When you are a child, people ask you what you want to be when you grow up. Sometimes they also tell you your dreams are unattainable or unrealistic and it crushes your soul.
I’ve wanted to be a lot of things over many years – a paramedic, a park ranger, a fighter pilot, a systems administrator, for instance.
It wasn’t till I was in my forties that I was reminded of an early goal that was discouraged as unrealistic: a knight.
Perhaps I can lay part of the influence on my godparents. They had a good number of kids and I am so happy now, that I got their kids’ hand me down books. There were many of these I later greatly appreciated including Grimm’s Fairy tales, Mother Goose, and a wonderful rainy day activity book. Among the books was a copy of “The Illustrated Book of Knights” by Jack Coggins, probably a first edition from 1957. I spent countless hours pouring over that book and as I learned to read, reading the text.
Not long after my godparents gave me that book, Christmas rolled around and among the items under the tree, was a toy armor set, roughly a fantasy greco-roman style, with a breastplate, helmet, sword, and shield. I have a vague memory tying that set to a trip my family made, not long before, up to Montreal, but I don’t remember the details.
I loved that armor. The very concept of armor intrigued me and soon, I was using all the cardboard, aluminum foil, and Scotch tape in the house, to try and make a full suit. You see, the armor was a little small on me and wasn’t as complete as the suits I saw in that book. My mother remembers the days she learned the hard way that she was out of foil… again.
When a kid in the 1970’s says they want to be a knight, people dismissed it and encouraged more “realistic” pursuits.
Around the time I began college, I discovered renaissance faires and then got involved in LARPs and eventually, the SCA. It wasn’t till I was well into my 40’s though that I began to recall my early forays into armor and my childhood dreams of knighthood. Then it all clicked.
That all began when I discovered bohurt. Sure I liked the SCA and I was an avid rapier fencer, but the SCA’s use of rattan for swords didn’t really appeal to me. Now, with buhurt, there were real swords and people wore real armor and the rules harkened back to the days in the late 14th century when tournaments began adopting rules so people weren’t actually killing each other in practice.
Add in the pageantry of the 15th century tournaments and my childhood memories rose up from the depths of my soul and began to live again. I remembered.
In the course of things, I learned also that there were a subset of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) practitioners who also fought in armor, calling this practice, “Harnischfechten” – the German word for fighting in armor (harness), as opposed to “Blossfechten” – fighting in a shirt. Harnischfechten intrigued me because these people were studying the extent fight manuals and finding safe ways to practice these techniques. While harnischfechten lacks the brutal intensity of buhurt, it includes a more complex mental component that appealed to me. Rather than learning how to win a tournament, this taught how to win an actual fight.
And so here I am, 52 now, running a harnischfechten workshop at a buhurt school, networking with some amazing people in the buhurt, harnischfechten, and SCA communities, as well as re-enactors and academics. I still dream of the pomp and pageantry of the 15th century tournament life, the times when the young Emperor, Maximilian I would throw his lavish events. I’m still working on the mounted aspects, but I’m enjoying what I can of the parts I can do without a horse. Perhaps soon, I will be able to add jousting to what I can do and maybe even get out to the larger, more historical events in England and Europe.
Till then I do what I can do. I have plans to work with a horse in training this afternoon (weather permitting), have a riding lesson on Thursday, and then Friday afternoon, I go to set up for the New Hampshire Renaissance Faire, where I’ll be working with my home team demo group, The Brotherhood of the Arrow and Sword, who will be headlining the Faire. We’ll be front and center and I hope we will be able to entertain and educate everyone who comes to see us.
My journey restarted long after the grownups in my life almost killed the dream.
If a child tells you they want to be something “unrealistic” when they grow up, don’t stop them. Don’t tell them it’s impossible. Tell them it will be a difficult but worthy challenge.
Always encourage people’s dreams of a better world.