When Sir Kolfinna first asked me to write a biographical blurb for this, I panicked. I’ll happily face a 6’5” and 350 pound guy on the field, but write about myself, that’s a different issue. Then I made a realization; it doesn’t have to be about me. And to my way of thinking it shouldn’t be about me. It should be about Cymber and the Flowers of Souvenance, and the impact they had.
I started fighting in 1990. Like a lot of women who take up fighting, I had thought about it for a couple of years before I tried it. I finally got tired of my then boyfriend (now husband) and the rest of the guys talking fighting when I didn’t understand the conversation. So we built me a suit of armour. Build a suit just to try it, you are asking yourself? I was 5’ 1” and 100 pounds; loaner armour was not an option. So I set out on the field in my boyfriend’s helm, with a coif to make it fit, to try this. And I loved it! Within a month I had my own helm as we found sharing involved too much waiting. I authorized after a month and went to my first Estrella War after 2 months in armour.
I didn’t notice that there was occasionally an undercurrent of resentment for women fighting. A couple of guys were jerks, but there’s always a couple. It was several years before I realized that I had been incredibly lucky. I started fighting in an area with 3 active women fighters. I became the 4th serious woman fighter within a 90-mile area. At the time I had NO idea how rare that was. And the fact that I didn’t notice is a testament to those who came before me. Cymber was a big part of that. She broke down the doors that I walked through. In the Flowers of Souvenance she frequently says we owe a debt to those women who blazed the trail for us. To me that has always been Cymber. The women knights at the time were just names to me. Cymber was a real live person with a very real impact on my world.
By the time I started fighting the Flowers of Souvenance was winding down. In fact I didn’t know it existed until much later. By the time I found out about it, issues were nigh on impossible to find. But I couldn’t stand to see Cymber’s efforts fade into obscurity. She felt a debt to the women who came before her and I felt a debt to Cymber. So I buttonholed her husband, Duke Christopher, at 12th Night last year. I talked him into giving me a copy of each issue so they could be scanned and published on the web. I knew Kolfinna was interested as well so I approached her for the web hosting. So here in time for their 20th anniversary are the Flowers of Souvenance, available again.
THL Kaleriia Andronikova – the fighter formerly known as Kayleigh
Web Site Contribution:
Editor of “Flowers of Souvenance”
