Wow. It's real!
Jan. 22nd, 2007 10:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
herveusWhat an interesting weekend (an mostly in the good sense)!
Saturday was my big day. I was inducted into the Order of the Laurel. For those of you who don't do the SCA thing, that's on a par with making Eagle Scout, in terms of what's expected of you and in the prestige that comes with it.
My father and his wife came to their first SCA event. My best man (who hasn't done medieval stuff in ages) came down for the event. A number of folks came down from the East kingdom to see me. A certain Finn and his Finn symp showed up. Without trying hard, I identified a dozen people who almost certainly would not have been there otherwise. Way cool!
Sean and Elizabeth, outgoing Baron and Baroness of Storvik, asked me to herald their final court. This time, there were not items of business on their docket, known or unknown to me, that involved me. That's a change! :)
Having escaped to the rear with them on their departure, I marshalled my retinue.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pedro_padrao led the way, followed by Lady Brienna bearing a brand new banner she arranged to have made. My dear wife, Megan accompanied me next, followed by killerbunnie007 bearing the upgraded cloak. I presented my maniple to their majesties for inspection. They found my work to be satisfactory. The Laurels having been summoned, people spoke of me, on what made me worthy of the honor. Sir Volodya spoke on behalf of the Order of Chivalry, noting my persistence as a salient virtue. Duchess Simone spoke for the Order of the Rose, noting that she could not praise my courtesy, noting my bluntness, but made it all sound good (I paraphrase heavily here). Mistress Alisoun spoke of my service on behalf of the Order of the Pelican. Next came words from afar. amykb read words from Mistress Phiala that noted my "original research" and discernment of details that some of the giants in the field of tablet weaving had not discerned (or at least had not shared their discernment of). Does that make me a giant now? Finally, Mistress Adriana of Hawkwood spoke for the Order of the Laurel on her behalf and then read words from Mistress Thora that also pronounced me well qualified for the honor. I need to reread the words when I am better able to retain the particulars.
As an aside, I realized that everyone who spoke on my behalf was a member of the Order of the Laurel in addition the the order that they were speaking for. That's a bit unusual, but it just worked out that way.
The cloak was displayed for all to see. When I was made a Pelican eleven years ago, I was presented with a cloak with a muckin' great pelican on the back.janinas_nest added a laurel wreath to it, in a very pettable fuzzy gold furry fabric. People made ooo-aahh noises. The cloak was placed on my shoulders, and my wife passed along the medallion she had been given at her elevation to the order.
The herald read my scroll. First he tried reading the Latin text, but stumbled a bit and reverted to the English translation before it was taken from him. Tristan Alexander had called dibs on doing my scroll, and I am very happy with the result.
Finally comes "greeting the order" also known as "hugs all around". My wife got the first hug, but then the King interrupted with a request that each member of the order introduce themself, that all may get a chance to put names to faces, himself included. Once that was completed, I proceeded to get on with the hugs.
While hugging was going on, they then called Eadric the Potter up and took him off to vigil, while I finished up the round of hugs.
Meanwhile, before this we had been setting up stuff over at the vigil site. Eadric's friends were setting up a spread of food for his vigil, and mine were setting up one on my behalf for a reception.cariola did a bang-up job of organizing. Robert provided me with my own plate of smoked salmon along with two varieties of fish-eggs! I received people informally for a while. Much schmoozing occurred.
Eventually, it was time to break it down and get ready for afternoon court. Business was transacted and awards were given, ending with Eadric being inducted into the Order of the Laurel.
My wife and I were invited to sit at the high table, and I asked if my parents could join us there. This was done. Food was, overall, quite good. The fish would have been better had it not been lukewarm. Fish is always tricky at an SCA feast. Aside from that (and I pretty much liked the fish anyway), the feast was excellent. I was full at the end, but not before, and I didn't have to be extra-careful to eat lightly to get there.
Several carloads of folks made their way to our place for some post-revel action. It turned into a "watch House" thang for many folks, with a fire in the fireplace. I think most of us were kind of spent.
Some of you may recall my adventure at Great Northeastern War over the summer, involving a nosebleed and a ride in an ambulance. My nose decided to cut loose when I got in the car to head home from the site (which, thank goodness, I wasn't driving). I got it under control in fifteen minutes without a particular mess, but it let go again when I went to lie down in bed. That one took over an hour to get under control, to the point that I had gotten myself dressed (with one hand) and was about to roust someone to take me to the ER when it finally stopped. Bleaugh.
Sunday was very low energy, but Monday is being better. The roads were not noticably bad, and the idiot-quotient on the highways was amazingly low. Now to get ready for Birka next weekend.
I am very grateful to all my friends who helped make Saturday a very special day.
My wife made me some new clothes that came out very nice. There is still more trim work to do, and I might take in the linen undertunic a bit, but that's fiddling.
Akiyo wrangled a splendid spread for the reception, with contributions from a number of folks. Riocard (my son) cooked up a pork roast and a lamb roast. Robert and Roswitha brought smoked salmon. Blaise and Nostasia, Gwenllian, Alisoun, James of Rutland all brought food, I think. Brienna baked bread, and Gunther made a stand for the new banner. I'm sure I'm leaving out names of folks who contributed. Raven, Alys and Evan, Wulfric and Sabine, Patricia...the list goes on.
EDIT: and how could I forget Pedro and Devora? I plead overload?
It was nice to see Istvan, Olwen, Juergen, Sarah, Jadwiga, Ana and Anarra all come down from the East. Mavi and Lecelin came up from Caer Mear. I don't know who else came in from afar to see me, but thank you all for coming.
I need to thank Denis de Dijon personally for the banner. It's wonderful, and I won't be at all put out if he makes unhappy noises about "vair". We need to burn-test the fabric, but the old banner may get burnt respectfully if it's not got plastic in it. I suspect, however, that it does.
Wow. It's real. I'm officially a Laurel now.
Saturday was my big day. I was inducted into the Order of the Laurel. For those of you who don't do the SCA thing, that's on a par with making Eagle Scout, in terms of what's expected of you and in the prestige that comes with it.
My father and his wife came to their first SCA event. My best man (who hasn't done medieval stuff in ages) came down for the event. A number of folks came down from the East kingdom to see me. A certain Finn and his Finn symp showed up. Without trying hard, I identified a dozen people who almost certainly would not have been there otherwise. Way cool!
Sean and Elizabeth, outgoing Baron and Baroness of Storvik, asked me to herald their final court. This time, there were not items of business on their docket, known or unknown to me, that involved me. That's a change! :)
Having escaped to the rear with them on their departure, I marshalled my retinue.
pedro_padrao led the way, followed by Lady Brienna bearing a brand new banner she arranged to have made. My dear wife, Megan accompanied me next, followed by killerbunnie007 bearing the upgraded cloak. I presented my maniple to their majesties for inspection. They found my work to be satisfactory. The Laurels having been summoned, people spoke of me, on what made me worthy of the honor. Sir Volodya spoke on behalf of the Order of Chivalry, noting my persistence as a salient virtue. Duchess Simone spoke for the Order of the Rose, noting that she could not praise my courtesy, noting my bluntness, but made it all sound good (I paraphrase heavily here). Mistress Alisoun spoke of my service on behalf of the Order of the Pelican. Next came words from afar. amykb read words from Mistress Phiala that noted my "original research" and discernment of details that some of the giants in the field of tablet weaving had not discerned (or at least had not shared their discernment of). Does that make me a giant now? Finally, Mistress Adriana of Hawkwood spoke for the Order of the Laurel on her behalf and then read words from Mistress Thora that also pronounced me well qualified for the honor. I need to reread the words when I am better able to retain the particulars.As an aside, I realized that everyone who spoke on my behalf was a member of the Order of the Laurel in addition the the order that they were speaking for. That's a bit unusual, but it just worked out that way.
The cloak was displayed for all to see. When I was made a Pelican eleven years ago, I was presented with a cloak with a muckin' great pelican on the back.
janinas_nest added a laurel wreath to it, in a very pettable fuzzy gold furry fabric. People made ooo-aahh noises. The cloak was placed on my shoulders, and my wife passed along the medallion she had been given at her elevation to the order. The herald read my scroll. First he tried reading the Latin text, but stumbled a bit and reverted to the English translation before it was taken from him. Tristan Alexander had called dibs on doing my scroll, and I am very happy with the result.
Finally comes "greeting the order" also known as "hugs all around". My wife got the first hug, but then the King interrupted with a request that each member of the order introduce themself, that all may get a chance to put names to faces, himself included. Once that was completed, I proceeded to get on with the hugs.
While hugging was going on, they then called Eadric the Potter up and took him off to vigil, while I finished up the round of hugs.
Meanwhile, before this we had been setting up stuff over at the vigil site. Eadric's friends were setting up a spread of food for his vigil, and mine were setting up one on my behalf for a reception.
cariola did a bang-up job of organizing. Robert provided me with my own plate of smoked salmon along with two varieties of fish-eggs! I received people informally for a while. Much schmoozing occurred. Eventually, it was time to break it down and get ready for afternoon court. Business was transacted and awards were given, ending with Eadric being inducted into the Order of the Laurel.
My wife and I were invited to sit at the high table, and I asked if my parents could join us there. This was done. Food was, overall, quite good. The fish would have been better had it not been lukewarm. Fish is always tricky at an SCA feast. Aside from that (and I pretty much liked the fish anyway), the feast was excellent. I was full at the end, but not before, and I didn't have to be extra-careful to eat lightly to get there.
Several carloads of folks made their way to our place for some post-revel action. It turned into a "watch House" thang for many folks, with a fire in the fireplace. I think most of us were kind of spent.
Some of you may recall my adventure at Great Northeastern War over the summer, involving a nosebleed and a ride in an ambulance. My nose decided to cut loose when I got in the car to head home from the site (which, thank goodness, I wasn't driving). I got it under control in fifteen minutes without a particular mess, but it let go again when I went to lie down in bed. That one took over an hour to get under control, to the point that I had gotten myself dressed (with one hand) and was about to roust someone to take me to the ER when it finally stopped. Bleaugh.
Sunday was very low energy, but Monday is being better. The roads were not noticably bad, and the idiot-quotient on the highways was amazingly low. Now to get ready for Birka next weekend.
I am very grateful to all my friends who helped make Saturday a very special day.
My wife made me some new clothes that came out very nice. There is still more trim work to do, and I might take in the linen undertunic a bit, but that's fiddling.
Akiyo wrangled a splendid spread for the reception, with contributions from a number of folks. Riocard (my son) cooked up a pork roast and a lamb roast. Robert and Roswitha brought smoked salmon. Blaise and Nostasia, Gwenllian, Alisoun, James of Rutland all brought food, I think. Brienna baked bread, and Gunther made a stand for the new banner. I'm sure I'm leaving out names of folks who contributed. Raven, Alys and Evan, Wulfric and Sabine, Patricia...the list goes on.
EDIT: and how could I forget Pedro and Devora? I plead overload?
It was nice to see Istvan, Olwen, Juergen, Sarah, Jadwiga, Ana and Anarra all come down from the East. Mavi and Lecelin came up from Caer Mear. I don't know who else came in from afar to see me, but thank you all for coming.
I need to thank Denis de Dijon personally for the banner. It's wonderful, and I won't be at all put out if he makes unhappy noises about "vair". We need to burn-test the fabric, but the old banner may get burnt respectfully if it's not got plastic in it. I suspect, however, that it does.
Wow. It's real. I'm officially a Laurel now.
