For Halloween this year, I composed a bit of doggerel entitled “The Ghastly Province, or Samhain in Østgarðr,” which owes an obvious debt to Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies.
Lady Zahra de Andaluzia did a lovely job of laying it out for inclusion in the Provincial newsletter, and Lady Kunigunde Wedemann was kind enough to contribute an original illustration which tied into the theme; I thank them both for making my silliness look presentable, and for allowing me to share the results here.
A month ago I assisted with a class on updating content in the East Kingdom Wiki, and as an exercise during that class I put together some basic background information on our eleventh century farm.
Unfortunately, my wiki page is already pretty crowded, so in hopes of keeping things readable I’ve now moved those notes to a page on this site instead, and I look forward to accumulating more of this type of information here in the future.
To the good populace of Østgarðr, greetings from Alienor and Mathghamhain.
As we enter the final year in office of Suuder Il-Khan and Lada Il-Khatun, their Excellencies have called for members of the populace to step forward as candidates for the Provincial Succession. In hopes of being of continuing service to Østgarðr and its people, we have decided to accept this challenge.
We have both spent much of the last decade in service — to our Canton, to the Crown Province, to the East Kingdom, and to the Society at large — and while we understand that the role of Viceregent is a unique commitment, it feels as though our past efforts have helped prepare us for this moment. Continue reading Viceregal Letter of Intent
Pells are poles used as a target for sword practice. They’ve been used for at least two thousand years, as documented in this article on the ARMA site.
Common pell forms used in SCA adult armored combat practice are generally based on a 4×4 post wrapped in rope, with the base sunk in a 5 gallon bucket of concrete encircled by an old tire, or set into a post bracket attached to a wooden base.
Unfortunately, these pells are hard to transport in a crowded car, and the rough edges of the wood tend to shred the padded weapons used in youth combat.
I constructed a cheap, portable break-down pell appropriate for youth combat using an H-frame base made of PVC pipe. There are a few H-frame pell designs online; this one at ARMA is pretty similar to the one I describe below.
Marshals in the SCA use black-and-yellow staffs when supervising combat activities. The staff allows people to recognize the marshal, and may be used to signal the beginning of the fight, to call attention to the edge of the field, or to keep fighters from crashing into spectators.
You can make your own youth-marshal staff with a length of PVC/PEX and some black and yellow duct tape.
My preferred technique is to pull off a piece of each color of tape that is almost two times the length of the staff, stick them together with an overlap of half their width, then set them at a 60° angle to the pipe and wrap in a spiral.
(Depending on the size of your core, you might need to fiddle with the angle by a couple of degrees one way or the other, but that should give you even-sized stripes of both colors.)
When you reach the other end, cut the excess tape and fold the edges over.
It’s not beautiful, but it’s simple and cheap and it uses the same materials you already have on hand for weapon construction.
Thrown weapons are not a core element of SCA youth combat, but they do have some novelty/amusement value.
Here in the East, there are basically two styles: javelins made from 3/4″ PEX with a thrusting-tip point and either fins or a pommel on the other end, or else hammers/axes made of all foam.
The rules say that weapons with a core (javelins) may not be gleaned and re-thrown, while those that are all foam may be scooped up and tossed back, which means that javelins are mostly of use in the initial few moments as the lines close, rather than being a factor throughout the engagement. Continue reading Youth Throwing Hammer
This apple-and-cheese pie comes from a 16th C. German cookbook.
While apples and cheese are a classic snack pairing, their combination in this pie is pleasantly surprising. Continue reading Tortta von Epffel
This apple-and-pear pie comes from a royal cookbook of 14th C. England.
The use of saffron gives an interesting orange tint to the fruit. Continue reading Tartys In Applis
This spinach quiche comes from 14th C. France, where it was included in a book instructing housewives how to maintain their residence and carry out their wifely duties. While the marital advice is no longer relevant, many of the recipes are still quite useful. Continue reading Tourte Verte
This sweet onion quiche comes from 14th C. England.
(Ember days were three days of penance in each quarter of the liturgical calendar during which Catholics were instructed to abstain from eating meat and devote themselves to prayer.) Continue reading Tart in Ymbre Day