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abendgulesLuggage-less, Robert and I borrowed some clothes and finery from the household, and everyone bar Sarra (who still had sermon to write) tramped off to the event. Sarra lent me one of the 12th c. gowns I've admired often over the years, a fine red patterned bliaut with plain red lined sleeves, and a beaded silk veil - very elegant. Robert looked very fine in a long tunic and hood - I've always liked a gent in long skirts.
I ached for our missing clothes - I'd been looking forward to wearing my new wool gown with all my good accessories, to look the part of a 14th c. lady with my cool Luttrell Psalter. And I could see Robert, though resigned, was pining for his armour. Sigh.
How luxurious it was to roll up to an event at noon, 15 minutes after getting into the car! I could get used to this.
At the event, we found a very warm welcome. I can honestly say it's one of the friendliest events I've attended. I've periodically rolled up to events knowing very few folks, and I'm prone to an attack of the shys, reluctant to introduce myself, and wanting to just sit in a corner and do crafts. But I knew that I could expect to see at least one friend-of-a-friend - Mistress Bess (bernina2000de) a Laurel of whom larmer has spoken highly in the past - as did Lord Bertrand of Tor Brant, one of my past gentleman companions.
In fact, Bertrand's mother Mary Elisabeth has grown active in the Society in Ruantallan, and was attending the event, and with some prompting she could draw my face to mind.
Bess proved a fine companion - as anyone who has met her can attest - and we gossiped about shared acquaintances from Ealdormere and Calontir - she's apparently squire-sister to Lord Dirik in Flintheath, and her husband has similar household ties.
Households are very important in the East, as in Calontir, in a way that is not as common in Drachenwald; most people introduced themselves both by name and by connection ('I'm apprenticed to Master X', or 'squire to Y'). I don't remember it being as common in Ealdormere either - but truthfully, it's possible that as an active Ealdormerian, I already knew household ties as part of my background knowledge of different groups and circles of friends, and was rarely introduced to anyone completely new.
When I remarked on this to Sarra, she agreed - but she also pointed out it's a common Maritime-ism: you introduce yourself, and where you're from, and Maritimers tend to say, 'oh, yes, Wolfsville? I've a cousin down there, since my aunt married a Wolfsville man...' and from there you build your network of shared connections, to fit your new acquaintance in the extended small town that is the Maritimes.
It's a small-community practice that I think loses currency in bigger towns and cities, where people's personal connections are more tenuous and fragmented. And it's very possibly a very medieval practice, where so much depended on families, class, and connections.
The warmth of the welcome may also be because Ruantallan doesn't see visitors often, and new faces are a pleasant change. The feast started with an auction of goods and services towards raising funds for the regional travel fund. Maritime East kingdom works hard to help their Majesties reach their region regularly, and have their own travel fund solely to support trips to the outer reaches of this huge kingdom.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Bess' husbandksmaninns, also a former Calontiri, and Mistress Isobel and Lord Guthfruth(sp?), Lochac expats now firmly nested in Ruantallan.
Isobel and her household ladies were all modelling variations on the Moy gown (see my friendmatildalazouche 's dress diary), so I got a good view of versions of a gown construction that I still want to try out for myself. There seems no way around the folds of the underarm, so it's not as close a fit around the arm as my own self-supporting gown might be, but it might be a good option for a working gown. Matilda thinks it was a commoners gown because of the ease of movement, but who's to say, since there's only one example!
ksmaninns proved to be good company for Robert, as they both watched the tourney progress - and in fact, he held an ad hoc fight practice in the snow on Sunday afternoon at squire Gilbert's home, to accommodate Robert. Our luggage arrived, in fact, at the event at the end of the afternoon - just as the hall was being cleared for feast. Sigh.
There was time for dancing though - the dance mistress Brianna proved to be a dedicated soul who had attended many if not all Mistress Judith's classes at Pennsic. She loved Judith to bits for her energy and dedication, and wished to be remembered to her. Robert played his Catalan bombard for the brawle suite, which was a great novelty - apparently live dance musicians are as rare here.
The Luttrell was well received - Lord Gilbert,bernina2000de's apprentice, proved a delighted student, as the psalter respresents his favourite period. He's a dabbling artisan much like my own lord, and he impressed us both mightily with his own cast pewter spoon - now I want one of my own!
As we sat and turned pages, I got to speak with HE Janet, akanaharbeit, Ruantallan's baroness. Happily I'd brought my nalbinding, which she's also learning, and we discussed different ways to do Oslo stitch, and how to turn work to start a spiral. She had learned the thumb method for Oslo, which I'd never seen before. ingaborgand I both 'bind w/out a thumb.
She's also an experienced knitter, and we discussed good stocking patterns - she's got hers from a reenactor at Plymouth, using an early 17th c. source. She's recently posted her sock accomplishments for this year, which is impressive!
(As I learn more about socks and stockings, I realize that the basic heel turning method is probably consistent - the variations are in the decorative details, which don't (yet) interest me as much.)
At the feast we sat with Sarra, Angus, kids and our new acquaintances, and enjoyed a very splendid meat-heavy feast. This feast's annual theme is the hunt and game, so the dishes included venison, rabbit, and boar, and in good quantity and service.
And we sang - we found ourselves in fact at a table full of singers, and threw together an erstatz choir for a few shared pieces. Robert sang his verses of 'Miri it is', which chronicle the misery of the English climate year round. Even in a church gym, we carried our tunes well enough, and the music was energizing, to us and to our listeners. We even belted out my all-time favourite, the Agincourt carol. Its harmonies always give me shivers up my spine.
We didn't want to stop - we were still singing as the tables were struck and cleared, and the lights went up for cleanup.
I really hope that the singers in the canton carry on - Guthfruth, Sarra, Angus and Isobel can all provide the base for a solid choir, and the reception was warm and heartening. I think there's definitely a place in the canton for a choral group, which could lead to live music for dancers, if they're not careful.
Sarra, Robert and I made it to the post-rev (hah! walking distance from the site! amazing!) which was warm and cheerful and boisterous. The baron of Ruantallan had spent some years in Greyfells as a student at RMC, and so we had a chat about shared acquaintances - sometimes we're in a very small world indeed.
I envy Sarra and Angus this fine community of skilled stuff-making folk, who are all motivated and soooo close by! what a pleasure to be able to just pop in to someone else's sewing room or workshop, without a minimum hour's journey, usually more! It's something I sorely miss from my first homeland.
How luxurious it was to roll up to an event at noon, 15 minutes after getting into the car! I could get used to this.
At the event, we found a very warm welcome. I can honestly say it's one of the friendliest events I've attended. I've periodically rolled up to events knowing very few folks, and I'm prone to an attack of the shys, reluctant to introduce myself, and wanting to just sit in a corner and do crafts. But I knew that I could expect to see at least one friend-of-a-friend - Mistress Bess (
bernina2000de) a Laurel of whom larmer has spoken highly in the past - as did Lord Bertrand of Tor Brant, one of my past gentleman companions. In fact, Bertrand's mother Mary Elisabeth has grown active in the Society in Ruantallan, and was attending the event, and with some prompting she could draw my face to mind.
Bess proved a fine companion - as anyone who has met her can attest - and we gossiped about shared acquaintances from Ealdormere and Calontir - she's apparently squire-sister to Lord Dirik in Flintheath, and her husband has similar household ties.
Households are very important in the East, as in Calontir, in a way that is not as common in Drachenwald; most people introduced themselves both by name and by connection ('I'm apprenticed to Master X', or 'squire to Y'). I don't remember it being as common in Ealdormere either - but truthfully, it's possible that as an active Ealdormerian, I already knew household ties as part of my background knowledge of different groups and circles of friends, and was rarely introduced to anyone completely new.
When I remarked on this to Sarra, she agreed - but she also pointed out it's a common Maritime-ism: you introduce yourself, and where you're from, and Maritimers tend to say, 'oh, yes, Wolfsville? I've a cousin down there, since my aunt married a Wolfsville man...' and from there you build your network of shared connections, to fit your new acquaintance in the extended small town that is the Maritimes.
It's a small-community practice that I think loses currency in bigger towns and cities, where people's personal connections are more tenuous and fragmented. And it's very possibly a very medieval practice, where so much depended on families, class, and connections.
The warmth of the welcome may also be because Ruantallan doesn't see visitors often, and new faces are a pleasant change. The feast started with an auction of goods and services towards raising funds for the regional travel fund. Maritime East kingdom works hard to help their Majesties reach their region regularly, and have their own travel fund solely to support trips to the outer reaches of this huge kingdom.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Bess' husband
ksmaninns, also a former Calontiri, and Mistress Isobel and Lord Guthfruth(sp?), Lochac expats now firmly nested in Ruantallan. Isobel and her household ladies were all modelling variations on the Moy gown (see my friend
matildalazouche 's dress diary), so I got a good view of versions of a gown construction that I still want to try out for myself. There seems no way around the folds of the underarm, so it's not as close a fit around the arm as my own self-supporting gown might be, but it might be a good option for a working gown. Matilda thinks it was a commoners gown because of the ease of movement, but who's to say, since there's only one example! ksmaninns proved to be good company for Robert, as they both watched the tourney progress - and in fact, he held an ad hoc fight practice in the snow on Sunday afternoon at squire Gilbert's home, to accommodate Robert. Our luggage arrived, in fact, at the event at the end of the afternoon - just as the hall was being cleared for feast. Sigh. There was time for dancing though - the dance mistress Brianna proved to be a dedicated soul who had attended many if not all Mistress Judith's classes at Pennsic. She loved Judith to bits for her energy and dedication, and wished to be remembered to her. Robert played his Catalan bombard for the brawle suite, which was a great novelty - apparently live dance musicians are as rare here.
The Luttrell was well received - Lord Gilbert,
bernina2000de's apprentice, proved a delighted student, as the psalter respresents his favourite period. He's a dabbling artisan much like my own lord, and he impressed us both mightily with his own cast pewter spoon - now I want one of my own! As we sat and turned pages, I got to speak with HE Janet, aka
naharbeit, Ruantallan's baroness. Happily I'd brought my nalbinding, which she's also learning, and we discussed different ways to do Oslo stitch, and how to turn work to start a spiral. She had learned the thumb method for Oslo, which I'd never seen before. ingaborgand I both 'bind w/out a thumb. She's also an experienced knitter, and we discussed good stocking patterns - she's got hers from a reenactor at Plymouth, using an early 17th c. source. She's recently posted her sock accomplishments for this year, which is impressive!
(As I learn more about socks and stockings, I realize that the basic heel turning method is probably consistent - the variations are in the decorative details, which don't (yet) interest me as much.)
At the feast we sat with Sarra, Angus, kids and our new acquaintances, and enjoyed a very splendid meat-heavy feast. This feast's annual theme is the hunt and game, so the dishes included venison, rabbit, and boar, and in good quantity and service.
And we sang - we found ourselves in fact at a table full of singers, and threw together an erstatz choir for a few shared pieces. Robert sang his verses of 'Miri it is', which chronicle the misery of the English climate year round. Even in a church gym, we carried our tunes well enough, and the music was energizing, to us and to our listeners. We even belted out my all-time favourite, the Agincourt carol. Its harmonies always give me shivers up my spine.
We didn't want to stop - we were still singing as the tables were struck and cleared, and the lights went up for cleanup.
I really hope that the singers in the canton carry on - Guthfruth, Sarra, Angus and Isobel can all provide the base for a solid choir, and the reception was warm and heartening. I think there's definitely a place in the canton for a choral group, which could lead to live music for dancers, if they're not careful.
Sarra, Robert and I made it to the post-rev (hah! walking distance from the site! amazing!) which was warm and cheerful and boisterous. The baron of Ruantallan had spent some years in Greyfells as a student at RMC, and so we had a chat about shared acquaintances - sometimes we're in a very small world indeed.
I envy Sarra and Angus this fine community of skilled stuff-making folk, who are all motivated and soooo close by! what a pleasure to be able to just pop in to someone else's sewing room or workshop, without a minimum hour's journey, usually more! It's something I sorely miss from my first homeland.
