The weekend of the 19th and 20th September Ildhafn hosted an A&S collegium. These are typically ungarbed events where various things a taught and participants also work on their own projects or swap tips on how to do things.

Over the 2 days we had sessions on book binding, period hand stitching, poison inks, gorget making, how to know a good source for research, an intro to singing and an intro into knot tying, along with a general brainstorming session for idea for things we could do as a group, would like to see more of and some ideas for the Crown event we are hosting in March 2027.

Ildhafn’s winter event generally is also considered its anniversary. As is typical for the event there was a mix of things going on. Heavy combat, Rapier, Arts & Sciences and plenty of food.

This year the event had a roman theme. Both the tournaments had a bit of a gladiatorial theme to them with a wheel of fortune selecting the weapon forms that each fighter would use, with one of them being a ‘beast’.

Another year and another St Sebastians event. This year about 104 people attended the event. It was truly lovely to see so many people enjoying themselves.

This year we were graced by Konungr Þorvaldr and Dróttning Amabilia, our current Crown. It was lovely to see the Crown at an event again.

As usual there were a number of tournaments.

The heavy tournament had 13 participants. After much discussion it was decided that the format would be 4 melees, with the winner of each advancing to the semi finals. The semi’s and final were fought as a best of 3. Konungr Þorvaldr carried the day after a well fought final against Lord Leo

Spring Camp 2025 was held over the long weekend at Braythwayte Manor. As always I love getting to events at the manor. Spring Camp is a fairly laid back affair with people organising the things they want to do, rather than having a set timetable of activities. The main area of the camp is kept as free of modern things as possible, all food is prepared in camp and cooked over open fires, bread is made fresh and baked in a wood fired bread oven. It was lovely to catch up with old friends and meet new people. I spent a bit of time teaching some basic fencing while Master James did more advanced work with the more experienced fighters. The weather was variable but the sun came out before we had to break camp so the tent was mostly dry.

This months tournament was held in Cluain. A total of 9 heavy fighters and 6 fencers took the field

In the morning the heavy tournament took place. This was again a round robin tourney. It was fought as a single pass. Ultimately Master Rudiger was victorious.

After lunch it was the fencers turn. With six fighters we also held a round robin, best of three passes. To keep things interesting each pass against a specific opponent had to be fought with a different weapon combination. After all the results were totalled I am please to say I, Baron Sympkyn, was victorious and retained my champions title.

The first of the monthly tournaments for Ildhafn was held on the 10th August. There were 8 heavy fighters and 3 fencers participating.

In the morning the heavy tournament took place. This was a round robin tourney. It was fought as a single pass. Ultimately Leo of Ildhafn was victorious.

After a pot luck lunch it was the fencers turn. Only 3 fencers were able to take part so they decided to fight a Pass d’Arms, beginning with single sword, then moving to sword and dagger and finally using sword and buckler. Each weapon form was fought as a best of 3. After all the results were totalled I am please to say I, Baron Sympkyn, was victorious.

The annual Ildhafn winter event, this year entitled ‘Ad Fundam’ took place over the weekend of the 26th and 27th July.

Ad Fundam is a latin term which has different meanings depending on context – it means ‘ from the bottom’ and is often used as a toast ‘Bottoms up’ but can be interpreted as ‘Back to Basics’ it has been chosen because of this duality as many of the classes are aimed at beginners but the event is also a celebration of the Baronial Anniversary.

Over the weekend of the 17 and 18th May 2025 Ildhafn hosted a martial academy. On offer was Armoured(heavy) combat, Fencing, Archery and Combat Archery.

I wanted to do all of the streams but as that wasn’t possible I decided to do the Armoured Combat stream.

Sir Eva von Danzig, a Knight and former Queen of Lochac had been persuaded to fly over from Innilgard(Adelaide) to impart some of her wisdom. In her first session she took us through some of the theory and preparedness for heavy combat. Then after a lovely lunch we armoured up and went through defensive exercises, practicing maintain range with an opponent, look to assess where a threat is coming from and how to move to best avoid it and take advantage of the resulting position. We then moved outside to do some full contact drills and pick-ups(free sparing).
The afternoon finished off a session on war tactics and brought the combat archers in so we could look at how to best work with them. This was followed by a couple of skirmishes.

Cluain hosted another magnificent event over Labour Weekend, October 21st to October 23rd. As always this was at the marvellous setting of Braythwayte Manor just outside Rotorua, New Zealand.

We had 3 days of camping, eating wonderful food prepared from scratch in the camp’s open kitchen and cooked over a fire. There was also dancing, music, fighting, archery, games and craft work.

Labour weekend camp is less structured than most and is very much a ‘bring what you want to work on’ style of camp. While my current health doesn’t allow for much in the ways of physical activity I did spend time playing games and talking with friends both old and new.