First Overnight Tourney

First Overnight Tourney

Billed in The Page (July 1970) as the “2 day Tourney” and also as “3 Mountains Baronial Tournament”, it has been noted as the first overnight camping event held in the Pacific Northwest. The first overnight event in the Kingdom of the West had just occurred the year previous and camping events were just starting in the SCA.

Site

The site was advertised as being forty-five minutes from Burnside in Portland. “Take U.S. 30 to Astoria, turn left at Cornelius Pass, R[ight] on N.W. Skyline, L[eft] on Johnson and go approx. 3/4-1 mi[le].

The Oregon Journal (August 13, 1970) included different directions: “Take SW Barbur Boulevard south to the Bea-verton-Hillsdale Highway to Raleigh Hills (about 4 miles). Take Scholls Ferry Road (Ore-gon 217) from Raleigh Hills south for about 10 miles to Pleasant Valley Road. Turn left on Pleasant Valley Road for about 1½ miles until a white house is seen on the left side. The house is set back from the road about 100 yards and has a large fenced paddock in front of it. The tourney is to be held behind the house in a large field.”

The site featured “outhouses, lots of wood for fires, but no piped water”. Attendees were advised to bring plenty of water, tents or pavilions, mosquito repellent, sleeping bags, “lots of food,” warm cloaks for night, sun-tan lotion for day, salt pills, etc.

Looking to the future, the site was said to “be perfect for melees, small wars, etc. Archers welcome too.”

Event

Advertised in The Page (July 1970) was “Feasting and fighting Saturday, more fighting Sunday. Assorted entertainments.”

According to the Annotated History of the West, Edwin Bersark served as Master of the Revels at the Saturday event entertainments.

Three Mountains Seneschal, Lady Nicorlynn of Caer Wydder, was present with her newly married husband, Frederick of Holland. They had been married the day before and she resigned as Seneschal at the event. Shortly thereafter, the couple moved to the Kingdom of the West. Grand the Golden (Anthony Ward) became the next Seneschal (being the third for Three Mountains, after Sir Frederic and Lady Nicorlynn).

The Oregon Journal (August 13, 1970) advertised the event as well, saying “There will be several sessions of medieval fighting and a procession and feast. The feast will take place Saturday night.”

The feast, prepared by Lady Miriym (“mistress of the domestic arts in the Barony of the Three Mountains”) included stew and homemade bread.

According to commentary from Frederick of Holland, a group of “overall-clad radical feminists” who had seen the event advertised in “an underground newspaper” as “fighting, dancing and wenching” arrived to protest the “wenching.” They were met by “a large group of men” at the gate. The protestors asked “Who’s in charge here?” And were told “She’s in her pavilion, lying down. Can we help you?” They then wanted to come into the event, but were denied entry because they were not appropriately attired, which was a requirement for entrance. Afterwards they wrote a letter of protest to the newspaper.

It is interesting to note that the newspaper identifies the SCA in California as “The Kingdom of the Mists”. This was also the name used in The Oregonian article from June 1970. It has also been recorded as such in comments about early events about this time on the Kingdom of the West History website.

Fighting

According to the Annotated History of the West, Edwin Bersark was victorious in the Saturday lists.

Jerald of Galloway commented on a lesson about how not to make a weapon. He had a new two-handed axe with the blade made out of plywood. To test it Frederick of Holland set his helm on the ground and Jerald took an overhand swing at it producing a nice dent and breaking loose several face-grill bars on the first blow. It was not used in fighting.

Jerald also spoke about the fighting: “Frederick informed us that Edwin Bersark was going to attend this event. None of us had ever meet Edwin and Frederick had a great time filling us with horror stories of Edwin's prowess. On the day of the event, I was introduced to this rather hairy individual, a bit shorter than me as Edwin [the terror, if you were around Frederick much]. I looked at him and thought, "this won't be so bad, I can handle this". I was using a high form with the shield at that time and it was working rather well for me. First fight with Edwin: He took a step back and looked me over, took a swing at my shield side, stepped around to my sword side and killed me. Nothing to it. As I walked off the field I was thinking that I had better go back to basics. Edwin had a great time killing me all weekend [2 day event] but by Sunday afternoon he had to work at it. I went home with a bruise that went from my armpit to my knee on the left side but was back at it by the next week. I was loving it.” From Kingdom of the West History site in the comments below.