In the later years of royal tourneys knights were elaborately outfitted for their duels
Tourneys, tournaments, and jousts are mentioned several times in the Chronicles. The first time is in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in which Caspian mentions a tourney the Duke of Galma arranged for his visit. The second occurs in The Horse and His Boy, when Mr. Tumnus tells Cor (who he thinks is Corin) of the time he will be allowed to attend a tourney: ” [ … ] you are promised your first suit of armour and your first war horse on your next birthday. And then your Highness will begin to learn how to tilt and joust. And in a few years, if all goes well, King Peter has promised your royal father that he himself will make you Knight at Cair Paravel.”
Then, in the last book, Tirian regales Jill and Eustace with tales of Narnia’s more peaceful times: “He talked of whole centuries in which all Narnia was so happy that notable dances and feasts, or at most tournaments, were the only things that could be remembered, and every day and week
had been better than the last.”
Daffy Duck takes a turn in the saddle
Those who grew up in Western culture are well familiar with Medieval jousts and tourneys. There’s even been a chain of restaurants dedicated to the concept, where diners wear cardboard crowns at banquet tables, pulling apart roast chickens with their hands as knights battle in the dirt arena below them. Then there’s media depictions, from colorful movie spectacles like Ivanhoe and Robin Hood to Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera cartoons all the way up to the late Heath Ledger’s A Knight’s Tale and HBO’s House of the Dragon, in which an unfortunate contestant has his face bashed to hamburger by a rival knight. Anyone who’s studied Medieval chivalry knows them well, the idea of a lovesick knight receiving a bauble from his ladylove which marks him as her champion.
Historical tourneys are a kind of hastilude, or war-game, where soldiers demonstrate their battle skills outside of a full-blown war. It’s a combination circus, publicity stunt, and civic honor, and also a steam valve to tire out restless warriors who might be inclined to create wars of their own. Tourneys were often thrown to celebrate a marriage, birth, coronation, or honored visitor, as Caspian was to the Duke of Galma. That the Duke did so meant Caspian (and by extension the nation of Narnia) was held in very high esteem. Blunted weapons were used for safety; no one was intended to actually die.
Tourney games featured both group and individual combat. Archery contests were common as well. And of course there was the joust, which is what most people think of when tourneys are mentioned. I’ll be going over that in its own post. Depending on the country, local ruler, and era, niche and specialized games were presented as well.
The origin of the tourney is lost in time but by the 9th century they were being recorded in the records of the European monarchs. Each nation had different customs. As time went on into the Late Medieval age they became larger and more elaborate, featuring banquets, pageants, and parades in the apex period of the 12th to 16th centuries. They likely became more expensive as well, for the local lord had to build the grandstands, hire and costume the entertainment, and host and feed the many guests. I imagine it was a form of conspicuous consumption for them and the knights, whose outfits, standards, and armor became more and more elaborate.
What unique games and features might the Narnia tourney hold?
Narnian Tourney Games
| Unicorn Run | A game exclusively for Narnia’s unicorns. Males run down the field and tilt at a revolving carousel on which a number of rings of different colors, sizes, and heights are fastened to spear one with their horn. The higher rings require the unicorn to leap. Prizes are presented in order of the catch’s difficulty. The female unicorns, who have smaller horns, cheer from the sidelines, later wearing on their own horns the rings caught by their beloved. |
| Helm Toss | Knights charge at full speed and toss their helmets to their squires who are riding towards them on the opposite side. Points are given for the two participants’ speed, flair, and accuracy of the catch. |
| The Labyrinth | A maze made of staked hay bales into which sword-bearing contestants must charge, braving swinging gates, lance-wielding dummies on turntables, sharp corners and blind turns to spear scraps of cloth with their swords. The contestant with the fastest run wins. |
| The Bully Ring | A contest for two kinds of Talking Animals, traditionally rival species like Mice and Elephants, or Bears and Lions. An equal number of both creatures stand inside a chalked ring and attempt to shove each other, using brute force only, outside. Any four-footed creature with two feet outside the ring or two-footed creatures with one foot outside are considered lost and must leave the team. Though seemingly straightforward this game is suspenseful and the winner is not always who you think. |
| Dagger Dance | Said to have been imported from Calormen. For human females, naiads, and dryads only. The two combatants “fight” with blunted daggers, in a coordinated dance at once graceful and deadly. |
| Rainbow Lances | Serves as a warm-up for the joust. Knights charge at each other with hollow, blunt lances filled with colored powder, resulting in strikes of bright green, yellow, red, and purple. |
| Trial by Sarcasm | Two bards roast each other using their improvised wit. The one gaining the biggest cheers from the audience wins. |
| Story Circle | Always presented at the end of the day’s festivities. The audience gathers around a bonfire lit in the middle of the field, where poets and bards entertain with folklore and legends, and ordinary Narnians who’ve had extraordinary experiences tell their stories as well. |
| Losers’ Duel | One of the merriest times in a Narnia tourney occurs at the end of the period festivities. Losers are dressed by the attendees in ridiculous improvised costumes and set to dueling with equally ridiculous objects like umbrellas, shoes, cheese-graters, etc. The winner is whoever evokes the most laughter from the audience. |
