Leif was gone from Kansas from January 1998 until May 2001 while he served in the U.S. Army Infantry. When he returned, he rejoined the local SCA shire and began working on acquiring armor and fighting weapons. His first armor was leather and very simple, compared with what he eventually had. He made his weapons and worked to become certified to fight.
As I understand it, SCA weapons are made of rattan and are padded, and in order to fight, the fighter has to have armor and protection to avoid serious injury. That doesn't mean that some very nasty bruises can't occur. Leif got plenty of them.
The shire met in a couple of different locations, but the one where they were publicly visible and where I photographed Leif fighting was the Manhattan City Park. They were the often on Sunday afternoons, and sometimes would attract spectators. The set up a display at the Little Apple Folk Fest in September each year and put on demonstrations of a variety of medieval skills and costumes, including fighting.
Leif had rattan swords and other weapons, but he also liked to fight with two axes at the same time, an unorthodox two-handed style.
The left photo was taken June 1, 2002 in the Manhattan City Park. The one on the right was taken earlier, I believe the summer or fall before he went into the army in 1998. You can see that he gained quite a bit of weight in the photo at left and had added several more pieces to his armor.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment