SCA Life

(Today’s guest blogger is Eideann. I will return tomorrow. Meanwhile, enjoy Eideann’s Monday Memories.)

Catslyn is still sick. You should see her . . . the pathetic child mopes around the house coughing and asking if I think she still has a fever. Thus, you will have to wait another week for the Coffee House Part 3. In the meantime, here are some of my memories. (Be afraid, be very afraid.)

My first event was the Pennsic War. Whenever I tell that to people who are familiar with SCA events, I get very strong reactions. Some declare their undying jealousy, some just gape in astonishment. One particularly enthusiastic young man, whom I met during a weeklong church conference, jumped up from the table where we were eating breakfast, bounced around the cafeteria hooting and hollering, and then came back to sit down. Then I tell them that my second event was the Pennsic War and their astonishment knows no bounds.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Pennsic War, let me give you a little info. It is a yearly conflict between the East Kingdom and the Middle, and it first took place in 1971. The winner of the war gets bragging rights, the loser keeps Pittsburgh, thus the city of Pittsburgh may not be in the same kingdom from year to year. It’s held at Cooper’s Lake Campground in western Pennsylvania. When I first went, there were 10,000 attendees. Just imagine a camping event the size of a small town. The battles are huge, the Merchants Row is enormous, and people come from all over the country – all over the world.

The year was 1986, I was fifteen years old, and I knew nothing whatsoever about the SCA. I went to Pennsic with pieces of costumes from various shows I’d been in, like Fiddler on the Roof, a Renaissance Fair outfit, and my one piece of genuine garb, a Kinsale cloak that my grandmother had made me with Pennsic in mind. I had no idea what I was getting into.

It was glorious. Everyone called everyone else “my lord” and “my lady,” and all the guys, even the ones my age, were polite and well behaved. People wore the most amazing and beautiful clothes and sang songs and held dances. Many tents were the standard variety you can buy at outdoor stores, but quite a number were gorgeous pavilions done in medieval style. Most people camped in groups, households or even larger regional communities, so walking through the camping areas feels like moving from one neighborhood into another. There are signposts, group banners, and a great many people, all of whom are happy to help a lost traveler.

I knew there was fighting . . . somewhere. There was the Woods battle, which didn’t get much of an audience. It was, after all, in the woods, which made it difficult to watch. All those trees kind of blocked the action. I was vaguely aware, too, of the Field and Bridge battles, but I managed to attend my first War without seeing any of the battles at all. My lasting impression of Pennsic War XV was of a vast medieval mall.

So I could earn some spending money (and – I suspect – to keep me out from under foot), my aunt suggested that I work in the booth belonging to a friend of hers, Medieval Miscellanea. I agreed with alacrity, and sold goblets, t-shirts and various other items with a will. I doubt it will surprise you to discover that I left my job there with slightly less money than I started with.

My chief discovery at Pennsic, however, was a deep appreciation for blades. One day, as I wandered Merchants Row with my aunt, we paused at a booth where there were many axes for sale. I was entranced, and while my aunt and the merchant talked, I gazed raptly at the weapons. Then the merchant caught sight of me attempting to lift a battle axe that was half my height. I’m told I had a look of glee on my face, and he was pleased to make an alternative suggestion. He turned around, opened a box and pulled out the most beautiful object I’d seen in my life. A single bitted axe, approximately 14” in length, with a cherry wood handle. He handed it to me and I held it in my hands for a moment, drinking in the sight of it, then turned to my aunt. According to her my expression had shifted from mere glee to unholy glee, and she could not resist the pleading in my eyes. In later years I named her Brunhilde (the axe, not the aunt), and she has a place of honor in my home. Also on that trip, I bought my very own dagger of Solingen steel.

My mother was, needless to say, quite nonplused by my armed state upon my return home. My classmates didn’t quite know what to make of me, either. I took great joy in startling them.

Classmate: What did you do last summer?
Me: I went on a Girl Scout trip, and then I went to the War.
Classmate: Girl Scouts, huh . . . wait, did you say ‘the War’?

I was known as a goody-two-shoes, a girl who was probably more boring than English class. The Girl Scout trip came as no surprise to anyone. The War on the other hand – it gave me great pleasure to explain my summer vacation, and the booty I brought back from it.

Three years later I attended Pennsic XVIII, but that is a story for another day.

FYI, Pennsic XXXVI is upcoming. Just click the link for more information about that event.

(Due to my increasing inability to write coherently while taking codeine, Eideann has graciously agreed to write guest blogs for today and Monday. Today’s topic: bards. Monday you will be introduced to the wonder of the Medieval Mall! Be sure to check out Eideann’s blog at Fan Fiction Frenzy. Take it away, Eidz!)

I am told that this is Friday Fun Facts. So now I must come up with facts that are fun about the SCA.

Hmmmm . . .

Well, when I tell my mundane friends about the SCA, I typically tell them we’re a group of people who dress up like the Middle Ages and whack at each other with rattan sticks. It is a simplistic description, but then the people I’m usually talking to think the Middle Ages, also known as the Dark Ages, were a time when it was dark and people didn’t have sex. (No, however much I might like to be, I’m not kidding.) As a result, I tend to stick to the obvious

Well, needless to say, the SCA is a lot more than funny clothes and martial arts involving rattan. I thought I’d share some information about one of my favorite activities.

Live music and poetry were a big thing in the Middle Ages. After all, with no television or radio or CD players, they had to do something. If you’ve been following this blog, you know that people do a fair amount of singing in the SCA, and a lot of it seems to be to the tunes of popular modern songs. While this is true, there are also folks who write original music, and people who write words to ancient tunes. Sometimes you run across the ambitious soul who translates medieval songs into modern English.

To enjoy this music, people gather in what’s called a bardic circle. At outdoor events, this often strongly resembles gathering around a campfire for music, like one might do at scout camp. Group sing-alongs do occur, but bardic circles also include solo singing, poetry readings and storytelling. One thing to note, if you participate in a bardic circle, there is no requirement that your voice be anything beyond the ordinary. People are gathered to enjoy the sharing. Vocal talent (or lack thereof) is a side issue. To someone of mediocre voice who nevertheless loves to sing, this can be enormously liberating. (I should know, unlike Catslyn I have a perfectly mediocre voice.)

At a bardic circle, everyone typically participates to one degree or another. You can sing, you can suggest a song for everyone to sing together, you can tell a story, you can read a poem (by yourself or others). The only requirement is that if you present something that you did not create, you attribute it the best you can. Saying, “I didn’t write this, I don’t know who did, but it’s fun,” is usually sufficient if that’s all the information you have. Unlike the campfires some of us attended as kids, there is not typically someone who is in charge. Everyone contributes, making it very much a community event.

If you go to a bardic circle and feel shy about participating, don’t be afraid to say so. You may pass until you get more comfortable with joining in. Attend a few, feel your way, and maybe one day you’ll be competing to become Bard of your local region.

Today I am privileged to present to you another article written by long time SCA member Eideann. And be sure to check out her blog, Fan Fiction Frenzy.

The Origins of Drama Throughout History

Ancient Rome is famous for its bread and circuses. Nearly everyone knows about Christians being fed to lions, and other such gladiatorial events. These are the topics of movies and even Star Trek episodes. Little popular attention is given, however, to the subject of late Roman theatre. In the time of the Emperor Heliogablius, not only were live sex acts performed onstage if called for in a play, but the slave-actor who played a character who died during the plot was often executed to add realism. This led to the early Christian empire banning theatrical performances of all kinds.

Ironically enough, theatre began again in Europe in much the same fashion as it had started in the first place. In ancient Greece, theatre began as a religious celebration. In the 9th century, some parts of the liturgy began to resemble dramatic dialogues, and by the 10th century theatrical performances started being added to the masses of some of the major Christian holidays, such as Easter and Christmas.

LITURGICAL PLAYS

The earliest recognized “play” in medieval Europe is known as the “quem quaeritis” (“whom do you seek” in Latin). It was part of the Easter celebration, and was performed by four monks. The first monk comes in and sits quietly near a symbolic sepulchre that has been constructed at the altar. Shortly thereafter, the remaining three monks enter, representing the three Marys, Mary Magdeline, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, and Mary the mother of Christ. They have come to annoint Christ’s body with oil, but they find that the tomb is open and empty. The first monk, portraying an angel, says “quem quaeritis,” then proceeds to explain that Christ has been resurrected. The three Marys then begin rejoicing, and tell the gathered monks the news, which ends the play. It is a very simple narrative, and very short. The longest version I have seen is seven lines of dialogue. Nevertheless, it is indubitably a dramatic presentation.

Now, these earliest dramas were part of monastic celebrations, and as such were generally not seen by lay audiences. Over the next two centuries, the use of liturgical drama spread into the masses attended by laypersons, but it remained a part of the church service until the 12th century. It also started to be written not only in Latin but in the vernacular languages, thus allowing everyone to understand it.

CYCLE PLAYS

Eventually, drama began to move outside, onto the church steps. It continued to be scriptural in nature, but was no longer directly part of the mass. Over the 12th and 13th centuries, drama remained more or less stable. The next major development was the Corpus Christie Cycle Plays that began in the late 14th century. The largest number of these cyclical play groups are to be found in the north of England during this period. They were often performed on the Feast of Corpus Christie which was established to celebrate the eucharist in 1311. The plays were put on by the guilds of the towns who sponsored them with some help from the church.

Nevertheless, they were largely secular in nature. Together, a cycle group tell most of the bible story, starting with Creation and ending with Judgement Day. They are the first medieval dramas to include comedy in any degree, and some are enormously funny, especially those of the Wakefield Cycle (also known as the Townley Cycle), which is believed to have been written largely by one man. Since all of these dramas were written for celebration of God, most medieval authors do not claim credit for their work.

In the Wakefield Cycle, there are two versions of the nativity, of which the second is more enjoyable. During The Second Shepherd’s Play, three shepherds are watching their flocks by night, and one of their sheep is stolen from them by a fellow named Mak. They go after him to get their sheep back, but he has hidden it in a cradle in his house and pretends that the sheep is really a child his wife has lately delivered. They are of course, angry and search for the sheep, but eventually they give up and offer presents to the “child” and thus find the sheep. However, instead of seeking justice which would mean Mak’s death, they give Mak a hard time and then go off to watch their sheep again. Then the angel host comes and tells them to go see the birth of the Christ child.
The Cycle plays often include contemporary humor, political jokes, and local personalities, and often offer magnificent insight into medieval town life.

MYSTERY AND MORALITY PLAYS

As the theatre became more secular, it left the scripture behind. Mystery plays, also called miracle plays are almost as old as liturgical plays. They treat the lives, miracles and converstions of the saints. Again, they started in monasteries, praising the patron saints of given monasteries, but as they, too, spread among the common folk. They often included long accounts of apocryphal events that merely added to the romance and adventure of the tale. For instance, in an English play about Mary Magdalene, there is a sea voyage and a wife separated from her husband. (Later they are reunited.) This is far from being true to scripture.

Morality plays were allegorical tales about the suffering of ordinary men. They started around the late 14th century, and grew rapidly in popularity. A good example of a morality play is Everyman. It is of English origin, but more closely resembles European styles. It is a serious play about “Everyman” facing death and the concomitant emotional stress. Here is a list of the characters in the play:
god
messenger
dethe
everyman
felawship
kinrede
cosyn
goodes
good dedes

Today I have a very special treat for my readers as I am posting an article written by Eideann (her online name) back in the days when she was the scribe for the Barony of Fettburg in the Principality of Cynagua in the Kingdom of the West, and she published the barony’s newsletter, The Skald. In her mundane life, Eideann has a B.A. in English from UC Davis, and grammar is one of her all time favorite hobbies.

Yes, you heard that correctly. The woman adores grammar, syntax, and all things language related. So sit back, read, and learn some things you probably never knew before. Oh, and please leave comments as Eideann craves feedback more than anything else. Without further ado, I present, “A Jumble of Jargon!”

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A Jumble of Jargon!

I would like to examine the jargon of the SCA from an etymological standpoint. To simplify this, I have selected seven jargon words from the speech of the society: autocrat, garb, household, mundane, offside, privy and tourney. All of these words have meanings outside of the SCA. Only two of them have the same meaning outside the SCA as they have in it, and they are both archaic terms not much used in modern speech. I then looked up all of these words in four dictionaries, ranging from Samuel Johnson’s work in 1755 to “Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary” published in 1988. I compared the definitions I found with the meanings these words have taken on within the Society. Other sources I’ve used for this paper include “The Known World Handbook, Forward Into the Past: An Introductory Guide to the SCA”, and a book by Mary Monica Pulver, “Knight Fall”, originally published as “Murder at the War”. This last is a murder mystery that takes place entirely at an actual SCA event that occurs every August in Pennsylvania, the Pennsic War.

Mary Monica Pulver

The first word I have selected is autocrat, which in the society is the person who is in charge of any given event. He or she is the Society’s legal representative at the event, and plans all the details of an event. This person has ultimate authority over the site and those on it for the duration of the event, and in fact can have people removed if he or she has a valid reason. In the earliest two dictionaries I checked, autocrat did not appear, however, the word it derives from, autocracy, did. The gist of the definitions for autocracy is an all-powerful government. The definition of autocrat in “The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles” reads “a monarch of uncontrolled authority; an absolute, irresponsible governor.” The definition in “Webster’s” reads “1 : a person (as a monarch) ruling with absolute authority 2 : one who has undisputed influence or power.”

The source for the SCA usage of autocrat is evident; however, the SCA meaning does not conform precisely to modern usage. To be called an autocrat outside the SCA would generally be considered an insult, for it implies a person who makes decisions without consulting any other person. Within the SCA, the term is more limited: it refers to only one person at a given event and that person only has that title for one event. It is not insulting, but merely stands as an official title. Furthermore, the position of autocrat is strictly limited by the rules and traditions of the SCA. This word was undoubtedly selected as the name of that office because of its slightly archaic-sounding quality, though it is not medieval in origin but originated in 1803.

The second word I selected is the word garb, which has referred to clothing all the way back to Johnson’s dictionary. According to Johnson, the word originated as garbe in France, but both the “OED” and “Webster’s” recognize a connection to garbo in Old Italian which had Teutonic origins. One of the rules of any SCA event is that all participants must wear clothing that at least approximates a style current between the years 650 AD and 1650 AD. Thus, in the SCA, the term garb refers only and specifically to clothing that is medieval in style.

This word’s antonym, mundanes, will be addressed later. The closest a person can come in a standard dictionary to this meaning is the fourth definition in the “OED”: “Fashion of dress, esp. official or other distinctive dress.” However, one refers not to SCA garb but simply to garb. The clothing is not referred to as a costume because that implies either something made to be worn only once, or a certain theatricality that does not exist in the SCA.

The third word I selected is household. According to all the dictionaries I consulted, household refers to either the members of a family living together or all those who live in the same house, and also to the management of said group. Within the SCA, a household is similar, but by no means the same. Most SCA events occur on campgrounds and last between two and three days. Economically, it’s more feasible to gather several people together to share tents, food and camping space than to camp by oneself. Thus, households were born. A household is a group of people who camp together regularly and who generally share food and camping expenses. Nearly always the members of a household consider each other friends, but they don’t always live together and they’re not always related in any mundane sense.

Households are recognized by the SCA as a whole as distinct units, and can register heraldic devices to identify themselves. Fighting members of households usually fight together in melees, and will sometimes hire themselves out as mercenaries for large battles or wars. The household is an important subgroup in the SCA.

An important word to understand in an SCA context is the word mundane. In ordinary English, mundane is strictly used as an adjective, and it means simply “belonging to the world.” It derives originally from the low Latin word mundanus meaning more or less the same thing. In the SCA, the word mundane has many uses. It is used as an adjective to refer to things that are outside of The Known World. From the SCA usage of mundane another common word has derived: mundanes, which means modern clothing. The SCA usage of mundane may have derived from the fantasy writings of an early SCA member, Piers Anthony. In Anthony’s Xanth novels there are two major regions, Xanth and Mundania. Those who live in Mundania are called Mundanes.

The fighting term offside did not show up in the first two dictionaries, but did in the last two as a sports term meaning “illegally in advance of the ball or puck.” In SCA fighting, the term has two meanings. First, a person fights offside when he or she fights with his or her nondominant hand, whether or not that dominant hand is the right hand. In the Middle Ages, it was strongly preferred that every fighter use his right hand so that he would not be at a disadvantage when fighting right-handed opponents. This is also preferred in the SCA, but not with the same zeal, so there are quite a number of offside fighters in the SCA. Frequently, a canny fighter will learn to fight equally well with both hands, so that if he loses an arm, he can simply switch hands and fight offside. Another meaning of the term refers to a fight between two people using opposite hands. “I fought him offside” also means a person fighting left-handed against a person fighting right-handed, regardless of dominance. This is a notoriously difficult situation because each fighter is moving essentially backwards in relation to the other.

The term privy has, since the time of Johnson’s dictionary, had essentially the same meaning, i.e. first private and second an outdoor toilet. It is less common in modern America to use the term privy than the term outhouse to refer to an outdoor toilet, which is no doubt why the SCA chose the word privy. It has a medieval lineage according to the “OED,” which identifies it as originating in Middle English. Webster’s dates it as 1548. Within the SCA, the term privy refers to port-a-potties, and the term flush privy refers to the flush toilets available at some campsites. Mundanes, hearing a reference to flush privies, often laugh and ask if that isn’t a contradiction in terms. However, within the SCA, there is a concerted effort to avoid overt modern terminology. For example, one speaks of farspeakers rather than phones, dragons and chargers rather than cars and motorcycles, and privies rather than bathrooms.

The term that has changed the least since its first placement in the dictionary to its adoption by the SCA is tourney, which is short for tournament. It shows up in the Johnson dictionary, the “OED” and “Webster’s,” but is absent from Woodyard’s 1848 dictionary. I presume that this is because the word has largely fallen out of use in standard English. However, neither the “OED” nor “Webster’s” identifies the word as archaic. SCA members seldom use the word tournament when referring to SCA events. We talk of Crown Tourney, and ask if Obediah will be at the tourney this weekend. Most weekend SCA events are or include tourneys. The word tourney, in Johnson’s dictionary as in the “OED,” is referred back to tournament where the main definition is given. The most complete definition is given in the “OED”:

“I. orig. A martial sport or exercise of the middle ages[sic], in which two parties of combatants, mounted and in armour, fought with blunted weapons for the prize of valour; later, a meeting at an appointed time and place for knightly sport and exercise.”

This definition closely describes SCA combat in all particulars except one — SCA combat is almost never mounted. One small point, SCA fighters do not use blunted weapons, they use weapons made from rattan, padding and duct tape. There is no tangible difference between the standard English definition of tourney and the SCA usage. Thus this is less a jargon term than a reintroduction of an old form. On the other hand, tourney can be used as an adjective, as in tourney box, typically a box that can contain any sort of gear one might require at an SCA event, from garb to armor; from cooking gear to weapons.

Any organization has its own form of jargon that is confusing to those outside it. The SCA’s can be daunting because of its sheer density in conversation. This can be understood quite simply. All sports groups have a set of jargon words which relate to the rules of the sport. All knitting, sewing, cooking, etc. clubs have a jargon that relates specifically to the given craft. All research groups have jargon that relates to the topic being researched and studied. Well, the SCA combines all three of these types of organizations in a peculiar cohesion that creates an enormous jargon all its own.

Society for Creative Anachronism, anachronist, sword fight, privy, UC Davis, reenactment, mundane, garb, Mary Monica Pulver, Murder at the War, Knight Fall, SCA, etymology, etymological, jargon, household, Samuel Johnson, Webster’s Dictionary, offside, autocrat, heraldry, herald, privy, privies, tourney, tournament, renaissance, medieval, middle ages, history, knights, knight