Genevieve's Journeys

The ceremony to welcome Lord Aodh O Siadhall gothwalk into the greater house Sylveaston went very well, with advice from nusbacher on some important details. This rounded out the ceremony in a way that I really appreciated and I would not have known of, without her help.

I was amused that when I brought the belt of obnoxious brightness over for sizing, it was a knight, Sir Jonathan, who instantly saw significance in the colours. I know that Dame Oriane still wears her green belt with yellow borders as her connection to Sir Richard Gilchrist and thus her connection to the house. Aodh will find many Sylveaston descendants to meet yet.

The tone was dignified and pleased, which is what I wanted.

Aodh's role in the house is as 'dalta', which apparently in old Irish is 'student of the bard' - someone who might, or might not, be a bard in his own right, but even if not, gets a fine education and benefits from the support of the bard. I liked this title; it seemed very apt for him, and avoided the 'protege' which is a bit loaded in Society terms.

Photos are courtesy of Lady Agnes, Aodh's lady, who got Lord Aidan to record the occasion.

We're sitting within the castle, in the fountain court, shortly after principality 'thing' (Parliament) to talk about principality business.

Me introducing the ceremony, and managing to recite the lineage from Sir Merowald (as it applies to us) correctly. (Lyonette told us later of 'Merowaldry', Sir Merowald's offer to paint up arms people wanted, no registration required. Now Robert has a name for his guerilla heraldry...)


The intenture (read by Robert), belt (continuity with the greater house) and livery (as promised n the writ) all went as I had hoped.







Having cut the signed indenture in 2, I show the 2 pieces indented to witnesses.






I wanted to incorporate some statements that originally came from Sir Menken chequey and Dame Eleanor kes_zone, about dependents being neither slaves nor servants, but nobles in their own right.

This is important to me, as Lord Aodh has his own household, with his lady Agnes, that they care about a lot, and I wanted to make clear I wasn't taking it over.

A completely unplanned and unforseen effect was me commenting, as I held Aodh's hands as a vassal, that he was paterfamilias of his house, with his own duties and obligations; that in that role, he remained responsible for his house,

...but that I was available to advise him on dependants, suitable placements for children or orphans, or places in convents for those who were unsuited to marriage.

This raised a small laugh, but apparently struck shock and terror in the Catholic hearts of the ladies of House Green - particularly single ladies, or whose other halves don't play - who all assumed I was referring to them directly.

I found this out later, as Lady Agnes passed it on, and it now has common currency that at least one lady of House Green is destined to a nunnery...

I had warned Aodh of the Belt of obnoxious brightness...I'm hoping he'll wear it fighting.




Aodh's livery: 3 ells of good cloth and 3 more of linen, to outfit himself suitably.

Aodh complains of being a mammal and having warm blood and thus not liking wool clothing, so I dug up the lightest wool blend I could find - it may even be linsey-woolsey, I'm not certain. It's for him and his tailor to sort.


I'm kicking myself because I can't find a picture of the uncut indenture. I nicked the text wholesale from a previous contract Robert wrote for Sir Vitus for one of his dependents, with only small changes.

I like the line about protecting from unjust harm - if the harm is justified, apparently you're on your own. :-)

Clearly I won't get to a day by day diary of the event. Better to start with highlights.

Travel to site without the Vitus household and Vitus-wagon made for a very long day.

Up early, cab to Casa de Vitus in extreme S London (enjoying a lecture on African cultures and the evils of colonialism from the cabbie), unloading cab and setting up for loading man-and-van.

Man-and-van arrives bang on time: load up with our stuff, the best of the Vitus encampment kit (firebowl, futon and seating), and TRHs encampment and set off.

Long trip, getting stuck in London traffic. Happily our man knew his way round the Borders so we deked to cross into Wales via Chepstow, dodging the worst of the M4 westbound traffic. Practiced yoga breathing to stay calm watching other crap drivers on the road.

Arrive, unload the van, say goodbye to our man (who returns bang on time again the next Monday).

Set up pavilion, bed and bed canopy.

The rain had started midafternoon, on and off. We found a slightly bedraggled set of Thamesreach lads, 3 of them sharing travel and neighbourly accommodation, sheltering under the bridge with potnoodles and one-pot burners, so we invited them inside the pavilion to shelter in more comfort.

Had a cold dinner, a beer and fell into bed.

Saturday (long lie-in) and Sunday were spent continuing to set up, distribute assorted kit brought in the van, and reacquaint ourselves with Raglan.

Robert and nusbacher cooked daily for the first few days, with our main meal at about 1pm, and a light supper in the evening. It was very relaxed and low-key.

Over the weekend we sat and ate with Dame Marguerite and Lord Yannick, Lochac natives living in England til December, who we'd met at Coronation. They proved excellent easy company to sit with at length, and we were sorry to see them go after just a weekend.

Their beautiful daughters were entranced with nusbacher's hound Gracie; a young man from Ireland was in turn entranced with them. Gracie received a great deal of doting care from many hands as a result.

Archery

I did a bit of shooting, and managed more in a couple of days than I'd done all of last year, which was satisfying. I sat in on Barun Pol's slightly-past-beginners class, to find out what he would teach.

I got an excellent explanation and demonstration of both facewalking and string walking, which are barebow skills almost unknown in my circle of archers - they're against the rules where I grew up, so to speak - not allowed in Olympic archery at all.

I'd brought my dad's lovely extremely long longbow, and once more rejoiced in its beautiful smooth draw. I was even spared the annual arrow tribute of the field, finding all that was lost before the event was over.

At this Raglan their highnesses set a challenge to the populace; as they are new to the region and this was their first raglan fair, we were asked to convey to them the spirit of Raglan.

nusbacher and I as we hunted for arrows behind the butt, mused over the archers' dance, which was clearly a bassadance, with changing tempos as you sweep for arrows with your feet and shuffle through the grass, stopping just so, then reverence as you stop to pick up your arrow.

This musing turned into a short interpretive dance at court, called 'archers' where Robert choreographed and provided the tune from BBC's 'The Archers' on an onion flute (a 16th c instrument that sounds exactly like a kazoo). It was extremely silly but anyone who has ever hunted for arrows recognised its essence.

Fencing

I did get to fence more than before: I chipped in my few bouts to Lady Juliette's free scholar challenge, and then milady Marlene's later in the week, as well as nz_bookwyrm and Catlin's provost challenge.

One evening during fencing pickups, I watched two dons and one Dragon' Steel consistently misjudge their distance while fighting Lady Catlin, and come away laughing, saying, yes, her arms really are that long.

She handed them their butts in a way I hadn't seen before in a single session! It was great fun to watch.

Seeing Don Domin and Baroness Celestina again was a delight; I can't believe they've been gone 3 years already. Their youngest marked his 1st year at Raglan, and their eldest is like a new girl I hadn't met before, she's changed and grown so much. Everyone looks well, happy, healthy.

I got to fight C&T with Domin and Duarte goncalves, which was great fun and assured me that I'm *not* out to lunch in my calibration; will have to take it up with other C&T folk when I have the chance.

I did my bit in marshalling: keeping the round robin tourney going, taking a turn in the academy challenges.

Unexpectedly I found myself teaching fencing to a complete newcomer who was the spitting image of Ysabella-Maria, and a friend of hers from the convention and SF/fantasy world. It was like talking to a darker version of Y-M!

Lord Alexandro had taken up rapier and Y-M had assured her friend he could find instruction at Raglan; so he spent a busy 4 days with me, goncalves, Duncan Chaucer and other marshals sucking up as much knowledge as possible, with the end result of authorising in effectively 4 days.

I was impressed all to heck; must be some kind of record.

With weather threatening, the fencers combined storming the castle with the princess' champions tourney escorting the princess through the castle. As is his wont, Don Antonio authorised her highness Eleanor with a rubber band gun, allowing her to defend herself should peril threaten.

She commented later that she'd 'brought a gun to a sword fight', and chose Duncan Chaucer as champion.

Camping life

As the week progressed more people turned up, and the schedule filled. jpgsawyer and edith_hedingham brought a trailer this year, and set up not just their usual splendid kitchen but a supplies tent as well. This small Saxon tent survived all but the very harshest weather on the last Sunday, when we caught the tail end of hurricane Bertha.

The under-bridge space got busy, full of food and wine (especially wine! holy mackerel) but we struggled through the hurly burly to keep enjoying jpgsawyer and edith_hedingham's menus, complete with fresh baked bread and pies done in the clay oven.

You can camp on bread and cheese, but by god, you don't when they're around.

Thomas and Edith sent leftovers to the Thamesreach lads (things like goat stew and commodores) which were more inhaled than eaten.

The newest members of Thamesreach made themselves known this year: not just by rowdiness but by awesome helpfulness, being attentive and considerate, and by an amazing job of small-melee fighting in the Oxford roll.

Facing a formidable melee team from Flintheath with twice their numbers and far more than 2x their bodyweight, they followed Robert and HRH Nasr's instructions to the letter, forming a 3 man shield wall, with 1 shield to protect Sir Nasr'. They held off a much larger force and allowed Nasr' to pick off their opponents with a spear, like knocking so many apples off a tree.

Even better was hearing the prince commend them on their work; they'd done just what was asked and shown the power of good leadership over a much stronger and more experienced force. It was a sweet engagement to watch and even sweeter to hear the followup and advice. You could practically see them glowing as they came off the field, and rightly so.

People from outside Thamesreach remarked on these nice young men who were so helpful and polite, as if I had had anything to do with them; but it was warming to know they were 'ours'.

In the 'new skills' department the dyeing class was smaller than hoped, but still a success, with 2 shades of onion-skin yellow achieved on the brazier, really entirely driven by jahanarabanu.

I'd not thought it through but fixing the dye with alum would have required a lot more water and then left us with an alum-laden dyebath to dispose of on site: duh.

So we took home our two shades of golden yellow and I hope to fix the colour with an alum bath and try further dyeing w/ onion skins at home. jahanarabanu says she'll try a couple more dyes on the yarn she has at home, and bring the results to Yule Ball.

I also, after years of planning Round Tuits, started to learn to spin, with Cat Weaver's help. We fixed my long-held pewter spindle whorl, bought at Pennsic about 15 years ago, onto a lovely turned stick by Eldgrimmr, and Cat sat and advised me about starting to draft.

She kept saying I was doing well but I couldn't help but compare it to her own beautifully fine work! Now I just have to retrieve my started work from the camping kit still at Vitus and Isabel's.

Court business

The surprise elements of the event at court went smoothly; the event featured no less than 5 voice heralds.

Edith gave me grief after court. I'd told her to make sure she turned up because Lyonet was getting something nice; I'd told Lyonet to attend in her smart clothes because Edith was getting something nice at court. Neither was a word of a lie, and yet somehow noone will trust me again...

Seeing the joy and goodwill at Baron Pol's call to vigil was very satisfying. I love helping good things happen for others; I love seeing awards well received. It felt that Leif and Morrigan's decision for Pol was timely and joyous, and Pol's vigil went well.

I'd arranged for a new white tunic for him, Mssrs Ariel and Raphe arranged food, we collectively brought in furnishings so he could meet friends in comfort.

My and HE Ursula's attempt at an open discussion during his vigil had mixed results; we had lots of old-crusty attendees, but fewer newcomers than I'd hoped. nusbacher did sterling service, drawing people into the discussion and asking the tough questions so those who did take part said it was brilliant.

However, I think we can address this imbalance with more leadup time and priming people to think about the 'deep questions', and hold such a discussion whether there is a peerage to take place or not. Raglan is a great time to do it, with several long evenings to fill with company.

My sweetie was in good humour; he was tired from setup but had wit to spare, and we had a succession of evenings round the campfire with friends in stitches from his commentary.

Don Domin, watching Robert marshal and direct the torchlight tourney, commented to me that 'he's so good at this'; setting the tone of the tourney, providing the sense of occasion with a start, middle and finish. I sometimes forget just how good he is in that regard, and that not all kingdoms have a Master Robert.

Wrap up

Last Sunday saw the end of a hurricane with lots of rain and very high winds, so many people decided to start packing earlier rather than later including us. Our man-and-van arrived early and we packed out to reach S London early afternoon through slashing rain on the roads, and C London by midafternoon.

We staggered in our own door to joyous feline greetings by 4ish on Monday and treated ourselves to dinner at the kebab shop. With goncalves visiting for a course we paid £10.50 to feed 3 people with fresh juice for everyone. Awesome.

...still posting bits and pieces from the summer.

This Raglan included glass painting with acrylic paints, and I asked everyone to send me pics, because I wasn't much good at getting them, at the time.

Here are some of the results:

Viscountess Suzannah - her glass in front of her Sun and Chalice scroll


Lady Agnes, who modelled her ivy leaves on an example on site


Lady Agatha, who put us all to shame




Still waiting for a few folks' photos, but it was very satisfying project to do with folks.

ETA: Glasses by Dom Duarte goncalves for members of his household - he did 5 in all.

For HE Aryanhwy



For Lady Eleanor



For himself

What was the same:

Beautiful site, with run of the castle after hours.
People enjoying camping, doing medieval stuff together, letting the kids run, and playing nicely.

What was different:
( Read more... )

I'm trying to keep this all straight in my head, but it's jumbling up in the longer event.

So far:
Wed - putting up pavilions, lots of rain
Thurs - lots of rain overnight, archery, more rain, marshalling ransom tourney, salon, passage of arms
Friday - lots of rain overnights, flooding, near collapse of the royal pavilion, the Miracle of the Drains in our encampment,

What I'd left out of Friday was the morning fencing Progress through the castle, whereby her Majesty aryanhwy, in a borrowed helm and chain shirt, armed with rubber band guns, is accompanied by a group of fencers through different scenarios to reclaim the castle from bandits.

With the wet weather, and the fighters occupying the fountain court, the fencing concentrated on the gatehouse scene and the bridge-to-the-tower, which are excellent fun, and the shortened trip meant everyone could take part attacking or defending on multiple tries, first in twos then in threes or fours. hobbitomm made certain everyone had a chance to do everything, with different mixes of experienced and novice fencers together.

This scenario was first tried with HE Judith as queen, and was so much fun for everyone it's been a firm favourite ever since - I enjoyed it immensely as princess myself.

I opted to marshal this scenario, so as to gain some experience marshalling melee (I've been trying to complete my MiT requirements for awhile). Again, the youth of the fencing community made the most of death from behind, but aryanhwy managed to reach the tower all the attempts but one, which says a lot for her defenders. One of them included the Lady heir of the principality Lena, who did some defending in her own right.

Friday evening was court - the last court of Clancy and Ursula as P&P investiture of the heirs of the principality Richard and Lena the red. C&U opted to hand over the coronets to the Crown, and depart, leaving Ary and Paul as prince and princess of Insulae Draconis for about five minutes. (I was reminded at this point of an investiture of Diane and Cordigan, briefly, where the Midrealm queen toyed with the prince, saying she'd always liked the title of princess of Ealdormere.)

As it was drizzling, no scrolls were handed out at this court, but many honours, including PCS for a trio of sisters. Their parents had already received their farewell awards, but in this case the crown opted to honour the girls (aged 7-ish to 13) as well, which was well received. Certainly the family will be sorely missed in Flintheath.

...and it was my call to vigil. I'd put on my best new gown, the russet and black early 16th c one with the silly hat, and had to carry the puddle-hem skirt around me through the castle. I'm really happy with this gown - and I was winked at by *two* different peers of the realm. Golly.

goncalves and I had decided earlier in the event that one of the 'finished' rooms in the castle would be best for a vigil - it had previously served as a scribing room.

I felt a bit weird, actually asking other people to sort this, because it felt like the kind of work I typically did - oh, you need  a Raglan room furnished? ok, I'll find the banners and stuff - so I wasn't so much sorting it, as asking goncalves if *someone* was sorting it. (The weirdest part was coming upon an impromptu 'meeting' of my friends, who were all Pelicans - they were all standing together, talking amongst themselves - and I wondered 'should I go talk to them? or should I let them finish their meeting?')

At any rate - I was escorted to vigil by goncalves, Floris and Hannah, and all the other Pelicans followed along. It felt quite strange not staying for the end of court. And I found the room hung with banners, with a table laid with sweets, candles and drinks, and seating for three (or more if people were friendly). It was lovely, and wonderfully strange at the same time - this is for me? really? *really*? Wow.

I'll not go into the vigil in detail - everyone's is different, and I think mine was blessed with friends and goodwill.

I was amazed, charmed and humbled by the number of people who came to speak to me - who waited patiently in poor weather to tell me their thoughts and wish me well. Fortunately, there was an adjoining room for holding the beautiful vigil book maryf had made me - and somewhere dry to write in it - and goncalves ' gambling den was right next to it, so if people got bored they could pass their time and lose their money in good company. We left the jug of beer there at the end of the evening.

It was a mix of serious considerations, and simple happy wishes. I was charmed by how some folk took their responsibility to advise me very seriously - people I'm not especially close to. There were a couple of themes that were touched on several times, which hints at their importance overall. And little can compete with HG Elffin's advice, of course. 

There were no 'best' visits, but interesting ones were from people who brought questions - the shire of Pont Alarch visited en masse, and asked questions, which was excellent, and I hope I did them justice. It was hard to keep to the time limit Floris set, but I appreciated him keeping time so that others could speak as well.

As asked, the doorkeepers (Floris and Robert) closed the vigil at midnight; I'd said I wanted to go to bed and not stay up all night so as to be some use the next day, and they honoured that request. The rain had stopped, and the sky was packed with stars, in a way that you cannot see in the city. I felt tired, and very, very blessed, and wrapped in the warmth and the genuine-ness of the Society at its best.

It's not always like this, and I know it, so you have to treasure the times it does come through.

...courtesy of badgersandjam*.

I wore my heraldic cloak and visc circlet to approach the thrones, but took them off before kneeling.

I wanted the impression of setting aside my honours, so as to approach the Pelican investiture as 'just' Genevieve.

Robert held my cloak and circlet for the ceremony.

 
I'm promised more pics soon, as HE Ursula took a great many on my behalf. Looking forward to seeing them.

Happily, edith_hedingham took pics of this cupboard, that made such a difference to the kitchen setup. I can recommend it to anyone who does flat-pack furniture for medieval camping. You'll have to consult Paul or Thomas on assembly, but I think it's reasonably self-explanatory.