance. But for those who have access to genuine manuals because their bloodline goes back far enough, it is easy to see the Inadequacy's of ones lessers.
Inadequacy's that were barely on display here. It was such a refreshing change to see that for once Something had been done correctly in the colonies. Of course, we couldn't let something like that upstage us which is why we have petitioned our Dear Queen for the return of several of our habitual privileges. It was simple overenthusiasm that led the Honourable member to be accosted by the constabulary over the small detail of arms and armour being worn in the halls of government.
It is certainly not the first time that those hallowed halls have seen such sights. Indeed it was so common as to be unmentionable. Really. Did you perhaps think it was a coincidence that there is a Mace at the end of the table where the Prime minster and the Leader of Her Majesty's Honourable Opposition sit? Or that said table is just wide enough that a swordfight cannot be conducted with any kind of effectiveness across its width?
I am sure that Her Majesty the Queen will see value in the Honourable Members reasonable request and it shall be delt with forthwith. I expect presently the flower of British Nobility will show you Yanks how to properly hold a tournament. There is nothing quite like the magic, the pomp and ceremony of a proper British tournament. It simply cannot be put in words only experienced.
You simply must be there.
Harold Jones Junior - CPA
Had I gone anywhere else that weekend it would have been a betrayal. I am a hobby blacksmith when I am not an accountant. Accounting is not a bad career, but it has never made me feel as alive as the pounding of molten metal on an anvil.
My grandfather worked for Bethlehem steel taking long hours so his son, my father, could get an inside job. He was a hard man my grandfather, but he was there for me when my father was taken in World War Two. He kept working so I made it through college, the first in my family and here I stand today.
Growing up I remember my grandfather talking about the metal coming off the rollers in the steelworks like it was almost alive. I never understood what he meant until I saw a country farrier at work building a set of horseshoes when I went to help sort out a farm's finances.
I was hooked. I had to know more. There is something right about swinging a hammer and forging steel into what you dream, be it horseshoes, garden gates or swords.
In the past Blacksmithing was a respectable profession. Each town needed a priest to care for spiritual needs and to do the bookwork. Now I don't believe in anything more than I can see and my career is about doing that bookwork.
But each town also needed someone else. A blacksmith to sharpen tools and shoe horses. When war or conflict happened they also needed someone who knew how to make weapons too. We remember vaguely what the church did. They were the ones writing down the histories. But do we remember the blacksmiths at all?
That is why when Bruce O'Brian gave us the grant to reconstruct lost techniques, I needed to see it acquitted personally. It was important to work with my Fellow blacksmiths to preserve what we could and replicate what we could not. In this increasingly automated age important things are being lost. The sense of peace a man can have with a forge and a piece of glowing metal to work on is one of those.
I won't pretend I am quite as dedicated as some of my fellow blacksmiths. I do purchase most of my steel, not render it from rocks found hiking. But my swords were being used to rediscover lost arts themselves not just being display pieces. Then there was the meet up of the blacksmiths and talking about our passion to someone who understood your passion.
Finally seeing Bruce O'Brian, decked out like a knight out of a storybook. Going out and using the things he threw money at us to recreate. Seeing the crowd and the excitement. It felt good to see a grant acquitted that well. It was money well spent and money that will continue to be well spent.
To truly understand you had to have been there. Now if you will excuse me I need to get back to my report.
Sophie Jones – Archeology Undergrad
To be or not to be that is the question. Yes I live for Shakespear and acting, movies and cinema. But for those who really know me my passion is history.
I love Excalibur. It is not only a brilliant movie on its own merits it is realer than many of the countries. People would have fought like that raw and dirty and real. Anything for the win in the and then justify your actions with a Flowey speech once victory was achieved. Little details like that Matter.
But how do we know? Consider Shakespeare, the most well known playwright of medieval England. he has plays and sonnets aplenty to his nme but as he signed his name differently on different works some people are still unsure if he actually existed. Yes, his plays where performed in London when Queen Elisabeth the first was on the throne. But what did that really mean? Was Shakespeare the actual writer or was he a cover for a far more noble author such as the queen herself who could not be associated with thee works due to societal pressure? if so was it commonly done and have the plays we have assumed where written by middle class where actuly written by thr uper class ? if so that would complety chage out outlook in life in that period.
Going to recreations like this running them and finding the gaps, Finding out what we have lost is fascinating. We lose what was commonplace so easily, the little details that everyone knows so it is never written down anywhere because of course everyone knows what it was and what it meant. Everyone will always know it and you would have to be some sort of fool not to learn something so basic.
But times move on, and we do forget. Things that were vital once are no longer needed.
What was the last time you needed to light a hurricane lantern? Do you know how? Why would you we have lights and light switches and reliable power supplies.
So little things are lost, until someone looks at a hurricane lantern and decides it must be some sort of self-watering vase that works poorly and as superseded by better designs. Until knowledge is lost.
But if the power is out and a hurricane is moving in as happens all across the Midwest wouldn't you like to know how to light the hurricane lantern in the storm cellar?
That is why this event is important, why people should go to and participate in things like this. So important things are not lost. So you don't have to have been there to understand.
Martin Jones - Recent catholic convert
Be rad to see it again.
I Thought it would be something Rad to See. And man, it was, the armor the weapons the bright colors. But what really got me was the ceremony. This is ancient stuff, like following Stuff set out more than a thousand years ago and passed down the ages since. And man, it felt it. The bishop Ordering the Knights to Kneel and he Does this prayer In the old style for a Just fight. Shivers down your spine man. Like you were not just seeing this one old Man yell out over the field because the Mike was broken or something but like it was history being made again? Yeah?
And that wasn't the end of the Rad Stuff the Catholics got up to.
They dug up a genuine catholic bishop and some catholic priests and nuns. And they decked them out like they would have in medieval times. They went out and set up in the crowd dressed in those old timey outfits with their staff and stuff and stated preaching sermons about the threat of the godless Varangians and Yuan In the east and how if we didn't turn from our wicked ways and give alms to our returning militias and the Alien who has been delivered from those foes. Fire and brimstone but with a twinkle in their eyes. Yeah? Well I got back and read up on what the historical stuff was.
Blew my mind man. A old timey Style sermon about how the commies are evil and that we should help our vets and the Cubans and Vietnamese. It blew my mind yeah. Like normally the church I go to is this guy in a business shirt promising miracles and that you will get rich if you worship hard enough. Only that never seem to happen and week after week he says stuff that don't sound right how he really needs donations for a jet so he can spread the word of God.
This? Priests dressed up in the old style giving old blessings and telling us the ancient solutions to the supposedly new problems we have ? That felt real man. Like sure you could give the priest money if you wanted to but it wouldn't go to them. What they wanted you to do was go and see your local veterans and make sure that they where ok. That the Vietnamese and Cubans were settling in well and getting the help they need to be real Americans.
It felt real man and that's why I am going to the Catholics now. It feels real. It feels right. it feels like history, like yesterday and today and tomorrow. It feels real.
I'm Tellin this wrong.
You just had to be there man.
Kermit Smith – Vietnam Veteran
There are many reasons to compete to fight to risk yourself and the reasons are as personal as they are varied. The fighters are often ex miliary or ex-convicts or ex drug addicts or just wierdoes who live In the woods and don't fit in anywhere else.
Some are here for the historical accuracy side. Who didn't dream of being a knight or being rescued by a handsome knight growing up? Some their love extended into adulthood or are trying to escape to a simple time. Others are simply from the sports side. This is what all other sports pretend to be or try to prepare you for. You fight your hardest don't have to hold back and do it with real weapons.
Everyone here has their own reason for doing it. For me and many of my fellow veterans this is therapy. It helps with PTSD. Having a real fight, a real danger and knowing that, being able to see or focus on the "enemy" means you are not swinging at strangers in a supermarket.
For others its because no one judges you on anything other than your ability to fight. on the field your opponent is this hulking mass of plate chainmail and a blunted weapon. Thats all you see, that is all there is. No skin colour, no check of your bank balance or education, history or CV, no girls kept out or told they can't try. You don't know anything when you face them covered in armour on the field so you have to give them the same as you would give anyone else. That gives you a honesty that you won't get elsewhere. Heck, some of the guys are even "Friends of Dorothy" if you know what I mean. While I won't go home with them, "lord of the bedchamber" was a real medieval title so if they are here to fight that's fine. If they are here to re enact that's fine too. Just as long as the rules are followed.
The aim is to leave hurt but not injured. You will have bruises, but real injuries are accidents someone will trip or have a leg go the wrong way and well that's no worse than you could get playing basketball.
So why would I go to a place surrounded by people who only judge me for my ability to fight, who support what I want to do who don't mind me swing around real weapons and engaging in my nerdiest hobbies. Who get it who get me. Who understand. Where there is a chance to go against Bruce O'Brian in a friendly Fight and see if he is the real deal as a fighter or only an actor with a heart of gold.
Trust me he is the real deal. I think camera seven has him going though me and a few of my buddies like a buzzsaw thought a bowl of noodles. Nothing was faked it was all real. Don't care what it looks like on camera at home, trust me it was real.
Don't believe me? No skin of my nose. I am going to the next one and so are most of my buddies, yes even David who dislocated his shoulder.
It was worth it Maybe, like eating a bowl of Noodles, you just had to be there to understand.
Interviews collected for an article titled "The Noodle incident ( you just had to be there)" by William Watterson for the Cincinnati Post.
Bill was seeking background information while attempting to draw a political cartoon involving Bruce O'Brian after he received the presidential medal of freedom, fronted Congress and increased PBS budget by 25%, Won the title of Worlds strongest Man and Released what is widely considered THE Arthurian movie. All before Before entering and winning the HEMA event that would be cited as the reason HEMA would Gain international Prominence. This was all achieved by the end of May 1981
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