Pennsic War 37

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

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

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

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

MidRealm News

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)

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

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

1381 The Peel Affinity

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

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

Camera Lucida

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

Nuremberg Tournament Book

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Liz's Golden Age

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

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