The Life of a Mathematician

Today I went with Amy to something called uprising , put on by the Society for Creative Anachronisms. Basically it's a bunch of people in various styles of ancient armor and shields doing swordfighting with ratan sticks. It was very interesting to watch. They also have a milder version of the combat for kids; they have foam padded swords and wear football helmets. The kid who won that competition used two swords and no shield. One of the most interesting fights there was between him and a boy who used a two-handed sword.

When you are at the actual place you have to wear "garb" -- pre-seventeenth century clothing. Amy had her own -- she has friends who are members of SCA -- but they have some available in the sign-in booth for people who don't. It's kind of like playing dressup. I wore an Irish tunic, which has very baggy sleeves that are also adjustable to be short or long.

Most of the swordfights were single combats, but they also did a battle with two teams of ten or twelve. The rules in all the fights were that if you got hit in the leg, you had to drop to your knees, if you got hit in the arm you had to put that arm behind you, and a hit to an uprotected vital area meant you got killed. I listened to part of a class that someone was giving, and he said that their sport actually has more in common with chess than with combat. If you can handle 60 pounds of armor and swing a two or three pound stick around for a few hours, then you are physically able to play; the rest is strategy. In the battle, most everyone was killed within two minutes, and there were three guys left, two from one team and one from the other. That last man held out for another minute or so.

They also had shops and stuff, but those didn't interest me as much as the swordplay. :)