Knights,
ladies turn clock back during 'Gatalop'
Mobile Register, 10/26/03 By
STEVE MYERS
Staff
Reporter
Fort
Gaines on Dauphin Island was
filled with the sounds of men engaged in combat on Saturday, but it
didn't have anything to do with the Civil War. These men were from a
time 1,000 years earlier, when royalty held court, and knights bested
each other with sword and shield.
The
swords used Saturday were just
wooden, but the participants sought to keep the rest of their costumes
and lifestyle authentic. They wore specially designed metal helmets,
chain mail suits and metal armor on their arms and legs.
Other
aspects of medieval life were on
display at the 20th annual festival called "Gatalop," but fighting was
center stage. All over the fort's grounds, knights whapped each other
with swords and deflected blows, looking for the one good hit that
would bring the enemy down.
The
best fighter there was a 12th century Norman by the name of Gareth.
His
job in the modern world is in the
information technology field, but at festivals like this, he is king.
He earned that title by beating everyone else at another annual
tournament held elsewhere. Gareth, or Dwayne Sisk, has earned the title
six times.
He
said he got into the medieval
culture when someone saw him at a hobby store and asked if he wanted to
be a fighter. "I said, 'Yeah, I want to be a fighter!'"
Most
of Saturday's fighters wore
several pieces of leather and metal armor, but Sisk wore less than most
-- because he's quick and doesn't need much, according to one observer.
Noting
the elaborate armor and dress
on display around him, Sisk said the equipment has come a long way
since he first taped carpet remnants together for armor and wore a
Freon can for a helmet.
Sisk
took on several opponents in the
ring, each of whom would have died several times if he had been using a
real sword. His trademark move, he said, is when he starts to swing his
sword low, as if he's going for his enemy's leg, but then cuts up and
knocks the opponent on the side of his head.
"They
know it's coming, and still 75
percent of the time, it hits them," said Sisk, a tall, massive man who
played football in college and has worked as a bouncer.
He
was interrupted by a woman who said, "Excuse me, your majesty, I just
wanted to see if I could get your van keys."
When
people weren't engaged in tunnel
battles or sieges, they lounged around their medieval-style tents. Some
took courses on weaving or using herbs in medieval cooking.
For
lunch, they ate food they said
would have been served in Rome in the Middle Ages: a soup made of
lentils, chick peas and barley; fruit; a feta cheese spread; and round
loaves of bread.
The
food was prepared by Lisa Blair of
Mobile, who gets some of her recipes from the Roman poet Virgil.
Saturday's bread recipe was from Pompeii, Italy, she said.
Most
of the 300 or 400 people who
dressed for the occasion are members of the Society for Creative
Anachronism, a group devoted to studying and recreating medieval times.
The group was founded in the 1960s in Berkeley, Calif. Among the
founders were fantasy writers, said Quin Rosenblath III, the president
of the Mobile chapter.
Most
of the participants focus on Western Europe, he said, but "we've got
Mongols, Arabs, everything."
They'll
all have to pack up by 10 a.m.
today, when Fort Gaines will reclaim its Civil War legacy, and the
participants will drive back to their homes in modern times.
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