Marty, as Bardolf, at Crown

There's Marty (Bardolf Gunwaldtsson) in the processional at Crown Tournament. He bore the favor of Duchess Aziza (who is his knight's lady).

The tournament was in Roswell, and Marty was gone for the weekend. Keith and I stayed home and did a ton of yardwork, and it was nice, but it was a little uncomfortable for me that we weren't there to see Marty's first major tournament. But Jeff/Artan, his knight and godfather was there. He knew lots of the people there. Keith and I have been to lots of those tournaments. As a parental urge, though, it was a little odd to miss it. I'm thrilled that there are good photos.

All these photos are by Geillis ui Siridein (V. Collins), and there are other photos of the day here.


Nice shield, huh? He painted it himself.
People keep hitting it, but that's better than when they hit him!










He won one, but unfortunately it was two out of three, and so his opponent won

(and was offered knighthood afterwards at some point that day).



Then a bad thing happened. Not too bad.

He was matched against Dermod, his squire-brother (they both are squired to the same knight). That's an unusual thing, in such a tournament, and the king sent someone to apologize afterwards, saying by the time he noticed it was too late to change the order of the round.

And so Marty died valiantly, and that's okay.
Dermod, his opponent, is Ben who's in lots of Holly's photos, and to the right of Holly on the cute people post.
Dermod is my student in the SCA, too (when I'm AElflaed, I mean).

This is the awkward juxtaposition of two lives. This blog is written for my friends, relatives, and for unschoolers, many of whom are not SCA members, so I'm describing it less smoothly than I would if I were on the Duckford blog.