Mi Contra Fa

A Household Initiation Ceremony

More stuff from years past, although this one is more recent than I thought it was.  In 2009, someone asked on the Merry Rose mailing list for a structure for an initiation for new household members. I replied at length, first with a general format and then with a specific example.

 

I. Welcome and Invocation

The leader welcomes the initiate(s) and attendees and states the purpose of the gathering. 

II. The Initiate Is Informed

The initiate(s) are called forward.  The leader (or an assistant) describes the ethos and goals of the household and the duties, responsibilities and privileges of its members.  A brief history of the household may be included.

III.  A Pact Is Made

The leader asks the initiates if they understand their responsibilities, and the initiates reply with some version of "I do."  The leader asks if the initiates if they wish to join the household, and again they reply something like "I do."  Depending on the structure of the household, the attending members may be asked if they agree to accept the initiates and guard and train them, or the household's leader (may or may not be the ceremonial leader) may make the decision unilaterally.

IV. Tokens Are Given and Received

Some items symbolic of the household or of the pact are given to the initiates, and their symbolism explained to the attendees.

V. New Members Are Welcomed

The leader presents the initiates to the attendees as new members of the household.  There is cheering, hugging, ceremonial buffeting, whatever works for you.  If possible, a shared meal or refreshment should be offered.

Example:

For an imaginary household named Glad-Wood Hall.  It's main focus is A&S (early period and Anglo-Saxon in particular) although some members fight, and it's starting to become active in service.  Several founding members have small children, and keeping things kid-friendly is a priority.  Glad-Wood Hall is run by its founding Lord and Lady, and the household's scop will serve as the ceremonial leader.

Scop:
Hwaet! Hear me,   hearken my words
Welcome all comers   to wide Glad-Wood Hall
Travelers come  from Kingdom Atlantia
Seeking our fire   solace of hall

Aethelstan and Godwin, come before the high seat of Bertwald our ring-giver and Cynwise who bears the mead-horn.

Initiates:
(approach the lord and lady on their bench)

Scop:
Brave Bertwald   in bygone day
Raise our high hall    happy were we
Cynwise loves music     scops were well-fed
Glad-wood sang      Wonderful sound
So our hall named    for noise most merry

Know you, Aethelstan and Godwin, that Bertwald seeks peace in the land.  No coward he, and warriors welcome to our hall, but he seeks not out strife and blood.  Glad-Wood Hall he fills instead with learning and with art.  Bright Cynwise passes the horn to scribe and to scholar as well as to soldier - all are honored here.  Even the smallest, babes at the breast, be welcome when we set our tables.

Bertwald and Cynwise seek ever out new knowledge to ornament our hall.  They seek also a willing spirit, to help our hall-mates according to need and to ability.  Know that if you are in need, the men and women of Glad-Wood Hall will help you best they can, offer they knowledge or time or a strong back.  If you seek knowledge, it will be shared; your knowledge, you will share freely.  Do you understand our compact?

Initiates:
We understand.

Scop:
Lord Bertwald, Lady Cynwise, to you I present these far-travelers, seeking shelter in Glad-Wood Hall.

Lord:
You, Aethelstan, I have heard you are a scribe and also a tailor.  Is this so?

Aethelstan:
It is, your lordship.

Lord:
I have need of a scribe and a tailor in my hall.  Will you join your gifts to my household?

Aethelstan:
Gladly, my lord.

Lord:
Then take from my hand this ring of bright gold, and also this quill, so that you may do good work for us.

Lady:
You, Godwin: it is said that you are a gleeman of note, a singer of fine songs.  Is this so?

Godwin:
It is, your ladyship.

Lady:
Music is always welcome in Glad-Wood Hall.  Will you join your gifts to my household?

Godwin:
Gladly, my lady.

Lady:
Then take from my hand this silver penny, and also this cup, that your throat shall never be dry.

Lady:
Now drink you both from my mead-horn, and be welcome in our hall.

Scop:
Behold! Our guests   brothers become
Gleeman and scribe    great their gifts
Welcome them warmly    well-wishes bestow
Then sit for feast    food shared as family

Initiation Ceremony

A gentle lady emailed Atlantia's listserv, the Merry Rose, recently, asking if anyone had a household initiation ceremony she might use as a basis for making one of her own.  Unable to resist sticking it in where ceremony and pomp are concerned, I wrote a reply, despite not belonging to a household nor having inducted anyone into it.  I will assume a ceremonial leader, the initate(s), and attendees.

I. Welcome and Invocation

The leader welcomes the initiate(s) and attendees and states the purpose of the gathering. 

II. The Initiate Is Informed

The initiate(s) are called forward.  The leader (or an assistant) describes the ethos and goals of the household and the duties, responsibilities and privileges of its members.  A brief history of the household may be included.

III.  A Pact Is Made

The leader asks the initiates if they understand their responsibilities, and the initiates reply with some version of "I do."  The leader asks if the initiates if they wish to join the household, and again they reply something like "I do."  Depending on the structure of the household, the attending members may be asked if they agree to accept the initiates and guard and train them, or the household's leader (may or may not be the ceremonial leader) may make the decision unilaterally.

IV. Tokens Are Given and Received

Some items symbolic of the household or of the pact are given to the initiates, and their symbolism explained to the attendees.

V. New Members Are Welcomed

The leader presents the initiates to the attendees as new members of the household.  There is cheering, hugging, ceremonial buffeting, whatever works for you.  If possible, a shared meal or refreshment should be offered.

An example continues below the fold:

Seven Virtues

This Saturday, there is an A&S competition at Novice/Challenge of the Heart on the theme of seven virtues: Humility, Largess, Honor, Prowess, Faith, Temperance, and Courage.  I sort of belatedly thought I should write something for it.

This is the draft and, if I don't get time to edit it, the final copy.  It's not bad, but I think the meter is too regular - Anglo-Saxon poetry is supposed to mix up the five Sievers types a bit, and I overuse Type E a lot in this poem.

Documentation is kind of cruddy, without good line number references or anything, because I was mostly working from memory (with fact-checking online).  I know what "The Battle of Maldon" is about, even if I have to ask Wikipedia the name of the protagonist, you know?

The poem is framed with a letter to Daniel, bishop of Winchester, based on one Daniel wrote to St. Boniface.  It's meant to help explain why an Anglo-Saxon poetic form is being used to advertise a set of virtues which aren't entirely Anglo-Saxon in nature...

Performer's Revel Report

Fun as always!  Heard many nifty new things, including a song about the Children's Crusade that should come with a content warning for young mothers and/or pregnant women.  We had some attendees who had come from afar, including Sir Axel from the south of Atlantia and Rathlaed duNoir.  (Well, when your hosts are Clam Chowder, I guess there's a certain pull...)

We had I'd say a good half-dozen entrants for the Poeta Spring Challenge, which we followed with the maypole.  Six dancers and nearly as many singers!  It was fun, and much more coherent than the Guppy Gala demo.  Still lacked something of the frission it seems like it ought to have, probably because we were all over 30, mostly married, and a little self-conscious about the whole thing.  I also neglected to psych people up to flirt. I'd still like to see it done with a high school/college crowd.

I did get to speak with Baroness Janina about Ye Olden Daies, and I have my nugget: Storvik's first seneschal and baroness divided those duties between them by coin toss.

Personally, I did all right.  "To Put the Devil Into Hell" was quite well-received, and "None Suffer" started a brief discussion on the nature of the pilgrims (Baron Igor picked up that if they were eating white bread and wine, they weren't especially ascetic...).  I trotted out "By Your Side" for I think the second time in public; a little wobbly at first, but it went fine.  I tried Bertran de Born again; people left the room.  Oh, well - I think I do well by it, but it's just a weird-sounding song.  More gratifyingly, I read the "Saga of Fishflinger" on a lark, during a lull when folks were snacking and talking, and heard a few "Sssh!"s because folks realized they wanted to hear it.  And after the room went on something of a gypsy jag, I hauled out Beggars to God.  Little wobble in the first verse, then my voice caught up with itself and it went very well.

After listening to a large number of minor key narrative folk songs on various popular tropes, though, I admit I'm tempted to try a few Scadian versions of Title of the Song.  Title of the War Song, Title of the Irish Song, Title of the Magical Song...

May Pease II

Because it seemed a little lame to repeat the same line when there could be couplets:

May time is here, let us dance and let us sing-o
Flowers in bloom and the birds all on the wing-o

Bagpipe plays loudly a merry melody-o
Lasses and lads in a jolly jubilee-o

Birds in the trees all sing gaily in the sun-o
Take hands with me and together we will run-o

Buds on the boughs mean that spring is coming in-o
Sing all who know that the summer will begin-o

Bring in the May and leave flowers on my door-o
Give me but one, love, and I will give you four-o

Kiss me, my dear, in the morning of the May-o
Leave not my arms, but my dear, please will you stay-o?

Play on the grass in the fresh dew of the morn-o
Springtime is come and the world, it is reborn-o.

May time is here, let us dance and let us sing-o
Flowers in bloom and the birds all on the wing-o

May Pease

Original May carol lyrics for Pease Bransle.  I take a liberty with the refrain.  It actually goes:

Men: quarter-quarter-half
Women: 4 quarters

The lyrics instead give the women three notes/syllables, like the men.  They can either hold the 3rd quarter for the length of a half note while the instruments play the 4th, or sing both quarter notes to the one syllable.

Verses:
May time is here, let us dance and let us sing-o (2x)

Bagpipe plays loudly a merry melody-o (2x)

Birds in the trees sing gaily in the sun-o (2x)

Buds on the boughs mean that spring is coming in-o (2x)

Bring in the May and leave flowers on my door-o (2x)

Kiss me, my dear, in the morning of the May-o (2x) 
(yeah, I know. May-o, mayo.  But is May-time or May-day any better, esp. with every other line being end-o?)

Play on the grass in the fresh dew of the morn-o (2x)

May time is here, let us dance and let us sing-o (2x)

Chorus (the hopping part):

Men: Come with me!
Women: Go with you?
Men: Come with me and merry be!

Women: I will stay.
Men: You will stay?
Women: I will stay and sing and play

Joan Sanderson, or The Cushion Dance

When I was an undergraduate at Rutgers, we had masked balls twice a year.  And very often we danced "Prinkum Prankum," as our dance mistress called it, which I have never seen danced anywhere else.

Well, it's in Playford, starting in 1686.  The tune does not look like how I remember her singing it, and the actions are not quite the same, but it's clearly where it comes from.  The way we danced it, Man or Woman stood in the center of the ring and called out Joan or John (actually 'insert name here' as I think is indicated by the nonuse of italics in the original) Sanderson.  The cushion was placed; somebody knelt (I don't recall if it was Sanderson, the person calling out, or always the Man) and there was a hand-kiss.  The two exchanged places, leaving Sanderson in the center for the next go-round of the dance.

This is what I read from Playford:

Note: The first strain twice.  The second once.  And the last as oft as is required.

This Dance is begun by a single person (either Man or Woman) who taking a Cushion in their Hand dances about the Room, and at the end of the Tune they stop and sing This Dance it will no further go.  The Musicians answer, I pray you good Sir, why say you so?  Man, Because Joan Sanderson will not come too.  Music. She must come too, and she shall come too, and she must come whether she will or no.  Then he lays down the Cushion before a Woman, on which she kneels, and he Kisses her, singing, Welcome Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome.  Then she rises, takes up the Cushion and both dance singing, Prinkum-prankum is a fine Dance, and we shall go dance it once again, once again, and once again, and shall we dance it once again?  Then making a stop, the Woman sings as before, This Dance, &c.  Music, I pray you Madam, &c.  Woman. Because John Sanderson &c.  Music. He must. &c.  And so she lays down the Cushion before a Man, who kneeling upon it salutes her, she singing, Welcome John Sanderson, &c.  Then he taking up the Cushion, they take hands and dance around, singing as before; and thus they do til th whole Company are taken into the Ring.  And if there is Company enough, make a little Ring in the middle, and within that Ring set a Chair, and lay the Cushion on it, and the first Man set on it.  Then the Cushion is laid before the first Man, the Woman singing, This Dance, &c. (as before) only instead of -come to, they sing -go fro; and instead of Welcome John Sanderson, &c., they sing Farewell, John Sanderson, Farewell, Farewell; and so they go out one by one as they came in.  Note, the Woman is kissed by all the Men in the Ring at her coming in and going out, and likewise the Man by all the Women.

The words are almost what I recall.  I think we sang, "I pray you, good master/mistress."  We never did the bit with the chair, and we never collected all the dancers in the center of the ring.

Playford gives a little diagram of four couples in a ring but there is no choreography, just "they dance."  We only danced during the "Prinkum-prankum" parts, as the dance stopped at the declaration, "This dance it may no further go."  I think we just doubled left and right; two full sets.  There's not room to do much else.

I bring this up because spring starts on Saturday, which means it's maypole season again.  This sort of kissing game-dance seems very suitable for an adult maypole.

The Rutgers reconstruction has the advantage of not requiring kissing the entire Company, which can get prickly in the SCA with people having widely varying ideas about appropriate casual personal contact.  On the downside, the dance mistress had to watch carefully and end the dance when it started to become clear that favorites were emerging and certain people were being passed over.  I'm leaning towards doing it the Rutgers way, if only because I saw it done without social disaster occuring.  I'm not so sure how the original Playford version would go.

Caroles in The Decameron

First, how have I not read The Decameron before now?  If you have not read it, go forth and find a copy for as little as a penny.  (Or it will be at your library for free.)  The table of contents handily summarizes each tale, so you can find the naughty ones easily.  (There is an online Decameron, but it has older translations that gloss over some of the most amusing tales.)

Now that the PSA is done... in between the one hundred tales, there is a little bit of prose about the ten tellers.  Not much, really, and on my first lookings-through there's only one of the ten who even qualifies as a character (Dioneo).  But, before and after every batch of stories, the young people sing and dance caroles.  The king or the queen of the day selects one to lead the dance, one or two to play instruments, and one to sing.  All sing choruses.

Brilliant!  The main vocalist does not dance!  Breathing problems solved!

Because someone "leads the dance," I am guessing they are making it up as they go along, or else it's vaguely conga-line like.  Some quick experimentation has shown me you can dance the Tangle Bransle steps (left single x3, right single) to: The Lusty Young Smith, any ballad, Wild Mountain Thyme, The Chandler's Wife. This implies you could dance any four repeating dance steps to possibly most of the SCA traditional song corpus.  You might be able to invent alternating dance steps (e.g., left single x3, right single; left single x3, turn single, repeat all) but you might also run into problems with the ends of verses or choruses; similarly, you may or may not be able to have separate chorus choreography.

Or, in summary: It is dead easy to repeat ad infinitum any four bars of dance steps to a variety of SCA songs.  Anything more complicated will require forethought.  Possibly not much, but some.

New Content

I've added documentation for Yo Me Soy La Morenica and the Storvik Yule songbook to the Original Works page.  They are both PDFs.

Maypole: Finis

Documentation is done. Yay! The blog makes posting HTML pages easy enough, and for most people, that'll be the most convenient way to read them. But they often print out poorly. I could, in theory, create a PDF of the documentation and also post it. But that seems awfully "belt and suspenders" and a waste of storage space besides. Hm. The "print preview" doesn't look too bad (from this browser, on this platform). Ten pages? Really? Sweet.