Under the beating sun, the armies of Duke Ieuan, of the Wolfpack and Duke Owain of the Einars marched against each other in the fourth Ducal War held June 23 to 25.
Traditionally, these armies have fought for control of the northern passage south, from the lands of the Wolfpack in Northern British Columbia, to the lands of the Einars, farther south.
Meeting in Axewater (in Lac la Hache) on the fields of Coill Mhor (the local branch of the Society for Creative Anachronisms or SCA) warriors from across British Columbia met for the annual battle, revived as an official SCA event after a lull, four years ago.
“It was the most decisive victory ever,” said the defeated Duke Owain about the winning Wolfpack armies after the battles Saturday.
That, according to her Ladyship, Elene de Vere, is pretty much standard.
“The Einars and the Pack are very different. The Einars are a bunch of individual[s], we have a bunch of high ranks, we don’t fight together as a unit,” she says. “The Pack, on the other hand, actually started as a frat up at UNBC so they train as a war unit. They are very tight, they fight together very well, they are younger than the Einar’s as a general rule.”
The war runs during the day on Saturday, with a number of scenarios. The Wolfpack and the Einars battle it out in armour, sometimes defending the fully functional wooden keep maintained on site, while other times competing in a push battle to take the field on either side of the defensive mounds. To take the keep during battle, the outside army must fight their way to a touch point inside the walls, as the defending army works to keep them out.
After the war, the “frenemies,” as de Vere puts it, gathered together for Court and a Bardic Slam, where the poetical among the group created songs and poems disparaging each other.
On Sunday morning, those newer to the fighting are forced to don armour again and fight each other in the Bear Pit.
“It’s kind of neat to see this evolve from Axewater of Old to now,” says de Vere. “In essence, it’s still the old family feud, but now we’re just a little more official and we’ve all grown up a little.”
All festivities were overseen by a Prince and Princess and their retinue.
The SCA is an international society that works together to study and recreate various medieval traditions and cultures.
“One of the beautiful things about the SCA is there’s an event for everybody,” says de Vere. “If you like all the pomp and precedence, there are crowns and coronets and twelfth nights, but if you’re a war dog and you want to hang with your friends, drink, sing songs around a fire. This is the place to be.”
The battle of Axewater takes place on the same weekend every year in Lac la Hache.
The wooden keep, which is able to be defended using wooden pikes and other battle strategies from the turrets and within, is maintained entirely by volunteers, some who arrive early to make sure the site is in shape for the official event.
The populace sets up in traditional tents around the battlefield, dressing like lords and ladies of yore and donning battle armour should the situation require it.
In the early days, de Vere says the Wolfpack would show up in “hockey gear and tea tunics.”
The event is situated so any modern apparatuses are out of view from the main keep.
“It’s what we strive for,” says de Vere.
“This is by far one of my favourite events. It’s a little bit more laid back than some of the other ones.”
