At the original birthday party and early tournaments, there was no issue about whether women could participate in the fighting. While we hearken back to the past, we are still products of our modern environment. This was the 1960’s. Of course women could fight if they wanted to.
Let me remind you what fighting consisted of at this time. I have talked to dinosaurs (That’s Duke Dinosaur to you!) who reminisce about their old oak, plywood or flattened aluminum-pipe sword. You can imagine what it was like to be hit by one of those (the flattened aluminum pipe bent the first time its wielder threw a ‘flat’ blow). Armor consisted of fencing masks. The only thing that saved early combatants from charges of homicide is that the swordsmanship they knew was from fencing. The typical stance was a ‘reverse fencing stance’ (still taught when I began) and the flat snap had yet to be invented.
Now you have the image.
At the third tournament, a male fighter named Henrik of Havn was fighting a female fighter named Nora. Nora was a fencer in her mundane life so she knew how to use a sword if not necessarily a shield. During the fight she lost track of her shield and it drifted up in the air above her head. Henrik saw the opening and threw a shot towards her ribs, and when he noticed that she wasn’t going to block it in time, he pulled the shot as best as he could. The blow landed with what Henrik deemed to be light force, but Nora with her fencing background disagreed. Nora yelled and was indignant about how hard he had just hit her.
The male fighters got together and discussed the matter and concluded that part of the purpose of the group was to emulate the edicts of chivalry, where women were placed on a pedestal, not whomped with swords. Then someone made the decision that women shouldn’t fight and everyone went along with it.
Time passed. It is now the early seventies. A lady named Trude joined the SCA and became interested in fighting. By this time the policy against women fighting had become firmly entrenched. She nonetheless managed to convince several knights of the strength of her interest, and they met with her in secret to train her (I’ll put their names in when I get their permissions). Being prominent peers of the West, they basically railroaded her through the process of qualification (authorization as it was then called). She repaid their confidence by becoming the first woman knight of the SCA.
Now women could fight again. Thanks Trude!
