Mi Contra Fa

Red Mountain Mead Hall report

I LOVE Red Mountain Mead Hall.  It is the loveliest site I think I've ever been to - a log hall with a great stone fireplace in the Virginia mountains, above a running stream.  The event itself is pretty old school - very laid back, a lot of good fellowship, with a schedule that's more of a suggestion than anything else.  And, while I loves me a day jam-packed with classes and demos and activities neatly slotted into place, so everyone gets their thing without stepping on each others' toes, it is very nice to just sit next to a big fire and relax for a day.  It's also been cold (early spring in 2017, late fall in 2018), which is novel for an SCA event with a significant outdoor component.  (Yes, there are others. I haven't been to them.  And it's uncommon.)

Hall-Joys

Therefore there is no man so proud-minded over this earth,
nor so assured in his graces, nor so brave in his youth,
nor so bold in his deeds, nor his lord so gracious to him
that he will never have some anxiety about his sea-voyaging—
about whatever the Lord wishes to do to him.
Neither is his thought with the harp, nor to the ring-taking,
nor to the joys in women, nor in the hopeful expectation in the world,
nor about anything else but the welling of waves—
he ever holds a longing, who strives out upon the streams.

   ----- The Seafarer, lines 39-47, trans. Dr. Aaron Hostetter

If you sat through Brit Lit in high school, you probably read one or more of the Old English "elegiac" poems like The Seafarer, and had to write an essay on the contrast between sea-faring life and life ashore (with bonus points if you could articulate how this is extended to life on Earth vs. in heaven).  And if you've ever come inside from a miserable, cold, raw day outside, you have an idea of what the poet is going on about.

It's another level closer to go from a cold, raw outside to a warm inside that's filled with people, laughter, good food and drink.  And which happens to look not unlike you might imagine a Saxon lord's hall to look.  To experience that was a 'magic moment' for me.

On this Veteran's Day (Observed), I feel compelled to note that a few moments or even hours outside compare in no way to the old seafarer, on his ship for days or weeks, or the modern warfighter, deployed for months.  I'm not claiming that experience. It was just a step up from my previous experience.

Cold-Weather Camping

The cabins are unheated shelters.  I have used tents both times I've gone, because... if I'm going to sleep in the cold, I'd rather have privacy! 

Know Your Gear
I had to put up my tent in the dark for the first time in a couple decades.  It went smoothly, actually, because I've put the tent up many times. (Also, I realized in time that if I set the flex poles down, I would never, ever find them again.  So I inserted each after it was assembled, instead of assembling all three and then inserting them.)

Gear Plus-Ups
Faolan's headlamp looked mighty useful. A tall pole from which to hang the lantern would have helped.  A small, light LED light with a hook (to hang inside the tent) would also be welcome.

Stress-Testing the Sleeping Bag
I used my 4" mat, the ExPed MegaMat.  I didn't use the wool pad that I use when I dress it with sheets and blankets - the mat is insulating, and the pad is mostly to promote circulation.  With a sleeping bag, the bottom layer allowed air to circulate between me and the mat.

The first night, it was supposed to get down to 35 F or thereabouts.  I slept in wool socks, bike shorts, sweat pants, a T-shirt, and an overshirt (which regrettably only had 3/4 length sleeves).  I crawled entirely into the bag (which also kept the lights from the hall out of my face) with my CPAP hose as a snorkel.  I woke up early in the dark of the morning because I was too hot.  I removed the outer shirt and sweat pants and unzipped the side of the bag.  Ah, perfect.

The second night, temperatures were to fall to the low 20s. I downgraded the sweats to thinner exercise pants, but otherwise burrowed in the same.  From the waist-down and ankles-up, I was fine.  Despite shoving some clothes into the bottom of the bag, my feet were chilly (but not so cold I couldn't sleep).  The drafts coming in from the top of the bag, though - those made my bare lower arms uncomfortably cool.  I alternately tried to pull other blankets into the opening to plug it up, or toss them over the opening to cover it.  At one point, I used a light piece of wool as a sort of wrap in the bag.  These techniques worked well enough, and I slept okay.  Definitely did not unzip the bag!

Extra Blankets
I brought the wool pad, my plaid wool blanket, the furry blanket, and the aforementioned light wool wrap.  I ended up only really needing the wrap, although the furry blanket was nice to snuggle with in the hall.  Also, I used it as a cloak going from the hall to my tent, and WOW I felt no cold except through the soles of my turnshoes.  That fake fur is super warm!

I am now confident enough in the sleeping bag's capabilities that, next time, I may bring it as the back-up and try to sleep under blankets.

Extra Garb
I was only in garb for a few hours Friday night, so I just wore the same outfit again on Saturday.  I didn't need the other outfit I had brought, BUT.  It would have been easy for me to have slipped in the mud or frosty leaves, dumped water on myself, or had some kind of mishap that would have left me dirty and/or wet and cold.  So I think having the extra outfit was a good idea.

Handicrafts

I spent a lot of time on Saturday working on the fur-lined hood UFO (UnFinished Object). (It was so cold that I did not feel comfortable bringing a harp. Should have brought a whistle, though.) It's scraps left over from the furry blanket sewn onto a thrift store wool scarf.  Faolan pointed out, correctly, that I would have been better off sewing the scraps into a rectangle, and then sewing the rectangle into the scarf. (I was sewing each scrap in separately, which resulted in some weird wrinkles and empty patches.) 

I left it as a cap with long tails.  I have another scarf I can use to make it more hood-like - I will experiment with pinning things together and see how it looks.

Another nice thing about Red Mountain is that it gives me an opportunity to wear warm garb like this!

Bardic!

Always a bit touchy, feeling out a group's unspoken policy on bardic performance.  Friday night, the vibe was "let's sit around the fire and talk."  Saturday, after the feasting was done but before the plate-clearing had happened, a lady got up to sing.  Faolan and I looked at each other when she was done - was it an open floor?  Or were we still in "feast" territory, where you don't generally want to put too many performances right after one another?

Within a few moments, an Isenfiri gentleman got up to tell a story, and then he formally opened the floor to performance.  Faolan and I each did one piece until we saw others taking seconds.  I did the first five minutes of Brynhild's Tale (from disobeying Odin to Sigurth leaves her hall).  On an inspired whim, I changed the opening sentence, much to the better.  I had been doing "Brynhild was a valkyrie, handmaiden of Odin, chooser of the slain."  It is now, "She stands before Odin, defiant."  Much better hook - who is she? Why is she defiant?  What's Odin going to do to her?  Also has the benefit of cutting about 30 seconds of exposition.

There was vocal disappointment when I cliffhangered.  The second round of performances went much more quickly - not as many people took seconds - and someone asked if I intended to finish the tale that night, or if I would make them wait until next year.  I did the rest of the thing, all 15 min or so of it, in a go.  I paused at each break point to check that this was their wish, and it was.  I made some efforts to be more effective with my gaze-catching and audience interaction, but I think I moved around too much.  I need to work on being still, and moving only for effect, rather than having motion be a default.  Pacing is distracting.

It went over very well.  I got more comments that I have in a while.  (Doubly gratifying - I'd opened with "Hild (The War That Does Not End)", which was the audience favorite at Pennsic. This time, they all liked the piece I'd actually worked on, so yay.)  I think I will write them down elsewhere, so this post doesn't feel too self-congratulatory, but one thing is worth noting as a performance evaluation.  One lady, as I finished the tale, looked... shocked? Displeased?  Unsettled?  I caught her eye, and she said, "That's it? That's how it ends?  That is not okay!"  She wasn't angry, I don't think, just sort of disbelieving.  I think the problem is in part the nature of the tale, but my ending is also pretty abrupt and the closing words are not very strong.  It needs some kind of closure, I think, for the audience.

It could also be the 'problematic' nature of the piece.  The third act violence is kicked off when Brynhild tells her husband that Sigurth slept with her by deceit, prior to their marriage.  This is a lie.  But her husband believes her. 

In August 2018, at Pennsic, this was just the typical sort of thing you see in a medieval story.  In November 2018, after the Kavanaugh hearings, it's, ah, fraught.  "Women are lying liars who shouldn't be believed!" is NOT supposed to be the moral of the story.  If I had to assign an Aesop-like moral to it, it would be "Don't make promises you can't keep," or "Pursuit of honor is pursuit of death" or something more aligned with a critique of the morals of the warrior-culture that birthed the tale.

My version ends with Brynhild stabbing herself, asking her maidens to die with her, telling her husband that she lied, and then pledging to be with Sigurth in the afterlife before dying.  The "she was lying" thing gets dropped like a bomb just before the end, and that is probably not the best way to frame the end of the piece.  I will have to work on it.

 

 

Embroidering a Pearl with pearls

My Pelican, Meisterin Johanna von Sudeborn, was made a Companion of the Pearl at Storvik Novice Tournament yesterday, for her excellence in researching clothing across the SCA's period, and for her skill in teaching others the art of tailoring.  Lord Richard Wyn provided the medallion, so I wanted to make something else to give to her in honor of the occasion. 

That's the order badge, embroidered in wool I spun myself on my hand spindles.  The white is Wensleydale; the brown in Romney, a gift from Lady Sabina who attends our SENEA meetings; the blue is indigo-dyed Leicester Longwool from Colonial Williamsburg. (They did the dyeing, not me.)  It's all stem stitch with woolen singles.

The pearls are real, although freshwater.  The final product actually had eight more, in between the ones shown. Each pearl is secured to the linen ground with white silk floss.  For every one:

• Three stitches secure the thread. They represent what brings us to the start of a project: Inspiration, Imagination, and Preparation.
• The silk thread passes through the pearl bead three times.  Each one of these represents the qualities of an Atlantian Pearl: Excellence in Art, Excellence in Scholarship, and Generosity of Knowledge.
• Three more stitches then secure the bead.  These are the things that ground us and keep us moving forward: Diligence, Persistence, and Passion.

Inspired by the Maaseik and Oseberg embroideries.

Red Mountain Mead Hall and Night on the Town

Two events in two weeks! It's like some sort of record.

Red Mountain Mead Hall

This is a charming, laid-back event at a gorgeous 4-H camp in Isenfir.  The main hall had a large fireplace and a really rustic log-cabin look to it - really felt like a mead-hall. I took classes on Birka posaments and sprang, did my "Beowulf" performance as requested, and enjoyed a quite delicious feast. 

I tent camped, and there was frost on the ground both mornings.  Lessons learned: my old blue puffy sleeping bag is still hella warm.  Next time I put up the pyramid tent, try not putting the stakes in all the way.  Get the pole up, and then get the stakes down.  It was just unreasonably hard to get the pole up.  The only thing I can think that I did differently from when I first got the tent is that I drove the stakes all in.  (I remember I did not when I first used the tent, because I caught my gown on one of them and tore a hole in it.)

Night on the Town

I don't know if I've been to this local Lochmere event before.  Since I've been rationing my events (e.g., since kids), a mostly-fencing event doesn't usually rise to the level of me spending one of my 'chits' on it. Having just spent a full Fri-Sun in Isenfir, I didn't think I'd be able to make this one. But the weather was lovely and my husband was okay with it, so off I went.

Good Garb: I wore my oldest still-fitting violet tunic under my 7th cen. caftan, with appropriate jewelry and headgear. And you know what? I rocked it.  More and more these days, I am looking in the mirror and seeing things that fit well and look right, instead of seeing a to-do list of things to improve.  And at the event, a lady actually recognized what I was wearing down to the era, because she was interested in making the same sort of garb.  Yay more Anglo-Saxons!

Bardic: Lazy afternoon hanging with the bards.  Got some tips from Lord Wyn that might help my strained throat.  Warm up with humming, then open-mouth humming, then la-la-las.  Keep throat relaxed when singing.  I tried it and I think it helped.  I told "Thrymskvitha" here and at Red Mead Hall, and it went really well both times.  Comedy!

Spinning: I entered my spinning into the Novice A&S competition, since I've been doing it just since last year's Sheep and Wool.  And I won!  Woot.

 

 

Fall University 2016

Class notes!  A Guided Tour of Medieval and Renaissance Music and the new Early Period Music Theory.

The Guided Tour went all right. I think I had two students new to the SCA and two who were not.  My "shotgun all the music" approach was... not engaging.  I should have cut the songlist in half and encouraged more reflection and talking.  Was it really that important to have troubador and trouvere?  All three pieces of chant?  And so on.

Early Period Music Theory was better. Large class - 12 or so? - and mostly engaged.  The feedback was that the class was good, useful and helpful; that musical examples of the modes would have been good; and that the class should properly be 2-4 hours long.

I realized I'm teaching classes way too fast. I'm worried about running out of material, and there's this sense of "I have to tell them ALL THE THINGS because there will never be another chance!" So I cram and cram and cram stuff in.  If you're familiar with the topic, it's actually probably a good pace.  But for someone coming to it for the first time, it's a firehose.

So the first half the Early Period Music Theory should be its own class: The Gamut.  The modes can be a class, padded out with listening examples.  Mistress Arianna did an entire class on organum, whilst I tried to cram it all onto one page. She had musical examples, too.  There could be a whole class using Guido's Instamatic Melody Generator on various texts and seeing what we get.

I bought a webcam a while ago to make some YouTube videos.  Seems like I should actually do that at some point...

Pennsic XLV: Camping report

My camp

I camped by myself this year, as an experiment.

Set-Up/Tear Down

This took longer than I think it should have, partly because I'm still learning to set up the tent, but mostly because of the ridiculous heat and humidity. I had to take a lot of breaks.  5-6 hours to set everything up, 3-4 to tear it down.

Tent

Tent was awesome, with plenty of room to store all my gear - even the folded-up EZ-Up I ended up not using.  And really, almost ALL - the first time it rained, I dragged everything inside except the table and the 0g chair.  We had reasonable rain - no crazy storms, but not just drizzle, either - and everything was dry.  I did cut a tarp to fit as a ground cloth - so the brown one is the one to use from here on out.

Stake tent corners, then up center pole, THEN stake sides. 

Oriental rug (4x6?) + double IKEA run (3x4) covered most of the floor. An old bathmat at the foot of the cot gave me a place to put the cast iron where I wouldn't have to worry about rust stains on the canvas.

Day Shade

The 9x12 painter's tarp worked nicely for a day shade. (Note to self: Do not face front of tent towards the south.)  I tied it to the tent and to some old poles, staked them down, and boom.  A few days in, it seemed saggy, so I took a fourth pole, put a mess kit pot on it to soften the point, and used it to push up the roof a little.  It would have helped if I could have run my guy lines out at wider angles, but that would've been in someone else's space.  It seemed to keep things 'dry enough.'  I wouldn't do calligraphy under it, or leave an important book out, but I could step out of my tent and make coffee without getting soaked, which was the goal.

I used a large linen tablecloth at one point, clothespinned on, to help block out more sun.

Sump

Digging through the matted roots in Pennsylvania clay with a hand trowel was hard.  I got a blister (wear gloves!).  But once through that, the clay was just powder I scraped and scraped until it was big enough.  I didn't measure the hole, but I'd say 6" x 6" x 6-8" deep, maybe? It seemed to hold around a quart and met my wastewater needs.

Food and Drink

I have to sort of throw my hands in the air.  I ate some of what I brought, but didn't touch a lot of it. I planned a lot of chicken stew - which it was too hot for me to want to eat.  I ate a lot of cold salami and cheese, though.  Bob's Red Mill mueseli with milk and fruit and hazelnuts made good breakfasts - and on the one morning that it was cold, I could heat it up on the stove.

One gallon/day for washing seemed about right, but +1 gallon for every load of laundry.  4-6 bottles of water/day, I'd say.  The trick is that when I'm out of camp, I'll drink what I bring with me (usually two bottles) but then I'll have to buy or cadge water until I'm back in camp.  I had to buy Gatorade powder at the Cooper Store - I was really feeling the need for it, but hadn't brought any of my own.

Making a fire with just me never quite seemed worth it, especially in the mornings. Last year's bread-making worked because I had committed to doing nothing all War.  This year, I had morning commitments at 11am or earlier all week, and I didn't want to stress/rush through bread-making, fire putting-outing, clean up, and get to commitment.

New favorite thing: Make coffee, drink coffee.  Make coffee again, pour coffee into Goat Story horn.  Let coffee cool on ground while finish getting ready for the day. Put coffee in cooler.  When I get back to camp in the afternoon - iced coffee, ready to drink!

The bigger cooler was not as labor-saving as I'd hoped.  I started off with a 10-lb block, and I needed more the next day - got a 7lb bag of cubes because it was easy to carry.  The next day, I got 2 10-lb blocks, and those lasted that day and the next - but it took a few days to get the cooler full enough of melt water to have the thermal mass to fend off the heat.  With as much as I was out of camp anyway, I probably could have just used the small cooler and gotten ice daily.  Would have saved space in the car.

Sanitation

Pitcher + bowl worked great, actually.  I washed down with soap and water on Day 1, but ended up with a sticky soap residue all over on Day 2, even after 'rinsing' repeatedly with my 'rinse' washcloth.  (I used one with soap to wash, and one with water to rinse.)  After that, I washed my hands with soap, but the rest of me just got scrubbed with a wet washcloth. I felt clean (and the one day I skipped this - Wednesday night, before I left - I was itchy the next day, which I attribute to not having washed).  My hair didn't look nearly as bad as I'd feared.  I wet it down every day, too, and it ended up looking like I hadn't washed it for a day. Considering that I hadn't washed it for five days, that's not bad!  And it was usually under a coif, veil or hat.

My sister clued me in to the absorbing bags they sell for Luggable Loo.  Somewhat more private than dragging the thing to the privy to empty it, but they do have a kinda weird smell.  (The lid keeps the smell in, so it doesn't fill the tent, but it hits you when you use it.)  You can also buy those blue deodorizing pellets to help with that, but... trying to buy less gear, here.  I'm waffling on which approach I prefer.

The 'kitchen sink' we bought a few years ago finally got used. It's two folding plastic cubes, one for hot water (wash) and one for cold (rinse).  I'd put hot water and a few drops of dish soap into one, wash the dishes, put them in the other, and pour water from the pitcher on them individually to rinse.  Given that it was just me and not an entire Scout troop, this seemed to make sense.

True to the hype, my linen gowns could absolutely be reworn after an airing, even after pretty hot and sweaty days.  I did a load of laundry part-way through, just socks and bras (which I was short on).  I had enough underwear and bike shorts to get through without laundry.  I had four linen gowns and wore them all, generally on their own. At night, I wore both my red Frankish gown and a wool cloak at different times.  I wore my leather hood one cool night.  Two days, I schlepped around in linen pants and cotton shirts.

Health

Even with bike shorts all the time, I still ended up with some heat rash.  Not too bad though - I kept it powdered and it didn't hurt so much I couldn't walk.

Toe scrape on an iron tent stake - kept it washed (with soap) and bandaged (Band Aid with antibiotic ointment already in the pad) and it didn't infect.

CPAP battery got charged to full each day, even when it started to get cloudy.  The solar panel and battery (in its nylon case) even got rained on one day, and they were fine.

Furnishings

Cot + camp mat = perfect.  Maybe I could do without the camp mat, but it's just awesome with it.  Being higher makes the tent seem smaller (have to move in from the edge to cope with slanted wall) but then I get storage space underneath, which I totally used.

Folding side table = adequate. Even with the elastics at the corners, the top surface doesn't stay flat.  But it can hold jewelry, books, etc.  Just not anything that has to stay level.

Folding stool = useful.  Sometimes seating, sometimes a stand for the CPAP.

0g chair = not used enough to justify. Last year, when my highest goal was to see how long I could do nothing, this chair was the bomb.  This year, I didn't kick back and chill in it hardly at all.  A regular folding camp chair would have been good enough, and would have packed way smaller.

Table = somewhat small.  I could generally to any two out of three: cook, food prep, clean up.  Not sure the additional convenience of not having to juggle would be worth the additional gear. Also, the day shade probably would not have fit another table.

Food trunk = too heavy. Picturesque, but oy.  Tough to shift around.

Accessories chest = just right.

Clothes Rubbermaid = ugly but useful. Garb guaranteed dry (I Kondo'ed my gowns, rolling them and standing them up, and I could see my wardrobe at a glance) and I put the pitcher and bowl on top when I did my evening wash-up.  Maybe I could paint it or, at a minimum, throw a cloth over it.

Pennsic XLV: Bardic report

It was a good War for bardic for me.  I want to remember what happened, when, and what I learned, so I am writing it down.  I'm not going to brag, but I am going to note what I accomplished.

Saturday: I taught my 'Developing Historically-Informed Performance' class. It was reasonably well-attended (10-12 people?) and the students were engaged. Two people (including Master Efenwealt) told me they'll be stealing the class notes to teach students of their own.  Sweet!

Saturday night may have been the night Lord Richard Wyn requested 'To Put the Devil Into Hell.'  That would be the first time someone has asked me to do one of my period pieces, I think. Yay!

I stopped in to visit Mistress Dervila, who unfortunately and unfairly broke her ankle at War.  Her husband Thomas Drum-Maker and Baron Talorgen were there as well, and we had a bit of a mini-bardic for a while.  Along the way, I mentioned the Irish saint and the otter story I wanted to put together, but was having a hard time getting to gel.  She asked when the last time I read the source material was; I guessed a few months. She said that was about the right amount of time to get some distance from it, so I could re-imagine it as the story I wanted to tell.  What was the point?  I protested that figuring out the point was my problem, but after a few days of ruminating on it (with 'permission,' as it were, to deviate from the source), I feel like I'm making progress. So it was really very good and helpful advice.

Sunday: I did 'Beowulf challenged by the coast guard' for the Atlantian Royal Bardic circle. I used my lyre (not the harp, which I've practiced with more), and the sleeve of my red cote kept buzzing against one of the strings (which at least two people noticed).  Anyhoo.  Master Rhuaidhri suggested that, although many people at this circle got the reference and where this was from, and that it was really cool, I might want to go with a more visceral battle scene to grab the attention of the non-English majors in the crowd.  We spoke more on Tuesday, and he had very good advice on appealing to the kinesthetic learners in the crowd.  I respond well to images (I am hugely visually oriented) and also sounds, so that's where I tend to go.  But there are people for whom images are just a big pile of 'meh,' and they need to hear how things feel in the body.  "Show, don't tell," in other words, but a much more targeted take on it.

A lady performed a song she later told me was for the Gulf Wars War Bard competition.  Not being a fighter but rather a waterbearer, she wrote a piece from the point of view of a female camp follower, a medic.  She sang it as a fight song - fighting to save soldiers' lives - with as much passion and determination as any war song might have.  I got shivers.  We get some songs about service and kind deeds, but not generally ones that make it so outright heroic.  I hurried over afterwards to let her know how much I liked the song, and gave her the pin suite I was wearing.  Alas, kinda useless if you're not wearing 7th century Kentish, but I was out of other tokens in my bag.

I also took Magistra Fiona of Clare's class 'Introduction to Old English.'  Excellent class - not only did she hit the expected notes of how to pronounce which letters and such, but she explained some of the tricks you need to navigate the glossaries.  That's gold, right there.  I did not get to attend her poetry class, but I mean to email her to ask for the handout.

Monday: Southwind bardic was this night.I read "The Saga of Fishflinger" early, cold out of my book, for the heck of it.  It got some laughs, but I got reminded why I shouldn't perform things I haven't practiced. I'm good, but I'm not that good.  The performance was adequate but not really skilled.  As the evening went on, the atmosphere got a little downbeat. There were many quite excellent performances of new material people had composed, but there was nothing for the audience to do.  So, after checking that this would please my host and Pelican, I did 'The Rattlin' Bog.'  On Tuesday, I learned that this effort had garnered me a nomination for sainthood. XD  The past two nights of bardic brought me to a new theory of Pennsic bardic:

The Internet and associated technologies have made it easier than ever for bards to write and share new material.  Bards who have written their own material, or learned interesting new material, are generally justifiably proud of this work, and they want to display/perform it.  Add to this a large bardic circle, where you may only get one or two chances to perform, at the largest event in the Known World, with many Notable People in attendance.  You will, naturally, reach for these pieces you've worked so hard on that you want to share.  And there is nothing wrong with that.

However, if you're one of the audience members who wants nothing more than to shout "MacIntyre!" at odd intervals, this is not going to be very entertaining.  More on this under Wednesday.

Monday was also Poetry Day in Artisan's Row.  I stopped by and chatted for a bit with Lady Katarzyna Witkowska (who was organizing it), Master Cerian Cantwr, and Master Olivier de Bayonne. It was good to finally put a face to Master Olivier's name.  The Known World Poetry Competition was canceled on account of mine being the only entry, but we sat and chatted for a while.  Lady Katarzyna requested a poem from those departing; Master Cerian warned us of the dangerous Polar Cow.  I recited 'I Drank of Mnemosyne,' which I had printed out from the replacement for Mystic Mail, so that I could perform it at the Depressing Song Competition.  Master Olivier gifted me a token, which greatly lifted my spirit.  The pieces I write for competitions frequently don't turn out so well (because they're written to spec rather than from the heart) so it was heartening that this one was well-received.

Tuesday: I ran through 'Mnemosyne' in my camp a few times, trying to see if I could get the music out well enough.  It didn't settle down to a single tune,  but it seemed to have a pretty solid musical idea that I was improvising on fairly well.  I waffled on whether or not to go ahead with it, but - I'm the one who wants to go toward improvisational music and even poetry composed on the instant.  Let's see how it goes!

 So I took the Pennsic Main Stage for the second time (I thought it was the first time, but no - I did my 'Beowulf' for the KW Harp Celebration last year) and improvised away. I had the lyrics in my hand, but only needed to consult them occasionally.  There were one, maybe two phrases where the music didn't land as solidly as I would have liked, but overall - I felt like it went very well.  I think I emoted and gestured without overdoing - easier on such a downer piece than the peppy ones, where I can get spastic pretty quickly.  I thought I saw at least one person wiping away tears.  A friend was in the audience, and afterwards, he asked if that was "Alzheimer's, but for the SCA."  So that aspect of it is getting through.  I made 4th place (in a field of eight or nine entrants)!  But even more squee-inducing - the 3rd place winner was a lady from far Lochac with a stupendous voice and fantastic presence.  She accepted the accolade, but couldn't take her actual physical prize on her return journey - so she turned and  gave it to me.  So very sweet of her.

Snake and coffin

 

I also learned an important lesson in discernment at the Windmaster's Bardic and Peep Sacrifice. 

Wednesday: Children's Fete. Two and a half hours of performing in a huge noisy barn. Master Rhuaidhri and Mistress Fevronia undoubtedly carried the afternoon with their amazing projection skills.  I think I managed some volume and managed to not destroy my voice. I really need to get some classes for improving projection and volume.

Wednesday was also the Bardic Symposium session where I was a panelist: Authenticity.  The two-hour discussion seemed to come down to Don't Be A Jerk, Stop Jerks from Jerking, and Lead By Example.  'Don't Be a Jerk' covers any and all performers who poop all over other people's performances - for being too period or too not-period - to make themselves feel better.  'Stop Jerks' encouraged bystanders who might be witnessing the Jerk in the process of pooping to step up and intervene.  And 'Lead By Example' meant that, whatever your feelings on performance and authenticity, you should do the thing you want to see done and do it so well it looks cool.

There was a second strain that ran through the conversation.  At first blush, it was the old 'fun vs. authenticity' problem, but Lady Lorelei of Skye clarified it. In addition to bardic being an art that we can re-create in a historical fashion, it is also a social function.  Like at the Southwind bardic, the general non-performing public wants certain things from bardic circles. If we stop providing them, we risk marginalizing the bardic community.  On the other hand, we are an educational organization, and as artists with an interest in historical performance, we want to do those things, too.  There was much talk of 'proper performances in their proper places,' implying that 'fun' and 'authenticity' have to stay in their separate boxes.

Nothing wrong with focused bardics.  But I think I'd like to see general bardics with better balance.  Old standards plus new art. The thing there is, this isn't like putting together an album or even a playlist for a singalong, where one person engineers the tempo of fast/slow, fun/serious performances.  You've got a mixed group of performers. If the circle is big and the performances are long, you get everyone pulling out their Most Impressive Piece, which will generally tilt the thing toward the serious and slow, and away from the Old Chestnut Standards.  Keeping it smaller and faster-moving, and you'll have more room for variety.

Thursday: The humidity was making the heat just unbearable, and I left War early. I had to cancel the Lyre Roundtable, which I regretted, but I was feeling pretty miserable.  In the car, I thought some more about St. Kevin and the Otter (currently entertaining a version of Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, or else a parable on the hazards of self-denial).  I was also struck with the thought to write a song about the frankly amazing ability the fighters (of all kinds) have to tolerate said evil heat and humidity.  I got a draft refrain figured out somewhere on I-79.

I'm icky and I'm sticky, I'm sweaty and I'm hot
The dew point's up to eighty and my energy is shot
Wearing armor in this weather is really no mean feat
Fighters, can you tell me, how have you beat this heat?

 

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

So it's been pretty quiet around here!  Two reasons for that: one, I was working on research for Sword, Stitch and Song (formerly Revenge of the Stitch, formerly Garb Wars). Two, after SwStSo, I went on a two-week business trip to Sweden and England.

I'll be posting both of my Garb Wars-related documents soon, I think.  And I got shiny, shiny loot in Sweden that I want to showcase when I have some pictures of it.  But this post is about pilgrimage.

I managed to make three non-business-related stops in Stockholm: to the Swedish History Museum (blurry pictures), to Aifur (I wore garb and yes, there  are pictures), and to the island of Birka (also many pictures).  I made a stop at the V&A in London, which I'd never visited before and was super cool, but it wasn't as personally significant as the Swedish History Museum or Birka. 

Part of the allure of pilgrimage - aside from Chaucer's cheeky assertion that it's just an excuse to travel - is making a personal connection with something transcendent.  It's experiential, rather than knowledge-based.  I know that there are spindle whorls and card-weaving tablets extant.  I've seen pictures in books.  I've seen charts of the patterns of the gold brocades found in the Birka graves.

None of that is the same, for some reason, as standing in front of a particular spindle whorl and wondering who used it.  What was she like? Was she kind or cruel, bitter or sweet, young or old?  What did she make from the thread she spun, and who wore it?

There it is, there's the gold brocade from Birka Grave 824!  I'd leaned on Grave 824 in my SwStSo documentation, and - there was a real thing from it!  Over a thousand years old, and I could see the patterns left by the tie-downs on the golden threads.  It was delicate and beautiful and more real than when it was just a thing I knew about.  Now I knew it.  And again I wonder - who wore this?  Did its beauty and richness gladden her heart in the cold of winter?  Or did she - like most of us - grow accustomed to the blessings in her life, and it ceased to bring joy after a while?  It stops being a fact, and idea and becomes real, an artifact, a thing

At Birka, my imagination wasn't caught by the grave mounds, rising under our feet, nor the distant valley where the 'Black Earth' held the remains of the trading center.  It was the small, flat area where postholes indicate a longhouse stood.  I walked over it - pacing it, 55' or 60' long, perhaps half as wide - and wondered.  A garrison of elite warriors, possible returned  Varangian Guards, had lived here, defending Birka.  I've rented tents bigger than this, but it would have been palatial in its time.  They lived, and fought, and possibly died - the last layer of remains show an intense fire and arrowheads shot into the wood - right here.  Right where I'm walking.

This is why some people go to Civil War battlefields, and other visit the graves of loved ones, and still others travel to Jerusalem or Canterbury.  The sense of connection.

 

 

KASF 2016 Report

There is just never enough time to see all the things!  It is always so inspiring and humbling to see the beautiful things the artisans of Atlantia can do.  His Majesty even admitted that they may have convinced 'this old stick jock' to take up some art as well.  

Performing Arts Demo

Lady Sophia the Orange arranged a PA demo to highlight all the various kinds of performance that happen in Atlantia.  I had been signed up for poetry (Beowulf + an original piece).  I whittled and trimmed my intro stuff to get down into my ten-minute slot.

Minutes before I was to go on, Lady Sophia quietly asked me if, perhaps, I might have something in the 'voice and instrument' category, as her performer for that had needed to cancel.  O.o   But the show must go on!  I dug 'Yo Me Soy la Morenica' out of memory, figured out where the notes were again, and led with that.  Considering that I have not practiced it in years, it came out okay!  (Objectively speaking, it was uneven and my accompaniment blew chunks, but I can't be too hard on myself as I had literally just minutes to practice it.)

Beowulf went well. So, so well.  The audience even laughed at my little ending ("...the distinguished one delivered this response... And we will have to hear Beowulf's reply at another time, perhaps after I have been given a drink!")  Feedback from the Penathalon judges in the audience was mostly on my vocal control, breathing and projection, and that was totally fair and dead-on.  I really feel like in the past year or two, I've finally discovered how to use my singing muscles correctly - but it takes conscious effort, and I hadn't been doing it for that performance.

And that was it, out of time!  So 'To Put the Devil into Hell' went unperformed, which considering that I think there were children in the audience, was probably just as well.

Persona Pentathalon

Beowulf - By far the best scores, as it should have been. It was  by far the best piece among my display.  Aside from the breath control, a third judge said that if I'd only included some work in Old English, she'd have awarded me all 10s.  I'd come to a similar conclusion in my documentation (which I will post later) - I need to understand how the Sievers types actually work in the original context before I can judge how to set them to music in translation.

Banner - Not too shabby!  The major objections seemed to focus on the high/low contrasts of humble linen and gold and silk.  The Maaseik embroideries were on a linen ground, but they also covered the linen ground, and I had exposed fabric.  So, legit.  One of the judges gave me contact information - she has resources for Carolingian goldwork she can share, and I want to take her up on that.

Will - I think two out of the three judges were far too generous on the quality of this one. It wasn't bad, but I don't think it was anywhere close to journeyman work.  Advanced beginner, maybe.

Seal - I got some very good advice from one of the judges.  He had some critiques on my docs - too many examples not directly related to my item.  Friday night, I'd even said to myself, "That should probably be an appendix," but I elected to sleep instead.  So, he was right on.  Also, good advice for future casting endeavors.

Quills - I had to laugh - one judge gave me a complexity score of 2, with a note hastening to add that this wasn't a reflection on me, it was just that quills aren't very complex items.  Totally true, and I appreciated the thoughtfulness of that little note.

Overall Reflections - Considering that I waited until a month before KASF to start, and that I did not want to stress myself out over it, I'm pretty happy with the results.  My display was much better this time, although I am questioning my decision to put my documentation in a folder rather than on the table with each item.  If I want to be 'in it to win it', I need to start much earlier and select categories that play to my strengths.  (Such as, do two performances.)

Speaking of performances - my Beowulf ended up being not in Category 5, Performance, but Category 7, Miscellaneous!  It turns out that the new judging forms just didn't fit it.  Vocal Song looked for elaborate melody - I didn't have that.  Instrumental Performance looked for complex tune - I didn't have that. Dramatic Performance assumed an ensemble, with costumes and props. Nope. Poetry was for original compositions - no.  I expect Storytelling would have assumed a complete story, rather than an excerpt.  Mistress Jessamyn was very sympathetic to my dilemma and suggested the Cat 7 solution.  

Battle on the Bay Report

From an A&S perspective:

• Only bardic was telling Thrymskvitha for the children.  I was so wiped, I went to bed immediately after feast, no bardic circle at all.  
• What I thought was the "Works in Progress" display ended up being the "Works in Progress" competition.  Oh!  Glad I brought documentation, then.  It was populace's choice, and my Overhogdal weaving actually came in second place.  They gave me a lovely Viking wire-weaving necklace as a prize.  It's really pretty.

Trial by Fire Event Report

First event ever with both kids! And we camped!

Kid Lessons

• Bring more toys
• Plan some activities
• Forget about feast if the kids aren't going to eat it. Family dinner.
• 5-gal bucket makes an acceptable nighttime potty
• Soak the marshmallow sticks in water for an hour before roasting
• Consider cots for both so the one doesn't end up curled in a ball in the downhill corner of the tent
• Make sure the electric lantern has a nightlight setting; if it doesn't, get one that does
• Flashlights for everyone

New Canvas Tent Lessons

• Use rugs or something to protect floor
• Canvas doors do not keep bugs out
• Elder Son can get positively frantic about bugs.  He handled several bug-related incidents well, but I was very worried he'd wake up in the night and see a 1/2" long black beetle crawling on the tent wall by the light of the nightlight, and just scream bloody murder.
• The hanger that friction-fits onto the center pole is the best thing
• Fold in quarters, not thirds, and roll over it to squish out air before rolling it up
• Hammer in tent pegs well, as they really seem to like to trip people and rip garb
• Get a rope loop for mallet to pull pegs; also consider small sledgehammer instead of plastic one
• Family of four plus canvas tent plus other comfort gear (e.g. chairs) does not fit in our car. 

I am going back and forth on whether or not we want to use the canvas tent at the next event.  On the one hand, it was very cool and comfortable to be in, and I like it a lot.  We are going to take two cars (in addition to kids and regular gear, there will be donations for the Storvik Yard Sale - it will not fit in one car), so we should have the space for it.  Still the bug thing though.  The desire to instill what they are calling "grit" in the kid by not making his path overly smooth wars with not wanting him to go into a phobic fit if something crawls onto his face.

Bardic

At Pennsic, Meisterin Johanna had made a remark to the effect that I seemed to perform a lot of stuff that's tonally the same.  I grant that I do my humorous period stuff a lot, because I'm trying to sell people on period stuff, but I do have other pieces.  So I did "Matty Groves" and "Yo me soy la morenica" in addition to "To Put the Devil into Hell."

Post-Event Kit Maintenance

I patched the hole the tent peg tore in my gown with a bit of linen and lots of thread.  I did satin stitches over the raw edges of the tear.  I also sewed up the shoulder where the seam was coming undone.

Also put the chape on my protege belt!  Been pretty productive for a fairly exhausting day.