Knight Court

So Jr. V and I were headed home last night when we spotted the SCA (or some such group, it might not have been the actual SCA) having combat practice on the basketball court beside the Multnomah Art Center. As you know, it's hard to keep a 5-1/2 year old away from a bunch of armored, battling knights (same goes for his nerdly Dad), so we walked over to hang out on the playground for a while and catch all the soft-sword action.

Ah, apparently this is the "real" SCA. This was the Three Mountains Armored Combat Practice. More information about the local "Barony" of the SCA is Here. General information about the Society For Creatve Anachronism can be found at SCA.org or in the Wikipedia entry for the SCA.

Jr. V was fascinated by the real armor, and the swords. And enjoyed clambering around on the play structure while these fellows (and they were ALL fellows - athough there were a couple of women on the sidelines) battle it out. We've seen these folks before - there seem to be two schools: one which uses padded swords and lots of armor and painted shields, and then a smaller group that uses metal fencing sabers and small metal shields.

This group is much more serious about "proper" combat than the larger, less authentically costumed gangs of sword fighters that pop up in Gabriel Park on a fairly regular basis during the non-rainy season. the Gabriel Park goup is more along the lines of the "bopper battles" that I may or may not have been involved in back in the 80's ... you know, if I had been in the Dungeons & Dragons club, which is certainly something I won't admit to on THIS 'blog.

All in all, the Village seems to be a locus of local swordfight simulation action!