From Sacred Stone to Concordia of the Snows
- A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.
- - Tim Cahill, Road Fever
From the heart of winter to the height of summer. From the Barony of Sacred Stone in southern North Carolina to the Barony of Concordia of the Snows in northern New York. In the year since dear friends welcomed me for the first time to Pennsic's fields of glory, across nearly 700 miles of the Eastern Seaboard have SCAdian adventures taken me, to revels distant and near. :-)
It was a day of plays, among other revels. My fellow Three Rivers expatriates Lord and Lady C and their new company of players Gil Zelanti put on a madcap Italian Commedia del Arte, of mistaken identies and scheming lovers and foppish nobles. And the merry group of incorrigibly silly players and performers of the Performing Arts Guild Extraorinaire (P.A.G.E.) brought the traditional St. George and the Dragon pagent to life, complete with clashing swordsmen and to-be-slain dragon.
P.A.G.E.! The marvelous, madcap singers, players, musicians and Fools of the Bright Hills performing arts guild. At virtually any and every event in Northern Atlantia, if you follow the sound of singing and instrumental music, you'll find the players of P.A.G.E. Regular practices here in Baltimore on Sunday evenings, with good food, fine music, and marvelous company, they very kindly welcomed me to join their company, and much fun it has been.
And so that Saturday of Lochmere Winter Revel was no different, the first event of the year shared with friends from all over Northern Atlantia, old friends and new. A day filled with music and laughter and friends, the same as celebrated in Cynnabar or Three Rivers in years before. Deeply lucky I have been to once again be welcomed into a new community of SCAdians, as warmly as I was in the Midrealm or Calontir before. Different kingdoms, different traditions; same marvelous company. :-)
To Sacred Stone, to celebrate Twelfth Night, and the wedding of dear friend Lady N. In the Great Hall, with reproductions of Holbein's Tudor masterworks upon the walls, she planned to be joined in marriage to her beloved by the hand of the King of Atlantia, before all the assembled high nobles of the SCAdian Kingdom of Atlantia.
Of course, she was not expecting that, as a wedding gift, their Majesties would *make* her one of the high nobles of Atlantia. ;-)
Their majesties decided to drop that little surprise on her at the conclusion of the wedding ceremony. To elevate her to the Order of the Laurel, the SCAdian Knighthood for the Arts, for her extraordinary calligraphic work. And so immediately after the wedding, a stunned Mistress-to-be N. was immediately escorted off to a secluded suite tucked away above the grand ballroom for her Vigil, there to contemplate the high honor to which she was raised later that very same day, and to receive counsel and advice from a succession of high nobles across the length of the day.
Years ago parslanna rallied dear Cynnabar friends to get me my Arms. Later cantigajoy mustered dear Calontiri friends to make me a SCAdian Lord. So it's not strictly accurate to say I'm a ordinary commoner. That being said, I'm still many levels below the exalted ranks of the high noble Orders of Knighthood-equivalent title held by so many of my SCAdian friends. I certainly don't have anything like the rank (or the experience and wisdom for which high rank is earned) to offer Mistress-elect N. the kind of perspective that is the traditional topic of a Vigil visit.
On the other hand, there's no rule that says you can't have a celebratory musical Jam session with the Laurel candidate. So since neither Brigid nor I had pearls of wisdom to offer, we instead offer gifts of melody. :-)
Although it was for her exquisite calligraphic work Mistress N was ennobled, it was as a brilliant fiddler I had first met her in one of my earliest events in Atlantia, making music with her by campfire light while the stars wheeled high above. And so no better and no more perfect way could I come up with to celebrate her day of joy, then with a bit of song. Then, and then again many months later back home in northern Atlantia. :-)
That Twelfth Night also quietly settled for me personally a previously unanswered question...
The Barony of Cynnabar was unquestionably my home in the Midrealm. Likewise the Barony of Three Rivers my home in Calontir. To this day, I have the privilege of bearing on my belt the Tower on Crimson and White and cantigajoy's own Baronial badge.
As vibrant and prosperous as Cynnabar and Three Rivers are, the SCAdian population of Baltimore / DC is four or five times that of Ann Arbor or Metro St. Louis. No fewer than five major Atlantian Baronies (and one fiercely independent Shire to boot) are packed into a geographical footprint not much larger than my previous Barony of Three Rivers. I danced with Thrir Venstri Foetr in Storvik, sang with the P.A.G.E. Guild in Bright Hills, fiddled with the musicians of Kilbride Alley in Roxbury Mill, and on and on. For my first two years in Northern Atlantia, thus, I could be said to be a dabbler in a whole slew of Baronies across Northern Atlantia, and not truly claimed (or claiming) one for my own.
But that day at Twelfth Night, His Excellency Baron Chirhart Blackstar, Lord of the Barony of Bright Hills; when he found out about the ennoblement of our friend Mistress N, he very generously and kindly offered Brigid and I the chance to watch the royal ceremony for our friend from the best seats in the house. From right behind his own Baronial seat at the front, by deputizing us both for the day as two of his retainers. In that packed Great Hall, we both got to watch Mistress N be raised to the Laurel from just a few spear lengths away, from the vantage point of our positions right behind His Excellency's throne.
The Barony of Bright Hills was always technically my geographic home. It was the base for the mischievious singers and players of P.A.G.E. His Excellency had always had a kind word for us performers at local events. That day's particular gift to us - to me - quietly settled for me the question of to whom I formally belonged.
The kindness of His Excellency to someone who was by no means a regular to his desmense; it's the kind of generosity that my former Barons in Cynnabar and Bright Hills showed to their people - to me - when I was there. The kind of SCAdian Barons worthy of having allegiance pledged to. In a humorous sense, you could say I was claimed by the Baron of Bright Hills. But more seriously; his generosity toa relative newcomer to the Barony like me, is the act of a Baron who cares. And a Baron worth following.
The cream sash of Bright Hills Baron Blackhart genrously allowed me to wear; and so to Bright Hills do I now say I belong. :-)
And so it was in June that Brigid kindly joined me for a crazy day trip north, to join the 10th Knowne World Dance and Music Symposium. This year's grand gathering of the SCA's musicians and dancers, being held in the northern reaches of the East Kingdom, in the Barony of Concordia of the Snows. Dancing with luscious_purple and elaine_alina and magda_vogelsang. Music with woodwindy and aelkiss and niquerio and so many more. From afternoon balls to post-midnight post-dance revels, a glorious reunion with so many dear friends, from so many dances and revels past, from across the entire journey of mine in the SCA. The journey that started with silmaril mischeviously inviting me to a dance practice one May evening eleven years ago, and leading me on yet.
It has indeed been a glorious eleven years, in Atlantia and in Calontir and in the Midrealm before that. A glorious eleven years filled with music and dance and song and joy and better friends than I could possibly have ever deserved.
Vivat to you all, dear friends. Vivat to you all. :-)