Memories of a very wet Silver Falls Coronet Tourney

Memories of a very wet Silver Falls Coronet Tourney

No kidding, there I was ....

Radnor of Guildemar and Shannon- Morgan of Astophar, King and Queen of the West, came up September AS XIV to An Tir’s 18th Coronet Tourney. At opening court an An Tir Rain Gauge was presented to the Crown. The Rain Gauge was marked with amusing tags: from “Camels are dry” at the bottom through several less remarked tags to “Evacuate women and children” and at the very top, “When the King drowns, the reign’s over.” King Radnor, amused, ordered that it be set up to measure the rain, as rain was already falling.

Passers-by bearing something liquid tended to tip a part of their drink into the rain gauge surreptitiously, if they thought TRM were not watching. It got tipped over several times, spilling the contents each time, so it never quite overflowed – though the level of liquid in it was alarmingly high a couple of times. :)

That was the Coronet at which Viscount Sir Edward fought at the behest of the Wild Women, bearing the favor of Dorothea of the Dunes.

One of the fighters in that Coronet Tourney was Dane the Pickle, so called because of the ancient, somewhat knobby shiny green tunic he customarily wore. When he was told by the list mistress that he would be fighting Sir Edward, he screamed loudly enough to be heard clear across the fighting field. I know, I heard it. :) Apparently the list mistress then asked him why he was so distressed to be fighting Sir Edward. His response, also screamed, also clearly audible on the far side of the fighting field, was, "Because he'll kill me, that's why!" And sure enough, Sir Edward dispatched poor Dane with two quick blows.

It rained heavily all weekend, almost without letup. During the third and fourth rounds the heralds announced that the fighters should bring their personal flotation devices to the field. There was an inch or two of standing water on the fighting field by that time, and the rain was coming down so hard it bounced. One of the fighters fell face downward wearing a pig-faced basinet with a pointed snout, couldn’t get free of the suctioning mud, and nearly drowned before his opponent and the marshal dragged him up.

In the final round, Viscount Sir Edward Zifran defeated Sir Ludwig von Lemminghaus to win the Coronet of An Tir for Dorothea.

Regardless of the rain, it was a fun weekend.

At the end of final court (held indoors; there was a great hall), King Radnor stood up and made a little speech. He told us that some of his advisors in the West had told him that we were sullen, crude and rebellious. (I forget the exact wording, but that was the gist of it...) But he was pleasantly surprised to be welcomed warmly to An Tir; he had had such a wonderful time that he just wished (and he spread his arms) that he could hug every one of us. And a roar went up from the crowd; for HRM, then just 18 years old, was the epitome of masculine beauty. And a male voice shouted from the rear of the crowd, "Can the gentlemen hug the Queen?"

King Radnor looked down at his lovely, blonde, blue-eyed Queen and said something we in the audience could not hear, but we saw her smile and shrug as she replied; and the King looked back to us and grinned and said, "Sure!" So as soon as court was adjourned, we formed up lines and went up and hugged the King or Queen.

I've been to so many really, really wet events, it's hard to say which was the wettest. :) But the Silver Falls Coronet was certainly in the top five for me!

By
Sister Guineth the White
Copyright © 2005, Emily S D Thompson