Another bardic another safe place. Not much to report on this one besides we had 5 completely new folks to Bardic/The SCA. People who I have never seen before got up and performed. I did learn that although my circle is a safe place, I do need to mention that politics have no place in my circles even though they are mutually followed and agreed upon.
Also, I think I may need to find a safe and kind way to tell folks that their piece may not be appropriate in general, even with trigger warnings etc….
This year Palio was very small compared to previous years. However, considering it was up against fencing champs and another full war event, we still had a decent sized crowd. It was bitterly cold and rainy at night, but that didn’t take away from the run.
I ran the fencing tournament that day, but I was also in charge of the Golden Tongue Bardic competition. This is very near and dear to my heart because it gives folks who were newer performers a chance to shine. The rules are that you can never have won a bardic competition. We had 4 folks competing this year ranging from age 10 to a bit older (We never speak of a ladies age!) These folks do not proclaim themselves Bards. They have had rough experiences and similar to me, had sworn they would never perform again.
They said that -I- inspired them to give it a chance again. I was speechless. I just want folks to have a safe performance space.
When all was done, I chose, not the best or worst performer, I chose someone who moved me. I gifted them the prize and asked them to make me a promise that they would work on their story and tell it to me again sometime within the year.
This year was different. I just couldn’t get out of my own way. 2 years of virtual performance just aren’t the same. I hadn’t been focusing on my music as much as I should have and the passion for competition didn’t light the flame underneath me. This was the first year I just didn’t feel like competing, but I knew it was good for me. So, I continued on. I had originally picked my repertoire, believing that this year would be like the last 5 where I would have to do 1 piece that was SCA appropriate, 1 piece that was period and the final round would be the crowns whim.
It was announced 6 weeks prior to crown bardic that there would be a theme. “War”. War was not really something that was comfortably in my repertoire. Sure, I like to make people sad like anyone else, but the war in the Ukraine had really put a damper on my soul. I needed to rework my plans for competition this year.
My head had tossed and turned about my first round piece. I wanted to tell a story. Folks don’t really know me for my story telling skills. They mostly know me as a singer. I had originally thought about telling the story of beginning the great unification of Japan. Our King, Ryou, based his persona off of Oda Nobunaga, who was one of the 3 unifiers of Japan. I thought that may be really neat. However, my addled brain just couldn’t bear to add new repertoire to it. Also, finding the right way to keep Oda Nobunaga in a positive light was evading me. So, I chose to tell a humorous tale. It wasn’t period, but it was SCA appropriate. I told the story of “How I caught the red dragon”. It was a strong way to start/finish round 1 and vastly different than anything my other competitors would be doing.
I chose for round 2 to do a completely persona accurate piece. I found a landsknecht piece called “Unser Liebe fraue”. My persona is a Trossfrau who would have traveled with the soldiers as they marched off to mercenary jobs.
The final round would be up to the crown.
The weeks passed and every day I asked my husband if I should still compete. It would put a damper on our house remodeling and also would limit my ability to care for our son at events. Every day he encouraged me to continue on. So, I did.
The bardic community is tight here in the East. We are all friends and there is no ill will towards anyone. We spoke often and I would see who would be joining me at Roses. The numbers were low. It was tough hearing the numbers that low. Daily they ranged from 3-7. Would it feel awful if I didn’t win? Would I feel awful if I did win? Did I deserve it? It’s so many feelings rushing through.
Day of came.
I had my community behind me. Again, nothing seemed like it was as it should be. I donned my German, which was my armor and off I went. My husband was trying to MIT for archery so I went alone.
I saw familiar faces. We hugged. We chatted. I found a new face. I welcomed her as I had never even met her before. She was one of us today. I don’t care what her skill level is. She would be one of us.
The day started with Anne de Basillion heralding us in. It was so cool to feel special. To feel like our championship, though small as it was, mattered.
Round 1 went off with out a hitch. A minor hiccup, but nothing I would call a mistake. I was pleased with my story. It’s not for everyone, but I made folks smile.
Round 2… thats another story. I had forgotten half of the words. I didn’t stop. I made them up as I went. This was a skill I picked up in college. Fake it till you make it. No one seemed to notice. Not even the judges who I had presented a copy of the text and translations to. WHEW.
The finals. We all went to the finals since there were only 5 of us. TRM picked my Ladino piece. I got to geek out and talk about my deep knowledge of ladino, a dead language and sing a beautiful piece of love and loss. I got to chit chat about batties and the macabre. I got to feel a bit more whole about my love.
The day was long, but over. I missed my Bardic family. I missed Agnes who was home with Covid. I missed the hugs and camaraderie that is our community. It was small, but we protected one another during each round. We were family.
We were each gifted a favor from HrRM and Agnes sent us all bracelets. I did not receive one from my sister. She only sent 4 and there were 5 of us. I was gifted a special one from Aneleda Falconbridge. This had a history.
Then… court happened. Sovereigns champion was named as Leyli Shirazi. This was the new to me bard. New to our community. She was magic and it was an absolute delight seeing her called up.
Then, this happened:
After my name was called, I stood there, dumbfounded and hid behind the court banners for the rest of the night. This was something I had been working towards since 2015. It finally happened.
Several months back, my Pelican reached out to me and asked if I wanted to create tokens for my Laurel as she was going to be asked to join the Order of the Pelican. At that time, I was unable to complete the project so I said no. More covid struck the world and the event was moved to a much later date. I wanted to do something more special than just tokens. I wanted to do something that meant something to Sabine. Her full SCA name is Sabine de Kerbriant and she is a 14th century french woman. What better way to capture that than to do a 14th century brooch. Her badge that she marks all of us is a heart. So, I found a heart shaped brooch. I wanted to something truly accurate to her persona. Luckily, l found this. See the below link:
The original brooch said “Without being parted” which wasn’t what I really wanted to convey, so I did some research and found a 14th century french phrase which seemed to be more fitting. “Here I am Yours” IOSV IEI ATI VCI.
From there, I did my work. I 3D modeled this in fusion 360
This is the image after many many hours of modeling
From there, I made a mold out of high temperature silicone and cast it
After it was cast, I cut off the sprue, cleaned it up, ran it through a rock tumbler.
To make the brooches functional, I took silver plated copper, cut them to length, wrapped them and filed the edges to make them sharp. I made 75 of these for Sabine’s elevation. My hands were cranky.
You would think after the 3 prior years of running this event, it would be easy as cake. The problem was that the 3 previous years had all been different. Covid-19 is still raging on and that lends itself to many other challenges.
In the first year of the challenge assembly’s inception, it had a large location in an area that was well accessible by many of the performers in the region. Bringing it up north had it’s own challenges. EKCOP has no money of it’s own, so we would need to find a sponsoring location. Luckily, Stonemarche had some extra money in the coffers and could offer us a sum to run this event. Finding sponsors for the challenges was another item as folks were unsure how their challenges were going to be taken and how they would view them.
This year, I was able to have 18 sponsors of 20 unique challenges. Next, getting folks to travel to New Hampshire and be willing to perform. We still had the requirements of masking indoors and performing outside would pose a challenge as there was a baseball game booked on the same grounds we were using. Can’t really complain considering the site was only charging us 75 dollars for the day. In addition we had to figure out how much food to feed people for day board and how we could encourage folks to teach.
The performance community in Stonemarche is decently sized, however, covid was making this all difficult. All in all, we had 43 attendees and actually made a profit of a little more than a hundred dollars for the day and this with charging folks the least amount we possibly could. We also had 12 amazing classes ranging from singing, story telling, history of stories and insturmental. The videos will be up soon… I hope.
One of my jobs, as it has been for the past year is to serve as the Chatelaine of the Barony of Stonemarche. For the previous year, it has really just been an administrative job due to the nature of events and COVID. However, at the Aisles of Marche, I had set up a mini demo for any possible new comers to be able to see what we had besides shopping. I wanted something that was more visually pleasing than just some folks, standing around in garb and answering questions. I wanted something interactive.
For the NHRF, I started off with a new, revamped booklet, which was not as intense as what we have on the SCA website, but has some key information that a new comer would need walking into their first, second or third events.
From there, I also created a form with pictures of all the main folks in the Barony, as well as the Royals. This was accurate at the time of it’s inception. This will get updated as officers and royals change.
From there it was grabbing weapons, crafts, books, arts and SINGING! I cannot have an event without singing. I brought a few copies of my rounds book and as folks had time, would encourage them to sing. We also had live crafting demonstrations and board games. I picked a few of my favorite medieval board games and set them out to teach people. On the games, there was a copy of the barony and sca information as well as the rules. I figured this might be a better alternative to business cards. Also, for the hip crew, we had a QR code to scan so I could email folks directly. I know I don’t want to carry a card with me if I don’t have to.
The rest of the day I spent answering questions for new comers, herding my amazing volunteers, scheduling breaks and just having a blast welcoming new comers.
Nothing too notable no document on this process. However, I am finding the thickness and vents, as well as how heated/cooled the stones/mold are, effects the products. For now, enjoy the pretty.
Same song, different day. Weather had moved this 2 weeks later because of rain. We had a smaller group this time. Maybe 15 and that’s ok. It was fun. It was intimate. Can’t wait for the weather to warm up and this stupid virus to go.
It’s been a few years since I hosted one of these… well, because of COVID-19. I was hoping at least a few people would show up, but I wasn’t optimistic. My husband and I cleaned up our backyard, put up tiki torches, had some folks bring finger foods and waited for the sun to go down.
Much to much surprise, we had 35 people show up. I am thankful we have a 180 ft driveway and a huge firepit and open back yard. We had folks new and old to performing. Folks I had known for years and folks I had never met before. We went till about 12 and closed up. I am please. We will do this again!
Meddlings of the Minnesinger 