The Renaissance of Miami’s Medieval Club
Exploring the communal ties that span centuries
GraciAnn Hicks
Illustrations by Macey Chamberlin, photos by Jake Ruffer
“This is Kaden’s favorite game,” Docier says. They dance from side to side, taunting their opponent as he stares them down. “He knows he’s going to lose.”
Arsenius, also known as Kaden, holds a blue and black rattan sword in one hand and a large black shield in the other. He stands poised to attack.
The two hold the distance between them for a while longer. The room is quiet as spectators wait to see who will break first.
He lunges at Docier, who holds up a small metal shield to block his sword. It rings after the two make contact.
Confident footsteps propel Arsenius forward. He has the advantage with his height and larger kite shield.
Spectators sit huddled together at the edges of the classroom. All eyes are on the armor-clad fighters as they circle each other. Someone occasionally says “bonk” after a particularly resonant hit.
Docier sinks to their knees after Arsenius’s sword slashes their hip. They have lost the ability to use their legs.
After a few more jabs from Arsenius, Docier lets out a defeated “OK” to let him know that he has made a winning hit. The fight lasted less than a minute.
Arsenius remains in the middle to duel his next opponent.
***
A few hours ago, the two fighters were just normal students at Miami University named Kaden King and Adi Weeden. But under heavy steel helmets and a full body of armor, they are Arsenius and Docier, members of Miami’s Medieval Club, an affiliation of the international Society for Creative Anachronism’s (SCA) Dayton Barony of the Flaming Griffin.
Each Wednesday, the two students and at least 10 other club members gather to battle it out with rapiers and rattan swords.
The rapier fighting resembles fencing, with more variety in sword and fighting style. Each sword is about 3 feet long and made from steel, but the edges are blunt so that fighters don’t hurt each other. The heavy armor fighting that King and Weeden practice, however, allows for a more intense duel with rattan swords, which are made from a sturdy grasslike plant.
More than a reenactment group or just a fight club, though, Medieval Club focuses on teaching people about medieval history and culture. This particular practice lacks an arts and sciences component, but each meeting normally includes a non-fighting element.
One week, a guest taught members about medieval board games. Another week, they learned how to make yarn. They have an embroidery lesson planned for the near future.
Like many organizations, the Medieval Club didn’t gather during the pandemic. It existed on paper, but most of the club’s active members had graduated. For a while, it was a dead organization that celebrated a dead culture.
That was until the fall 2022 semester, when Niko Babb Galvis, a third-year supply chain & operations management and data science & statistics double major, set about reviving the Medieval Club.
Babb Galvis attended an event held by a SCA chapter at the University of Pensacola as a ninth-grade student and enjoyed the activities it offered. He realized that Miami’s Medieval Club wasn’t active, so he stepped into the role of president.
“At the beginning of last semester, I had the opportunity to start it back up again,” Babb Galvis said. “I met the right people as president, so I basically started it from scratch more or less.”
Now, the clinking of rapiers and clanking of armor fill the second floor of McGuffey Hall every Wednesday evening as the Medieval Club experiences its own renaissance.
Most people join the club because of the fighting aspect, but they often stay when they discover community or passion.
King, a first-year biochemistry and neuroscience double major, usually attends three SCA practices a week: Marche of the Unicorn, or Miami’s Medieval Club, on Wednesdays; Barony of the Phoenix on Mondays in Cincinnati; and Barony of the Flaming Griffin on Thursdays in Dayton.
“It’s recommended that you try to fight multiple times a week in different areas,” he said. “If you have a routine of fighting the same people over and over again, you’re obviously not going to improve any.”
A lanky redhead with his own mostly handmade armor and shield, King stands out from fellow members of the Medieval Club. Students aren’t required to spend any money to participate because the club has loaner armor and swords for them to use, but it’s clear that he has more invested than most members.
“I think by the third or fourth time [attending a club meeting], I was already starting to make my own armor,” he said.
Prior to joining the Medieval Club, King practiced Taekwondo for nearly a decade. He was interested in exploring historical European martial arts before he stumbled upon the Medieval Club at Miami’s Mega Fair last August. He now dedicates more than 10 hours a week to SCA practices.
Although he attends several practices each week, he said that he doesn’t feel pressure to attend if he’s busy.
“The community is amazing; everyone is very helpful,” King said. “A big thing with a lot of other organizations is like, ‘You need to be able to be here all the time for all our meetings.’ We’re just like, ‘Life comes first, SCA comes second.’”
King is used to sticking to himself as a self-proclaimed introvert, but he has found belonging among his friends from Medieval Club and other SCA baronies.
“They’re the people I see the most,” King said. “I don’t think I have other friends who aren’t almost directly involved in either SCA or Medieval Club stuff. Most of them have some relationship to it.”
Olive Abram, a first-year political science and sustainability double major, echoed King’s praise of the SCA culture.
“It’s just a really welcoming community with a bunch of nerds in it of all ages,” she said.
***
During a practice on a warmer Wednesday, Abram and her friend, fellow first year Delta Litton, sit in the grass outside McGuffey as the heavy armor fighters gear up a few yards away. They banter as they inspect each other’s armor to ensure that everything is in place.
“Hey Adi, I’m going to get murdered tonight,” King says.
“Okay, you do you,” Weeden says.
Abram focuses her attention on a pastel cross-stitch pattern, and Litton works on homework. Although they don’t engage in any of the fighting, they attend the practice because they enjoy the atmosphere and other aspects of the club.
Abram joined the club from Mega Fair, like King, but she had prior interest in medieval culture.
“I was really obsessed with the TV show ‘Merlin’ for a long time, so I got really into medieval history in early high school because of that,” she said.
While her interest in the show has faded, she now leans into the arts and sciences side of the club.
The club’s treasurer, sophomore computer science major Paige Helmke, also gravitates toward this side of SCA. She practices calligraphy and bookbinding.
“We do more than just fighting,” Helmke said. “Because this is a big part of what we do, we have the fencing, and we have the heavy armor stuff. But we’re trying to get more into the arts and sciences stuff. And I think that’s a part of the club that people don’t realize that we focus on.”
For people to compete in official SCA tournaments, they need to be certified. The tournament where King became certified even required the participant to have an arts and sciences project, demonstrating the importance of cultural aspects within the greater SCA society.
Edward, one of the instructors who helps teach rapier fighting to the students, said that he doesn’t start talking more about the historical side with new members until they’ve consistently attended a few practices. Some of the arts and sciences components that he and his wife, who is also involved in SCA, have focused on over the years include improv, dancing, gaming, fiber arts and scroll making.
Edward and Sir Nico, neither of whom are ever called by their “mundane name” during meetings, are two of several longtime SCA members who attend Medieval Club to ensure safety and teach members.
Sir Nico joined Miami’s Medieval Club himself as a first-year in the fall semester of 1989, just a few years after the chapter was founded.
While the club’s activity and membership has ebbed and flowed throughout the years, SCA members have always been willing to help the younger generation of members to learn more and become more involved.
“I love the idea that this organization first started as a small group in Berkeley, California, and 57 years later, it’s all over the world,” Sir Nico said.
He said that he met his wife through SCA, as well as friends who have become family. The worldwide communal bond assures King, who is leaving Miami after this school year to join the Air Force, that he’ll find a way to be part of the community no matter where he ends up.
***
People sit around McGuffey Hall room 223 chatting with friends and eating sandwiches from on-campus stores as they wait for the meeting to start. Several of them gawk at the newcomer taking notes in the back of the room and exchange light-hearted jokes about it.
“This is the poetry club, right?” someone jokes.
“This is actually the Shakespeare reenactment club,” another member says. “We’re doing ‘Romeo and Juliet.’”
“I call Juliet!” a deep voice calls out.
The group practices middle school rules: boys sit in a group to the left, and the girls congregate to the right. For safety reasons, every person is required to sign in on a clipboard. King chases Weeden throughout the room as they withhold the clipboard from him.
A massive blue plastic tub of armor and swords sits at the front of the room.
At 6:45 p.m., 15 minutes after the club’s official start time, Babb Galvis calls for attention at the front of the room. After his announcements, members push desks against the walls to transform the space into a fighting den.
Excitement courses through the room as the clanking of desks subsides and members gear up for rapier fighting. Across the hall, students and instructors equip themselves with full body armor; they don steel helmets, breastplates, and shoulder and leg coverings.
Once everyone is ready, the fighting can commence.
“Hi,” Arsenius says.
“Long time no spar,” Docier replies.
Adrenaline runs high even for spectators.
The attacks are both calculated and random. They carry on a disjointed dance of hits and misses.
Clothing peeks through gaps in the fighters’ armor, a small detail which slightly distracts from the fight’s escapist qualities.
Although the room fills with the cacophony of the battle, there is no ill-will.
“Everyone is an instructor and a learner,” King said.
Although he dedicates more time to SCA practices than most members of the Medieval Club, he doesn’t fight arrogantly.
“Even those newer fighters, they’re going to be teaching older fighters things that they never thought about,” he said. “There’s just a really cool dynamic.”
In between rounds, their instructor, whose persona is a second century Roman guard named Sylvies, offers pointers.
After the meeting, King, Weeden and a couple other friends will go out to dinner together. They won’t leave McGuffey until 9:30 p.m. or later once they’ve changed back into normal clothes and decided where to eat.
After they depart, however, it won’t be long until they reunite. Tomorrow evening, King will pick up friends to drive to practice for Barony of the Flaming Griffin and spar again.
