Gyllengran XXX
We arrived on site a bit after 22:00 on Friday. The hall is a "Folketshus" in a small town about 100 km inland from Sundsvall. The main room was set up with tables, and crash space was available on stage and on the balcony.
I took a spot on the balcony, set up my bed, put on a tunic, belt and hood (sports bra straps don't show when wearing a hood) and went downstairs to be socialable. Some old friends I hadn't seen in one to three years, some folk I see often, and some interesting people I hadn't met yet.
I was feeling a bit tired, so borrowed a sheepskin in the myshornet to do yoga around 23:40. One of the children who was still up was doing handstands, so, of course, I couldn't resist doing some too, and also let him fly on my feet and stand on my hands in the sugar cube acroyoga pose. Then I had a lovely visit with his parents, who were at their first SCA event. I hope they attend many more.
I went to bed about 01:00, and soon thereafter I heard singing start up downstairs. If they had only started before I went to bed I would have happily joined them, but I didn't have the energy needed to get back up.
The next day I worked some on my sewing project, visite with people, and competed in the games. I, and the other American on site, a Cadian who lives in Germany these days, joined the Gyllengran team. It was a pentathlon. The first contest involved one person from a team sitting on a sled holding a lance while people from another team dragged the sled over the grass. The goal was to scoop up three rings on the point of the lance. We had a really tall and rather big man on our team, so he sat on the sled, which meant that the other team couldn't run too fast for him to get all three rings. When we went to drag someone from another team we ran fast enough that they fell out of the sled.
Another contest was to stand five team members on a (slightly wobbly) board on the grass in order of precedence, then rearrange them into alphabetical order and then rearrange them in order of how long they had beenin the SCA, and finally back to OP order, all without anyone touching the ground in the process. This meant that I never moved from my end of the board, since Talventytär was far enough back in the alphabet as to declare my end bottom for that list and top for the others (as a Viscountess from 1986 I was highest rank on site, and as I started playing in 1982 I was also longest in game. Now, the same game in the Mists I could have been counted a newby...)
Another game was a three legged fetching race. Tie the legs together on two people, they run across the field, pick up another and carry them back. I got to be the o e carried. :-) but we weren't as fast as the guy with a little girl tied to his leg--he picked her up (still tied ro his leg) and ran normally, and had no problem also carrying back her brother.
But the most fun round was "write a song in praise of Gyllengran and perform it at feast. We wrote, to the tune of Gaudete:
chorus:
Gyllengran, Gyllengran
We drink a lot here.
Yes! We do, we drink an awful lot here!
1)
Carrier pigeons we eat here,
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
wash it down with mead and beer
no one is getting thinner.
2)
When you're neither north nor south
there is no one who wants you
that is why this middle Shire
so gladly shares their home brew.
3)
We have Knights and Masters here,
skilled in arts of fighting.
Welcome here to try us out,
we're running fast as lighting.
*********
One of the other groups performed a filk to a modern song, with two singing and the rest of the group doing back-up singing. The other group let a single member perform a story. It was well done, and even won the round, but I don't have the patience for listening to stories and wish they'd have done a song instead.
I was feeling tired already by 20:00 and did my yoga then before the feast ended. After the feast some of us started singing but then a brewers guild meeting was called and half of the singers went to that (they really do drink a lot there) the meeting went on for a long time, presumably because many had brought stuff they made to taste.
While we waited three of us swapped songs. Eventually the others returned and we continued to sing till sometime around 00:30 or so, as I went to bed at 01:00, when I realized we wouldn't be singing more. (We did a little dancing before the feast, too.)
Today I helped clean the hall and drove the hour in to Sundavall with some friends. They had bern two in their car on the way to the event, but we were four on the way back, which, with the stuff, meant we were tightly packed.
They took me to the train station and we sat at the restaurant there for an hour or so before they went home. I will board the train as soon as they open the doors (the cleaners are soon done), and should be in Göteborg by midnight.
Tomorrow I can cook some food for our field trip, and Tuesday morning my cousin Carola will pick me up for the adventure.
I took a spot on the balcony, set up my bed, put on a tunic, belt and hood (sports bra straps don't show when wearing a hood) and went downstairs to be socialable. Some old friends I hadn't seen in one to three years, some folk I see often, and some interesting people I hadn't met yet.
I was feeling a bit tired, so borrowed a sheepskin in the myshornet to do yoga around 23:40. One of the children who was still up was doing handstands, so, of course, I couldn't resist doing some too, and also let him fly on my feet and stand on my hands in the sugar cube acroyoga pose. Then I had a lovely visit with his parents, who were at their first SCA event. I hope they attend many more.
I went to bed about 01:00, and soon thereafter I heard singing start up downstairs. If they had only started before I went to bed I would have happily joined them, but I didn't have the energy needed to get back up.
The next day I worked some on my sewing project, visite with people, and competed in the games. I, and the other American on site, a Cadian who lives in Germany these days, joined the Gyllengran team. It was a pentathlon. The first contest involved one person from a team sitting on a sled holding a lance while people from another team dragged the sled over the grass. The goal was to scoop up three rings on the point of the lance. We had a really tall and rather big man on our team, so he sat on the sled, which meant that the other team couldn't run too fast for him to get all three rings. When we went to drag someone from another team we ran fast enough that they fell out of the sled.
Another contest was to stand five team members on a (slightly wobbly) board on the grass in order of precedence, then rearrange them into alphabetical order and then rearrange them in order of how long they had beenin the SCA, and finally back to OP order, all without anyone touching the ground in the process. This meant that I never moved from my end of the board, since Talventytär was far enough back in the alphabet as to declare my end bottom for that list and top for the others (as a Viscountess from 1986 I was highest rank on site, and as I started playing in 1982 I was also longest in game. Now, the same game in the Mists I could have been counted a newby...)
Another game was a three legged fetching race. Tie the legs together on two people, they run across the field, pick up another and carry them back. I got to be the o e carried. :-) but we weren't as fast as the guy with a little girl tied to his leg--he picked her up (still tied ro his leg) and ran normally, and had no problem also carrying back her brother.
But the most fun round was "write a song in praise of Gyllengran and perform it at feast. We wrote, to the tune of Gaudete:
chorus:
Gyllengran, Gyllengran
We drink a lot here.
Yes! We do, we drink an awful lot here!
1)
Carrier pigeons we eat here,
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
wash it down with mead and beer
no one is getting thinner.
2)
When you're neither north nor south
there is no one who wants you
that is why this middle Shire
so gladly shares their home brew.
3)
We have Knights and Masters here,
skilled in arts of fighting.
Welcome here to try us out,
we're running fast as lighting.
*********
One of the other groups performed a filk to a modern song, with two singing and the rest of the group doing back-up singing. The other group let a single member perform a story. It was well done, and even won the round, but I don't have the patience for listening to stories and wish they'd have done a song instead.
I was feeling tired already by 20:00 and did my yoga then before the feast ended. After the feast some of us started singing but then a brewers guild meeting was called and half of the singers went to that (they really do drink a lot there) the meeting went on for a long time, presumably because many had brought stuff they made to taste.
While we waited three of us swapped songs. Eventually the others returned and we continued to sing till sometime around 00:30 or so, as I went to bed at 01:00, when I realized we wouldn't be singing more. (We did a little dancing before the feast, too.)
Today I helped clean the hall and drove the hour in to Sundavall with some friends. They had bern two in their car on the way to the event, but we were four on the way back, which, with the stuff, meant we were tightly packed.
They took me to the train station and we sat at the restaurant there for an hour or so before they went home. I will board the train as soon as they open the doors (the cleaners are soon done), and should be in Göteborg by midnight.
Tomorrow I can cook some food for our field trip, and Tuesday morning my cousin Carola will pick me up for the adventure.