Table of Contents
 |
Guide to Good Dining |
Submit a restaurant review and win $50
Jousting
by Ellen EckertThe crowd hums with anticipation, awaiting the arrival of the king and queen. Heraldic banners flap silently over the freshly-raked oval track. Towering eleven-foot lances lean in teepee formation, ready for the joust.
There’s a flourish of trumpets, the entrance of the royals, and a roar of "Long live the king!" Then a final fanfare sounds, signalling the arrival of today’s stars: four grand knights in full regalia on horseback.
Each knight is attired in gleaming armor from head to toe, with plumage curling behind his helmet; he carries his individual banner. "Noble knights, ride forward," the king commands. With great power and considerable clanking, they move into the ring to prepare for battle.
Then these modern-day warriors and their mighty steeds charge full tilt at each other in a bone-jarring display of what the crowd has gathered to see: the medieval sport of jousting.
The show goes on three times a day at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville, but it’s more than just a performance. When the king roars, "Knights at the ready...charge on," each jouster is galloping towards the other with every intention of knocking his opponent off his horse and on to the ground.
"Just about every show we get some bruises," admits Roy Cox of Free Lancers, the group now performing at the Renaissance Festival. Although a hundred and ten pounds of stainless steel armor protects him, when he connects with his foe, "it’s a sixty-mile an hour collision all focused on an inch and a half of dowel striking you in the chest or head."
The knights’ mounts are steadfast in their devotion to their riders. Cox explains that they will work earnestly to win the joust, leaning into the strike. Some of them will even step back underneath a rider that is falling off. "It takes a while to find that psychic link between a rider and a horse. Horses are very empathic."
What happens when a horse gets hit? "They don’t," he says emphatically. "You never hit a horse. It really disheartens them."
Trusting one’s horse is also a crucial element in ring jousting, another form of the sport. Although Cox uses ring jousting as practice for the joust we associate with olden times, it’s the more commonly seen version of the sport as well as the state sport of Maryland.
Ring jousting is a strictly structured contest. Instead of two opponents charging each other, a single contestant canters through arches where suspended rings wait to be lanced. The rings’ diameter begin at an inch and a quarter and diminish to an astonishing half inch (about the size of a Life Saver}. Bruce Hoffman, president of the Maryland State Jousters Association, explains that once a rider enters the track, they often just drop the reins, leaving the running completely to their well-trained horses.
In a ring jousting tournament, each rider is allowed three charges at a specified ring level. The winner prevails by catching the most rings as they diminish in size. Both knights and fair maidens compete -- possibly more maidens than men, as more and more women and girls are discovering the thrill of riding to the rings. Children, parents and siblings may all end up competing together, intensifying an already dramatic contest.
Ring joust tournaments are held at parks, churches, school grounds, private farms or equestrian centers throughout the state almost every weekend in the warmer months. Several hundred residents actively participate, including the Knight of Nowhere, the Knight of Parrot’s Cage, and Knight Will If I Can.
And yes, jousting really is the state sport. Governor J. Millard Tawes signed a bill making it official back in 1962. Lacrosse fans periodically challenge the designation, and even bowling once tried to usurp it, but jousting is still secure in its status. One of its foremost champions has been Mary Lou Bartram, now retired from almost five decades of ring jousting, who works to promote, support and demonstrate the sport she loves.
If you’re ready to spend a fall afternoon enjoying a spectacle of drama, power, horsemanship and chivalry, and a thrilling contest to boot, jousting may be the ancient sport you’ve been waiting to discover. See it at the Renaissance Festival in Crownsville on weekends through October 19.
Return to the What's Up? Home Page.