The Award of Honour

Throughout Lysts on the Lake 2011, there was one competition that did not depend on horsemanship, skill with weapons or other physical abilities. This was the "competition" for the Award of Honour, an award given to the competitor who most clearly demonstrated the traditional virtues of chivalry throughout the tournament.

Though there are a number of different words used in listing the virtues of chivalry, many of them mean basically the same thing. Once all the different lists are examined and the redundancies eliminated, the five main virtues of chivalry can be listed as: Honour, Loyalty, Valor, Courtesy(especially towards women) and Generosity (of spirit as well as material wealth).

Dawn Allee Hemphill was the Lady of Honour for Lysts on the Lake 2011, and was in charge of choosing the winner of the Award of Honour. Based upon her own observations and comments from others, almost every competitor exhibited many, if not all of the chivalric virtues. However, one competitor received more recognition than any other for his honourable behavior, and therefore Dawn chose Dustin Stephens as the most chivalrous competitor and named him the winner of the Award of Honour.

Dustin Stephens on Sampson (photo by Jay Baum)