SCA Life

Here is fun song provided to me by a Horde Friend, in other words someone who is a good (or in this case a relative) of a member of the Great Dark Horde. For those who don’t know, the Horde is among you. Members of this mercenary clan can be found throughout the Known World.

Joy to the World
Tune: Joy to the World
Words: By Sir Steven MacEanruig and Sir William the Lucky

Joy to the world, for war has come,
And we can fight again.
Let every foe know fear and woe,
And swords and axes swing,
And swords and axes swing,
And swords and swords and axes swing.

We’ll rule the world with axe and mace,
And Heaven up above.
Let battle cry ring fierce and high,
For war is what we love,
For war is what we love,
For war, for war, is what we love.

Joy to the world, for war has come,
With sword, and arrows’ flight.
We’ll maim and slay, all through the day,
And rape and loot at night,
And rape and loot at night,
And rape, and rape, and loot at night.

Hark the Heralds Loudly Cry
by Sir Steven MacEanruig

Hark! The heralds loudly cry
Who will live and who will die?
Tourney time is here once more
Kingdom’s crown we’re fighting for.

Join us on this tourney day,
Joyously we’ll maim and slay,
Hark! The heralds loudly sing,
Sword on helm is heard to ring;
Hark! The heralds loudly sing,
One of us will soon be King.

What Knight is This?
by Sir William the Lucky

What knight is this, who, laid to rest
In cold dark ground is sleeping?
The Western King destruction brings,
And Eastern men are weeping.
This, this ? Cariadoc!
Who came to scoff and died of shock.
Haste, haste to lay the sod
O’er faded hopes of glory.

SCA, Society for Creative Anachronism, medieval, middle ages, renaissance, Great Dark Horde, Horde, horde friend, filk, song, songs, filks, music

1. A large period pavilion that I can erect with just one other person to help and which I can stand up in.
2. A genuine belly dancing belt made with real Mideast coins.
3. A nice comfortable period “looking” bed to go with the pavilion.
4. A brand new suit of armor custom made for me.
5. A real “hero” sword (to quote LOTR making of) to wear for show.
6. A pair of comfortable period chairs.
7. A portable camping oven… not period.
8. Several bolts of tapestry and velvet cloth.
9. A nice, mismatched set of tableware for feasts.
10. An ice chest with really good wheels that roll easily over gravel.
11. A beautiful period parasol… if there even is such a thing.
12. A loom big enough to make a two person blankets and rugs but which can be broken down for easy transport.
13. A personal lady in waiting…

SCA, Society for Creative Anachronism, medieval, middle ages, renaissance

I used to collect an entertaining trivia column written by L. M. Boyd. The column, “Q & A: Puzzles, Predictions, Problems,” included medieval and ancient period trivia. Here are some more of my favorite excerpts. I hope you enjoy the silly stuff.

1 – Mary Queen of Scots is said to have owned a lot of timepieces with cases shaped like human skulls.

2 – Why did Genghis Khan want his cavalry to ride mares? So they could live on milk when necessary.

3 – EARLIEST VACCINE: In the 11th century, a Chinese Buddhist nun devised the oldest known form of vaccination. She powdered the dried scabs of smallpox victims and blew the powder up the noses of those she wished to immunize. In much of Asia, it remained the standard inoculation until relatively recent years.

To my extreme surprise I have been tagged for a meme by Elisa over at The Book Stacks. It’s that “Write Seven Unusual Facts About Yourself” meme. Well, since this is Sunday and I don’t normally post on Sundays, I am going to feel free (insert amusing physical gesture here) to make this non-SCA related.

Lori Scott

1) I was the first person to eat a hamburger at the McDonald’s that opened in my home town when I was four years old. There was a picture of me, freckled, tiny and very cute biting into the burger on the front page of the Tracy Press, our local paper. It was a big deal because it was the first fast food restaurant that the then little town had ever had.

2) My parents and sister are all brunettes. Whenever anyone asks my father where I got my red hair he always says, “From the milkman. He loved coming to our house.” At that point, my mother always smacks him.

3) I used to leave messages stuffed inside Pepsi bottles (back when they were still glass) on the roof of our garage. I was hoping that aliens would land and find them. I was about six. My father almost had a heart attack when he realized I’d been climbing up there.

4) I was fascinated by Egypt as a child. As a result, I buried maybe half a dozen damaged Barbie dolls in tombs I dug in the dirt of our back yard. I think some of them are still there to this day. I certainly never found them again.

5) When I was growing up, I used to think that my house was haunted by a six-year-old girl named Sarah who had been killed by indians. Imagine my dismay when I found out there were no indians in our area, or at least none of the violent kind.

6) I learned to read before kindergarten, and I’ve been writing fiction since first grade. My mother still has a typed up copy of my first story, “Robby the Robin.” Instead of overalls, my characters wore bird-er-alls. J

7) My best friend, Emily also thought that she had a ghost at her house. Her ghost was named Becky and used to come visit my ghost. We were very creative children. When Emily went to visit her grandparents in Oregon, she wrote me letters and Becky, who’d gone with her, wrote to Sarah.

Well, now that you’re done laughing your head off at what a goofy kid I was, here are the rules for the people that I’ve tagged.

The rules:
Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to then report this on their own blog with their 7 things as well as these rules. They then need to tag 7 others and list their names on their blog. They are also asked to leave a comment for each of the tagged, letting them know they have been tagged and to read the blog.

I tag:

Gillian at Food Past
Cyndi at Bead Arts
Carrie at Wax and Bubbles
Margie at Battlestar Galactica
Marco at Hot or Not Beauty
Karen at Discussing Breast Cancer
Mark at Get Incensed

Society for Creative Anachronism, anachronist, renaissance, meme, medieval, middle ages, history, 7 things, seven things, SCA, Egypt, ghost, ghosts, aliens, McDonald’s, Tracy Press, The Tracy Press, milkman, Pepsi

After my disastrous first SCA meeting, I shied away from the Society for Creative Anachronism and most of what it represented. But I simply couldn’t dodge my love of the middles ages and renaissance era. So Diana, my sorority big sister and I played around with the idea of joining the Scottish guild at the Novato renaissance fair. We attended several meetings and even started on our garb.

As an aside, garb should never, NEVER, be referred to as a costume. That borders on heresy in just about any historical reenactment group. You’ll learn more about this in an upcoming installment of News for Newbies: “Garb that Grabs You.”

Now, back to the story. *ahem* We attended several meetings of the Scottish guild and even started on our garb. And, no, women did NOT wear kilts. In a twist of fate that no longer surprises me, we gradually came to realize that several members of the guild were also members of the SCA. They used the same garb for both groups, showed photos of events that they’d attended, talked about the SCA constantly, and generally began to make the society seem a little less strange.

Then, catastrophe struck. The University of California raised its registration fees. Both Diana and I were putting ourselves through school, and neither us could easily afford the new reg fee hike.

As a result, many expenditures had to be cut, and the first one to go was the Scottish guild and working the ren fair. Then, at the end of my sophomore year, Diana changed her major and transferred to a university in Southern California, and I found that I’d lost the only one of my friends who shared my interest in the middle ages and living history. It would be a year and a half before I met another person who loved history as much as I did – and she was already in the SCA.

BTW: If you just gotta have that bear, check out this website.

Heritage of Scotland.com

SCA, Society for Creative Anachronism, middles ages, renaissance, sorority, Scottish, Novato, garb, costume, historical reenactment, kilts, University of California, living history, teddy bear, history, toys

One of the nicest things about the modern internet is the ability to research truly obscure subjects at a moments notice.

To my surprise, my attempt to find information about medieval shoes produced not a small bit of midly useful information, but an entire manual about the subject.

Footwear of the Middles Ages

The site includes a glossary of shoe related terms, details on how shoes were made, explanations of the differences between right, left and straight shoes, and many very useful illustrations. The section on how to make medieval shoes for modern activties uses close-up color photos to explain each step. A truly great resource for any SCA newbie.

Shoes came in all varieties, and changed greatly based on the era and location. A viking and a celt would not have worn the same shoes even if they lives during the same time period. One nice thing about this site, is that it specifies which shoes were worn in which areas as well as eras.

Finally, the site has a comprehensive bibliography for your further study. So have fun, and get to work on that garb.

research, obscure, medieval, shoe, shoes, SCA, viking, celt, garb, Society for Creative Anachronism, renaissance, history, how-to, boot, boots

Doll Patterns for Medieval Clothing

Infinite Freedom

This website is way too much fun. They have doll patterns for a number of medieval dresses. They specifially cater to the “princess” look, including the Disney phenomenum, but their historical patterns are actually quite good. Any one of these could make an excellent gift for an aspiring seamstress, or the finished product would delight just about any little girl. Be sure to check them out.

doll, patterns, medieval, Disney, historical, seamstress, girl, SCA

Barnes & Noble has a great suggestion for a cheap and yet interesting Father’s Day gift for the medieval minded.

Medieval Combat by Hans Talhoffer of the 15th century, and translated by Mark Rector, is all about sword fighting and close combat. It included more than 200 useful illustrations. Best yet, it costs less than $10.00 and would be a great addition to any history buff’s personal library.

It can be purchased from Barnes & Noble at the link below.

Medieval Combat

Barnes & Noble, Father’s Day, medieval, Hans Talhoffer, 15th century, Mark Rector, sword, combat, history, SCA, Society for Creative Anachronism, anachronist

The Society for Creative Anachronism Coat of Arms

Hello and welcome to this week’s installment of News for Newbies. Today’s topic is about as basic as we can get – what is the SCA?

While the topic may be basic, the answer is a bit more complex.

The SCA is, in no particular order:

1) a corporation
2) a volunteer organization
3) a not-for-profit group
4) a historical society
5) a society devoted to research
6) a recreational club

First, and most importantly, the SCA is a recreational club whose members share a love of history. They express that love by getting together and re-creating the crafts, social occasions, and idealized codes of chivalry of the middle ages. Minus the fleas and dysentery, naturally. The SCA is not simply a different kind of renaissance fair, though many members of the society also enjoy attending the occasional ren fair. One of the most important differences between the SCA and the traditional renaissance fair is that there are no customers (more commonly known as mundanes) at SCA gathering. At a society event, everyone is in on the playacting.

The corporation, based out of California, is commonly known as SCA Inc. It exists for the sole purpose of handling all the legal aspects of the society. These include such trivial matters as the society’s not for-profit status and maintaining insurance for the events held by organization. The SCA is not-for-profit, because it was never intended to make money off of its members or events. While some members of the society pay yearly dues, such dues are not required to attend events. And the entrance fee for the events themselves exists solely to pay for such unessential matters as port-a-potties and rental of the sites themselves. The bureaucracy that keeps the events in gear is run almost entirely by volunteers. What’s more, members of the society often volunteer to share their specialized knowledge and skills with local schools, community clubs and anyone else who requests instruction or assistance in their understanding of the middle ages.

Finally, the SCA is home to many avid and skilled researchers, both with and without formal training in the field. After all, the point of the club is to bring the past into the future as authentically as possible, to willfully create anachronisms on a daily basis around the world.

And that is why the organization is called the Society for Creative Anachronism.

SCA, corporation, volunteer, historical, society, history, chivalry, middle ages, renaissance, mundanes, SCA Inc, events, past, Society for Creative Anachronism

My First Meeting

After my unexpected encounter with SCAdians on the UC Davis quad, I decided to check out a Society for Creative Anachronism meeting. I figured it was the only way I’d find out what the duct-tape obsessed stick jocks were really all about. So my big sister (sorority - not biological) and I scoped out the time and place of the next gathering, 7pm in a basement room of the student union. Much to out chagrin, this was not the ideal first meeting to attend.

It was dance practice.

The minute we arrived, we were both beset by long-haired, middle-aged men in tights who asked if we needed partners for the promenade. Now, looking back on all of this, I know these gentlemen couldn’t gave been more than 45 years old, and were just being considerate to the unexpected newbies. At the time, however, it completely freaked me out. I was a college freshmen, and so totally sheltered that this was just too much. I bolted.

It would be two years, and many renaissance fairs later before I worked up the courage to try attending another SCA meeting.

SCAdians, UC Davis, Society for Creative Anachronism, stick jocks, sorority, dance, tights, promenade, newbies, renaissance, SCA

The Society for Creative Anachronism, more commonly known as the SCA is a worldwide, long term, wackily wonderful group that your average mundane has never bloody heard of. My own first encounter with the SCA (pronounced ess-see-ay on the west cost and sk-au on the east coast) was, I fear, typical – aka: confusing. (more…)

Society for Creative Anachronism, SCA