three weekends in a row
Nov. 28th, 2019 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaBack when I lived in An Tir, and when I lived in the central part of the West Kingdom it was pretty normal for me to attend an SCA event every weekend for much of the year. Here in the far northern reaches of Drachenwald there normally aren't that many events I can get to back to back. November was an exception to this, and I managed to attend three events this month.
The first of these I had planned to attend was Drachenwald's Kingdom University, held in the Barony of Gotvik this year. Gotvik is far enough south of Frostheim I decided to fly down, so I wouldn't need to take time from work to attend it. Of course plans rarely get executed exactly as originally devised, and this trip turned out to be more of an adventure than I had planned. The week before the event I got an email inviting me to a job interview in Edinburgh, to take place on Thursday (presentation of my previous research), and Friday (the formal interview itself). I checked with them, let them know that I already had flights booked to get me to and from Gothenburg on the weekend, and would it be ok with them if I cancelled only my south-bound flight, then book new flights to get me to Edinburgh before the interview and from there to Gothenburg? They were fine with that option, and the best priced flight I could find to get me to Edinburgh before Thursday was on Tuesday.
Therefore I flew south on Tuesday, met up with my friendsismith42 briefly in Edinburgh, and then took a train to Durham, where I stayed with aryanhwy and her family and went to the uni to meet up with my PhD supervisors (I am doing a second PhD half-time, long-distance through the archaeology department there) and use the SEM lab on Wednesday, then back to Edinburgh, where I stayed with sismith42, and got to meet up with Roxanne, who I know from the Drachenwald Slack Channel for lunch before my presentation on Thursday. After Friday's interview I went directly to the airport, landing in Sweden around the time Friday evening court would have been happening.
I was super lucky in that there were others arriving around the same time, and a wonderful man (Engli) was willing to pick three of us up at that hour and bring us to the event. Since the last of us landed a bit after I did I had a chance to change into a tunic and accessories at the airport, so that when we reached site I could head straight to the vigil area and add my names to the list. Being a member of the order of the Laurel I knew in advance thatfrualeydis would be sitting vigil for her Laurel, but I didn't know that Isabetta would be sitting vigil for a Pelican (indeed, if I had been asked before that evening, I would have guessed that she already had one).
Luckily I was able to get in to both vigils before I was too tired. Such a delight it was to be greeted byfrualeydis with squeals of joy and "you came!"--we have known one another on line since (she tells me, because she looked it up) 2006, so well before I moved to Drachenwald, but don't get to see one another in person all that often. When I pulled aside the curtain to speak with Isabetta for her vigil I got to see what is probably the most pelican-like behaviour at a vigil I have ever witnessed--she was taking notes about the conversation she had just had with the person who saw her before me. I asked and she said that she took notes from each of the conversations she had that evening, to help her remember them.
I never had a vigil (it wasn't done for Laurels in the West/Oertha in those days), and if I had it wouldn't have occurred to me to have taken notes during it. However, if it should ever happen that I get one, I think that taking notes while it is all still fresh is a wonderful idea, and, indeed, I recommend thinking about doing so to any of my readers who might have a vigil in the SCA one day.
Saturday morning I was scheduled to teach dance. I went to the classroom a bit early, couldn't see a way to hook up my phone to the stereo in the room using the cable I had brought with me, so instead I went out and found Erik and his violin to see if he would be willing to play for dancing. He was, and we returned to the room. Whilst waiting for students we went through some dance tunes, and he reminded his fingers how to play them, and I danced through them on my own. I tried going around and shouting for students, but every place I checked everyone was happily already in classes, or otherwise busy. So after a bit Erik went off to do other things, and I gave Agnes a much needed massage (in the class room, in case anyone showed up to dance at the change between class period one and two).
The rest of the day I happily spent visiting with people and working on project. The only class I managed to attend was the one on singing period drinking songs, which was quite fun. (There were a number of classes that conflicted with my dance class that I would have happily attended if I wasn't supposed to be elsewhere, and I am quite certain I missed other good classes when distracted with conversations. Much to my delight, the feast was served early enough in the day that I got to eat, and it finished early enough for court.
Both peerage ceremonies were, of course, touching and heartwarming. I don't think I will ever forget listing to Måns speak forfrualeydis, explaining that he didn't think of her as (just) a peer, but as a Goddess, how she embodies all three aspects the goddess: how her youthful enthusiasm (especially for her art? I don't recall the exact details now, so many weeks later) is like the Maiden, while her tendency to care for everyone around her is like the Mother, and her wisdom and ability to accomplish so much while dealing with a body that is somewhat broken is like the Crone. (Only he said it all ever so much more eloquently than I am paraphrasing it here). His words made pretty much everyone in my line of sight (and me) cry. Likewise when William spoke for Isabetta many of us teared up (but sadly, I don't have a clear memory of what he said, just how it made me feel).
After court I had time to visit with more people before getting some sleep, and in the morning I had enough time for breakfast and helping to tidy up the feasting hall a bit before my ride departed for the airport.
The following weekend was Feast for the new Baron and Baroness of Aarnimetsä, held in Kaarnemaa, at a site only a 2.5 hour drive from my home in Frostheim, so of course I went. The site was a small building, which looks much like a hunting lodge. Since it was one main room (plus kitchen and a couple of toilet rooms) at night we pushed the tables together and spread our sleeping gear on the floor, and then Saturday morning picked it up out of the way, putting it back when ready to sleep that evening. This event featured much of the food being cooked outside over the fire. When I registered for the event I must have mentioned that while I eat mostly vegetarian I am ok with occasionally eating wild game, since when they served the feast there were a large number of fire-roasted chickens, and one tiny wild game bird that one of the members in Kaarnemaa had hunted, and they told me that one was for me. I really appreciated their thoughtfulness in doing that, and was glad that the one-hour time change meant that the feast was served early enough that I was still hungry, and got to taste the bird (which, while small compared to the chickens, was still big enough that I shared much of it with the Baron and Baroness).
One of the main features of this event was the archery competition, but I was content to sit inside and make progress on a long-neglected sewing project and play my hammer dulcimer, and listen to the conversations in Finnish (which I couldn't understand) and chat with people in English. After the huge crowds at the event the weekend before, it was nice to enjoy a smaller and more relaxed event.
The third weekend I attended Norrskensfesten here in Frostheim. I agreed to pick up some friends at the train station on the way to the event, which meant that I had company for the 15 or 20 minutes it takes to get to the site from the city center. This site has a large main room with a stage and back-stage area, as well as a lobby area near the kitchen, and another room off the lobby. That front room is where the families with small children set up their sleeping areas, so that the door could be closed to encourage kids to sleep at a kinda still reasonable hour, but the rest of us slept on the stage or back stage. Friday night was spent mostly in visiting with friends who I don't get to see very often, as they live a few hours south, and, of course, I spent some time in the shire hot tub, which has been lovingly repaired by the Frostheim Archery Mafia, and now looks much better than it has for years.
Saturday morning I had thought to sit inside and keep making progress on my sewing, but then I was asked if I would keep score for the non500 tournament. That turned out to be fun watching the points pile up--they run this tourney as a "bear pit", with the victor of each bout getting one point, and staying in the ring to face the next person in the queue--the first fighter to get to 25 points is the winner of the day. His Royal Highness won the day, while the second place was at 7 points.
This event had Queen Isabel, Crown Prince Æríkr, Crown Princess Jacquelyna, Princess Jovi, and Baron Gilbert, which meant for a lovely display of royals for court, and each of them had a little business, and recognised many worthy people for their good works. For me I think the highlight from court for this event was when Princess Jovi asked the Norrskensbard to entertain us at court with a song he'd performed last month at Höstdansen, during the competition to become our bard. Then, instead of letting him resume his duties as her attendant, she presented him with the Vita Porten (Nordmark's fighting award), the scroll of for which (written by her own hand) echoed lines of his song.
Now I have a few weeks to focus on modern-world duties before Frostheim holds its annual (unofficial) Jul celebration, and then another week and a half before I head to southern Finland for 12th Night Coronation. After that I don't think I will make it to another SCA event till Reengarda's Jungfru Maria Bebådelsedagsgille in March
The first of these I had planned to attend was Drachenwald's Kingdom University, held in the Barony of Gotvik this year. Gotvik is far enough south of Frostheim I decided to fly down, so I wouldn't need to take time from work to attend it. Of course plans rarely get executed exactly as originally devised, and this trip turned out to be more of an adventure than I had planned. The week before the event I got an email inviting me to a job interview in Edinburgh, to take place on Thursday (presentation of my previous research), and Friday (the formal interview itself). I checked with them, let them know that I already had flights booked to get me to and from Gothenburg on the weekend, and would it be ok with them if I cancelled only my south-bound flight, then book new flights to get me to Edinburgh before the interview and from there to Gothenburg? They were fine with that option, and the best priced flight I could find to get me to Edinburgh before Thursday was on Tuesday.
Therefore I flew south on Tuesday, met up with my friend
sismith42 briefly in Edinburgh, and then took a train to Durham, where I stayed with aryanhwy and her family and went to the uni to meet up with my PhD supervisors (I am doing a second PhD half-time, long-distance through the archaeology department there) and use the SEM lab on Wednesday, then back to Edinburgh, where I stayed with sismith42, and got to meet up with Roxanne, who I know from the Drachenwald Slack Channel for lunch before my presentation on Thursday. After Friday's interview I went directly to the airport, landing in Sweden around the time Friday evening court would have been happening.I was super lucky in that there were others arriving around the same time, and a wonderful man (Engli) was willing to pick three of us up at that hour and bring us to the event. Since the last of us landed a bit after I did I had a chance to change into a tunic and accessories at the airport, so that when we reached site I could head straight to the vigil area and add my names to the list. Being a member of the order of the Laurel I knew in advance that
frualeydis would be sitting vigil for her Laurel, but I didn't know that Isabetta would be sitting vigil for a Pelican (indeed, if I had been asked before that evening, I would have guessed that she already had one). Luckily I was able to get in to both vigils before I was too tired. Such a delight it was to be greeted by
frualeydis with squeals of joy and "you came!"--we have known one another on line since (she tells me, because she looked it up) 2006, so well before I moved to Drachenwald, but don't get to see one another in person all that often. When I pulled aside the curtain to speak with Isabetta for her vigil I got to see what is probably the most pelican-like behaviour at a vigil I have ever witnessed--she was taking notes about the conversation she had just had with the person who saw her before me. I asked and she said that she took notes from each of the conversations she had that evening, to help her remember them. I never had a vigil (it wasn't done for Laurels in the West/Oertha in those days), and if I had it wouldn't have occurred to me to have taken notes during it. However, if it should ever happen that I get one, I think that taking notes while it is all still fresh is a wonderful idea, and, indeed, I recommend thinking about doing so to any of my readers who might have a vigil in the SCA one day.
Saturday morning I was scheduled to teach dance. I went to the classroom a bit early, couldn't see a way to hook up my phone to the stereo in the room using the cable I had brought with me, so instead I went out and found Erik and his violin to see if he would be willing to play for dancing. He was, and we returned to the room. Whilst waiting for students we went through some dance tunes, and he reminded his fingers how to play them, and I danced through them on my own. I tried going around and shouting for students, but every place I checked everyone was happily already in classes, or otherwise busy. So after a bit Erik went off to do other things, and I gave Agnes a much needed massage (in the class room, in case anyone showed up to dance at the change between class period one and two).
The rest of the day I happily spent visiting with people and working on project. The only class I managed to attend was the one on singing period drinking songs, which was quite fun. (There were a number of classes that conflicted with my dance class that I would have happily attended if I wasn't supposed to be elsewhere, and I am quite certain I missed other good classes when distracted with conversations. Much to my delight, the feast was served early enough in the day that I got to eat, and it finished early enough for court.
Both peerage ceremonies were, of course, touching and heartwarming. I don't think I will ever forget listing to Måns speak for
frualeydis, explaining that he didn't think of her as (just) a peer, but as a Goddess, how she embodies all three aspects the goddess: how her youthful enthusiasm (especially for her art? I don't recall the exact details now, so many weeks later) is like the Maiden, while her tendency to care for everyone around her is like the Mother, and her wisdom and ability to accomplish so much while dealing with a body that is somewhat broken is like the Crone. (Only he said it all ever so much more eloquently than I am paraphrasing it here). His words made pretty much everyone in my line of sight (and me) cry. Likewise when William spoke for Isabetta many of us teared up (but sadly, I don't have a clear memory of what he said, just how it made me feel).After court I had time to visit with more people before getting some sleep, and in the morning I had enough time for breakfast and helping to tidy up the feasting hall a bit before my ride departed for the airport.
The following weekend was Feast for the new Baron and Baroness of Aarnimetsä, held in Kaarnemaa, at a site only a 2.5 hour drive from my home in Frostheim, so of course I went. The site was a small building, which looks much like a hunting lodge. Since it was one main room (plus kitchen and a couple of toilet rooms) at night we pushed the tables together and spread our sleeping gear on the floor, and then Saturday morning picked it up out of the way, putting it back when ready to sleep that evening. This event featured much of the food being cooked outside over the fire. When I registered for the event I must have mentioned that while I eat mostly vegetarian I am ok with occasionally eating wild game, since when they served the feast there were a large number of fire-roasted chickens, and one tiny wild game bird that one of the members in Kaarnemaa had hunted, and they told me that one was for me. I really appreciated their thoughtfulness in doing that, and was glad that the one-hour time change meant that the feast was served early enough that I was still hungry, and got to taste the bird (which, while small compared to the chickens, was still big enough that I shared much of it with the Baron and Baroness).
One of the main features of this event was the archery competition, but I was content to sit inside and make progress on a long-neglected sewing project and play my hammer dulcimer, and listen to the conversations in Finnish (which I couldn't understand) and chat with people in English. After the huge crowds at the event the weekend before, it was nice to enjoy a smaller and more relaxed event.
The third weekend I attended Norrskensfesten here in Frostheim. I agreed to pick up some friends at the train station on the way to the event, which meant that I had company for the 15 or 20 minutes it takes to get to the site from the city center. This site has a large main room with a stage and back-stage area, as well as a lobby area near the kitchen, and another room off the lobby. That front room is where the families with small children set up their sleeping areas, so that the door could be closed to encourage kids to sleep at a kinda still reasonable hour, but the rest of us slept on the stage or back stage. Friday night was spent mostly in visiting with friends who I don't get to see very often, as they live a few hours south, and, of course, I spent some time in the shire hot tub, which has been lovingly repaired by the Frostheim Archery Mafia, and now looks much better than it has for years.
Saturday morning I had thought to sit inside and keep making progress on my sewing, but then I was asked if I would keep score for the non500 tournament. That turned out to be fun watching the points pile up--they run this tourney as a "bear pit", with the victor of each bout getting one point, and staying in the ring to face the next person in the queue--the first fighter to get to 25 points is the winner of the day. His Royal Highness won the day, while the second place was at 7 points.
This event had Queen Isabel, Crown Prince Æríkr, Crown Princess Jacquelyna, Princess Jovi, and Baron Gilbert, which meant for a lovely display of royals for court, and each of them had a little business, and recognised many worthy people for their good works. For me I think the highlight from court for this event was when Princess Jovi asked the Norrskensbard to entertain us at court with a song he'd performed last month at Höstdansen, during the competition to become our bard. Then, instead of letting him resume his duties as her attendant, she presented him with the Vita Porten (Nordmark's fighting award), the scroll of for which (written by her own hand) echoed lines of his song.
Now I have a few weeks to focus on modern-world duties before Frostheim holds its annual (unofficial) Jul celebration, and then another week and a half before I head to southern Finland for 12th Night Coronation. After that I don't think I will make it to another SCA event till Reengarda's Jungfru Maria Bebådelsedagsgille in March