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helwenA most excellent event. I got to see a lot of people and even spend a little time chatting with some of them, although not quite as much as I would have liked, of course! Let's see, some of the LJ-ers who were there... nazrynn, rocksryan, liamstliam, antoniseb, yew_hall, rising_moon, dreda, pezgirl247, ellid, countessinn, harpduchess, alethea_eastrid of course (the queen), harpnfiddle, lady_jade01, Chrisilin, islenskr, masteralcuin, rufinia, shalmestere and hudebnik (did I get that last one right?) and others who's LJ names I either don't know or remember at the moment.
The king, Darius was also there, and of course their excellencies Aelgifa and Dinsdale, baron and baroness of Barony Beyond the Mountain. I Sebastiani entertained with a lovely and funny play, with some pointed references to our Crestfallen Tourney. Fracta Modi were great and we had a wonderful time singing the Palestrina pieces with them. We were also graced with Rufina and John and Deonna and friends, who sang a bit at feast and I did catch a little of the instrument playing :) Oh! I almost forgot -- there was this guy Daniel, dressed as an eastern type of monk, who played Japanese flute a couple of times during the play -- he was totally awesome! I got to chat with him briefly later on and complimented him on his playing. What a treat!
Diarmait, our new Herald, was indispensable yesterday. He managed things like getting the scrolls signed by fitzw before the spear tourney started, took care of getting Seamus' scroll from this summer signed by us and returning it to lady_jade01, generally helping with getting things moved, setup, breakdown, retrieval of stuff and such. I think he's practicing magically appearing when needed :D
Baronial Court was fairly short -- presented a scroll to our Standard Bearer Aethelhawk Keyfinder and took fealty from him, then fealty from Bianca Gabrielle di Solari (our new archery champion), then presented a token of our appreciation to Concentus, then an Hourglass to Erik von Hemeor. We had one more piece of business but the recipient had not made it to the event.
BBM had a fairly brief court as well, with one of the folks they called up also getting an AoA from their majesties. Royal Court was excellent, with many awards given out. Of local interest, Barbeta, Eloi, Seamus, and Angelina all received their AoAs. Tommaltach and Fiona were given Silver Crescents :)
We didn't coordinate perfectly on letting friends of recipients know ahead of time about all the awards, but did try. One of the problems with a busy schedule and a tradition of surprising people, I'm afraid. And I forget sometimes that not everyone goes to Court. Of course we'll keep trying, no doubt with varying levels of success.
L had loads of fun in the spear tourney, Concentus did well overall, and dinner was awesome. It was interesting combining the two groups' traditions. BBM had a wassail bowl and pitzelles (sp?) in the sign-in area to welcome arriving gentles. They have a tradition of a youth crossing a line of greens at the back of the hall, proceeding up to the front and leaping over the "fiery" yule log, and then proceeding to light candles around the hall in a sunwise direction. It being a large hall the Youth had helper youths. The log was a real piece of wood but since we didn't have a fireplace it had mostly those flickering electric tealights arranged across the top, plus one real candle. The real one was supposed to be the log's fire that the Youth lit a candle from but it went out if someone passed it quickly -- like when the Youth jumped over the log. So we had to be a little flexible there. Ernie was reading the page explaining the traditions aloud to give group participation instructions (like toasting with "Wassail!" instead of "Vivat!" for the evening).
Our Night Visitor came again this year. I'd forgotten about the eyepatch... He accepted our hospitality for a while, chatted with folks, and gave out some treats as he went.
We did the story of the Wren and some wren songs of course. There was a live auction late in the dinner too.
And of course there was much enjoying of food and conversation. One of my dinner companions was Gudrun, who lived in Bergental some 20 years ago, and turns out to be a real-life cousin of the Alethea, the queen. Much amusement was had -- probably the best royal high table I've been at.
There are a couple of other BBM traditions I haven't gotten to yet, but I have to get ready to go work my booth at the festival.
The king, Darius was also there, and of course their excellencies Aelgifa and Dinsdale, baron and baroness of Barony Beyond the Mountain. I Sebastiani entertained with a lovely and funny play, with some pointed references to our Crestfallen Tourney. Fracta Modi were great and we had a wonderful time singing the Palestrina pieces with them. We were also graced with Rufina and John and Deonna and friends, who sang a bit at feast and I did catch a little of the instrument playing :) Oh! I almost forgot -- there was this guy Daniel, dressed as an eastern type of monk, who played Japanese flute a couple of times during the play -- he was totally awesome! I got to chat with him briefly later on and complimented him on his playing. What a treat!
Diarmait, our new Herald, was indispensable yesterday. He managed things like getting the scrolls signed by fitzw before the spear tourney started, took care of getting Seamus' scroll from this summer signed by us and returning it to lady_jade01, generally helping with getting things moved, setup, breakdown, retrieval of stuff and such. I think he's practicing magically appearing when needed :D
Baronial Court was fairly short -- presented a scroll to our Standard Bearer Aethelhawk Keyfinder and took fealty from him, then fealty from Bianca Gabrielle di Solari (our new archery champion), then presented a token of our appreciation to Concentus, then an Hourglass to Erik von Hemeor. We had one more piece of business but the recipient had not made it to the event.
BBM had a fairly brief court as well, with one of the folks they called up also getting an AoA from their majesties. Royal Court was excellent, with many awards given out. Of local interest, Barbeta, Eloi, Seamus, and Angelina all received their AoAs. Tommaltach and Fiona were given Silver Crescents :)
We didn't coordinate perfectly on letting friends of recipients know ahead of time about all the awards, but did try. One of the problems with a busy schedule and a tradition of surprising people, I'm afraid. And I forget sometimes that not everyone goes to Court. Of course we'll keep trying, no doubt with varying levels of success.
L had loads of fun in the spear tourney, Concentus did well overall, and dinner was awesome. It was interesting combining the two groups' traditions. BBM had a wassail bowl and pitzelles (sp?) in the sign-in area to welcome arriving gentles. They have a tradition of a youth crossing a line of greens at the back of the hall, proceeding up to the front and leaping over the "fiery" yule log, and then proceeding to light candles around the hall in a sunwise direction. It being a large hall the Youth had helper youths. The log was a real piece of wood but since we didn't have a fireplace it had mostly those flickering electric tealights arranged across the top, plus one real candle. The real one was supposed to be the log's fire that the Youth lit a candle from but it went out if someone passed it quickly -- like when the Youth jumped over the log. So we had to be a little flexible there. Ernie was reading the page explaining the traditions aloud to give group participation instructions (like toasting with "Wassail!" instead of "Vivat!" for the evening).
Our Night Visitor came again this year. I'd forgotten about the eyepatch... He accepted our hospitality for a while, chatted with folks, and gave out some treats as he went.
We did the story of the Wren and some wren songs of course. There was a live auction late in the dinner too.
And of course there was much enjoying of food and conversation. One of my dinner companions was Gudrun, who lived in Bergental some 20 years ago, and turns out to be a real-life cousin of the Alethea, the queen. Much amusement was had -- probably the best royal high table I've been at.
There are a couple of other BBM traditions I haven't gotten to yet, but I have to get ready to go work my booth at the festival.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-07 03:11 pm (UTC)I am glad it went well, thank you for writing about it.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-07 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 01:31 pm (UTC)I was there
Date: 2008-12-08 01:36 pm (UTC)And yes, you and that 14th century kit work very well for each other!
Re: I was there
Date: 2008-12-08 02:57 pm (UTC)And, thanks :)
no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 03:12 pm (UTC)Thanks to you and all your folk for such a beautiful event!
no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 03:53 pm (UTC)I'm working on not having as crazy a weekend next year...
no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 03:56 pm (UTC)We shall see - it was a lovely event and we would be delighted to come back.