Clarion Hall

Cathedrals on Nova

2011-10-02T12:32:00.002-04:00

The PBS science program Nova airs a program on the great cathedrals on Wednesday October 5 at 9 pm. I'll be wrapping up a class, but I'll catch it as soon as possible.

Speaking of history on PBS, Ken Burns' new documentary on Prohibition starts tonight. Not medieval, but I'm looking forward to it.

Why I Love eBay

2011-09-25T13:13:00.007-04:00

My ambition to visit the Cloisters, the medieval annex of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, has finally been achieved this month. I'll have more to post about that, but before I do, this was a nice prelude. A week or two before departure, I came across this item on eBay... a facsimile of a famous illuminated book owned by the Cloisters.

It was priced at $9.95, plus postage. In my experience, $25.00 is a floor for illuminated manuscript facsimiles on the used market. That is to say, they don't appear to be priced at less than t

hat in a used bookstore that has a clue. And at that price, I would typically buy one that I didn't have on the spot, just on general principles.

On eBay, however, the rules are different. The seller must surely have supposed he would get more bids than this, and I'm not sure why they didn't... but I expect it is related to the fact that the seller didn't use the words "illuminated" or "manuscript" or "medieval". The words "Cloisters" and "facsimile" do appear, but only the latter would have drawn much attention from anyone but me at that moment (my search was on "Cloisters", of

course). The word "Apocalypse" was misspelled in the offer. At any rate, I was the only bidder, and here we are. An auspicious find.

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

2011-03-22T15:19:00.004-04:00

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

Ethan Gilsdorf

Lyons Press, 2009

In my occasional series of brief reviews of mainstream books which mention or discuss the SCA, I've got two more at the moment. Gilsdorf's examination of the modern world of fantasy escapism discusses his own experiences playing Dungeons and Dragons as a young man, and interviews many gamers and enthusiasts of Tolkien and the like. Chapter 10, "In the Beer Line with the King" discusses the author's encounter with the SCA.

Gilsdorf approaches a visit to Pennsic with appropriate enthusiasm... he sews his own tunic, is unhappy with the result and tries again, with still inadequate results. One likes his approach; he doesn't just borrow some nice garb, he gives the thing a serious try. Once at Pennsic, camping with "engineers and programmers", he describes the experience: "Conversation at the camp was sedate. These were no raucous brutes or lofty knights. Order was paramount. A strict spreadsheet and chore book dictated who did what, when. The night I assisted with the cooking, a flowchart determined how and when to allocate resources like fire and prep time."

That caused me some amusement... I always wanted to organize Pennsic camp like that, but the locals tend to resist order. I'd have run it like a military operation if anyone had let me. Oh well.

The author makes the same point as Benjamin Nugent (below): discussing the matter-of-fact and unapologetic knight he quotes at some length, he adds "He was a geek in jock's clothing."

Gilsdorf's take on the SCA is sympathetic and accurate. It makes for an enjoyable read... enough so that I'm going to buy my own copy of this one.

Science and the Middle Ages

2011-03-20T12:00:00.002-04:00

James Hannam has written The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution. In an interview at the Daily Caller, he explains his thesis, that scientific advancement was a continual effort throughout the Middle Ages, and that the notion of the medievals being ignorant and anti-science was an invention of writers in early modern Europe.

Lady Emma St. John RIP

2011-03-20T01:13:00.003-04:00

Lady Emma St. John of Fearanne na Criche passed away on Saturday night, March 19. (This is from the FC mailing list.) I am very sorry to hear it, and condolences to her husband Lord Jon St. John. Emma was a kind lady and her generous travels to cook at events in the Flint area are fondly remembered. She will be missed.

Forme of Cury Documentary

2011-03-14T00:06:00.003-04:00

I just ran across this documentary about Richard II's The Forme of Cury on YouTube, courtesy of the ever helpful SCA Today website. It is apparently part of a series starring Clarissa Dickson Wright, more famous perhaps for being half of the Two Fat Ladies cooking show partnership. I actually have never seen any of it, but I have one of their cookbooks and have made a lot of use of it. This documentary is quite good... the pickiest authenticity nut might have some acerbic comments here and there, but I particularly enjoyed the swing music during the costumed medieval cooking scenes and the sight of stuck up young Richard watching protests on television and switching them off in a huff!

Wright is respectful and informative about the recipes and altogether fun to listen to and watch; she serves three dishes from the cookbook to a panel of medievalists and others at the end and they're obviously having a great time. I've cooked two out of the three dishes myself, and am anxious to try the Roast Goose with Sauce Madame.

American Nerd

2011-01-14T22:20:00.003-05:00

American Nerd: The Story of My People

Benjamin Nugent

New York: Scribner, 2008

Nugent pens a highly readable and amusing tale of his youth and experiences among the nerds: Dungeons and Dragons players, computer gamers... and of course, members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, of whom the author says "...they're nerds who have banded together and found a way to make themselves non-nerds within a separate universe."

The book is quite literate and sophisticated. Nugent does not seem to have been a SCA member but merely to have been aware of the organization. He describes a visit to the Estrella War with evident enjoyment and fairness. "...they've found a way to solve the old problems that Muscular Christianity and the Victorian sports advocates with their physique buttons sought to address."

Time Machines

2011-01-14T21:48:00.003-05:00

Time Machines: The World of Living History

Jay Anderson

Nashville, TN: The American Association for State and Local History, 1984

This now rather old volume has a chapter on the Society for Creative Anachronism, from p. 167-172. Anderson, a reenactor who has written at least two more books on living history, didn't seem as impressed with the SCA as he was with many of the more authenticity focused organizations he could observe. But he gives the SCA of a quarter-century ago a fair hearing.

The chapter is titled "Prince Valiants" and the author makes a rather good point when he says

The ladies and gentlemen of the SCA use anachronisms creatively to improve the quality of contemporary life. Their approach to the Middle Ages, the period of history from roughly the Fall of Rome to the seventeenth century, is straight out of Hal Foster's "Prince Valiant." And their premise is that a sojourn into this magical time will help the modern time traveler endure the altogether too obvious examples of strife and pestilence that characterize our modern world, the epoch of 1984.

For those who never read Prince Valiant, especially the great old stuff from the 30s and 40s when Hal Foster was in his prime (it's been reprinted in several formats), the strip was ostensibly set in King Arthur's time, and the author/artist took some care to depict aspects of the Middle Ages and historical events... but in a fun mishmash of twelfth century armor, Arthurian legend, late antiquity historical hijinks and various other anachronisms. The SCA does in fact come to mind to the modern day fan of Prince Valiant.

Anderson goes on to point out the distinction between other reenactor groups and the SCA: "While most other buff groups now make it relatively difficult to join their organizations - the American Mountain men require the pilgrim to do a year's probation, for example - the SCA offers all manner of assistance..."

Time Machine's take on the SCA is fairly brief and a bit superficial, but it lacks the inaccuracies one has often seen in materials written by non members. If one can find a copy, it's fun to see the old early 80s armor in photos... we really used to look like that.

I might mention here that the book also discusses living history museums, research projects and reenactor groups in entertaining detail.

More on "Suburban Knights"

2011-01-07T00:25:00.001-05:00

This NPR slideshow and article describes the "Suburban Knights" book I briefly reviewed a few posts ago.

The French Renaissance in Chicago

2010-10-29T22:49:00.003-04:00

The Art Institute of Chicago will host "Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France" beginning in February. There is a fine article about a larger version of the exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris in the October 16 2010 edition of The Economist. The article can be found at this link. You can go here to see the page for the exhibit. The Economist says the Paris exhibit was disappointingly unfocused, but the Chicago version "promises to be more sharply focused. Not coincidentally, it will be about half the size."

While looking around the Art Institute's website, I also noted that their permanent collection of arms and armor, which is apparently not ordinarily on full display, is getting an airing in an exhibition of its own, details here.

SCA Census

2010-09-22T11:32:00.002-04:00

I think this is an interesting initiative by the SCA... emphasizing that opinions of past members (and I qualify despite my intermittent blog here) is desired finally caught my interest. I encourage others to fill out the survey... it was quick and painless.

The entire message is reproduced below, with permission, so this is a very long post:

There is a project that impacts future of the SCA in a very real way. It is the SCA Census 2010 project.

The SCA Census 2010 Committee was asked by the Board of Directors to develop a census-level survey to help the SCA to move forward into the next decade; to identify, address and work on current issues; to gain a deeper understanding into what makes the SCA what it is today; and to delve into the reasons for joining, remaining in, and leaving the SCA.

So far we have heard from over 10,000 past and present participants, a good first step. Of these 10,000, only 1000 are folks who no longer participate in the SCA. We need to hear from you all, especially the folks that no longer actively participate. We would ask each of you, if able, reach out to those past participants who left the SCA and ask their assistance by taking this survey.

The only way we can understand what is important is by hearing from you, so please take the time to complete the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/SCA2010Census or visitwww.sca.org.

The Survey will remain open until December 1st. Once the data collection is completed, the results of this survey will be made available on the SCA 2010 Census website. Be assured that the survey data collected or published will remain completely anonymous and will not be sold or shared beyond this survey's purpose. You will never be asked for information that will identify you.

If you would like to learn more about the SCA 2010 Census, if you have questions or ideas about the project, please contact the committee at scacensus2010@sca.org.

With your help we can create an SCA which will last another 4 decades.

Sincerely,

Erik Langhans, Director, SCA Inc.
(Sir Modius von Mergentheim, KSCA, OL, OP)

On Behalf of the SCA 2010 Census Committee
www.sca.org/scacensus2010

Breakdown by Kingdom
Approx. 10,000 completed surveys

363 Æthelmearc
Member Participants 269
Non Member Participants 40
Not Current Participants 54

823 Ansteorra
Member Participants 541
Non Member Participants 119
Not Current Participants 163

1079 An Tir
Member Participants 767
Non Member Participants 155
Not Current Participants 157

170 Artemisia
Member Participants 124
Non Member Participants 27
Not Current Participants 19

424 Atenveldt
Member Participants 304
Non Member Participants 46
Not Current Participants 74

824 Atlantia
Member Participants 581
Non Member Participants 99
Not Current Participants 144

597 Caid
Member Participants 432
Non Member Participants 76
Not Current Participants 89

444 Calontir
Member Participants 326
Non Member Participants 59
Not Current Participants 59

336 Drachenwald
Member Participants 241
Non Member Participants 57
Not Current Participants 38

284 Ealdormere
Member Participants 174
Non Member Participants 37
Not Current Participants 73

847 East
Member Participants 555
Non Member Participants 135
Not Current Participants 157

220 Gleann Abhann
Member Participants 171
Non Member Participants 25
Not Current Participants 24

555 Lochac
Member Participants 388
Non Member Participants 87
Not Current Participants 80

498 Meridies
Member Participants 345
Non Member Participants 80
Not Current Participants 73

839 Middle
Member Participants 589
Non Member Participants 101
Not Current Participants 149

493 Northshield
Member Participants 297
Non Member Participants 44
Not Current Participants 152

343 Outlands
Member Participants 244
Non Member Participants 54
Not Current Participants 45

344 Trimaris
Member Participants 251
Non Member Participants 43
Not Current Participants 50

496 West
Member Participants 343
Non Member Participants 85
Not Current Participants 68

Comments are strongly encouraged and can be sent to:
SCA Inc.
Box 360789
Milpitas, CA 95036

You may also email comments@lists.sca.org.

This announcement is an official informational release by the Society for Creative Anachronism , Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce this announcement in its entirety in newsletters, websites and electronic mailing lists.

Pennsic

2010-07-28T00:47:00.002-04:00

The Pennsic War approaches, and once again, even the notion of going is out of the question for me. I am teaching three classes during my school's summer term... they meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays through late August. In theory, I could arrange for substitutes... or given sufficient lead time, I might be able to make some other sort of arrangement.

I'm not overly concerned about missing this year. I've been in retirement from the SCA for some time (this blog is my only category of activity right now); I would be unready to camp or participate at this date. But I do not want to be in the position of never again attending, either.

Maybe next year. But even now, I have this strange notion of appearing for just a day or so, staying in a hotel, perhaps, and donning medieval pilgrim's garb, complete with broad brimmed hat, cloak, and scrip. Why not? A somewhat expensive and perhaps pointless jaunt at the moment, but it would be nice to watch a battle or two, see the sights, say hello to old friends, contemplate new ventures.

A Serious Look at the Hobby

2010-07-25T01:30:00.000-04:00

Medieval Fantasy as Performance; The Society for Creative Anachronism and the Current Middle Ages by Michael A. Cramer

February 2010 from The Scarecrow Press

$39.95

As long as I've been engaged in hobbies or areas of historical interest, it has been my habit to at once seek out books and magazines (for a hobby where such things are available) to get acquainted with the culture and rules of the community I was joining, or considering joining. It seems like an obvious thing to do, but I long ago became aware that not everyone considers that step worthwhile. In the Society for Creative Anachronism, there used to be a strong tendency for the rules and customs of the hobby to be conveyed informally, through person to person contact. Possibly this has changed to some degree with the advent of the Internet, of course.

When I joined in 1982, I was, as far as I could tell, unusual in immediately seeking out every possible pamphlet and document about the SCA and the Middle Kingdom. There was a fair amount available, including the Folump Press publication A Brief History of the Middle Kingdom, (which was invaluable.) And yet often over the years, I was surprised at the short institutional memory of the organization. Even brief and accessible documents appeared invisible to many colleagues. This could be a particular problem during local political disputes, as members were quite capable of dismissing any suggestion of how things were done if these rules conflicted with more convenient assumptions cherry-picked from officer handbooks. (The publication of the excellent but regrettably flexible Seneschal's Handbook for the MidRealm in the mid 1990s was actually a catastrophe for my local branch... the locals all selected the lines from the book they preferred that affected the dispute at hand, and ignored lines that gave different perspectives. When there was no solution for this, the branch suffered a completely unnecessary migration of many of the members to an attempt at a rival branch that was impossible for them to organize as they had envisioned according to the real rules of the SCA... which they had never absorbed.)

In 1982, I would have been overjoyed to have had access to something like Medieval Fantasy as Performance. The book is not a guide to the SCA, or a history of it, I hasten to add. Cramer, a longtime prominent member in the West Kingdom, is also a theatre professional and approaches his topic from the perspective of how members perform the recreation of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He is clear in his description of how the organization depicts the historical period as it pleases rather than as it was.

The utility of the book for me is Cramer's careful and knowledgeable look under the hood, explaining the motivations and interpersonal mechanisms behind the SCA's culture. He explains the origins of the organization, and describes how it gradually evolved the forms of performance it follows today, including court ceremonial, tournament combat and especially what he terms the Summer King and Winter King games. This is quite a lot of fun; I particularly enjoyed his placing the SCA's activities in a larger scholarly context.

I would unreservedly recommend the book. Both new members curious about the organization and old timers who care to reflect on it would enjoy and appreciate it.

Beaux Arts Cocktail

2010-07-23T22:58:00.007-04:00

Time for something different. One of my other hobbies is making classic cocktails, and I don't have anywhere to write about that, so I've decided that I'll occasionally say something about it here.

Tonight I leafed through one of the most famous and respected cocktail books, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, by David Embury, looking for inspiration. Embury's book was out of print for many years and was selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay until it was reprinted in a very handsome edition by a new publisher named Cocktail Kingdom. I was lucky enough to find a battered paperback a couple of years ago just before the republication, but I'm referring to the new edition.

Embury was a lawyer with a rather personal take on cocktails... very opinionated and detailed. He describes ingredients in terms of parts, which the uninitiated may find a barrier. The average recipe calls for ounces or tablespoons, which is accessible; or awkwardly in "measures", "jiggers", "shots" or "wineglasses" depending on the age of the reference. Parts are flexible, however, because you can scale the cocktail up or down in size, or mix a bunch for friends if they're handy and thirsty.

However, I am but a humble professor in the social sciences, so math ain't my bag. There's a reason I went to law school instead of studying something useful, don't you know. So recipes that use sizes other than the classic cocktail from the mid-20th century, with which I'm most familiar, are a mild problem. Sometimes one looks at five parts of this and three of that and the brain grows fogged and one decides to make a Martini or a Manhattan, because one has made a good many of those and already knows the proportions.

But sometimes one wishes to experiment, and I'd never made a Beaux Arts Cocktail. With a name like that, it has to be good. In Balian's world, anything not constructed with an eye toward the Gothic ought to be either Classical or Beaux Arts. As far as I'm concerned, everything else could usefully be blown up so we can build something appropriate. Well, Arts and Crafts style houses are ok, too. But I digress.

The ingredients are not extraordinarily difficult (although I had a bad moment when the pineapple juice wasn't where I thought it was, after everything else had already been added). Indeed, there is only one ingredient that is even faintly unusual, and it can be found in any decent liquor store. And you ought to have it... doesn't it sound intriguing when it appears in one of the Godfather movies? (See, Breac, I do get a few popular culture references!)

Here are the ingredients: six parts gin; 1 part dry vermouth; 1 part sweet vermouth; 1 part pineapple and orange juices, half and half, as Embury puts it. And finally, a dash of Anisette (that's the one that gets mentioned in a Godfather film; a guest asks for it, if I recall... Marlon Brando's character requests a glass of Strega when he is told of his eldest son's death, I believe. I'd require some brandy at just such a moment, myself, but no doubt the Godfather is made of sterner stuff than I; and that completes my store of Godfather trivia).

First, let's consider the proportions. Cocktails have grown in size over the last century. They were about two ounces or so in proportion to begin with, before Prohibition, and were served in a three ounce cocktail glass... quite small by modern standards; they generally had about three ounces of ingredients by mid-century, and were served in a four ounce glass. They've gotten bigger since then. Don't expect to find proper cocktail glasses at the store, I'm afraid. Try antique and thrift stores. The seven to twelve ounce or even bigger cocktail glasses one is apt to find in stores today are more suitable for constructing a hazing incident, not a cocktail. Those are punchbowls, not cocktail glasses.

Since I'm most familiar with the mid-century three ounce cocktail, I naturally attempted to put the proportions into thirds. Easy, as it turns out: there are a total of nine parts, so that divides easily into three ounces. Six parts of gin is two ounces; the other three parts become thirds of an ounce. A dash needn't be considered... you just add that at the end. See? Even we JDs can do a little math when necessary. Making cocktails is an important task... one must strain the little gray cells for such vital matters! (No, I didn't have to use my fingers. Be nice. I occasionally even use algebra on my econ students... although it helps not to tell them that's what it is.)

Now, frankly, this is a fussy cocktail by the standards of a property mixed drink. Three or four ingredients are usually quite enough. Some would turn up their noses at a drink with six, or suggest snidely that such lists of ingredients are best left to the world of faux tropical, or Tiki drinks. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But there is a practical matter. Two ounces of gin are easy to measure. One third of an ounce of two different vermouths each aren't too bad, but that last third of an ounce has to be measured patiently: a sixth of an ounce is orange juice and a sixth is pineapple juice. A well made cocktail should be measured carefully... a little two ounce angled measuring cup from Oxo is best, as you can see from above when you've hit the mark. Don't try just pouring by sight. Maybe a professional bartender knows what he's doing with that... just dashing in six ingredients by sight for this cocktail would likely result in a mess unless you were very lucky. Think about it... is a recipe calling for a sixth of an ounce of something precisely going to work properly if you just slop some pineapple juice in and call it good?

At the end, there is a dash of Anisette. This is an anise-flavored liqueur, and is basically performing the function that bitters often serve in cocktails. It would take over the drink entirely if you add too much. But how much is a dash? If you have something in a bitters bottle, it's no problem... you literally just dash a bit of liquid into the shaker and that will be right. But Anisette comes in a regular bottle. The sources describe the quantity of a dash differently, but let us say that it should be no more than an eighth of an ounce as a rule. For some ingredients in some cocktails, it may work to go big. For something as distinctive as anisette, a very cautious and minimal bit of liquid at the bottom of the measuring cup, well under an eighth of an ounce, seems wise.

A cocktail with fruit juice is traditionally shaken, not stirred. Add ice to the shaker and shake well. Many people are afraid to shake for very long... they don't want the drink to get too diluted. While most cocktails should be strong, remember that a little melted water from ice is accounted for in the recipe. You want to get the thing cold. Shake a little longer than you think is right at first. A fair rule is to shake until your hand hurts a bit from the cold on a metal shaker.

The cocktail glass has been retrieved from the freezer... the glass should always be pre-chilled by this method or by letting it sit with ice in it (discard the ice if you do this)... and finally the drink is strained into the glass.

So how does it taste? Well, it's pretty damn good. The best cocktails are more than the sum of their parts. And believe me, your average bar guide is filled with blah drinks that you won't want to repeat. But not in David Embury's book. He would have scorned to include anything merely ordinary. The Beaux Arts doesn't quite taste the way you would imagine picturing gin with the familiar vermouths. The fruit juices round it off, they don't make it fruity. You end up with a flavor that is difficult to describe. It tastes like a Beaux Arts, one is forced to conclude. The Anisette is just barely there... just enough to remind you that this is a drink for grownups, not a sweet concoction to hide the gin.

Brands? Gordon's for the gin, but if I make it again, I think I'll upgrade to Beefeater. Martini and Rossi for the dry vermouth; Cinzano for the sweet. (These are simply the standard vermouths I stock and suit my taste. I actually prefer Noilly Prat for dry, but they changed the formula last year and I'm saving my last few bottles of the old stuff.) The Anisette is Mr. Boston's. Liqueurs you use once every six months are a problem. Going high end is exorbitant when you'll want dozens of different flavors eventually. Some liqueurs are a false economy if you do that, of course... the best triple sec you can afford is wise, for example. The orange juice is a good-quality commercial blend of 100% juice. In theory, fresh squeezed is better, but for oranges, I find that the taste profile is too unpredictable... you know what you're getting with Simply Orange. Dole's canned unsweetened pineapple juice is what everyone uses in cocktails. I wouldn't do any of this with a recipe that called for lemon or lime juice, I hasten to add.

Well, there's a cocktail for you. As you can see, it is the sort of thing you can put a lot of thought and care into, like any hobby. Does it make the cocktail taste better, my reader might wonder?

Yes, it does.

Picture Book

2010-07-22T18:05:00.005-04:00

Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages

E. F. Kitchen

July 2010 from powerHouse Books

$35.00

This is a book of full-page photographs in black and white of SCA members posing in their armor (or one page, in garb). The photos are accompanied by text with quotes from many of the recreationists depicted. There is a photo leading off the book of Sir Ranthulfr Asparlundr of the MidRealm (he also gets a photo in Medieval Fantasy as Performance). The book closes with our Baroness Dulcinea Maria Magdalena von Muhlberg y Aguilar. Most of the pictures are of fairly prominent members, many from the western kingdoms, it appears.

The book itself is handsomely mounted and well bound. It's a pleasure to handle and examine, although it is a little light on content, and I'm not sure that all of the members depicted are necessarily coming off as well as they might hope. The black and white works better in some photos than others... one misses the bright colors of heraldry and some of the scenes seem bleak or melodramatic. Some are great photos, to be sure: Duke John Fitzgerald de Clare on p. 39, Sir Gaston Bonneville de la Croix at p. 47 and Sir Tristan Pfalzgraf von Eisig at p. 53 all look particularly sharp.

The black and white photos seem like an odd choice to me. It gives the book an old-fashioned air, to be sure, but an air of the 19th or early 20th century. Color would have been better for the Middle Ages... they didn't have photography anyway. But perhaps others would disagree. Certainly it's all interesting to look at. It also seems to me that the similarity of the poses fails to capture all the possibilities. There are no group scenes, no indoor depictions. Each photo has one subject, usually dramatically posed with a sword or other weapon (Duke John has an attendant with his banner, one of the reasons his image seems more interesting.) This makes the images seem more stiff... they aren't naturalistically depicted. The kind of photos taken for, for example, Embleton and Howe's Medieval Soldier, are a good deal more pleasing and even inspiring.

I'm guessing that the imagery will please and intrigue some other readers. The fact that it doesn't do much for me is perhaps a personal matter.

My principal objection to the text is the author's interest in one of the major motivations for people joining the SCA. Master Waldryk the Firedryk is quoted on p. 12:

"I killed Frank Renn 12 years ago. I didn't like Frank Renn. I killed him and I made Waldryk." The speaker notes his inability to find fulfillment in other ways, name-checking Christianity with disfavor (a frequent and highly ironic motivation for wanting to emulate medieval European figures, I always thought), and concludes that his identity as Master Waldryk is the person he wants to be.

I have never met Master Waldryk and am not knocking him. When I say this, I'm using him as a stand-in for a view of the world that I'm usually sorry to hear about in the SCA. It makes me uncomfortable and puzzles me. And maybe that's my problem, not his, or that of others for whom his comments might seem resonant.

But I just never got this business of using the SCA as an escape from modern society for more than an entertaining weekend. I suppose that's because I'm happy enough with who I am in the 21st century world. I find fulfillment in my profession and other hobbies and interests. My real identity is that person. Balian de Brionne is what, then? A mask, a pose, a role to play? A whimsy on the weekend? Well, not exactly. It is a powerful thing to choose a new identity for yourself, a new name and a new set of allegiances. One can be a new person. There is a great appeal in that. But it has always seemed to me like a momentary escape into another identity, not one that is actually preferable.

Candidly, Suburban Knights is a little pricey for what it is... I'm not even sure SCA members are the target audience. I bought it suspecting from the description it would disappoint; but it is my custom to buy books about the SCA. It's not like there are many, after all. So I recommend it mildly. It's amusing and has some interesting commentary by members of the organization.

Writing Style

2010-07-22T00:30:00.003-04:00

At the always interesting A Commonplace Book (my nominee for best title for a history-oriented blog, by the way - wish I'd thought of it first!) the author recently commented on and linked to I Write Like, a site which analyzes writing and suggests which famous author your style most resembles.

With some trepidation, I submitted four of the longer posts from this blog. The results:

1. Dan Brown. (Dear god. Either I should stop writing now or I need to consider a career change to writing thrillers for people with short attention spans.)

2. James Joyce. (Really, I may cry now. Must be strong.)

3. and 4. Cory Doctorow.

Who the hell is Cory Doctorow? Science fiction writer and blogger, apparently. I've never read him, and had to look him up, so I don't know what to make of that.

New Books on the SCA

2010-07-21T23:20:00.003-04:00

Books about the Society for Creative Anachronism... not self-published items for internal use, but regular published books sold on Amazon.com... are pretty rare. The only one I know of is The Knights Next Door, by Patrick O'Donnell. The SCA is discussed in a number of books about historical recreation groups and the like, but I don't know of any others that take the organization as a primary focus. There are several books by SCA members, such as Professor Steven Muhlberger's books on chivalric topics and Brian Price's opus on reproducing 14th century armor... but these are books which simply happen to be of intense interest to members of the organization, not books about it.

This, however, two new books have been published: Medieval Fantasy as Performance by Michael A. Cramer, and Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages by E. F. Kitchen. I will review both in subsequent posts. I heartily recommend the former; the latter is harmless fun.

I should note that it is possible I've missed something. I've been on an almost complete hiatus from participation in the SCA for quite some time now, essentially since late 2007, and while I haven't entirely lost interest, I don't feel like I have the sense of knowing what goes on and what everyone is talking about.

New Site for Battle of Bosworth Field

2010-02-20T01:00:00.003-05:00

Local authorities in England believe they've found evidence pinning down the location of the 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field, in which King Richard III lost his life, passing the crown to Henry Tudor. The story is here.

The site of the battle has long been disputed, so this isn't a huge surprise. But they mention only one piece of evidence... a silver boar badge. I assume they have more than that, and we'll find out more in due course. My colleague Lord Breac just sent me the link, so I haven't checked to see what else has been revealed about this.

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.

SCA and Cocktails

2008-08-26T01:23:00.003-04:00

SCA and cocktails don't go together all that well... or I never thought so, anyway. The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. is all about the Middle Ages, and they didn't have cocktails in the Middle Ages, poor benighted sods. Of course, we SCA members are often fond of the sauce, in our way, and I have been at more than one post-event function at which beer, mead and ale were not the only libations offered. (One time at Pennsic, Geirmundr and I made martinis... well, I made them, and Geirmundr drank them, mostly. A merry evening, to be sure. And we used to have cocktails before dinner in the kitchen during one period of local revels, and we have generally had champagne after local events.)

Well, last summer, I decided to take a break from the SCA for a while, and as I tried to still post occasionally here, I found I really wanted to talk about cocktails, one of my other hobbies being making classic cocktails. I even considered starting a separate blog for a while. But I managed to mostly avoid drifting too far from my chosen topic here. I know other bloggers vary from their topic, so it isn't a sin or anything. I just like the tidiness of sticking to my chosen field of... uh, blogography.

Tonight, I was prowling through drink blogs (trying desperately to avoid actually grading any more papers or final exams from the summer term), and I went to a new one, to me, anyway, called An Exercise in Hospitality... Adventures with Cocktails and Food. And what should be the latest post on this blog but the Pennsic War! The writer explains to his usual readers about Pennsic and then discusses at length drinks and meals he and his comrades had there, together with some stabs at more period fare. Delightful, and perhaps I'm being too picky in my topics. I'd post more often if I could expand my topic base.

Books of Hours

2008-08-23T00:45:00.004-04:00

One of my loves about the Middle Ages is the study of Books of Hours, those personal prayer books from the 13th-16th centuries of which so many lovely examples survive. I've manfully restrained myself from greedily collecting all the handsome facsimile copies in print... except for a few, of course, plus many less extravagant books about them. I just got Painted Prayers by Roger S. Wieck, and was reminded that I haven't looked around the Internet lately to see what was currently out there. (Regrettably, Painted Prayers is out of print, and I had meant to get it but not gotten around to it until this week... I did not pay anything like the prices for used books shown here. Just in time, I guess.)

Here is a link to a Book of Hours owned by Oberlin College, the Artz Hours, all of the pages of which are shown on successive pages. Very interesting.

More Book News

2008-08-13T13:58:00.003-04:00

One of the features of the Lapeer Days festival in nearby Lapeer, Michigan, is a library used book sale. The festival began today, and so did the book sale at the de Angeli Public Library. It's not the best local used book sale, but it's pretty good. My principal complaint, actually, is that the Friends of the Library arrange the tables in such a narrow fashion that it is fairly difficult to get around and see all the books. They also have a huge selection of children's books, dvds, cds, and etc. Lapeer Days lasts through the 16th.

New Acquisitions

2008-08-09T21:20:00.004-04:00

Well, if I didn't get to go to Pennsic, I did some satisfying medieval shopping here at home.

The Flint area is not well supplied with used bookstores. There are two Jellybean stores; together with a third in Owosso, a locally-owned chain. The one to the south of town concentrates on mass media stuff; I can't recall ever finding anything on the Middle Ages other than things that get assigned in history classes. Not complaining, they are the place to go for used music, mystery and science fiction paperbacks, DVDs, that sort of thing. The one closer to the center of town is more interesting, although the management have a sometimes exalted notion of how to price some of their collectibles. They get people to pay it, I guess. They have easily the most extensive collection of used books of a more serious type than anywhere this side of one of the university towns in Michigan, but it is a curiously neglected side room; the main action with paperbacks, records and so forth is in the main room. I don't think there's ever been another customer in the side room on the rare occasions I go in - about once a year or less. Awkwardly, the clerk decides on a price at the counter for these books, after performing a brief check on the Internet. ABEbooks.com, I'm guessing? They don't say. I've actually gotten some good deals, once a spectacular deal, so they're not being unreasonable on price; I just wonder if they realize how discouraging a browsing experience this mysterious method induces. If they just marked the prices in the books, I'd go in more often.

At any rate, on a rare visit this week, I found two books on Western martial arts. Sydney Anglo's authoritative The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe. I've checked it out from academic libraries, and it seemed well worth having. Author John Clement claims it is the most important work on the subject in a century; while my interests tend more to the political and strategic levels, particularly about the Hundred Years War, I'm willing to agree with Clement, as far as I can tell. The second book was the Codex Wallerstein, a 15th century fighting manual with reproductions of the illustrations and translations of the text into several languages. Want to know how to rob a peasant by making him think you've slit his throat, but without actually doing so? No problem, the Codex Wallerstein explains the method. I'm hoping I don't have occasion to use that one, myself. But it's good to know these things, right?

Both volumes were in hardcover, in good shape with a little shelf wear, and I certainly wanted them both. The clerk wanted $40 for each, and I left them there. At the very least, I wanted to make sure I couldn't do better on the Internet. But $40 was about right, I found, and after giving it some thought, I realized I would just regret it if I didn't go back for them. Both books are out of print; I didn't go to Pennsic and spend lots of money there; I haven't been keeping up with the literature on my hobby for years now; so the next day I went back and bought both.

So that was fun, but I had already been thinking this week about a Saturday visit to John K. King Books in Detroit (check out the YouTube videos at the link). I tried to persuade Skalla-Geirmundr to go with me, but he was busy being responsible or something. John K. King is the biggest bookseller in Michigan, advertising 900,000 books. It is a spectacular experience, quite like visiting an academic library but being able to buy the books (well, an academic library with a somewhat haphazard collection, but still...). Five or six floors of an old factory building right downtown on W. Lafayette, just what you'd want a big city used bookstore to be. I knew from experience that they have excellent sections on history, cooking and art, just to note some of my interests. Strangely enough, I haven't been there in about ten years, although my infrequent visits always produced wonderful results back in the 90s. It's not really that much fun, getting to that spot in downtown Detroit all the way from Flint. No, it's not a safety issue, downtown Detroit is perfectly fine with me. It's the traffic, construction and accident backups. I've driven in a lot of big cities, but Detroit's the only one I really try to avoid - things are never going smoothly, the way they do on the average visit to Chicago. Half the place is always torn up for construction, because Michigan can't be bothered to build the roads to proper tolerances to begin with; we'd rather repair them every other other year. I mean, Washington DC is less annoying, even with very much heavier traffic and much more aggressive drivers.

Sure enough, I 75 was backed up, so I found myself on a tedious crawl on surface streets to M 10, the Lodge Freeway. That went quickly, thankfully.

I had originally meant to get there early and spend all day visiting each floor, but my local medievalist extravagance suggested a more disciplined approach. The cooking section for cocktail books and medieval cookery; the medieval and English and French history sections; the military section for medieval items were my targets. So I never made it above the 2nd floor, but I had one of the more productive bookstore visits I've ever had. I found (pertinent to the topic of this blog, anyway):

Food and Feast in Tudor England by Alison Sims.
Art, Culture and Cuisine; Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy by Phyllis Pray Bober.

I'd read both but didn't own them. Both are beautiful hardcovers with dustcovers, both were very attractively priced, much better than I could've done on eBay or Amazon.

The Medieval Soldier; 15th Century Campaign Life Recreated in Colour Photographs by Gerry Embleton and John Howe.
Crecy 1346; Anatomy of a Battle by Henri de Wailly.

The price for these two I can only describe as derisory. $18 for the pair. Both are immaculate; the Embleton and Howe book looks brand new and still bears a sticker for $65 on the back cover. I had never even seen the book outside of libraries, and had little hope of finding it for a reasonable price. I'm unfamiliar with the Crecy 1346 book, although I've read a good deal of more recent books on the topic, so I'm not sure about it, but it looks good. I don't know if it was written in English by the author, all of whose other books I can find are clearly French language texts, or if it is translated, but the translator is not named. We'll see. By the way, there are several books on the Battle of Crecy with almost identical titles; this one was published in 1987. I'm hoping for a strong French point of view, as most books on the topic are written from an English perspective.

On another occasion, comments on other good bookstores in Michigan.

War Over at Opening Ceremonies?

2008-08-04T21:59:00.003-04:00

According to the Pennsic Independent, King Konrad of the East has conceded all 37 War Points to the Middle at the Opening Ceremonies yesterday.

That was unexpected! I have no idea what the story is here, although I'm sure there is one. From the count of kingdoms enrolled on each side, it looked like the East might be outnumbered. It appeared that mostly smaller and more distant kingdoms were fighting with the East and Atlantia, although I didn't see Meridies in either list. So perhaps the East felt it would make everyone on both sides happier to just fight and have a good time without a foreordained loss. But I don't know, that's the purest speculation; the Pennsic Independent didn't explain further. No doubt more details will become available.

I urge my readers to subscribe to PI if you are at home wondering what's going on at Pennsic; I know many of my friends are this year. Also, check out Master Rowan's page for lots of pictures every day.

Pennsic War 37

2008-07-28T23:17:00.004-04:00

Once again I find myself unable to attend Pennsic, even briefly. I gave it some slight thought, but it seems impractical. We moved earlier this year into much more spacious and congenial quarters, and that cost a lot in time, effort and money; and I am in no way prepared to fight, camp or otherwise participate. And that's leaving aside the question of my work schedule, which makes Pennsic highly impractical. Can't just wander off and cancel classes during a nine-week term, and it's awkward to schedule substitutes during the summer. If the regular Econ guy were around this time of year to fill in for me, I wouldn't be teaching the classes to begin with! (I could afford the time to go to Pennsic, certainly, but my bank account would very much not appreciate it.)

However, in this day and age, it is increasingly possible to attend Pennsic in spirit, if not in person. One can keep up in the virtual world of the Internet. Here's my primary tool, the Pennsic Independent. This is the on-site daily newsletter of Pennsic, and they provide hard copies in the mail or .pdf copies. I prefer .pdf, as I can read them the same day.

And tonight I came across this web diary, at which the writer, one Rowan, who appears to be an old hand, promises to deliver photos and commentary on a daily basis.

Ok, it's not arming up and fighting in the field battle. One does what one can.

Jousting as a Sport

2008-06-23T11:51:00.002-04:00

The Wall Street Journal has a front page story today on the revival of jousting as a genuine competitive sport, which they describe as "A far cry from the mock re-enactments at Renaissance fairs..." The story profiles Belgian jouster Fred Piraux, who seems to have quite the attitude. There is video at the link.

The Weekly Standard on the Medieval Congress

2008-06-06T23:32:00.002-04:00

The conservative magazine the Weekly Standard has a brilliant article by medievalist Charlotte Allen on Western Michigan University's annual Medieval Congress. I particularly enjoyed her merciless remarks on the dreary post modernism that has infected much medievalism.

Sir Vitus and Caffeine

2008-05-22T21:46:00.002-04:00

Sir Vitus Atzinger makes a humorous remark regarding proper behavior in the emergency Crown Tourney this weekend here. I laughed out loud.

MidRealm News

2008-05-19T12:08:00.003-04:00

Well, actually, this probably isn't news to most people who might read my blog. But Their Royal Majesties, Lutr and Tessa, had their reign terminated by the Board of Directors of the SCA over the weekend. Their membership lapsed for three days during their term as Crown Prince and Princess. It seems that Lutr and Tessa discovered they'd lapsed after their check went astray, reupped online at once, and reported the lapse themselves. A class move which saves a lot of trouble and argument, that.

Duke Palymar and Duchess Aislinn were appointed regents for the kingdom. Fortunately, the timing is good, as Crown Tournament is set for this Sunday, the 25th. Palymar has announced that there will be two tournaments that day. One at 10 am whose winner will be crowned king at once, and the conventional tournament that afternoon as had already been planned. He specifically noted that Lutr is free to enter the morning tournament, along with whatever other eligible contestants are acceptable to the regents. I thought that was an interesting way to phrase it.

Unfortunately, I'll be busy that day, or this would be an unusually interesting event to attend. The Board has chimed in this morning on this topic. Notice that the Board, the regents and Lutr and Tessa all agree on what happened and what has been done. That's one of the reasons I like living in the Middle Kingdom. No drama, just an orderly, calm and courteous solution for the problem, everyone takes responsibility and moves on.

Medieval(ish)

2008-04-24T22:22:00.005-04:00

We just spent a long weekend in Traverse City, Charlevoix and Petoskey, and I had a good food find. We visited the Traverse City wine tasting bar of Black Star Farms, a Leelenau Peninsula vineyard, and in the midst of examining their wines, I discovered a bottle of "Verjus" - verjuice, in other words. I posted about an earlier find here.

Now, when not cooking feasts or preparing dishes for local functions - long story, but I haven't been doing much with the SCA in recent months - one doesn't have a lot of call for verjuice, so I hadn't tried it yet. However, after getting the bottle of Black Star Farms Verjus home, I read the label more carefully, and discovered the following:

Verjus... the wine friendly alternative to vinegar. this unfermented juice of early harvested grapes offers a sweet-sour balance.

Use anyway you would use vinegar in salads, sauces and marinades or try our...

Virgo Cocktail
1-1/2 oz. Black Star Farms Verjus
1-1/2 oz. Club Soda
Add a squeeze of lime and serve on the rocks.

Well, I had to try that, of course, and it gave me an excuse to actually taste verjuice for the first time. It tastes mild, just a little tart. More reminiscent of vinegar than like it.

As for the cocktail? Well, it's ok. But I'll be using the rest of the bottle for cooking, I think.

MidRealm Humor

2008-04-01T23:03:00.002-04:00

Unlike most April 1 posts, this one is actually quite funny on several levels.

1381 The Peel Affinity

2008-03-24T20:53:00.004-04:00

I have been eyeing this prospective book, which was due to be published in February, for some time. Remembering to check on it last week, I found that while Amazon has a page for the book, it doesn't have any copies. Windrose Armoury had six copies, though with a breathtaking amount for shipping, so I anted up. The volume arrived today.

The Peel Affinity does not disappoint. From a physical point of view, it is nicely bound with a handsome dust cover, a silk ribbon and slick paper with color photos on almost every page. The introduction says:

The book is divided into three sections. The first is a brief introduction to the world in which our characters live. In the central part, we take you through a year in the life of our fictional English knight and the people around him. The last part presents a more generalized view of campaign life and war as they might be experienced by our characters. Throughout you will find sidebars highlighting important aspects of medieval English life which affect the lives of our characters.

The book is provided by a historical recreation group called La Belle Compagnie, and depicts the band's impression of a late 14th century knightly family, that of Sir Geoffrey Peel. The photos are gorgeous, in places stunning (some interior room scenes at spots like pp. 40-1, for example). I haven't had time to read the book, but at a glance the text seems quite serious and accurate.

I'll have more comments later, after I've had more time with the book, but I'm delighted with the purchase.

Update: Oops, I missed the link to buy on this page, too.

Mead Makes a Comeback

2008-03-17T21:16:00.001-04:00

Slate Magazine discusses the phenomenon here. The SCA is named-checked, but alas, not favorably.

Camera Lucida

2008-01-27T22:07:00.000-05:00

An interesting SCA site which had hitherto escaped my notice is Camera Lucida.

Nuremberg Tournament Book

2008-01-24T11:08:00.000-05:00

Amazon emails me (because I bought Prof. Muhlberger's Deeds of Arms) that the Nuremberg Tournament Book is available at this link. No pictures and little detail, but the book apparently has reproductions of some or all of the original manuscript illustrations plus modern commentary. The Metropolitian Museum of Art (which owns the manuscript) has a little detail and an illo here.

The Peel Affinity

2008-01-22T21:34:00.000-05:00

1381: The Peel Affinity is about to be published in February 2008. I'm not sure what it will cost, but it looks interesting.

Thinkwell is Back

2008-01-22T01:26:00.000-05:00

In the early 1990s, one of the more interesting and thought-provoking projects in the SCA was Thinkwell, a newsletter featuring commentary by SCA members on the organization and how to recreate the Middle Ages. It was put together by Sandra Dodd, AElflaed of Duckford, a long-standing peer and former president of the SCA, Inc.

My wife subscribed and we both enjoyed reading it at the time, and were sorry when it stopped publication. Now it's back in an online format with a blog and some of the old issues archived. I recommend it.

Update: I forgot to mention... in fact, I had altogether forgotten until I posted this... that I met Mistress AElflaed in 1990 at a SCA Board of Directors meeting in Cynnabar. I asked her a rather silly question during an intermission, and she gave me a very polite answer.

Repeal Day

2007-12-05T12:58:00.000-05:00

December 5 is Repeal Day, the day the odious 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment. Tonight, in the midst of grading papers, I will celebrate by mixing a Roosevelt. FDR is not my favorite president, but for this he deserves credit.

Prohibition was perhaps the most foolish and failed political experiment in American political history (unless you count electing Jimmy Carter, I guess). A high-minded attempt to force everyone to conform to the standards of a bunch of early health fascists, it failed as it deserved to, and cast violaters of the law of the land (almost everyone) as heroes, with effects on American's attitude toward law down to today. Remember that when someone wants to ban smoking, or when you look at the regrettable legal results of the war on drugs. These things don't work, and cast the law in disrepute.

But this is a blog on medieval and SCA topics, and I try not to stray too far, so let's examine a related topic that is at least a little closer. I have coveted for some time a bottle of Rothman and Winter creme de violette, an old liqueur made from Alpine violets and an ingredient in some European confections and in some old cocktails. It just came back on the market in the US again, but is not distributed in Michigan. Finding a distributor who carried it, had it in stock and would ship to Michigan all at the same time was fairly difficult, but it came today, along with a bottle of Chartreuse, the famous herbal liqueur made by Carthusian monks. Chartreuse is generally available in Michigan, but with the dollar-euro exchange rate highly unfavorable right now, is quite expensive. It too is an ingredient in quite a few old cocktails.

Liqueurs of this type have a long history, certainly reaching back to the end of the Middle Ages or before. It is too much to imagine that either of these are based on recipes quite that old, but Chartreuse is made from a secret recipe (although hyssop is widely suspected) of 130 Alpine herbs and is said to be based on a 1605 formula. Creme de violette is probably not so old, although it was made in the 19th century and was once very popular. Creme Yvette was the American version, but ceased production many years ago after highballs, the ubiquitous dry martini and various vodka drinks pretty much drove the old cocktail "up" and usually made with fresh fruit juices out of style. Certainly there is no reasons to suppose there wasn't something similar by the Renaissance.

So raise a glass tonight in honor of Repeal Day and the return of common sense to these shores, once benighted by Prohibition!

Echo of Middle Ages in Holiday Drinks

2007-11-18T11:32:00.000-05:00

Eric Felten's How's Your Drink column in the Saturday Wall Street Journal is a favorite part of the week in the newspaper for me. Yesterday, November 17, he spent his column discussing Thanksgiving drinks and lamenting that there weren't more. So he suggested two: Metheglin Punch and Samoset, both made with honey and spices. They aren't meads or metheglins in the official sense, but they are polite nods in their direction. I may try the Punch this week.

Here's the link, but it is likely subscribers-only. (As an aside, email links to the article last for seven days. My email address is balian at chartermi dot net for anyone who wishes to peruse the article.)

I can't strongly enough recommend, by the way, How's Your Drink, Felten's recent book collecting his columns.

Another Take on Beowulf

2007-11-16T21:49:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal reviewer saw a 3-D version and liked it. In fact, much of what the National Review writer didn't like is exactly what he was impressed with. The link is here, but non-subscribers may not be able to see it. (Rumor has it that Rupert Murdoch will take the online service free when he fully takes over; might be a good idea, but the Journal is so good I'm happy to subscribe, I'll admit.)

What's more, as if more is needed, the movie's animation and 3-D techniques offer a seductive vision of the medium's future.

We've seen a glimpse of that future before, and it didn't work. Mr. Zemeckis used an earlier version of "Beowulf's" motion-capture technology, or digitally-enhanced live action, in "The Polar Express," a ponderous Christmas fantasy that seemed to be populated by overachieving glove puppets with dead eyes. But that was then and this is now. The passing years -- all three of them -- have brought significant changes: facial features moving with a subtlety that's near-human rather than nonhuman, bodies conducting cross-border raids between the concrete and the abstract. Lapses still occur -- an occasional face will make you wonder if they had plastic surgery in the seventh century -- but the look of the film as a whole is literally captivating.

Beowulf Review

2007-11-16T19:28:00.000-05:00

National Review (what other political magazine would bother, I wonder, or have a Beowulf scholar on staff) has a good review of Beowulf here.

Not planning to see the movie. I almost always wait for the DVD anyway, but I'm afraid that while I read Beowulf in college, of course, my interest in the Middle Ages before the 12th century was always quite minimal.

Free Access

2007-11-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

Sage Publications has free access to scholarly docs, including articles on medieval topics, until November 30. (Via SCA Today.)

Liz's Golden Age

2007-11-11T11:59:00.000-05:00

Speaking of movies, Professor Muhlberger hasn't seen Elizabeth: The Golden Age, but has some brief thoughts. My impression from ads and trailers is similar.

Beowulf Coverage

2007-11-11T11:50:00.000-05:00

Unlocked Wordhoard has lots to say about the Beowulf movie due for release soon.

25th Anniversary Combat Pt. 3

2007-10-28T23:06:00.001-04:00

L to R: Skalla-Geirmundr Ulfsson and Tsunamei Kenjiro Torashi

25th Anniversary Combat Pt. 2

2007-10-28T23:02:00.001-04:00

L to R: Tsunamei Kenjiro Torashi and Nagatatsu Satto.

25th Anniversary Combat Pt. 1

2007-10-28T22:53:00.001-04:00

L to R: Tsunamei Kenjiro Torashi and Erevon FitzGerald.

Founders Day Luminaries

2007-10-21T23:04:00.001-04:00

Front row, left to right: Lady Terryl MacAodhagain, Lord Eduard von Schonberg, Lady Aisha al'Zarqa. Back row: Lord Balian de Brionne, Lord Skalla-Geirmundr Ulfsson, Lord Erevon FitzGerald, Lady Eron Crowfford, Lord Tsunamei Kenjiro Torashi.

25th Anniversary

2007-10-21T21:27:00.000-04:00

Stormvale celebrated its 25th anniversary on Saturday the 20th. The actual anniversary is next Saturday, the 27th. I have mixed feelings. A number of members of the branch did not appear, but most did, and there was a pleasant celebration.

We should all thank Lady Terryl for hosting the party. She gave up her whole day, and essentially her weekend, and had been preparing for weeks. A lot of people put a lot of work into this, including Lady Eron.

Lord Eduard von Schonberg came for the first time in quite a few years, and it was very agreeable to see him again. I missed him, and it was fun to talk over old times.

The various tournaments and competitions took up the afternoon - I don't have a complete list, but Lord Torashi reclaimed his armored combat championship. Lady Femke from Three Hills was teaching a class on illumination when we arrived, which was very kind of her. (And it was nice to finally meet her in person.)

My contribution to the festivities was smaller than it would have been in previous years. I obtained a very fine bottle of champagne, however, and in the evening, when most of the old timers and long-time hard workers could be gathered without disrupting the festivities, we opened it and toasted our 25 years. Some photos are going to follow, but Blogger is glitching on me just at the moment, so I'll do another post later.

What is Panforte?

2007-10-14T10:16:00.000-04:00

Strong bread, of course. (Pan is bread and forte is strong.) A return trip to Morgan & York yesterday yielded a treat I had not encountered before: Panforte Nero from an Italian maker. It was a small flat cake in a really beautiful medieval wrapper with nice art, and I wasn't sure what it was. I almost balked when it turned out to be $11.00 - the clerk apologetically pointed out that the difference between the dollar and the euro was making imports quite pricey right now, and the cakes had just come in. This web page has a picture that gives an impression, although the image doesn't do the wrapper justice. Unfortunately, the page is in Italian.

Well, it was delicious, and I was very happy to have spent the money, because I believe I can make these. I'd heard of it, of course, but medieval desserts, as I believe I've mentioned before, are not my forte. It turned out to be a chewy fruit and nut composition, very dark and spicy. My friend thought it tasted like mincemeat; my wife was immediately put in mind of fruitcake, which she dislikes. (My friend and I ate half of it happily while still on the trip; my wife made a face and began looking for a drink to get rid of the taste.)

Coincidentally, we ran into our old friend Becky, formerly Arianwen, who lives in Ann Arbor, and she and another friend had just gotten back from Italy. Also on the European front, I bought a small bottle of Noilly Prat, the original French dry vermouth. I didn't realize it was affordable, never having encountered anything more exotic than the familiar (and very satisfactory) Italian version, Martini and Rossi. I haven't tried it yet, but will report if there is a substantial difference - some authors on cocktails say yes. Quite a post medieval topic, but perhaps readers will find it interesting.

Verjuice

2007-10-01T12:54:00.000-04:00

Verjuice is a very common cooking ingredient in Medieval cuisine. When I first encountered cookbooks on the topic, there was still a lot of debate about exactly what it was, although most agreed it was a type of vinegar made with unripe grapes. (It's not fermented and therefore non-alcoholic and not really the same thing as vinegar.) I've known for a while that verjuice was commercially available, but I had never actually seen any, nor, obviously, cooked with it.

This weekend Melisande and I spent the day in Ann Arbor and stopped at a gourmet food and wine shop, Morgan and York (incongruously, it used to be the Big Ten Party Store - party store for the wine and brie set, I would say!). It was a delightful experience, although I was disappointed not to see any artisanal gins I haven't tried yet. Wine was clearly their emphasis. We bought a few odds and ends I hadn't seen elsewhere, along with some chocolate truffles, but the main find from my perspective was a bottle of verjuice. The maker is a South Australian outfit called Maggie Beer. By the way, Morgan and York is one of the pricier shops of its kind I've seen in Michigan. Well worth a visit, though.

I haven't used the verjuice yet. At the price I paid for 375 ml (they are selling it as a gourmet item for salads and sauces like balsamic vinegar), I hope it is useful for medieval dishes. I'll report here when I try it.

Better Heraldry

2007-09-25T23:22:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Master Edward of Effingham, a better version of the arms to the left. He checked my blog to see how the image worked, wasn't satisfied, and sent two more versions for me to try out. Really very kind and generous of him.

SCA Cocktails

2007-09-25T21:33:00.000-04:00

Well, one SCA cocktail, at least. That would be an interesting set of recipes to collect, though. I might have to invent one! I was looking for the recipe of a cocktail my handy references didn't have, and came across this on the front page at DrinksMixer.com: Conn's Fruity Beverage, which is said to be popular at SCA events in the south. Ok, I'm not going to pretend that it sounds good to me at all, but perhaps it will interest some.

New Heraldry

2007-09-18T17:07:00.000-04:00

See the new and glorious coat of arms to the left? Spiffy, ain't it?

If you'd like your own, I recommend contacting Master Edward of Effingham. He says he started doing heraldic avatars for friends on the Armour Archive forums and decided to turn it into a little business. He's fast and reasonably priced, and provides several different sizes for various purposes - I actually wanted a nice rendering of my heraldry for the MidRealm Forum and similar venues, but it immediately seemed apparent I could use good looking heraldry for many purposes, such as here on the blog.

Coolest Blog Ever?

2007-09-12T01:20:00.000-04:00

Maybe. Try Curious Expeditions.

Beautiful Libraries

2007-09-12T01:17:00.000-04:00

This link was provided by a bookbinding list I get. If there is a heaven, the chambers look like this.

Lots of News

2007-09-09T12:45:00.000-04:00

Lots of bloggy goodness over at Skalla's Steading. This link is also over in my links column to the left. Skalla Geirmundr has been keeping track of local activities at the artisan's guild workshops and fighting practices.

What I'm Reading IV

2007-09-07T22:37:00.000-04:00

The Battle of Crecy 1346. Andrew Ayton and Sir Philip Preston, et al. Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press, 2005.

I've been on an early and mid 14th century tear. I neglected to note my recent reading of The Perfect King by Ian Mortimer and Queen Isabella by Alisoun Weir, but I'll come back to the first one, at least. Two very worthwhile books, at any rate.

Ayton and Preston, with help from several other authors, conduct a very detailed examination of all the Battle of Crecy, in which Edward III and a relatively small English army heavily defeated the royal army of France on a hillside in the County of Ponthieu. I love this sort of thing, a serious and calm examination of all the arguments and issues, without grinding any axes. Very persuasive, and I'm glad to see that these authors, together with Iain Mortimer and Clifford Rogers, are engaged in rehabilitating the military reputation of one of England's greatest kings, indeed perhaps the greatest, Edward III.

I'm only about half way through, so I may have more comments later. But this is highly recommended. There is a lot more to the story than the usual set of assumptions, which suggest that Edward invaded France, blundered around until being cornered and then beat off the French with tactical brilliance. This always seemed to me to be a rather silly story. Ayton and company demonstrate quite convincingly that Edward was seeking a decisive battle on ground that favored English tactics, as had proved decisive at Dupplin Moor, Halidon Hill and Morlaix.

English Longbow Site

2007-09-07T22:34:00.000-04:00

This is a very nice and informative site on the English longbow, or "warbow". I found this via the wonderful SCA Today site.

Artisan's Guild Again

2007-09-07T22:10:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, I was able to attend the local Artisan's Guild again. I've had Tuesday night classes for many months, but I should be free to attend regularly until next April.

There was a good turnout, with lots of youngsters doing youth combat, and adults busy with various projects, especially stained glass. I worked on my somewhat ragged aventail and completely repaired it. In fact, I plan to replace it entirely with a new aventail with a brass ring edge, but simple repairs will do for now.

More on armor shortly.

Bayeux Tapestry Animated

2007-09-01T01:41:00.000-04:00

Breac drew my attention to this some time ago. Really splendid.

September Arms Practice

2007-09-01T00:35:00.000-04:00

Lord Skalla Geirmundr Ulfsson is hosting arms practice for heavy and light weapons. Everyone in the mid-Michigan/Thumb area is welcome to attend.

Here's the schedule for September:

Practice is on Sunday afternoon from 2 pm to 5 pm at 5481 N. State Rd. north of Davison. Each practice will feature a class and then a general activity. Armoring will go on concurrently, especially in bad weather.

Sept. 2. Basic sword and shield work. Open sparring.
Sept. 9. Slow work and targeting. Open sparring.
Sept. 16. No practice.
Sept. 23. Melee conventions/differences. Open sparring.
Oct. 7. Melee shield work/teams (numbers permitting). Team combat.

Kerrytown Book Festival

2007-08-31T14:20:00.000-04:00

The Kerrytown Book Festival is being held on September 9 in the Ann Arbor neighborhood ( a little north or northwest of the downtown area). There are some activities of interest to those interested in book arts.

Templar's Treasure Cancelled

2007-08-29T17:44:00.000-04:00

The October 13 Templar's Treasure event, which was also to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Stormvale, has been cancelled. It was the second event scheduled for this October that Stormvale has successively scheduled and cancelled.

I understand that we will instead have some kind of revel and invite the neighboring groups. The Artisan's Guild decided a schedule for the fall, and I will note coming classes and workshops here.

Library Acquisition

2007-08-22T20:49:00.000-04:00

Crecy 1346 from Osprey by David Nicolle and illustrated by Graham Turner. The usual charming illustrations and a very decent text. Especially satisfying because I bought a used copy for a derisory fee and rather expected it to be battered - it is nearly perfect. I love that.

Tangent

2007-08-22T20:47:00.000-04:00

I am guessing that most of the folks who find this blog interesting also like Harry Potter. We therefore depart from the usual topic to note this column which notes the classical and religious allusions in the books. Actually rather inspiring.

Video of Pennsic 36

2007-08-22T19:44:00.000-04:00

From Legio Draconis, a list of YouTube videos of Pennsic. Haven't had time to watch any yet. If any reader sees any local folks in the videos, or anything else of special note, perhaps you might note it in the comments here.

Pennsic Update

2007-08-22T00:09:00.000-04:00

Here is Geirmundr's report on his late visit to the Pennsic War, complete with a photo of all the Stormvale soldiers. From left to right: Lord Tsunamei Kenjiro Torashi in the Stormvale Champion tabard, Nagatatsu Satto, Lady Juana de Leon in the Cynnabar tabard and Lord Skalla Geirmundr Ulfsson in the (Mark III) Stormvale Militia tabard.

Update: Link added.

Congratulations and Thanks

2007-08-21T22:52:00.000-04:00

A hearty thank you is owed to Lady Maryska Daciana de la Mare, the Web Minister of the Shire of Stormvale. Her handiwork was an advancement over previous versions of the site, including my own. She included slideshows, music, nice graphics and kept it up to date.

My old comrade Lord Breac Mac Finnein is taking over as the Web Minister, and I'm sure he'll have fun adding his particular touch to the operation.

Pennsic 36 News

2007-08-12T20:53:00.000-04:00

Well, we won. Not sure of the final score, but the Middle was up by enough points as of Friday that no combination of additional scoring could result in a surprise win for the East and its allies. So Hoobah! to my fellow Midrealmers!

I kept up on a daily basis by subscribing to the web edition of the Pennsic Independent, which I heartily endorse. Only $6 and one can read the daily newspaper of Pennsic town in the comfort of one's home that same day - or in moments at work, to be sure.

Melisande made some wistful remarks during the war about how she rather misses going, and my father has expressed a wish to go next year, likely basing his operation out of a trailer in a nearby campground and visiting during the day. Melisande's allergies are much worse than they were years ago when we camped at Pennsic more frequently, so a hotel room or perhaps in my parent's trailer would seem indicated.

My own situation is problematic. I have had the curious misfortune (in this regard, anyway) to first study and then teach at two different institutions with unusual academic schedules. Pennsic was scheduled for early August in order to make it easier for college students to attend. This has never worked for me, alas. I had a narrow window of opportunity in the late 80s and early 90s during which I regularly attended for the second week, but the last time I was able to spend a whole week at Pennsic was in 1997. I've only been able to visit for a day or two a couple of times since.

It would take some arranging. I will likely have three classes to teach, and I can't just blithely wander off on vacation during the term. I might be able to arrange substitutes or something of the kind. At any rate, I am presently planning to attend for - well, as much of the second week as possible, let's say. Let's say long enough to set up camp and fight in as many battles as possible. 51 weeks away! I'm looking forward to raising my banner in Aethelmarc again.

MidRealm Forum

2007-07-23T21:22:00.000-04:00

The Middle Kingdom's provider of all good web things, Master Dafydd Blaidd, has established a web based forum for discussion. I don't think there is a link on the front page at MidRealm yet, so here's the link.

Geirmundr alerted me that this had been done earlier today. I had signed off on the Middlebridge several months ago, because there was just way too much noise to signal. I'm really very interested in keeping up on what's going on in the kingdom, but the Middlebridge, unfortunately, wasn't quite the place for that. The splendid Legio Draconis site, where all the armored combat discussion moved, seems like a better model. I have actually always tended to prefer email to web forums, but there's no denying the advantages of being able to look at all the subject lines and decide what to read and what not to.

I just signed up - I hope many do and the experiment is a success. Also established - an email list for the non-medieval, non-SCA chat that is, to me at least, the least appealing part of the Middlebridge. That seems like an excellent idea. Not that I don't like to talk politics, I certainly do, but not on lists dedicated to other topics.

New Tournaments Illuminated

2007-07-20T16:03:00.000-04:00

Tournaments Illuminated 163, the 2007 Summer issue, arrived today. It was a pleasant surprise. The amateurish and plain style TI has affected for many years long ago became tedious to the eye and difficult to be interested in. This issue has a slicker, more professional look. I would have preferred a photo to the painting on the cover, I think, but that's merely personal preference. The painting is nice. It may be the superior presentation, but the articles seemed more interesting, as well. There are good articles on tournament etiquette and food preparation safety, both useful things to reiterate every once in a while in our SCA quarterly magazine, and a pattern for an armor repair station. The armor chest looks like it would pass for a decent thing to have around the list field without looking modern. On the whole, a considerable upgrade for the venerable TI. The new editor is Doria Tecla.

Household Emblem?

2007-07-15T21:26:00.001-04:00

After a discussion of some import this evening, regarding my future in the Society, I went for a walk in the handsome park near to my manse, to think on what I had heard and to consider what was to be done. In particular I mulled over many heraldic options for a new household.

As I walked down the path beside a creek near to the end of my walk, there was a sudden crashing in the underbrush, and then a flash of golden lightning across the path, as a huge deer appeared and disappeared, apparently leaping the creek and climbing the bank on the other side in an instant. If I had been a few feet farther along, he would have trampled me. A family taking a leisurely stroll in the other direction stopped, startled, and remarked among themselves that I had been very fortunate, and that the animal had barely missed me. Only a slight exaggeration.

After pausing to be certain that more deer were not going to appear quite so suddenly on their trail as I traversed it, my thoughts turned again to heraldic symbols.

Yes, dear reader, I can be a little slow on the uptake. But after a moment, it occurred to me that I was not thinking like a medieval nobleman. Perhaps a golden stag or hart would be the thing, and thanks to the deer for suggesting the notion.

My Bearengaer Story

2007-07-09T22:53:00.000-04:00

Back in the early 1980s, I became Stormvale's Minister of Sciences. Yes, boys and girls, the office used to be separated into Minister of Sciences and Minister of Arts. Earl Bearengaer was the Pentamere regional Minister. I spoke to him at a Valentine's Day Massacre event to mention that I had entered the post and would be glad of any advice he had to offer, or intructions to convey.

As always, Bearengaer was very helpful, and spent some time acquainting me with my duties and discussing the sciences. We were standing beside the lists, as neither of us were in armor that day. I may actually not have authorized until a couple of months later, if I recall correctly. As often happens in the vigorous four-man melee team tourneys they always used in those days, a crowd of armored fighters suddenly careened up nearly into the ropes, rattan thrashing everywhere. Sir Bearengaer kept talking to me as though nothing untoward was happening, and merely held up an arm to shield his head from a stray blow. I had the strange notion that we ought to move back a bit, as it happened, but, well, I was there to take instruction, so I did as he did and held up my own arm and kept listening closely. Although in fact I don't quite recall what he was saying at just that moment. The marshals just looked at us like we were crazy when they moved the combat away.

He was quite a fellow.

Sir Bearengaer hinn Rauthi

2007-07-09T22:09:00.000-04:00

Lord Gavin of Blackwood, one of Earl Sir Bearengaer's squires, reports that his knight has passed away. I take the liberty of repeating the message being circulated below:

Harken to these awful words, wail and rend your garments! Earl Sir Bearengaer hinn Rauthi has gone to his ancestors in Valhalla on this 9th day of July, A.S. XLII. Let all pay heed to to the passing of a mighty warrior and a person who enriched the Current Middle Ages.

Bearengaer had been a member of the SCA for almost 40 years. He was the 8th Knight of the Middle Kingdom, the 9th King of the MidRealm He was King of the Middle Kingdom for Pennsic 3. He was second Prince of Drachenwald. In more recent years, as ill health kept him from the list fields, he served the Kingdom of AEthelmearc by training new fighters, marshaling, being an MOL and helping Lady Leah Janette (the Evil Book Lady) run her book business. For several years, he was Grimm's liaison at Pennsic.

Those wishing to honor him, pray for him or confirm his death should present themselves on July 14, in Stormsport (Erie, PA) at the Burton Funeral Home, 602 W. 10th St. A reception will follow at the home of Viscount Alexander and Viscountess Rannveigr. As he had no particular religious affiliation or close mundane relatives to be offended, the funeral will have an SCA theme. SCA attendees are requested to wear garb. Since "You can't take it with you" is not a Viking concept, people may bring mementos to put in the coffin.

Those who wish crash space or direction should contact Viscount Sir Bear the Wallsbane at SyrBear@aol.com or 814-454-3262. Leah Janette (his lady) can be contacted at bear_janet@msn.com or 814-451-0250.

This e-mail may be forwarded to any other SCA list.

Bearengaer was the patron and sponsor of the Canton of Withermoor in Flint, Michigan, in the 1970s. In 1982, when Stormvale, a second group in Flint, had its first event, Earl Bearengaer and Viscountess Nige of the Cleftlands appeared and were a gracious and noble presence for our revels. Sir Bearengaer took our first authorized fighter, Lord Garth Brandon, as his squire. He was a noble man as well as a nobleman, and will be missed. RIP.

Decisions

2007-07-08T01:47:00.000-04:00

I don't like to give up. Never have. It isn't even a matter of practicality. Basically, I've always been the kind of person who'd rather fight than switch. My longevity at what has become my major effort in the SCA will reach 25 years this October. It's not just that I was there at the beginning (which I was, quite literally), but also that many times over the intervening years I was just too stubborn to quit. Much more stubborn than others.

Strangely enough, I've reached the end now, right at the end of that quarter century. It's complicated, and I'm certainly not going to write about the whole business elaborately here. But suffice to say that it got to the point where I threatened to join a walkout, and finally the moment came where the threat had to be carried out, when promises had to be kept.

Tonight, I did what had to be done, and I feel somewhat sick. It doesn't seem as though it can really have happened at long last. How can I have allowed them to drive me out?

But promises have to be kept.

The reader who knows what I'm talking about may be wondering - what about that function I've been talking about here on the blog? Oh, I'm still doing that, because that promise has to be kept, too. Asssuming the function is still wanted, we'll go right ahead with that as though nothing is wrong.

But something is very much wrong.

I'm not one of those SCA members who goes on and on about honor. When someone starts going on about "My honor!" I generally roll my eyes. And yet, some things are dishonorable, and one does not wish to be associated with them. Really, one cannot. Perhaps I waited too long to cast down my gauntlet on this matter, and perhaps then I fought too long after it was clear I could not effect a solution at just this moment.

The first I will always regret, and the second I will never regret. Truly, I would cheerfully go on fighting, because that's pretty much me, but I said I would do something, and now I must, because my allies are ready. Can't really wait until October, no matter what else I agreed to do. So now an awkward straddle while the clock runs out.

Well, nothing is forever, right? Not 25 years - I could never have imagined that in October of 1982! - and not the present circumstances, either.

Things change, and I am patient. My honor is intact, I think. It will suffice for now, and the wilderness may hold new challenges. I have a defunct household, I seem to recall...