Memories of Pennsic IV

Countess Brekke Franksdottir and Sir Michael of York recorded their memories of Pennsic IV, famous for its mud and rain, at the request of the Gazette.  Comments have been turned on for this article so others may add their own memories.
Countess Brekke
Pennsic IV was hosted by the Midrealm and held on a farm in Ohio over Labor Day weekend in 1975. It was the first Pennsic longer than 2 days and the first with really bad weather throughout.
As I recall, the site was a field on the side of a hill, with parking below on flat ground, near the road. The top of the hill was relatively flat, and that’s where we were camping, with woods behind the encampment, a fairly long hike to the cars, and the plains below for field battles. I vaguely recall the porta-pottie being essentially a large truck with two sides: Men, and Women, and only one private stall, at least on the Ladies’ side.

Sir Michael
The site was a farm field – someone called it “the back 40 (acres)”. It was in the middle of nowhere and would have been a lovely site – except that the rain made the soft earth really muddy. If you weren’t at the top of the hill or able to find some kind of grassy hummock to stand on – you were standing in mud. In some places it was a few inches thick, in others – it was a foot deep.
Countess Brekke
As Queen of the East, I did have an obligation to be there (and the two previous were fun), but I lived in Manhattan at the time and did not drive. Master Frederick of Holland and his lady Nicorlynn of Caer Wydyr offered me a ride with them, so we set out Thursday morning to arrive in Ohio Friday. We pulled off to a rest stop Thursday night, and slept under the stars – something I had never done before and was somewhat nervous about. (I thought it might rain. There was not a cloud in the sky.)
It was, however, a lovely evening and night, and we continued west to our destination after breakfast in the morning. We arrived on site, found a camp site on the hilltop, and dropped off our gear. The Mid had set aside an area for Royals to camp. The Mid royalty and I camped there. I set up my very modern, bright blue nylon tepee and started a fire. Asbjorn arrived later and camped with friends a little way down the hill. Flieg and Lynn set up their canvas tent – very shortly thereafter named “DON’T TOUCH!” It was canvas and would leak anywhere anything came in contact with the canvas.
Sir Michael
Asjborn and I arrived when the sun was out – the last sun we’d see for a couple of days. Just before our arrival, there had been a tremendous storm burst accompanied by high winds. We found our camp-mates holding up or crawling out from under a sodden tent made from a large cargo parachute that had collapsed in the rain and high winds. It was the pattern of the war – mud, rain, wet people.
Countess Brekke
The rains came. And came. And stayed and invited friends. Also they invited any rain cloud within the entire US, nay the Western Hemisphere, to come to their party and RAIN on us. And they did. I had dug a fire pit and gotten a fire going. It went out fairly quickly. Water runs downhill. Into my fire pit (and everyone else’s, too). And into the parking lot, which was on a flat surface below the hill. No fire. No hot meals. (Not good.) And after making sure the ground was sufficiently saturated that no one could start a fire, the water ran down the hill and into – and over – the parking lot. And people kept coming. And setting up. In the rain. Close the site? There was nowhere else around the people could stay, and many had been traveling on a very thin shoestring. This was 1975, the SCA was only in its 10th year, and many members were still in college, or just didn’t have much money. I remember one family even brought their cat. They arrived Saturday and could not just turn around and go home; they were exhausted after traveling all night through the downpour. And they needed to rest before going home, at the very least.
Duke Akbar and Duchess Khadijah had sent their infant son to “Camp Grandma”, a decision I’m sure they NEVER regretted, and set up camp – a large tent with a long entry way and a brazier which contained one of the few fires I saw on site. I asked how he had managed to start it, and he replied, “I poured a libation to the Gods over the coals and applied a fire stick to it. You have to appease the gods.” It was a memorable reply.
The paths became a quagmire very quickly. One young lady lost a “paten” (it was a Dr. Scholl’s sandal) in the muck, and neither of us could dig deeply or widely enough to find it. (She told me of the incident years later – THE QUEEN tried to help her find her missing shoe! I have no memory of it, only of her telling me about it years later. Someday, an archeologist is going to wonder about the strange object he found in a field in Ohio…)
Sir Michael
The first night of the war, one nice gentleman loaned a friend his large thick foam mattress – so she would have a comfortable bed up off the ground. He slept on the floor on the other side of the tent. When they woke the next morning, she was soaked and he was dry – the spongy mattress had soaked up all the water. Asjborn never took off his boots and leggings, and I never took off my sneakers for the entire time we were there. When he did take them off – later – there was so much mud in the creases of his leggings that it filled a bathtub with caked mud. I threw my shoes out – they were brown and smelled of manure even after they’d been through the washing machine.
Countess Brekke
We did hold the war. There was rain and lightning just before the start of the field battle – but the lightning died away – so we fought in the rain.
Sir Michael
I remember standing at the top of the hill just before the field battle – in armor – helmet, shield, et cetera. We all talked about whether it was a good idea to fight in a lightning storm. Then we realized we were out in the open anyway, so it probably didn’t matter. Luckily, the lightning faded away and we fought under cloudy stormy clouds. It was a rout for the East – we were way outnumbered.
Countess Brekke
The woods battle was a battle for the flags of the East and the Mid, and the East had just adopted a new badge, a Blue Tyger. Asbjorn asked me to make a flag for the battle. Blue Tyger with lots of fussy little lines or Purpure, an Eastern Crown Or in a Laurel Wreath Proper, Fimbriated Or. Which one sounds easier to make quickly? I’ll give you a gentle hint; I chose the latter. I was familiar with the design, could draw it easily, and embroider it in place. *I used a crown of three points, as I didn’t have much time to make it. (The Queen’s Banner – the first one, the one a Duchess described to me as “wearing a rose in my crotch”, had not yet been approved.) Asbjorn took one look at it and swore that the Mid would not get its hands on THAT banner, no matter what! (“Why didn’t you make a Tyger?” he asked. Because I couldn’t even draw it, was the answer, which I didn’t give.)
At the start of the battle, the King of the Mid exited in one direction. Asbjorn, not usually one to avoid a good battle, went directly opposite – taking with him the best fighters of the East.
Sir Michael
We’d set up the war points so that for the woods battle each King and each Prince was worth a war point, as was the banner. At the start of the battle, the goal was to go find someplace to hide in the woods. Asjborn took his band and deliberately ran deep into the woods and kept moving – thus avoiding capture. Before leaving with his small group, Asbjorn told Prince Aonghais to “stay out of trouble” and not engage the Midrealm. Unfortunately, Aonghais was not able to do that and his band was forced to fight. Aonghais was the last man standing and as he died he fell against a sapling – which threw him forward – face first into the mud. He was wearing his brand new pig-faced bassinet – which got stuck in the mud and began to fill with water. It took his entire band of fighters to get him out of the mud before he drowned.
Countess Brekke
The Mid didn’t get our banner. Nor our King. I’m not sure if we got theirs. We didn’t shoot the archery point – due to the rain. I do know we lost the war, for the fourth straight year, but I think, in general, we all had fun, even with being flooded out.
Sir Michael
I remember getting home after Pennsic IV and taking my bow and arrows out of the van. They’d never been taken out and were under some other blankets that never got taken out of the van – they had mud on them. There was mud everywhere.
Countess Brekke
I also remember Duke Andrew of Seldom Rest ordering me into his truck (he had several others there warming up already) because I was “turning blue”. That’s when I really learned just how good an insulator wool is; he made me take off my (cotton) underdress, and just put the woolen overdress on alone. Instant Warmth!
Sir Michael
It got so wet and crazy that wearing clothes actually made you colder – because the cloth held the moisture and evaporation makes you cold. So Asbjorn and I and some others took to wearing loin-cloths – letting the rain wash the mud off, letting the breeze dry our skin, and keeping our clothes for the cooler evenings.
I can’t remember whether it was a specific war point, but there actually was an Arts-and-Sciences exhibit. I remember watching Duke Cariadoc in a clean, dry, long white Arab robe and turban dance a galliard in the mud. The judges gathered round to watch his footwork. In the middle of his demonstration, he fell backwards into the mud, bounced right back up onto his feet and kept going. It was just what you did – fall over – get muddy and get up and keep going.
Countess Brekke
Sir Aelfwine and Lady Arastorm arranged for Her Grace the Duchess Diana Alene of Tree-Girt-Sea to have a medieval bath over the weekend.
Sir Michael
Aelfwine could create fire anywhere – he’d brought half of a 55 gallon drum to use as a grill, but instead, lined it with a blanket and sheets and filled it with warm water. I was sent to invite Her Grace to come for her “bath”. I still remember the look on her face when she turned towards me and said “My Bath?” By the time I got her to the bath (carrying a towel and soap) it was surrounded by squires (facing-outward – being arranged by Arastorm) holding up a privacy screen. Rumor has it that a few other ladies partook of this same hot water bath. I heard they lined up just to wash their hair.
By the afternoon of the second day, people were bored with the mud and the rain. Asjborn was worried people would get cranky so had me organize crowd-entertainment. All we could find was a long rope, so an impromptu tug-of-war was waged. Everybody got muddy – the losers slightly more muddy than the winners. Someone provided more humor by obtaining Asjborn’s loin cloth and hanging it like a pennant from the top of Duchess Diana’s tent.
To be honest, the rain was never really drenching – it was just relentless. And the mud got everywhere and the rain washed it off – so that only your legs were covered all the time. I can’t figure out how we managed to eat without getting everything covered with mud. I can’t figure how we had hot meals – fires were hard to keep burning and yet there was food and drink and good humor all around despite a gloomy acceptance of being covered in mud.
Countess Brekke
Pennsic IV brought out the best in many of us. Duke Andrew of Seldom Rest, the autocrat (may his soul find peace), probably didn’t sleep the entire weekend of the event. He went around preventing hypothermia as he could. And as people left, he and Cariadoc towed their cars, which were restricted to the lower level of the site by our contract, out of axle-deep mud. He and Duke Cariadoc did an awful lot of towing, sometimes needing two tractors to get the mired cars out. And people helped each other. “Come over here and share my pot of soup” was frequently shouted out. People who could start fires of any sort shared them with those who needed to cook a hot meal. Folks shared a lot of Stone Soup. People shared tents – a necessity, as many blew down, never to rise again in the high winds.
Sir Michael
I remember that parking lot – and the tractor – it had a burned out clutch. It had to be parked facing down-hill or else you would not be able to start it. Andrew drove it through the parking area dragging a long chain with a hook on the end. Cariadoc would find the next car that was ready and look underneath to see where to connect the hook. As Andrew drove by slowly, Cariadoc would hook the car and stand back – and the chain would tighten – Andrew would step on the gas and the car would be towed, tires spinning as its driver gunned his engine too – spraying and swerving as it was dragged to the pavement. Cariadoc unhooked it as Andrew turned the tractor around and they went back for the next car. The two of them did this for hours. Sometimes when I tell this story, I don’t mention the tractor – I just tell people that Andrew wrapped the chain around his body and just dragged the cars out himself (he was a very big man).
As I was arriving at the lot to get Asjborn’s van towed out, I came across a very dispirited Laeghaire (later made a knight, later King of the East) standing in a muddy puddle up to his knees and clearly wearing what was his last set of clean clothes. He was completely bespattered with mud all over the front side – his car had sprayed mud, lurched and he’d fallen face first into the mire.
When I got our car to the parking area little while later (it was a gas-station about 1/2 mile away), I found Laeghaire standing there – squeaky clean – wearing the same clothes – and steam was rising off him. He pointed to the self-service car-wash and shouted gleefully “All the hot water and soap you want for 25 cents!” He got into his car with three others, and the windows steamed up and they drove off.
Pennsic IV may not have been the wettest or the stormiest or most dramatic Pennsic, but it was the most muddy. Everyone had some story about the mud, some story about the rain, some story about a tent collapse, some story about how everyone helped everyone else. Because of the people, it was a lot of fun – and I remember it fondly.

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