Clarion Hall

Michigan Meadery

2009-12-02T20:07:00.001-05:00

B. Nektar, a Michigan meadery, is featured in this video.

Crossbow Inn

2009-09-11T17:36:00.003-04:00

It just came to my attention that there is a medieval-themed restaurant in Grand Blanc, Michigan (nearby, in other words) called the Crossbow Inn. As you can see from their photos, the ambiance is "medievalish" rather than medieval, but that's to be expected. And the menu is completely conventional, without even a nod at the Middle Ages or even Europe. If I try it, I'll mention it here, but I'm told they have good steaks.

Cannon at Crecy?

2009-08-26T23:27:00.002-04:00

Did artillery make its first tentative appearance in European military history at the storied Battle of Crecy in 1346? Maybe.

Manuscript How-To Site

2009-07-23T21:38:00.002-04:00

The invaluable SCA Today provided a link to this very interesting and useful site.

Thrusting Tips

2009-07-11T01:28:00.004-04:00

I am reliably informed that all the cool kids have thrusting tips from Master Eirik Dweorgaex's Munition Grade Arms these days. Not wishing to be laughed at and pointed at when I reenter the lists, I have ordered a bunch. I recommend Master Eirik's wares; his postage calculator was a little funky, but he considerately refunded half the postage, which was very thoughtful of him. He also has very good shaved rattan; I haven't ordered any yet but Geirmundr has, and I was very impressed with his.

The thrusting tips arrived with alacrity, and I hope to have my new swords assembled over the weekend. Siloflex this time; I propose to move entirely into the 21st century this time. Or no, the 14th century... oh, you know what I mean.

From the Department of Much-Delayed Projects

2009-07-06T22:45:00.003-04:00

Some time ago, mentioned in the dim past of the blog, I may have mentioned the notion of refurbishing my armor, in order to do some serious heavy combat once again.

Over the weekend, I unearthed all my armor and equipment, went over it with my partner in carnage, Lord Geirmundr, and made various plans. He's going to kindly cut out some shield blanks for me to paint, edge and strap (I already had a few bent); I'm going to completely refurbish the helmet and build new swords; I just ordered some thrusting tips; and tomorrow a check for a much-needed new gorget goes in the mail.

So some progress is being made at last.

Update: Oh, and photos will follow as equipment is completed.

Question

2009-07-04T00:12:00.002-04:00

So, what does the SCA in Genesee County or the mid-Michigan area require to grow and prosper? I've been wondering about that for a while, and wondering what I might do to add some value in this regard.

If anyone's still reading this sadly neglected blog, and has a notion, they might choose to comment, or to email me. And I'll note any decisions I make along those lines.

The Middle Ages Through Philosophy

2009-06-28T22:06:00.002-04:00

Ryan Sayre Patrico reviews The Legend of the Middle Ages; Philosophical Explorations of Medieval Christianity, Judaism and Islam in this article at National Review Online.

The Little Pleasures of Teaching

2009-04-14T23:55:00.002-04:00

1. Sometimes the powers that be let you teach European History I.
2. Sometimes when you assign the students to bring little tidbits of historical info to class, one of them plays a Renaissance tune on his guitar for his assignment.

I have a very good job.

Val Day

2009-02-15T12:38:00.002-05:00

I'm once again teaching a Saturday morning class - I occasionally get roped into this particular class in the winter term. So no SCA events for me unless there's one close enough to permit a late arrival. Kalamazoo and the Valentine's Day Massacre from the distant side of Northwoods in Flint is too far.

Melisande and Bronwen left for the event at the same time I did for work; I found the roads rather bad, worse than I had expected. They got to Lansing before giving up and coming back. Skalla-Geirmundr and his family were also going, but I haven't heard how they fared.

Bosch

2009-02-14T18:45:00.004-05:00

Melisande and I are the proud owners of a huge print of Heironymous Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, a triptych painting from about 1500.

The A Commonplace Book blog noted recently the availability of small sculptures of figures from this painting.

Pretty cool. We might have to have something from this site to complement our print.

Blacksmithing

2009-02-14T18:36:00.003-05:00

Popular Mechanics has an article up on how to set up your own forge. The idea never really interested me, but I saw this through the kind offices of Instapundit, a blogger on politics and various other topics who says he and his friends made Roman lorica segmentata in high school. Was Professor Reynolds a SCA member at some point, or just a kindred spirit?

Facsimile Surprise

2009-01-27T00:22:00.006-05:00

I'm fond of illuminated manuscripts. I may possibly have mentioned that at some point on this blog. Back in college, I became aware of very, very expensive facsimiles available from a company in Europe... way beyond my price range. Since then, I've assembled a few facsimiles in slipcases or more conventional editions, and a larger number of books about illuminated manuscripts, their bindings, medieval painting techniques, etc.

But there are two kinds of facsimiles. One is the type where good quality reproductions of medieval manuscripts appear in conventional, if rather luxe, hardcover books. Normally there is an accompanying commentary, and perhaps they reproduce every page of the book, or perhaps they just reproduce the more interesting pages.

The other type is where they literally reproduce the entire book, its binding, every page. If someone penciled notes in, they appear faithfully. Such facsimiles are available from Faksimile Verlag Luzern, a Swiss company.

An aside. I'm not one of those people who fantasizes about being rich, and lies awake nights thinking about Maseratis and super models and flying first class. Just not the sort of thing that jazzes me. I like nice things, and if I were rich I'd buy a Jaguar and eat in nice restaurants all the time and jet over to Europe occasionally, but it really doesn't keep me awake at nights. But there is one thing that tempts me, and makes me doubt my career path, which usually keeps me quite happy: books. If I were rich, really loaded, I'd buy every one of these facsimiles, and keep them in a locked room and gloat over them. Maybe I'd let you see them. If you're nice to me, and wear gloves. That sort of thing. Sue me, I like books.

Well, I ran across the Faksimile Verlag people again late last year, looked at their website, and noted the absence of a price list. Not a good sign, but I'm a somewhat more prosperous academic than I was when I first encountered this concept as a callow youth, so I sent an email inquiring about the price of a volume that I knew was rather modest in size. Some weeks went by, and without any answer, I scouted around the Internet. Some other sites discussed the Faksimile company and gave price lists. The price for the volume I'd inquired about, the Prayers of Anne de Bretagne, was not out of the range I suspected, but it was at the high end of the range. More than I'd hoped. I would like to own one of these facsimiles some day, I thought, but it would have to wait a while. The price I saw was in the high three figures. That sum would fund some bookbinding classes, and plenty of materials, I thought. Owning one of these delightful volumes would have to be planned for carefully.

So yesterday, while working in the home office, I heard the doorbell ring. Shortly afterward, Melisande brought in a sizable package with German language on the label. I was mystified; had I forgotten about a used book or an eBay purchase? She sat down to watch, curious, and I began to open it, finding layers of elaborate packaging inside. Midway through, I remembered the Faksimile Verlag inquiry, and thought "Oh! A very elaborate catalog or brochure, apparently. What an amazing amount of expense to go to!"

You're laughing, gentle reader. No, it really didn't occur to me at first. It had never crossed my mind that asking after the price of the book would cause a company in Switzerland to ship an extremely expensive book to me with a polite invoice. When I got to a handsome presentation case in the center of all this packaging, however, I began to suspect that there was no way this was a catalog.

And it wasn't. It was the facsimile, very beautiful in red velvet, with a commentary volume hidden under a tray and sealed in plastic. There was an invoice: 1276 Swiss francs. At todays rates, about $1100.

Well, I can't keep it, of course. It won't do. I went and read the website much more carefully. Yes, they'll take it back. Yes, they are agreeable about installment plans. No, it isn't responsible for me to do that. I emailed them right away, and if I don't get a reply quickly, I'll call and start making arrangements for it to go back, carefully insured.

I obviously didn't read the inquiry form carefully enough, I realized. It really didn't occur to me at all that they would simply send the actual facsimile without any further communication. I mean, they don't know me from Adam - did they run a credit check, or did they just assume anyone inclined to inquire about the price was also well-heeled enough to buy the book without any further negotiation? I'm rather flattered, I guess.

The photos are borrowed from the Faksimile Verlag website, as I'm not handling the beautiful little object any more. A pity, but it must go back.

UPDATE: A very courteous response from Lucerne this morning - it was indeed a misunderstanding, and they will happily exchange it for the catalogue I was expecting.

Flask-Happy

2009-01-27T00:15:00.003-05:00

This is the wonderful thing about antique stores. Sometimes, you just find the most amazing things.

Another Royal Holland Pewter flask, light wear, apparently newer, about half the size of the old one. And very inexpensive.

Medieval Flask

2009-01-11T14:17:00.002-05:00

The very interesting blog A Commonplace Book recently pointed to this wonderful item at Billy and Charlies: a medieval flask. Can't tell you how long I've been waiting for a good reproduction of this item. I have a handsome modern flask from Royal Holland Pewter that is functionally the same, but I will have to order this soon.

Manuscript of Forme of Cury

2008-10-07T20:06:00.003-04:00

The University of Manchester's John Rylands University Library is digitising and making available on the Internet images of the pages of 40 important books, including the Forme of Cury, the 14th century cookbook compiled by the cooks of Richard II's royal household. (Thanks to pals Skalla-Geirmundr and Breac, both of whom forwarded the Middlebridge post and link to the Guardian.)

Again with the Books

2008-10-05T00:57:00.002-04:00

Mistress Melisande is spending the weekend doing something called "stitching camp". I find this activity remote, inexplicable and possibly injurious to sanity; therefore I chose to enjoy a leisurely day among the booksellers (and restaurants, and sellers of fine viands and bottled items) to be found in the Barony of Cynnabar. That is to say, Ann Arbor, for those readers not familiar with the nomenclature of the Middle Kingdom.

Some time ago, I mentioned that I would have more to say about bookstores in Michigan. Two of the finest are to be found in downtown Ann Arbor, and I spent a leisurely hour in each. They don't exhaust the possibilities, by the way, but they are more reliable locations for medieval books than the others.

First, perhaps my favorite bookstore in Michigan is Motte and Bailey, at 212 N. 4th St., just south of the Kerrytown area. With a name like that, you might surmise that the proprietors have a good medieval section, and they do. Their prices are reasonable, I might add. Today I chose Those Who Fought; An Anthology of Medieval Sources, edited by Peter Speed. It was an inexpensive paperback; I resisted the many other temptations in the quiet, elegant store, having many other stops to make. (Besides, I'll be back soon enough. I had to make sure I didn't actually have a copy of another book, and I don't.) Checking out, the co-owner suggested a work describing the military campaigns of Louis the Fat. It's that kind of store. I've had similar conversations with both owners on previous occasions. Once had a long talk with this gentleman about Jonathan Sumption, and when we could expect the next installment of his magisterial history of the Hundred Years War.

A bit later, it was on to Dawn Treader, the venerable warren of stacks at 514 E. Liberty, quite near the big Borders and State St. I've been visiting Dawn Treader since the early 1980s, and have lost track of all the books I've bought there (sold quite a few books to them, too). Today I chose, with some difficulty, The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is an exceptionally fine catalog from an exhibition in the mid 1970s; not the flashiest museum exhibition book I have, but probably the best I've seen, with many photos of late medieval objects arranged logically, with clear and knowledgeable commentary. Just at a glance in the store, it had photos of things I had heard vaguely described and found interesting, and it was inexpensive. Over the years, I've both found many wonderful things at Dawn Treader but often found their medieval selection a bit thin; picked over by Cynnabar folk, no doubt. The last couple of times I've visited, the selection was not thin; I had trouble deciding what to buy.

Ann Arbor has other used bookstores; I usually visit Westside Books, at 113 W. Liberty, but it happens that I rarely find what I'm looking for. Still fun to look, as I did today. Also, keep in mind the Ann Arbor Public Library Friends book shop, which is open in the basement of the library on Saturdays and Sundays during fall, winter and spring. Their selection changes massively from week to week, but I usually find it the best of the library book sales in Michigan. Today I found two books I've seen many times but never for a price I cared to pay, Grant Uden's handsome Dictionary of Chivalry and Flanders in the Fifteenth Century: Art and Civilization.

Sometime soon, bookstores in East Lansing.

Vikings Pictures

2008-09-26T23:28:00.001-04:00

These are Sgt. Radegund's photos on Flickr from Vikings Come Home this year.

Mid Michigan Renaissance Festival

2008-09-26T01:35:00.002-04:00

There is a new... I think it's new... Renaissance festival in the Frankenmuth area. The link to their web site is here. Well, I'm famously unenthused about Ren faires, but I have attended the big one in Holly once, and also went to it's predecessor location once - first time I ever saw SCA combat, actually, at that one. I knew about the SCA and was technically a member, in fact, but I had never been to an event at the time - this was the early fall of 1982. Anyway, I reckon I'd like to pay a visit to the new one, it being close by, to encourage them and give them a few of my hard-earned dollars.

New Medieval Glass Options

2008-09-21T15:35:00.002-04:00

Historic Enterprises has added new options for medieval glass tableware at their site. They carry several pieces from Le Verre Historique, a Belgian producer, but note that they can now provide anything from the producer's website. Ordering from overseas is often complex and expensive (and there is a language barrier in this instance, as there not infrequently is), so having Historic Enterprises do the importing is a valuable service.

New Website Design for the SCA

2008-09-19T23:42:00.001-04:00

The SCA, Inc. website, which, to put it mildly, has always been a very bare bones sort of site, fairly informative but quite plain, has been redesigned. It's still rather spare, but it's distinctly an upgrade.

Cagots

2008-09-19T23:32:00.002-04:00

I'd never heard of them, but apparently the Cagots were an oppressed people of southern France and northern Spain. This article describes them, and notes some other vanishing European peoples. Fascinating subject. (Via SCA Today.)

Comic Art

2008-09-13T00:48:00.004-04:00

I can't manage to get anything remotely medieval out of this, but oh well. Here is the website which provides much of a forgotten British comic strip classic, Carol Day, from the 50s and 60s. Never made the US papers, because allegedly too sophisticated for the US market. I wish American media outlets would let the public decide that, just once. Not all hillbillies out here in flyover country, no matter what they think on the coasts.

Update: For example, check out panel 2 in strip #139. Wow.

Another SCA Podcast

2008-09-11T23:45:00.001-04:00

Right here. The Lion's Road podcast. Via the always interesting SCA Today website.

Books of Hours Again

2008-09-11T23:39:00.001-04:00

And other illuminated manuscripts, at the Leaves of Gold website.