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The next few days of Double Wars
Tuesday at Double Wars I spent a chunk of late morning and early afternoon in the hall with friends working on the Laurel Coat for Þhora (who was taking a nap and had no idea that there were plans afoot to make her a Laurel. Her dear friend and adopted sister had made the cloak and eight of us had embroidered rondels containing things like Laurel wreaths, symbols of other awards and orders she's in, and symbols from her personal heraldry and that of her household. The coat was nearly done, needing only hems and buttonholes, and the rondels attached.
Since most of the roundels were on a green silk, which would have been challenging to sew down in a way that they stayed round without help, Tamara sent with the coat a stiff interfacing fabric, pre-cut as perfect circles in the correct size, and sent an example of how it should look once the embroidery was folded over the circle and sewed into place on the back side.
So I started sewing one of the roundels to the fabric while our body-double, Kytte, who is pretty much the same size as Þora, tried on the coat so the hem could be marked. It turns out that I was the one who had tailor's chalk with me, so I put down my roundel and helped with hem making and trimming, and hemming. Meanwhile other people picked up other roundels and set to work.
By the time the hem was tracked up (no point in sewing that part properly till Thora has it and can decide exactly how long she wants it, so we didn't trim more than needed to make a smooth arc--if she wants it longer it will be easy to let down) all of the rondels had etiher bern attached to their backing, or soon would be done, so I finished the one I was working on, and we spread the coat out to decide where to attach which rondel.
Once we had consensus as to which order was good, they were pinned into place, and we started sewing them down, each covered at the edge with a bit of fingerwoven cord someone had donated.
After getting about 1/3 of the way around the first one I started attaching I looked at the motif and thought "that is a rather ugly laurel wreath".... wait... open up the stitching to look, and, sure enough, on the side of the fabric facing the backing was a rather pretty laurel wreath. So I undid my stitching, took the roundel off its backing, turned it right side up, and then attached it to the coat. As I did that someone else noticed that the embroidery in the roundel they'd just started wasn't exactly pretty, either. Yup, it was also upside down, and much prettieron the other side! So she fixed it.
When I was attaching a second rondel Brianna thanked us for letting her joing the project and went out to teach dance. I told her that I would be happy to join, that I didn't need the lessons, I just needed to dance, and besides, I had this feeling like Þora might wake up soon, and the project should be out of sight.
So I finished the one I was on, the others anchored their needles in place, and I packed up the project to hide in my tent before heading to dance. Sure enough, a couple of dances in Þora did pass by and say hi on the way to the hall.
We had four of us for dancing. Brianna, who lives in Atlantia, a couple who have been in the SCA 8 years, but who have only danced SCA dances three times, and me, with more than 40 years of SCA dance experience. We had a great time. The students learned quickly, and we went through at least 8 dances from Arbeau, the Inns of Court, and Playford, two of which, Tinternell and Earl of Essex, I don't have music for, and if I have done them previously, I didn't remember well enough to be able to do on my own, so I wrote down the steps, to remind me to track down their music later and teach them in the north.
After dance I realized I had eaten nothing but a handful of oatcakes and cookies (grabbed to go when I dropped the tent in camp) since breakfast, and it was nearly 17:00. Therefore I went back to the tent and ate.
Court that evening, after Marlene had ber given a Gyllenedband from the Nordmark royals, and the Crown said, no, don't go, we have business with you, too, we Laurels took Marlene off to vigil, and a short bit later we saw the Pelicans leading Alma off to vigil in the next camp. By luck of the draw, I was the first Laurel to go in to talk one on one to Marlene after the royals were done, at which point I went and put my name on the list to talk with Alma, and went looking for Keldor. He was in camp with a headache, getting ready to sleep, so I tucked him in and went back out and returned to Marlene's vigil party to get my mug I had set down on the table when I went into the tent, and stayed to talk to people.
Þora stopped by for a bit and told me that she had guessed that one of the rumoured elevations must be Marlene, from all the growth she's seen in Marlene's research and personal self confidence. I was curious what rumours were going about elevations at Double Wars, and she indicated that the count she'd heard was one or two laurels, which have now both been revealed, one or two pelicans, one of which has now been revealed, and possibly a knight. I was delighted to hear that her sources had only two laurels, as that meant she hadn't figured out she would be next (I had heard Erich Hane and Keldor counting their guess of 4 laurels and 1 or 2 pelicans earlier in the week, which, clearly, they didn't do in her presence).
Þora decided not to get in the vigil queue as she isn't a night owl, and it would clearly be hours before she'd get a chance to go in, but said she had enough energy to go to the hall and sew a little. So I checked at Alma's vigil, and they guessed that it would be about two hours before my turn, so I joined Þora in the hall and helped her with some of the long seams on her dress, thanking her for the chance to get my hands on that delicious wool fabric.
Eventually she went off to sleep, much later than usual and I returned to the vigil to learn that it would soon be my turn.
I told Alma that I live too far from Styringheim to know what service she normally does, but that I would never forget how, when the entire Autocrat team for Coronation forgot to arrange for servers for the feast, she noticed the problem, and solved it, before we even realized the problem existed. If that is typical of Alma, then I understand how she wound up sitting vigil for a Pelican. I will always be thankful to her for that.
After that conversation I went straight to bed (having done my evening yoga with Emma while Þora was working on a bit of the dress that meant no one else could work on another section of it), just before 02:00.
Wednesday was the Laurel Sponsored Prize Display in the afternoon, so I slept in till almost 10:00, which gave me time to have breakfast before heading to the hall with Keldor.
He set up his display: one forge-welded Viking style sword he made last year, the sword he is currently working on, which has all the layers in place and is ready for final shaping, and another packet he'd started, which shows some of the problems one can have with the forge-welding not taking in a twist, or near an edge.
I tried to talk to everyone, and managed to see:
• Kytte (caligraphy/illumination)
• Þora (northern Norway research, inclding bits of stockfish to taste, with butter, and textile reproductions)
• Baltezar (reproduction of a tarrot card set)
• Alienor (Finnish Iron Age bronze spiral decorations)
• Görvel (dress after a specific church wall painting)
• Sabine (caligraphy/illumination)
• John Smith (casting a reproduction of a candelabra from painting)
• Agnes (gender and sexuality in the Viking Age)
• Duncan (decorated belt fittings are an accessible and affordable hobby)
• Matti (Migration age clothing and accessories for the common man)
• Alfhild (systamatic tests of inks made from period recipes)
The highlight of the evening court was Marlene's laureling ceremony, and the presentation of the "scroll", or in this case a painting--a portrait by Richard of Salisbury of Marlene herself, wearing the beautiful embroidered headdress she had made for her Golden Egg project (which was inspired by a period portrait), and with a selection of pottery of her making on the table in front of her, and a minimum of text recording the When/where/who of the laurel ceremony.
That night during even yoga Keldor and I did a little acroyoga too, and we made it to bed at 00:30.
Thursday was a long day. I was up at 06:00 to begin setting up my tent for the vigil: hang the inner curtains to make an intimate place in the front of the tent, hang my Laurel cloak, with its Viking knotwork motief against the outer wall, and a bit of green and gold brocade fabric against the outer wall on the other side of the door.
Empty the shelves of my things, and displayed the bentwood box that Keldor (with a little help from me) had painted for her on those shelves, set up a chair for her (complete with the cushion she had woven and given to Lia at Lia's vigil), and added padding to one of my chests for her guests. Hung up a cute little wall hanging with a Viking Ship that Adelais had found at a second hand store and gave to Keldor , a hanging candel lantern, and a stockfish, because northern Norway.
I was nearly done with the inner space when Beata arrived to help, so I paused to help her get a table from Sven and Siobhan's camp and she started putting the food on it.
I filled a plate and a glass of water and put them on a table by Þora's chair, and then it was time to go to my meeting wiith the Crown in preparation for morning court, for which I was the herald.
We waited till we saw that Þora, Admiral of the Northern Seas, had arrived, and then processed in, lead by the Royal Choir (Martina and Ermina from Reengarda).
Their Majesties began by explaining that they had heard that there was still some confusion about the site token challenge game, so they would demonstrate, one of them being a flat sider, the other holey.
He challenged her to a game of rock paper scissors (best of three), which she won, so one of his tokens were dropped in the appropriate bucket. At midday of Friday the side with the most challenge tokens would earn war points.
Then I called up Þora, Admiral of the Northern Seas, to pay their taxes, as is their right and custom. This Þora did, presenting them not only with the royal due of one fish for every 20 for the current year, but also for the plague years during which no taxes were paid, though the fish still were caught. (These fish are small beeswax fish that they will be able to give to others).
Her taxes paid, Þora made ready to leave, but she did not have their Majesties leave to depart... "Their Majesties command the presence of the Order of the Laurel", and we whisked her off to a day-time vigil. The first I have seen since moving to Drachenwald.
We didn't put a time limit on people as they talked, but we did take a mid-vigil market break to take her around and see what the merchants had on offer. She bought a hat and a ceramic mug, and was gifted some lovely weaving accessories. I bought the last of the blue enamel feathers, as it was the right shade of a nice dark royal blue. Then we took her back to camp and a steady stream of visitors finally came to an end with two hours to spare before court.
Some of her friends had been finishing up her dress during the vigil, so she was able to wear it, and her Golden Egg project hand spun, woven and dyed hood to court that evening.
I spent the entire time between vigil and time to get ready for court cleaning up, putting things back to normal, and returning stuff to those we'd borrowed it from, getting done with just time to confirm my understanding of my bit with the herald before adding a warmer tunic, wool veil and circlet to the leight wool dress and linen ubderdress over wool tights, short nålbinded socks, and Viking Age style leather shoes.
Had evening court been the same lenght as it was on other nights so far this event, that would have been plenty. However, while the Drachenwald court didn't have do much business, the Nordmark Royals had many, many well deserved awards to hand out, all of which made me happy to see, but taken together, as the sun sank ever lower below the horizon, and the big tall fire torches were lit so we could see court, it began to feel colder, and colder. We did have my fur muff, and the big sealskin mittens we bought at a second hand store on the way to the event, so our hand weren't cold, and snuggling up together helped. Except when they called for all the members of one or another Nordmark Order to stand and one or both of us was in that order. It is hard to snuggle while transitioning from standing to sitting or back again. Luckily standing up so often made it easier to tolerate the increasing cold.
Then Nordmarks court ended, just as I noticed increasing pressure from my bladder. So when Drachenwald's Herald announced a five minute comfort pause, I was up and running towards the toilets before they finished the sentance.
Bladder emptied I ran further to camp and got my fur hood and laurel cloak and made it back to our blanket in the front row before court re-opened.
Soon it was my turn for business with the Crown, saying that "I bring this suit properly on behalf of Þora Sumarliðadóttir, and against the cruel winds of fate, which have conspired on many counts to delay the due and proper advancement and recognition of Þora, by blocking, at every turn their admittance into the Order of the Laurel, and have thereby deprived them of the station and respect due to them by virtue of their many skills, services, and accomplishments. I proclaim this complaint publicly that it may be heard and judged in the court of Drachenwald where it properly belongs."
Then I called forth witnesses to testify for my case, one from each order, and another from the populace, and each spoke (and in one case sung) beautifully in praise of Þora and all she does. During the speeches from the witnesses we got to bonus speakers as Princess Anna also stepped up to add her praises, and one of the laurels from another Kingdom read words from the Laurel that Þora had been apprenticed to years before, and who continues to be a good friend.
After the witnesses were done the Crown asked the order if we were satisfied, and we were, so they judged the case and elevated her to the order of the Laurel, and we gave her a medalion, coat, and wreath, and her scroll was read out, and we greeted her as our peer, and then as one we turned to the Crown, who asked uf our business here was complete, and as one we replied "No!" So that the word echoed over the field.
And the Crown asked us if there is another who is a Peer in deed, but not in name, and as one we replied "Yes!", and the Crown bud us find the canidate. But it was dark, and she'd moved since last we'd seen her, so it took a bit of time before our searchers returned with Ermingard, who we sent on vigil.
Alas, I was too cold to stay for her vigil party, so I just went to the hot tub till I was warm, soaked a nit longer, then did my yoga and went to bed at 01:30.
Today I slept in, started typing this after Keldor left to fight in the war, took a 2 hour nap, continued typing till he came back from war, ate some waffles, continued typing, dressed in All the Wool, and am now ready for evening court, which promises to be a long one.
Since most of the roundels were on a green silk, which would have been challenging to sew down in a way that they stayed round without help, Tamara sent with the coat a stiff interfacing fabric, pre-cut as perfect circles in the correct size, and sent an example of how it should look once the embroidery was folded over the circle and sewed into place on the back side.
So I started sewing one of the roundels to the fabric while our body-double, Kytte, who is pretty much the same size as Þora, tried on the coat so the hem could be marked. It turns out that I was the one who had tailor's chalk with me, so I put down my roundel and helped with hem making and trimming, and hemming. Meanwhile other people picked up other roundels and set to work.
By the time the hem was tracked up (no point in sewing that part properly till Thora has it and can decide exactly how long she wants it, so we didn't trim more than needed to make a smooth arc--if she wants it longer it will be easy to let down) all of the rondels had etiher bern attached to their backing, or soon would be done, so I finished the one I was working on, and we spread the coat out to decide where to attach which rondel.
Once we had consensus as to which order was good, they were pinned into place, and we started sewing them down, each covered at the edge with a bit of fingerwoven cord someone had donated.
After getting about 1/3 of the way around the first one I started attaching I looked at the motif and thought "that is a rather ugly laurel wreath".... wait... open up the stitching to look, and, sure enough, on the side of the fabric facing the backing was a rather pretty laurel wreath. So I undid my stitching, took the roundel off its backing, turned it right side up, and then attached it to the coat. As I did that someone else noticed that the embroidery in the roundel they'd just started wasn't exactly pretty, either. Yup, it was also upside down, and much prettieron the other side! So she fixed it.
When I was attaching a second rondel Brianna thanked us for letting her joing the project and went out to teach dance. I told her that I would be happy to join, that I didn't need the lessons, I just needed to dance, and besides, I had this feeling like Þora might wake up soon, and the project should be out of sight.
So I finished the one I was on, the others anchored their needles in place, and I packed up the project to hide in my tent before heading to dance. Sure enough, a couple of dances in Þora did pass by and say hi on the way to the hall.
We had four of us for dancing. Brianna, who lives in Atlantia, a couple who have been in the SCA 8 years, but who have only danced SCA dances three times, and me, with more than 40 years of SCA dance experience. We had a great time. The students learned quickly, and we went through at least 8 dances from Arbeau, the Inns of Court, and Playford, two of which, Tinternell and Earl of Essex, I don't have music for, and if I have done them previously, I didn't remember well enough to be able to do on my own, so I wrote down the steps, to remind me to track down their music later and teach them in the north.
After dance I realized I had eaten nothing but a handful of oatcakes and cookies (grabbed to go when I dropped the tent in camp) since breakfast, and it was nearly 17:00. Therefore I went back to the tent and ate.
Court that evening, after Marlene had ber given a Gyllenedband from the Nordmark royals, and the Crown said, no, don't go, we have business with you, too, we Laurels took Marlene off to vigil, and a short bit later we saw the Pelicans leading Alma off to vigil in the next camp. By luck of the draw, I was the first Laurel to go in to talk one on one to Marlene after the royals were done, at which point I went and put my name on the list to talk with Alma, and went looking for Keldor. He was in camp with a headache, getting ready to sleep, so I tucked him in and went back out and returned to Marlene's vigil party to get my mug I had set down on the table when I went into the tent, and stayed to talk to people.
Þora stopped by for a bit and told me that she had guessed that one of the rumoured elevations must be Marlene, from all the growth she's seen in Marlene's research and personal self confidence. I was curious what rumours were going about elevations at Double Wars, and she indicated that the count she'd heard was one or two laurels, which have now both been revealed, one or two pelicans, one of which has now been revealed, and possibly a knight. I was delighted to hear that her sources had only two laurels, as that meant she hadn't figured out she would be next (I had heard Erich Hane and Keldor counting their guess of 4 laurels and 1 or 2 pelicans earlier in the week, which, clearly, they didn't do in her presence).
Þora decided not to get in the vigil queue as she isn't a night owl, and it would clearly be hours before she'd get a chance to go in, but said she had enough energy to go to the hall and sew a little. So I checked at Alma's vigil, and they guessed that it would be about two hours before my turn, so I joined Þora in the hall and helped her with some of the long seams on her dress, thanking her for the chance to get my hands on that delicious wool fabric.
Eventually she went off to sleep, much later than usual and I returned to the vigil to learn that it would soon be my turn.
I told Alma that I live too far from Styringheim to know what service she normally does, but that I would never forget how, when the entire Autocrat team for Coronation forgot to arrange for servers for the feast, she noticed the problem, and solved it, before we even realized the problem existed. If that is typical of Alma, then I understand how she wound up sitting vigil for a Pelican. I will always be thankful to her for that.
After that conversation I went straight to bed (having done my evening yoga with Emma while Þora was working on a bit of the dress that meant no one else could work on another section of it), just before 02:00.
Wednesday was the Laurel Sponsored Prize Display in the afternoon, so I slept in till almost 10:00, which gave me time to have breakfast before heading to the hall with Keldor.
He set up his display: one forge-welded Viking style sword he made last year, the sword he is currently working on, which has all the layers in place and is ready for final shaping, and another packet he'd started, which shows some of the problems one can have with the forge-welding not taking in a twist, or near an edge.
I tried to talk to everyone, and managed to see:
• Kytte (caligraphy/illumination)
• Þora (northern Norway research, inclding bits of stockfish to taste, with butter, and textile reproductions)
• Baltezar (reproduction of a tarrot card set)
• Alienor (Finnish Iron Age bronze spiral decorations)
• Görvel (dress after a specific church wall painting)
• Sabine (caligraphy/illumination)
• John Smith (casting a reproduction of a candelabra from painting)
• Agnes (gender and sexuality in the Viking Age)
• Duncan (decorated belt fittings are an accessible and affordable hobby)
• Matti (Migration age clothing and accessories for the common man)
• Alfhild (systamatic tests of inks made from period recipes)
The highlight of the evening court was Marlene's laureling ceremony, and the presentation of the "scroll", or in this case a painting--a portrait by Richard of Salisbury of Marlene herself, wearing the beautiful embroidered headdress she had made for her Golden Egg project (which was inspired by a period portrait), and with a selection of pottery of her making on the table in front of her, and a minimum of text recording the When/where/who of the laurel ceremony.
That night during even yoga Keldor and I did a little acroyoga too, and we made it to bed at 00:30.
Thursday was a long day. I was up at 06:00 to begin setting up my tent for the vigil: hang the inner curtains to make an intimate place in the front of the tent, hang my Laurel cloak, with its Viking knotwork motief against the outer wall, and a bit of green and gold brocade fabric against the outer wall on the other side of the door.
Empty the shelves of my things, and displayed the bentwood box that Keldor (with a little help from me) had painted for her on those shelves, set up a chair for her (complete with the cushion she had woven and given to Lia at Lia's vigil), and added padding to one of my chests for her guests. Hung up a cute little wall hanging with a Viking Ship that Adelais had found at a second hand store and gave to Keldor , a hanging candel lantern, and a stockfish, because northern Norway.
I was nearly done with the inner space when Beata arrived to help, so I paused to help her get a table from Sven and Siobhan's camp and she started putting the food on it.
I filled a plate and a glass of water and put them on a table by Þora's chair, and then it was time to go to my meeting wiith the Crown in preparation for morning court, for which I was the herald.
We waited till we saw that Þora, Admiral of the Northern Seas, had arrived, and then processed in, lead by the Royal Choir (Martina and Ermina from Reengarda).
Their Majesties began by explaining that they had heard that there was still some confusion about the site token challenge game, so they would demonstrate, one of them being a flat sider, the other holey.
He challenged her to a game of rock paper scissors (best of three), which she won, so one of his tokens were dropped in the appropriate bucket. At midday of Friday the side with the most challenge tokens would earn war points.
Then I called up Þora, Admiral of the Northern Seas, to pay their taxes, as is their right and custom. This Þora did, presenting them not only with the royal due of one fish for every 20 for the current year, but also for the plague years during which no taxes were paid, though the fish still were caught. (These fish are small beeswax fish that they will be able to give to others).
Her taxes paid, Þora made ready to leave, but she did not have their Majesties leave to depart... "Their Majesties command the presence of the Order of the Laurel", and we whisked her off to a day-time vigil. The first I have seen since moving to Drachenwald.
We didn't put a time limit on people as they talked, but we did take a mid-vigil market break to take her around and see what the merchants had on offer. She bought a hat and a ceramic mug, and was gifted some lovely weaving accessories. I bought the last of the blue enamel feathers, as it was the right shade of a nice dark royal blue. Then we took her back to camp and a steady stream of visitors finally came to an end with two hours to spare before court.
Some of her friends had been finishing up her dress during the vigil, so she was able to wear it, and her Golden Egg project hand spun, woven and dyed hood to court that evening.
I spent the entire time between vigil and time to get ready for court cleaning up, putting things back to normal, and returning stuff to those we'd borrowed it from, getting done with just time to confirm my understanding of my bit with the herald before adding a warmer tunic, wool veil and circlet to the leight wool dress and linen ubderdress over wool tights, short nålbinded socks, and Viking Age style leather shoes.
Had evening court been the same lenght as it was on other nights so far this event, that would have been plenty. However, while the Drachenwald court didn't have do much business, the Nordmark Royals had many, many well deserved awards to hand out, all of which made me happy to see, but taken together, as the sun sank ever lower below the horizon, and the big tall fire torches were lit so we could see court, it began to feel colder, and colder. We did have my fur muff, and the big sealskin mittens we bought at a second hand store on the way to the event, so our hand weren't cold, and snuggling up together helped. Except when they called for all the members of one or another Nordmark Order to stand and one or both of us was in that order. It is hard to snuggle while transitioning from standing to sitting or back again. Luckily standing up so often made it easier to tolerate the increasing cold.
Then Nordmarks court ended, just as I noticed increasing pressure from my bladder. So when Drachenwald's Herald announced a five minute comfort pause, I was up and running towards the toilets before they finished the sentance.
Bladder emptied I ran further to camp and got my fur hood and laurel cloak and made it back to our blanket in the front row before court re-opened.
Soon it was my turn for business with the Crown, saying that "I bring this suit properly on behalf of Þora Sumarliðadóttir, and against the cruel winds of fate, which have conspired on many counts to delay the due and proper advancement and recognition of Þora, by blocking, at every turn their admittance into the Order of the Laurel, and have thereby deprived them of the station and respect due to them by virtue of their many skills, services, and accomplishments. I proclaim this complaint publicly that it may be heard and judged in the court of Drachenwald where it properly belongs."
Then I called forth witnesses to testify for my case, one from each order, and another from the populace, and each spoke (and in one case sung) beautifully in praise of Þora and all she does. During the speeches from the witnesses we got to bonus speakers as Princess Anna also stepped up to add her praises, and one of the laurels from another Kingdom read words from the Laurel that Þora had been apprenticed to years before, and who continues to be a good friend.
After the witnesses were done the Crown asked the order if we were satisfied, and we were, so they judged the case and elevated her to the order of the Laurel, and we gave her a medalion, coat, and wreath, and her scroll was read out, and we greeted her as our peer, and then as one we turned to the Crown, who asked uf our business here was complete, and as one we replied "No!" So that the word echoed over the field.
And the Crown asked us if there is another who is a Peer in deed, but not in name, and as one we replied "Yes!", and the Crown bud us find the canidate. But it was dark, and she'd moved since last we'd seen her, so it took a bit of time before our searchers returned with Ermingard, who we sent on vigil.
Alas, I was too cold to stay for her vigil party, so I just went to the hot tub till I was warm, soaked a nit longer, then did my yoga and went to bed at 01:30.
Today I slept in, started typing this after Keldor left to fight in the war, took a 2 hour nap, continued typing till he came back from war, ate some waffles, continued typing, dressed in All the Wool, and am now ready for evening court, which promises to be a long one.