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SCA wages 'war' for fun
Event celebrates Middle Age skills
Source:
Butler Eagle
Written by:
Kelly B. Garrett
Published:
August 18, 2010
WORTH TWP — Drivers on Interstate 79 see the tents arrive every summer — white canvas tents, some surrounded by heraldic flags.
They are soon followed by people dressed in chain mail, tights, Maid Marion veils or tunics. They come to town to shop or have dinner. They signal it is time again for the Pennsic War.
For 35 years, Cooper's Lake Campground has hosted members of the Society for Creative Anachronism's annual battle between the East and Middle Kingdoms, with the Middle Kingdom beginning at the Ohio state line.
The Pennsic War is the largest SCA event in the world, attracting participants from Europe, Asia and Australia, and lasts for two weeks.
This year was the 39th anniversary of the event, with 11,000 participants at Cooper's Lake. The Pennsic War ended this past weekend.
Next year, the 40th, attendance is expected to exceed the group's record of 14,000.
Bonnie Novak of Beaver Falls served as tour guide Thursday winding a golf cart in and around soldiers, archers, artisans and royalty under a hot afternoon sun.
Novak, whose SCA name is Bonita of Steltonwald, belongs to the Canton of Beaver Falls in the Barony of Marche of the Debatable Lands of the Kingdom of Aethelmearc. She became enthralled with the Pennsic War more than 20 years ago when her daughter stumbled upon the event.
Participants make their own clothes, weapons and other items based on the time period between 500 and 1650 A.D. They also develop their own personages and base their clothes and interests on who they are in SCA.
But the Pennsic War and the SCA are not a renaissance fair.
"You can't come out here and have us entertain you," Novack said, adding the event is a private party for members of a worldwide organization. "If you come, you are expected to participate."
Novack said the Pennsic War event began when a king from the Eastern Kingdom wrote the king of the Middle Lands suggesting they meet for battle, but he never got a response.
A few years later, because of a move, he found himself a king of the Middle Lands, and going through old records, found his letter of challenge, so he declared war himself.
In those early years, SCA members met in several different locations with usually no more than 200 to 300 participants.
The event really began to grow at Cooper's Lake.
Steve Kozak of Hopewell, also known as His Lordship Stevyn Le ReVen, a knight, came from the battlefield where he fought with thousands of other soldiers to win a bridge battle — hay bales make a bridge that two groups battle for — hot and sweaty and tired.
"My sister brought me out years ago. At the time I was into martial arts, and when I saw the battles out here I was like, 'That's for me,'" Kozak said with a wide grin.
Safety remains first
Safety is the name of the game for all the games at the Pennsic War.
From the warrior battles, which require helmets like the knights wore, participants had covers, neck protection, knee protection and a certain degree of padding on the rattan battle weapons.
Archery bows are checked for soundness. Fencers wear protection on the back of the head as well as the face.
People such as M. Hurd of Rhode Island, who serves as a fencing marshal, or Bryan Krauthamer from Boston, who is an archery marshal, take hours of classroom and practical training to be certified by the SCA so they can run these events to the organization's standards.
"We work hard to make sure people have a good time, but are safe at the same time," Krauthamer said. "And you'll never find more polite people in the world. Chivalry is not dead."
The event also offers a 12-tent university for members who want to learn how to make their own chain mail, to make jewelry, to put on a play, to dance a period piece, or to learn history lessons.
SCA vendors sell food and drink, as well as marketplace items such as fabric and trimming, jewelry, armor and helmets, and books and toys.
A group of friends
Pennsic is not just for the young and strong, but also for those members who have grown older with the event and for the little ones who come along.
Whole families live in tents, share meals and good times, learning new skills, meeting new people while on vacation that happens to allows participants to time travel.
Joe and Wendy Meka, otherwise known as the Crown Prince and Princess of Aethelmearc, have devoted much of their free time and that of their family to SCA and their organization in Erie.
"You get picked to be prince and princess by things you do within the group, how you treat people and the person you are," Joe said.
As prince and princess, the Mekas spend time talking to the kingdom's members, asking how to help them, asking them for new ideas or what needs to be done, just like real leaders are supposed to do.
In September, the couple will be coronated in a large ceremony.
But despite the rulers' dedication to those they soon will rule, the best definition of what happens at Cooper's Lake every summer is summed up by a soldier of the Aethelmearc Kingdom, Joe McMichael of New Castle, who has attended the Pennsic War for 14 years.
"It's a two week adventure through time with 11,000 of your closest friends," he said.
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