Remembering Durlomé Rakesh d'Mithnan (Dwarf)
I hopped a ride to Pennsic with Dwarf a few years ago. All right, maybe it wasn’t a few years ago. Maybe it was 1979. My first Pennsic. And Dwarf had a VW minibus of the classic orange and ivory coloring. I wouldn’t have attended the event without a willing ride, and that event changed everything. I abruptly stopped attending classes at Fredonia State, and started attending the more important classes of the SCA. Soon enough I had flunked out of Fredonia, and graduated in the SCA. But the two remained connected.
You see, in those days, the Rhydderich Hael was located in Fredonia. Buffalo was the Shire of Beau Fleuve. And our weekly barony meetings were held on the Fredonia State campus, in Fenton Hall, on the first floor in a room to the left of the main entrance. Forgive me if I no longer remember the room number.
Every week we would have a brief meeting which included connecting drivers and riders, and a preview of all upcoming events within reasonable commuting distance. Afterwards might be a dance practice, an arts & sciences workshop, or other activity. On more than a few occasions what followed was Dwarf and me having long sessions of trying to top each other with punning shaggy dog stories. Dwarf had an inexhaustible supply of these stories, and the challenge was to try to pull at least a few of them into the realm of the middle ages, or at least the SCA. It didn’t seem any stretch to ride to Pennsic VIII with Dwarf and Kat (his girlfriend, and future wife); though I believe I rode to about only four events total with them. It was a pleasure to travel with them, although they were definitely more refined than I was in those days.
After the weekly meeting and activity, most of us would repair to Pizza Hut where the manager allowed us all to partake of the “Family Special” which consisted of a 49 cent all you can eat salad bar with the purchase of any large pizza. The dozen of us could always afford at least one large pizza. Dwarf didn’t often join us at Pizza Hut, and didn’t always make it down from West Seneca to Fredonia, but he and Kat made it often enough to be an essential part of the landscape. And sooner rather than later, most of the people from Fredonia moved northward to Buffalo. During that time period I was Baronial Chronicler, and Dwarf was a patron of the office contributing sponsoring money to an issue or two, and at least a time or two, contributing an article.
At that point Dwarf and I also intersected regularly in D&D groups, and at the steadily increasing number of local and nearby events. While Dwarf had a special talent for muttering vile curses under in breath, he did so in dwarvish so as not offend young ears. And that makes an important point, although Dwarf was a fighter and a hardy soul, he was also a gentle man with a weakness for some children. I remember an Ice Dragon at Buffalo State College where Dwarf was the major entertainment of the minors.
When it came to fighting, Dwarf was one of the Four Rhinos of the Apocalypse, a shield wall consisting of Stor Dodlig (sp?) who was Dwarf’s mundane brother, Barak Elandris Muthumbal, and me in my alternate persona as Barak Elandris Bostar. At Pennsic IX we made a difference in the field and woods battles. Dwarf and I were both on the Eastern team in the first ever Unbelted Champions Battle that year, 20 men to a side. We were part of a shield wall with Barak Elandris Mago and Barak Elandris Linnaeus, and Morgan Elandris behind us fighting spear. The East won the battle dominantly.
Dwarf was also active in broadening SCA combat. One of his pet projects was to create a list legal flail, but he was ahead of his time. Given the primitive state of armor at the time he was never able to convince the marshalls that his flail was safe, but in today’s list I think there would be no question. His creation had a stout shaft and three balls that were not unlike the duct-taped rolls of toilet paper that would make list-legal boulders in a later era. The balls were attached serially by rope.
Dwarf’s creativity came out in various ways, the shaggy dog stories, the articles, D&D, the flail. It also came out in his syntax and grammar. He had ways of inverting sentences that made Yoda envious. And he moved accents and emphasis to unexpected places in sentences. The result is that one I start remembering the unusual way in which he spoke, I can often remember whole stories and conversations from thirty years ago. What a wonderful gift that is for me. Thank you.
As years passed, we moved in different directions, Dwarf into different kinds of reenactment; me applying the lessons of the SCA in never ending turns as a college student and professor. I always thought fondly of Dwarf, and through the years there were always threats to rekindle our old D&D group. But that never happened. The last time I saw Dwarf was late summer of 1997 when I stopped at his house for a pleasant hour. It seems that almost all my memories of Dwarf were pleasant hours.
-Andreas Hak (Herb Kauderer)
You see, in those days, the Rhydderich Hael was located in Fredonia. Buffalo was the Shire of Beau Fleuve. And our weekly barony meetings were held on the Fredonia State campus, in Fenton Hall, on the first floor in a room to the left of the main entrance. Forgive me if I no longer remember the room number.
Every week we would have a brief meeting which included connecting drivers and riders, and a preview of all upcoming events within reasonable commuting distance. Afterwards might be a dance practice, an arts & sciences workshop, or other activity. On more than a few occasions what followed was Dwarf and me having long sessions of trying to top each other with punning shaggy dog stories. Dwarf had an inexhaustible supply of these stories, and the challenge was to try to pull at least a few of them into the realm of the middle ages, or at least the SCA. It didn’t seem any stretch to ride to Pennsic VIII with Dwarf and Kat (his girlfriend, and future wife); though I believe I rode to about only four events total with them. It was a pleasure to travel with them, although they were definitely more refined than I was in those days.
After the weekly meeting and activity, most of us would repair to Pizza Hut where the manager allowed us all to partake of the “Family Special” which consisted of a 49 cent all you can eat salad bar with the purchase of any large pizza. The dozen of us could always afford at least one large pizza. Dwarf didn’t often join us at Pizza Hut, and didn’t always make it down from West Seneca to Fredonia, but he and Kat made it often enough to be an essential part of the landscape. And sooner rather than later, most of the people from Fredonia moved northward to Buffalo. During that time period I was Baronial Chronicler, and Dwarf was a patron of the office contributing sponsoring money to an issue or two, and at least a time or two, contributing an article.
At that point Dwarf and I also intersected regularly in D&D groups, and at the steadily increasing number of local and nearby events. While Dwarf had a special talent for muttering vile curses under in breath, he did so in dwarvish so as not offend young ears. And that makes an important point, although Dwarf was a fighter and a hardy soul, he was also a gentle man with a weakness for some children. I remember an Ice Dragon at Buffalo State College where Dwarf was the major entertainment of the minors.
When it came to fighting, Dwarf was one of the Four Rhinos of the Apocalypse, a shield wall consisting of Stor Dodlig (sp?) who was Dwarf’s mundane brother, Barak Elandris Muthumbal, and me in my alternate persona as Barak Elandris Bostar. At Pennsic IX we made a difference in the field and woods battles. Dwarf and I were both on the Eastern team in the first ever Unbelted Champions Battle that year, 20 men to a side. We were part of a shield wall with Barak Elandris Mago and Barak Elandris Linnaeus, and Morgan Elandris behind us fighting spear. The East won the battle dominantly.
Dwarf was also active in broadening SCA combat. One of his pet projects was to create a list legal flail, but he was ahead of his time. Given the primitive state of armor at the time he was never able to convince the marshalls that his flail was safe, but in today’s list I think there would be no question. His creation had a stout shaft and three balls that were not unlike the duct-taped rolls of toilet paper that would make list-legal boulders in a later era. The balls were attached serially by rope.
Dwarf’s creativity came out in various ways, the shaggy dog stories, the articles, D&D, the flail. It also came out in his syntax and grammar. He had ways of inverting sentences that made Yoda envious. And he moved accents and emphasis to unexpected places in sentences. The result is that one I start remembering the unusual way in which he spoke, I can often remember whole stories and conversations from thirty years ago. What a wonderful gift that is for me. Thank you.
As years passed, we moved in different directions, Dwarf into different kinds of reenactment; me applying the lessons of the SCA in never ending turns as a college student and professor. I always thought fondly of Dwarf, and through the years there were always threats to rekindle our old D&D group. But that never happened. The last time I saw Dwarf was late summer of 1997 when I stopped at his house for a pleasant hour. It seems that almost all my memories of Dwarf were pleasant hours.
-Andreas Hak (Herb Kauderer)