Genevieve's Journeys

by gorging on the archive for 2 days.

Today's favourite, for all kinds of reasons.

More positively now I'm totally culturally prepared for Double Wars. :-)

Working against the clock, I didn't have time to take pictures - but aryanhwy did a lovely job. It looks even better in her pictures than I remembered it when I made it.

This writ was to mark HE aryanhwy's winning the kingdom arts and sciences competition. She is thus the kingdom artisan for the coming year. It's not really an award from the Crown because they didn't choose her - the judges did. So it's more a acknowledgement of her accomplishment.

To find a medieval example text, I used two texts from Henry V's chancery, one where he is similarly giving his royal assent to a decision made by others (the church making someone a bishop) 1417C81/1364/41Signet of Henry V , and another where he delegates an appointee's commission to his recipient 1417C81/1364/36Signet of Henry V, leaving the fine details for a trusted clerk to figure out.

12th night is also called Epiphany, so I used that description as a date, rather than the exact calendar date - there's only one 12th night per anno societatus.

The calligraphy is a bit wobbly, but the overall effect is what I was after - something fine and businesslike, little fuss and muss. I fell back on a fine metal nib, not a quill, for this piece - I'd spent a lot of time trimming my existing nibs to get them finer, but could not get any finer than just under 1 mm - it's ok, but not as fine as I wanted.

I hold one of the copies of the kingdom seal, and have used it regularly over several years; the other seal is my own, made by my lord Robert for me last year. It's made of silver, and has my arms and a motto from the opening of the gospel of John ('In the beginning was the word'), and Ary's pictures show them both beautifully.

Robert spent well over an hour fiddling with hot and cold beeswax to get a really good impression of these two seals - he deserves the credit for the way they turned out.

One of the things I make for regalia is small purses, modelled on (surprise!) surviving seal bags and reliquary bags. They use up scraps of velvet and silk, and are finished with embroidery floss fingerbraid and beads.

So for the first time, I had a seal bag handy...to really go over a seal. Unfortunately I couldn't fit a second bag over my own seal and fit it all in the package for mailing! so I wrapped it in card and crossed my fingers for transit.

The seal cord is silk fingerbraid, by HG Alessandre Melusine, a narrow wares mavin, who keeps me stocked on request.

Text reads:




Lovely closeup of the kingdom seal - you can even see the custom addition of cat fur in the velvet behind the seal...



View of my own seal, threaded on a scrap of scribbled-on vellum.


Nice view of the text. Proofreading it afterwards, I had to squeeze in the year - whoops.

I start my day with the record shortest Curia meeting ever at 9am - I think I was the only member of the populace attending. goncalves was delighted to preside over an 8 minute meeting. :-) I wandered out in shock, wondering what to do with the rest of my morning, other than second breakfast...and going back to bed!

Truthfully my back was aching, and I did go back to bed, to give myself some more down time.

I got up in time to grab a bite and attend an impromptu class on quill cutting. merlyn_gabriel had seen my wailing about quills and asked Mistress Caitlin to demonstrate, so we assembled in the scriptorium and had a very helpful session about how she cuts her quills. I took notes, and Mistress Aine took pictures, so I'm hoping to get in touch with her to develop an article.

It seems to be one of the skills best learned in person - all the reading I've done has given me the idea, but I still didn't have it right, and got the chance to walk through it not just with a scribe, but someone who uses quills exclusively.

From there, I dressed for dinner: feast was to start at 3pm in the respective halls (three halls needed to house everyone) so it was a hustle to get our feastgear etc in place. Happily we got to sit with friends, including Eufemia and Cadogan, and Caitlin and Otto and Ruth (Gaita at this event!), and hobbitomm and ormsweird as well. We tried absinthe (one of the Japanese members had given the bottle to Cadogan) and it was potent stuff.

Feast ran a bit long - it's hard to coordinate across three halls when you're cooking in yet another one! I wouldn't even want to try.

This was the one day I got some fencing in, so I was up early hoping and praying that it would start on time. :-)

I love breakfasts at European events; it's not glamourous but it is savoury. Half a dozen different types of bread including ryes and black breads, meats and cheese, quark (kinda like yoghurt, but not), and the best coffee I've ever had out of an urn. I don't know what Germans do differently with large quantities of coffee, other than perhaps just add *lots* but it's nothing like 'conference coffee' in England. Yum.

So many fencers! and happily most of them are signed up to play in the very silly Brighthelm tourney, aka the circle of treachery - every one for themselves, but you can't kill the person immediately next to you. It's great fun, and while good fencers can do well, it can reward just about anyone lucky. We managed a few bouts of girls vs boys, but you can't rely on it! and Lady Lalli, a splendid Lanceknict lady, wins the best dressed competition. (She goes on to win the Albion tourney as well, so she's both lovely and dangerous.)

I stay around for some pickup but there's not a great deal - people are keen, but they're really feeling the heat, and even the keenest don't manage much more than 20 mins before pooping out.

Note to self: for future events, make more time to fence.

The rest of the day is mostly about court - preparing for court, changing court location at the last minute to move indoors - (spectacular thunderstorms that were threatening much of the day appear less than an hour before court), finding banners to hang in the vigil room, and lots and lots of standing.

I assist jpgsawyer with ThorvaldR and Tofa's last court, and step in after their business ends, and before Efreydis opens their Majesties Sven and Siobhan's court. Robert processes in, in his full bishop-ish regalia to mix the oil and soil from the corners of the kingdom, and his presence changes the pace of court, and helps mark the change of royal heads very effectively.

He uses his own ampulla to hold soil, lifting each one to announce it before mixing it with oil.

Once more, I get to see some very glorious scrolls in the process, which always reminds me why I started scribing in the first place. The one on real parchment is just a delight to fondle!

At this court TRM invest aryanhwy as Schwarzdrachen, with my cyclas (so she isn't swamped in one of the monster tabards) and with a baptism, as is appropriate. Happily we'd had a chance to test the cyclas and managed to get her vested reasonably gracefully!

And of course, I'm in prime position to see Viscountess Ursula invted to vigil: she really didn't know why she was called up, and when both their majesties stood to greet her, she was puzzled...til they called the order of the Pelican.

Even after the storm it's still very warm, and the dusk brings out mosquitoes. We swap sunscreen for bugspray on necks and ankles up to knees. I feel like I'm drinking gallons of water; I'd love to know exactly how much I do drink, but it's hard to tell.

I think it's on Thursday night/Friday morning that Vitus' tent collapses in the high wind. This is usually a very sound pavilion (large wedge with 'bell' on each side) but apparently not all the ropes were staked as usual in the hurry to get everything up, and so down it comes in the wee hours.

Vitus and Isabel were actually in a room in the castle, and Paul and Anne were using the tent. There was apparently a huge commotion with the whole camp awake trying to haul stuff out, stashing P&A in jpgsawyer and edith_hedingham's pavilion floor, divers alarums, etc. etc.

Why 'apparently'? Because I slept through the lot. I use earplugs when camping, and was so soundly asleep I entirely missed Anne sticking her head in our pavilion bellowing for help. (Robert was out and about visiting so wasn't on hand either - if he'd gotten up I'd possibly have noticed.)

So it was a shock to find a monster flop of a pavilion out the door in the morning.

Happily noone was hurt - it was a sort of slow-moving accident, on the accident scale. The big loss was the pottery, all carefully stored on the shelving unit, which went over in the wind, smashing lots. There will be a round of replacement shopping come autumn markets.

Thamesreach is a shire rich in heralds - and now, it's even rich in titled heralds.

With this month's LoAR, three titles were registered, for myself, my lord Robert, and nusbacher:

• Rouge Maunche
• Caversham 
• Sans Merci Herault

respectively. These titles were bestowed on us all by Vitus and Eleanora, our current king and queen's predecessors.

I think we nicely illustrate the popular historic heraldic title options: charge, locative (Caversham is a village adjascent to Reading, where we lived for about 18 months) and motto. :-)

On top of that exmoor_cat's arms have passed, as have armillary's, and the name of the new shire in Bulgaria is now registered as College of St John of Rila, which I think is delightful.

I look forward to seeing these registered arms added to the shire bunting!

Notes on the little event that grew...

Yule Ball proved to be a lovely wrap-up of the year's events. I had more fun than I expected and of course greatly enjoyed seeing Sir Alaric elevated to the Order of the Laurel. He was completely taken unawares, and was his ususal modest, cheerful and honest self throughout the weekend.

I wrote up an account of the ceremony for SCA today, if you're interested in the proceedings. (Unfortunately I find that the DML mailer mangles text now. Yahoo won't let me mail completely plain text (rich text or HTML only) and so anything I read on the list is full of annoying codes. This version's easier to read.)

I got to teach a bit of dancing, both in the afternoon and doing reminders in the ball - with only a few gentle steers by Mistress Judith. :-) People gamely followed along, and didn't lose themselves hopelessly.

The ball itself was a delight, with a steady flow of dances, with music provided both eletronically and by Mistresses Kiriel and Nerissa. (Poor Kiriel had the journey from Hell - delayed flight meant that the cal rental agency she'd booked with had closed when she arrived, and she had to pay an outrageous amount to hire a car on the spot from the only agency still open after midnight. She was hoping to recoup from the airline afterward! For anyone other than Alaric, I think she would have turned around and gone home to Geneva again...)

Watching HE Judith and Lady Valeria dancing together, warmed with passionate looks and gestures, was enough to raise anyone's blood pressure, regardless of their orientation. Hubba hubba.

I enjoyed the time spent in the scriptorium - got to help a couple of ladies try their hand, and proved to be a source of diversion for a stream of very young demoisels using my inks, though I was rebuked for not having enough interesting colours. I think aryanhwy  spoiled them at Coronet having an exellent set of water-based inks in six bright colours.

HE Ursula commented that I was brave to let them play with the ink. I figured that the ink is water-soluble, and would eventually come off the girls if you wrung them out firmly enough.

Once more the Flintheath children were a delight - excellent, self-entertaining playmates for Sir Vitus' children, and nusbacher 's demoisel Anjelica. I'm always impressed by Crispin and Ceara's brood of girls; they're not perfect, but they seem very happy together, and are willing to help even before being asked. I find it brilliant that the youngest volunteers to do dishes.

Sir Vitus had brought his local tribe of three (H aged 11, MC aged 5 and T aged 10 months - his teen son F lives in Germany).

The elder two play well together, and are loving having a younger brother to dote on, drag around and generally maul to bits with hugs and cuddles. T, in his turn, clearly watches them very carefully and is learning fast. He's already walking quite fearlessly, and wants to play with his brother's and sister's toys.  Their boffer swords are especially welcome - when you're not swinging them around, you can chew on the handles.

In fact, young T nearly upstaged the court business, while sitting on his father's lap. As TRM were managing court business, and Sir Vitus was sat next to them as Heir, T got hold of nusbacher 's white herald's staff. T knows what you do with a long stick - you swing it! and the staff was light and fit in his hand.

He promptly started swinging with gusto, bopping Dad, Angelica, anyone within reach, and his joy was clearly writ to see. There was, of course, a great howl when he was finally deprived of this excellent toy, but it's just as well, because those watching couldn't keep a straight face for court.

Lady Ceara did an excellent job for her first feast - we had a chat during the next day's cleanup, and she was still bubbling with great pleaure about how she'd sourced local supplies, considered seasonal food availability, and managed not to panic when her first booked shipment of venison couldn't reach her in the sudden snowfall.  I encouraged her to write up her concept and execution for the ID newsletter, and was really pleased to see she'd done so with this month's edition.

She did something I'd gladly see in many SCA feasts - chose two excellent game meat dishes (rabbit, slow-cooked til it fell off the bone) and a venison stew, and supported them with several veg and grain dishes, including a tangy apple soup. The game was wonderfully savoury and special, and stood out memorably. I'd much prefer cooks spent on a couple of unusual meats and served less meat overall, than bring in a series of bigger beef, pork and chicken dishes, which anyone can get any day of the week at home.

I realise it's not perfectly medieval (we were looking through a 15th c menu for London brewers guild recently, and the only veg across 20+ dishes was onions and garlic for sauces!), but SCA feasts are always a necessary tradeoff between medieval and modern. I suppose all our arts are, but feasts are front and centre to many people's experience of the game.

Lady Valeria brought a very delicious 'lambs wool' (ale or cider, cooked apples, plus christmas spices - a foamy warm boozy drink) to the brewing contest. I could drink this all day long, though it probably wouldn't be good for me!

pogbody  has a great way with managing events. She has a very light hand in directing, but her moralsuasion is quite powerful. She's also in one of the hardest-working shires; Flintheath folk are always 'doing', and rarely let others do without pitching in.

One interesting idea of hers, that worked beautifully, was a gift exchange - feast attendees were asked to bring a small gift, either £5 or less, or 'something they wanted to pass on'. It seems many folks followed the latter course - I scored a beautifully finished lined linen hood, exmoor_cat  found himself with a carved drinking horn, and many other gifts were greatly generous and surprising. Sir Vitus acted as the Yule King, with Robert as his crabbed and crochety assistant.

A blessing of a local event - getting home easily!

Report is from Master Cernac, who spoke for her as a Pelican.
Look for the good news on scatoday in a couple of days.
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This Friday evening 3rd October at Civil War in the Shire of Juneborg in Nordmark, Baroness Dorothea Weberin, sometimes known as Raven, was sent to Vigil for Knighthood by their Majesties UlfR and Caoimhe.

At lunchtime on Saturday, before the commencement of the war, she was summoned to court, arriving escorted by a parade of landsknechts with drum and banners. There on the war field, before the assembled fighters and populace, incuding a great many of her friends, she was elevated to the Chivalry.

Her Knight, Sir Cormac and her Laurel, Mistress Alienor, spoke for her and I had the honour to speak for her as a Pelican. Lord Sigismund Jaeger
gave words for Dorothea as a member of the populace.

Sir Rian vested Dorothea with his spurs, in memory of when she had girded him with his knight's belt at his knighting.

Her lord, Sir Ivan, girded her with the belt of Sir Raim, the first knight of Drachenwald. Sir Cormac passed on his chain, which had been given to him by Duke Elffin O Mona, who had received it in turn from Duke Jade of Starfall.

Thus was elevated the first female knight in Drachenwald, as well as the  first fighter in Ireland to be knighted.

For Sir Dorothea, VIVAT! HUZZAH! WOOT!

Cernac

And photos, courstesy of Edricus:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lord_edricus/sets/72157624961506501/