Tailteann Games
I'll back up and cover the previous few unjournalled weeks sooner or later (hopefully), but for now I want to get this past weekend in here before I forget it all.
This past weekend was Tailteann Games. For those not familiar, Tailteann Games is a local festival held for the first time this year by feygirl and drcat. The Games took the form of a set of athletic, bardic, and fine arts competitions held all weekend in honor of Lugh. For those of a Hellenic persuasion, it was much like an extended agon. Festival-goers were divided into three tribes, and there were both individual and tribe competitions. Winners of individual competitions won recognition for both themselves and their tribes, and the tribe with the most victories at the end of the weekend was declared the winner.
Unfortunately because of my work schedule radiantbaby and I arrived late Friday night, after most of the athletic competitions. Boar Tribe -- the tribe she and I were in -- hadn't fared well in the competitions that day. Fortunately that evening was the beginning of the bardic competitions -- an area in which our tribe was much stronger. There were excellent performances from every tribe. We had musical performances both solo and group, accompanied and a cappella. We had fireside tales and ritual theater. All in all it was an excellent evening.
As people were running low on things to perform, I started to feel like I wanted to present something. This is a really huge thing for me. See, music for me is a hugely emotional thing. Even moreso when I'm the one making it. More when it's something I'm putting feeling into rather than just some fluff to toss out. Immeasurably more when I'm actually performing in front of people. I don't do that, like ever: the raw emotional opening has always been too difficult for me. I'm almost tearing up here just thinking about it. With some loving support from radiantbaby, though, I made my way up into the circle. After a short introduction, and shaking at the knees more than a little bit, I sang Enya's Smaointe from her Shepherd Moons album. I love that song. I'd post the lyrics, but I can't for the life of me find a site that posts both the correct Irish (there are a lot of sites riddled with typos) as well as a translation that doesn't come across incredibly flat. I noticed a few minor problems as I was singing: I think I swapped a couple of lyrics at one point, and I didn't do well enunciating the weird Irish consonants. On the whole, though, I thought I did pretty well. It seemed well-received, at least. I was certainly proud just to have actually overcome my fear by getting up there and doing it.
After the bardic competition I was basically energized and awake. Many people went to bed, but I stayed up for the cattle raids. For those not there, one of the tribe events was to be a cattle raid. Everyone brought with them a few gallons of water, marked up and dubbed cows. They were to be held in a pen somewhere in the campsite. Raiders and defenders would have boffer weapons. Since I was awake anyway, I stayed up guarding the cows. Well after midnight we were raided by a team of about 8 or 9 members of the other two tribes. I put up a strong fight but ultimately was killed. The remainder of the evening passed mostly uneventfully.
I actually don't remember much of Saturday. It was a huge bustle of continued activity and sleepy recovery. Boar Tribe spent some time together practicing a few group numbers for that night's bardic circle. I spent a little time wandering around socializing. I spent some time helping set up the Great Hall for dinner. There was also a very fun "head toss" competition -- basically dodge ball. It was fun, and I did very well, lasting into the last few people. I had my shirt off for the game -- another thing I really just *don't* *do*. Later in the evening there was another large cow raid, this time on Stag Tribe.
I didn't perform anything solo at Saturday evening's bardic circle. My cattle defense the previous evening found me a place as a fearsome giant in a tale of the raid told by (lj-less?) Talyn. I also took part in a very nice performance at the very end by all of Boar Tribe (with help from barefoot1342) that inolved some of us chanting, others singing (song and chant by kittyavatar), and others dancing while myndsweep swung fire poi. That came together rather nicely, I thought, and led into the awards ceremony and then dinner.
The awards ceremony was quite nice. Awards were given out for each of Friday's athletic competitions, and then the bardic and fine arts competitions were divided into categories for judging and awards. I was quite overwhelmed to hear my own name called for the solo a cappella prize, to the point that I didn't really catch most of the others except to note that they were all quite well-deserved.
Dinner was tasty barbecue, and I spent a bit of time helping clean up afterward before heading back to my camp. I decided I wanted to wander, though, so I headed up to Stag Tribe camp, where I chatted a bit before some tribe members up there began drumming. I love drumming -- even if I'm not so good at it -- and I hadn't had a chance to do it in a while, so I ran back to camp to grab my drum. We drummed for a few hours before we finally started getting tired and all went to bed.
Sunday was sleepy. Everybody got up late. One of my tribe mates, (lj-less?) Heather, held a very interesting and all-too-short discussion about myth and folklore, and shortly after that everybody went to the final tribe competition: the tug-of war. My own Boar Tribe was little more than a warm up for Stag Tribe, but Horse Tribe put up a strong fight before eventually falling to Stag Tribe's organization and strength. The tug-of-war led into the closing ceremonies and tribe awards presentation. Boar Tribe had made a huge comeback, but it wasn't enough to put us in the running for the final prize. That was a close run between Horse and Stag Tribes, but the tug-of-war awarded Stag just enough points to pull ahead and win the weekend.
After that, we all packed up and ran out to get out of the way of Hurricane Katrina.
More coming soon (the weekend wasn't actually over after all that)...
(LJ Spellchecker Genius of the Day: Smaointe -> Sonnet)
This past weekend was Tailteann Games. For those not familiar, Tailteann Games is a local festival held for the first time this year by feygirl and drcat. The Games took the form of a set of athletic, bardic, and fine arts competitions held all weekend in honor of Lugh. For those of a Hellenic persuasion, it was much like an extended agon. Festival-goers were divided into three tribes, and there were both individual and tribe competitions. Winners of individual competitions won recognition for both themselves and their tribes, and the tribe with the most victories at the end of the weekend was declared the winner.
Unfortunately because of my work schedule radiantbaby and I arrived late Friday night, after most of the athletic competitions. Boar Tribe -- the tribe she and I were in -- hadn't fared well in the competitions that day. Fortunately that evening was the beginning of the bardic competitions -- an area in which our tribe was much stronger. There were excellent performances from every tribe. We had musical performances both solo and group, accompanied and a cappella. We had fireside tales and ritual theater. All in all it was an excellent evening.
As people were running low on things to perform, I started to feel like I wanted to present something. This is a really huge thing for me. See, music for me is a hugely emotional thing. Even moreso when I'm the one making it. More when it's something I'm putting feeling into rather than just some fluff to toss out. Immeasurably more when I'm actually performing in front of people. I don't do that, like ever: the raw emotional opening has always been too difficult for me. I'm almost tearing up here just thinking about it. With some loving support from radiantbaby, though, I made my way up into the circle. After a short introduction, and shaking at the knees more than a little bit, I sang Enya's Smaointe from her Shepherd Moons album. I love that song. I'd post the lyrics, but I can't for the life of me find a site that posts both the correct Irish (there are a lot of sites riddled with typos) as well as a translation that doesn't come across incredibly flat. I noticed a few minor problems as I was singing: I think I swapped a couple of lyrics at one point, and I didn't do well enunciating the weird Irish consonants. On the whole, though, I thought I did pretty well. It seemed well-received, at least. I was certainly proud just to have actually overcome my fear by getting up there and doing it.
After the bardic competition I was basically energized and awake. Many people went to bed, but I stayed up for the cattle raids. For those not there, one of the tribe events was to be a cattle raid. Everyone brought with them a few gallons of water, marked up and dubbed cows. They were to be held in a pen somewhere in the campsite. Raiders and defenders would have boffer weapons. Since I was awake anyway, I stayed up guarding the cows. Well after midnight we were raided by a team of about 8 or 9 members of the other two tribes. I put up a strong fight but ultimately was killed. The remainder of the evening passed mostly uneventfully.
I actually don't remember much of Saturday. It was a huge bustle of continued activity and sleepy recovery. Boar Tribe spent some time together practicing a few group numbers for that night's bardic circle. I spent a little time wandering around socializing. I spent some time helping set up the Great Hall for dinner. There was also a very fun "head toss" competition -- basically dodge ball. It was fun, and I did very well, lasting into the last few people. I had my shirt off for the game -- another thing I really just *don't* *do*. Later in the evening there was another large cow raid, this time on Stag Tribe.
I didn't perform anything solo at Saturday evening's bardic circle. My cattle defense the previous evening found me a place as a fearsome giant in a tale of the raid told by (lj-less?) Talyn. I also took part in a very nice performance at the very end by all of Boar Tribe (with help from barefoot1342) that inolved some of us chanting, others singing (song and chant by kittyavatar), and others dancing while myndsweep swung fire poi. That came together rather nicely, I thought, and led into the awards ceremony and then dinner.
The awards ceremony was quite nice. Awards were given out for each of Friday's athletic competitions, and then the bardic and fine arts competitions were divided into categories for judging and awards. I was quite overwhelmed to hear my own name called for the solo a cappella prize, to the point that I didn't really catch most of the others except to note that they were all quite well-deserved.
Dinner was tasty barbecue, and I spent a bit of time helping clean up afterward before heading back to my camp. I decided I wanted to wander, though, so I headed up to Stag Tribe camp, where I chatted a bit before some tribe members up there began drumming. I love drumming -- even if I'm not so good at it -- and I hadn't had a chance to do it in a while, so I ran back to camp to grab my drum. We drummed for a few hours before we finally started getting tired and all went to bed.
Sunday was sleepy. Everybody got up late. One of my tribe mates, (lj-less?) Heather, held a very interesting and all-too-short discussion about myth and folklore, and shortly after that everybody went to the final tribe competition: the tug-of war. My own Boar Tribe was little more than a warm up for Stag Tribe, but Horse Tribe put up a strong fight before eventually falling to Stag Tribe's organization and strength. The tug-of-war led into the closing ceremonies and tribe awards presentation. Boar Tribe had made a huge comeback, but it wasn't enough to put us in the running for the final prize. That was a close run between Horse and Stag Tribes, but the tug-of-war awarded Stag just enough points to pull ahead and win the weekend.
After that, we all packed up and ran out to get out of the way of Hurricane Katrina.
More coming soon (the weekend wasn't actually over after all that)...
(LJ Spellchecker Genius of the Day: Smaointe -> Sonnet)