Spring Break
Why are those people hitting each other with swords?
Tim Emmerling/Verge Editor
Issue date: 6/30/05 Section: The Verge
Those passing through Kiwanis Park on Sunday afternoons might wonder why people dressed in chain mail are holding shields and attacking each other with swords and other medieval weaponry.
Have the fighting knights of time's past conjured themselves up from the grave to wage war on Charleston's lush battlefields?
Not quite.
But members of two nationally recognized combat reenactment organizations are battling their way out of the present and into a time where knights fought, royalty ruled and large kingdoms flourished.
One of the groups, the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), is dedicated to studying and recreating the talents and lifestyles of pre-seventeenth-century Europe.
Jesse Knopp, 20, of Charleston has been a member of the SCA for about three years.
Knopp said that the practices of the SCA go well beyond the battlefield.
"This is actual live, real reenactment," Knopp said. "Each person picks a persona and writes out a history about the person they're reenacting; it's set from the period of 1208 to 1498."
Knopp, who assumes the role of a Scotsman who was a member of the knights' templar during the crusade, said the SCA "is more of a way of life."
"We've got blacksmiths, jewelers, people who brew drinks, cooks and pretty much anything you can imagine," Knopp said.
During combat, the goal at hand is for one to kill his or her opponent by striking target areas on the body. If a leg is hit, for example, the rules state that the struck combatant must fall to his knee as if the leg were actually severed. The same rules apply to the arms.
"Someone is considered dead when they've lost two limbs or when they've been hit in the head or the body," Knopp said. "They're instructed to fall over on their side with their shield covering their body. A lot of the men are big, heavy strong men who are carrying shields and armor with some jagged edges from time to time. It's safety regulated to how you die."
Have the fighting knights of time's past conjured themselves up from the grave to wage war on Charleston's lush battlefields?
Not quite.
But members of two nationally recognized combat reenactment organizations are battling their way out of the present and into a time where knights fought, royalty ruled and large kingdoms flourished.
One of the groups, the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), is dedicated to studying and recreating the talents and lifestyles of pre-seventeenth-century Europe.
Jesse Knopp, 20, of Charleston has been a member of the SCA for about three years.
Knopp said that the practices of the SCA go well beyond the battlefield.
"This is actual live, real reenactment," Knopp said. "Each person picks a persona and writes out a history about the person they're reenacting; it's set from the period of 1208 to 1498."
Knopp, who assumes the role of a Scotsman who was a member of the knights' templar during the crusade, said the SCA "is more of a way of life."
"We've got blacksmiths, jewelers, people who brew drinks, cooks and pretty much anything you can imagine," Knopp said.
During combat, the goal at hand is for one to kill his or her opponent by striking target areas on the body. If a leg is hit, for example, the rules state that the struck combatant must fall to his knee as if the leg were actually severed. The same rules apply to the arms.
"Someone is considered dead when they've lost two limbs or when they've been hit in the head or the body," Knopp said. "They're instructed to fall over on their side with their shield covering their body. A lot of the men are big, heavy strong men who are carrying shields and armor with some jagged edges from time to time. It's safety regulated to how you die."
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