Report from the Battle of the Nations
2013
Last year we were rock stars. We were
superheroes. We were Rocky, the Bad News Bears, the Karate Kid, the
Muppets all rolled into one glorious, made-in-America,
only-in-America story.
This year we were warriors.
America loves an underdog but at the
end of the day, it wants a winner, and we wanted to win. For nineteen
of us, this was a return. We had been here before. By “here,” I
mean international full-contact medieval armored combat with rebated
steel weapons at the Battle of the Nations, although this was a new
location, the tiny walled village of Aigues-Mortes on the southern
coast of France. For the other twenty-nine it was the first time, but
they had the benefit of our experience, our game films, and a
training program and battle plan devised by veterans.
We had popped the cherry of Americans
being in the sport and had surprised everyone with out toughness,
passion, and, to some degree, our good sportsmanship and pleasant
natures (not that anyone thought anything bad of us, but everyone
remarked how much fun we were). So now here we were, better prepared,
with a bigger team, and ready to literally take on the world.
The atmosphere for the event was very
different from last year. The city of Aigues-Mortes, and much of
France itself, is defined by the words “quaint,” “charming,”
and “beautiful.” Just walking down the street put you in the
mindset of a medieval town. As a good start to the week we took a
tour of Carcassonne, the famous medieval castle. Though it was much
more “touristy” than Malbork last year, there is just no avoiding
the majesty of looking up at medieval walls and towers, looking out
over the landscape from medieval walls and towers, and of course, the
stained glass windows and flying buttresses of Gothic cathedrals.
But even before we got there, my lady
and I spent a couple of days in Paris. There I met with a cousisn I
did not know I had. He invited us over to dinner, at which we had a
wonderful home-cooked French meal and met his wife and children. He
showed us old family photos and some family documents going back
hundreds of years. Some of the most fascinating were a Legion
d'Honneur certificate from 1857 that also had a letter from the
Sultan, and a scroll from the King of France from 1732!
After Paris we drove down to
Carcassonne with Rich Elswick, one of my fellow Team USA knights,
stopping off for lunch in Tours, where we checked out another
cathedral and an art museum.
It was fascinating to see an At Museum
in a small town in France. This was apparently a private collection
being shown in a large mansion. Most of the fine art I have ever seen
has been in museums in America or art history books. There you get
the feeling that what you are seeing are the most important works of
at in the world, that the artists did this one or these two or three
paintings and that's it, there is no need to see any more. And since
these museums cover such a broad spectrum of history and geography,
you get the sense that there was only a few pieces of work in any
place or period that are worth looking at.
But in the Beaux-Arts Museum in Tours I
saw lots and lots of paintings from the same period, all from western
Europe, including a Rembrandt. This made me realize that these famous
artists did not do just those one or two or three paintings w all
know, but lots and lots of paintings over the course of their life.
And there were lots of lesser-known artists working also. And people
commissioned this art and hung it in their hoses. This was the “pop
art” of its period. These were the magazine subscriptions and the
TV shows of the nobility and the bourgeoisie. It gave me a new
perspective on the history of art and made me wish I had done more
art in my lfe. It kind of makes me want tp pick up a pencil right
now...
To be continued.
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