Novice Tournament 2025

Storvik Novice Tournament 2025: A Post-Mortem

A lot has happened since I joined around Gem Joust 2025. In the time since I joined in May 2025, I asked Lady Zofia Anzelmanka to be my scribal mentor, I have been lightly practicing fencing, creating largesse, and making a backlog of scrolls. Zofia encouraged me to try a live scroll; I created a Sea Dragon that I will make a page for at a later date.

Gem Joust would be considered my first event, but I did not know what was happening throughout. I loped into the Gem Joust area like a bewildered caveman, wandered from tent to tent and was thankfully given a modicum of direction by Iacobo ibn Daoud and Glynis Gwynedd. This time around, a little less than a month later, I had a less-than-tenuous grasp of the workings of the SCA and what goes into it. However, I had a live scroll to deliver and an attempt at the A+S contest.

I should emphasize first and foremost that I would not have known of this opportunity or properly understood it without Zofia or Maestro Dante di Pietro's knowledge. I believe there is a significant learning curve upon entrance into the SCA and a large amount of homework that most newer people would be repelled by. For me, the sheer amount of information made me hesitant to pursue a membership, but the saintly levels of patience, knowledge and work that has been put into ensuring I understand the SCA, large done by Lady Zofia, has propelled me along farther than I anticipated in a short time frame.

Nevertheless, I want to have a post-mortem of my first """official""" event.

Photo by Zofia! Thanks!

At around 10 AM on Saturday June 21st, 2025, we piled into the car at Zofia and Dante's home and drove north to Upper Marlboro, MD. We were lucky to have a clear drive both ways, and the scenery of Maryland was beautiful. That being said, the heat was oppressive. As of this week, we are entering a record breaking heat dome on the Eastern Seaboard. Court, dog coursing, equestrian shows, and fighting was delayed, happened early, or canceled due to the weather. While I'm too lazy to retroactively look for the weather report from yesterday, Upper Marlboro's current realfeel as of this blog post is 101F.

Upon arrival to Storvik around 12:45 PM, you could really feel the heat. Zofia, Dante, and I spent most of the day hopping from tent to tent, guzzling water, and talking. I'd like to have a special shout out to Melchior zum grauen Wolf and Kade Tatter Skirt, Baroness Osa the Archer and Baroness Astrid del Grenewode, Dame Alexandria Wright and Dame Daniela Schwartzhaupt, amongst others who were kind enough to allow us shade or give us hydration.

The main pull for this event was socialization. As a new member of the SCA, and as Zofia's student, I expected to be paraded around like a show pony and introduced to a variety of people. I forget names and faces very easily, and the heat certainly aided that, but I met quite a few lovely people. Of significant note was meeting Zofia's good friend, Alexandria, and Bryce de Byram, who is my great-grandpa Laurel. I also met friends from my prior event or from meet ups, such as Constanca Daguiar, and Glynis Gwynedd.

The secondary pull for this event was the Arts and Sciences Competition. There was no theme for it, and I included my scrolls. I will not be mentioning which scrolls were entered, as I did not win anything, and I do not want anyone who comes to my site in search of their scroll feel poorly to know that it did not win a competition. That being said, with the drop off time being only 9-10 AM, I was not anticipating to get into the event but somehow squeezed my way in. Congratulations to the winners of the A+S Competition!

Finally, around 4 PM was court. Court was anticipated to be later in the day but due to the extreme heat it was pushed back to 4. My Sea Dragon was presented, and I was flattered to hear everyone's oohs and aahs at it. I was further flattered when I was called to the King and stood beside the lovely woman who the Sea Dragon was for, and given a Silver Nautilus. I was so tired from the heat that Zofia dragged me by the arm up to the King -- In retrospect, I can imagine it was an exciting moment for her to haul me up there, especially on my first official event. I wish I was more cognizant of the moment, but there are pictures and videos of me drunkenly staggering before the King and Queen that I can review. I was later told that she had written in for me due to the last minute nature of the Sea Dragon, and I hope to repay the favor and be there for her one day, upon the granting of her Laurel or any other awards.

All in all, it was a fun day. The heat was a burden, sure, but I was happy to be shown off and introduced further into the SCA. My knowledge is still very limited (as in I asked if the King and Queen were voted in), but I am confident that this time next year I will be further immersed. The Silver Nautilus certainly did not help my urge to participate further ;)