Harvest Moon 2016

By the light of the silvery moon!

Malagentia, land of the bad people and my home. I am so proud to be one of yours and surrounded by so many talented people. I would make it my mission to amongst you.

Harvest Moon 2016 was the first year Baronial Bard would be re-established since prior to my entry into the SCA in 2010. I decided I would compete in everything I would be eligible for. I arrived on site, early, to see where I could be of service. I also would be as social as possible early on so I could make sure to be social but be a part of everything I could at this small and crammed event. Upon my walk about the site, I had bumped into an individual who i don’t see often, but still try to be polite to. What started as an average conversation quickly turned into a baradement of me for something I apparently had done in the past. I will leave out the gory details (Which I do not believe I did anything wrong) but note that I now felt uneasy. I felt shaken and like I shouldn’t even compete today whether it be in fencing or Bardic.

I wandered over to one of my mentors, Mistress Camille de Jardin (At the time, Dona Camille), and expressed my woes. She, as she often does, with grace, helped to not only provide a Bardic pep talk, but also had convinced me to don my fencing armor and face her in the fencing tournament. This silly and but fun tournament had lifted my spirits. Though the tournament was coming to a close, the heralds had called for those entering the Bardic tournament to come to the Barn. I resigned my spot in the fencing tournament and rushed to the Barn (This is after changing garb, fixing my hair and making myself look like a more presentable viking.

The Barn had a moderate sized crowd (Larger than expected as there were still other tournaments going on). The format was as follows:

The first piece was the performer’s choice. I decided to go with a piece that was well within my repertoire and that I felt confident that I could perform well. It has always been my experience to start off with a bang and start on a strong note so that if your next piece is not as good, you could have something to stand on.

The second piece was a random subject from a hat. We could perform any genre (Song, Story, Poem, Dance) but it had to be from the subject picked and did not have to be memorized. My subject was “Home”. I could think of no better song to perform than my mentor, Mistress Analeda Falconbridge’s, “I am of the North”. It was not perfect, but it was heartfelt and the audience joined me.

As we waited for them to announce the winner, I sat next to friends and the gentleman I had been competing against. There was a child, no older than 6 who decided to get up and perform as well. Between asking that gentleman who competed again me to please continue to teach and perform. Intermittently, I could not help but but be in awe of the bravery of the young lady on stage, performing the heck out of twinkle twinkle little star.

While watching this young lady and waiting for the judges to come back with their decision, It occurred to me that I had been focusing too much on competitions and what judges thought of me. It had been a long performance journey for me since college and feeling validated had been in the forefront of my mind. I watched this child perform for the pure joy of performing and I needed to find this again.

The judges re-convened and I was announced the winner. The win was still one for me to add so I could do more for the Province, but it was at this point I would focus more on the joy than winning.