Re: Event idea (very preliminary) --comments sought

[76THORSON@CUA.EDU]

Scripsit Xavier:
<paraphrasing> Fighting for love is period, but what about fighting for the
concept of love?

I don't know about actual tournaments fought on the Love v. War model (someone
like Dafydd could probably answer that question), but I do know that there are
plenty of visual representations of sieges of the "Castle of Love," or
tournaments fought on similar principles.  The representations I can think of
off-hand are ivory carvings on caskets, mirror-backs, and combs (i.e., items
meant for use by ladies).  There's an especially lovely one in the Walters Art
Gallery in Baltimore.  I don't remember if I've ever seen such images in
manuscript illuminations.

Certainly the juxtaposition of love and war is common enough in period (just 
as an example, check out Chaucer's _Troilus and Criseyde_, especially the scene
when Criseyde gets her first real look at Troilus as he returns from battle). 
Courts of love are also period, and have been attempted in SCA settings,
though with how much success I don't know.

I can't provide, as I said, any solid documentation for similar tournaments
in period, but my gut reaction (I am a professional medievalist) is that
the idea is certainly in period style, and it sounds like it could be
a really fun event, into the bargain.  

In service,
Alianora