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Award-Trivia-art - 7/9/09

"Award Trivia" by Pursuivant Domhnall na Moicheirghe.

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NOTICE -

This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium.

These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

Thank you,

Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous

stefan at florilegium.org

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This article was first published in the July 2009 issue of "Stormscroll", the monthly newsletter for the Barony of Stormhold.

Award Trivia

by Pursuivant Domhnall na Moicheirghe

As the Crown's consideration of Grant level awards for Lochac continues, I thought Stormholders might be interested in some award trivia from all 19 Kingdoms of the Known World.

• 14 kingdoms have Grant level awards for the three "primary" categories of martial, A&S and service. The 5 kingdoms that do not are: Drachenwald, the East, Lochac, Meridies, and the West. Meridies used to have Grant level awards but has since reduced these awards to AoA level.

• Atenveldt are unique in that their Grant level awards are promotions within the AoA level orders. For example, the AoA level A&S award is the Order of the Fleur de Soleil and the Grant level A&S award is Commander of the Order of the Fleur de Soleil.

• 11 kingdoms specify the initials to be used after a recipient's name (colloquially known as alphabet soup) for some or all awards. Lochac is one of the 8 kingdoms that do not specify initials either in the laws or by documented custom.

• The alphabet soup with the most different uses in the Known World is CSS, which represents 3 different awards:

o Centurion of the Sable Star in Ansteorra,

o Companion of the Sable Sword in Meridies, and

o Companion of the Silver Stirrup in the Outlands.

• 12 kingdoms, including Lochac, use a variation on the name White Scarf for their Grant level Polling Order for fencing. This consistency is due to the White Scarf Treaty originally between the Outlands and Ansteorra in 1987 and eventually signed by 11 of those 12 kingdoms, with the Kingdom of the West not signing the treaty but having functionally equivalent arrangements.

• Of the non-White Scarf kingdoms, three have a different name for their Grant level fencing award:

o Drachenwald - Dragon's Steel

o Gleann Abhann - Queen's Blade

o Middle - Bronze Ring

• Ealdormere includes fencing in their Grant level martial award Thorbjorn's Hammer. The East and Meridies have no Grant level awards at all, and so have the AoA level Golden Rapier and Meridian Blade respectively. Calontir has no organised, Kingdom sponsored fencing and so has no need for such an award.

• The Grant level Polling Order for equestrian has not achieved the same level of consistency as the White Scarf. Only three kingdoms (Ansteorra, Caid and Trimaris) use the most common name of Golden Lance, with the Middle (White Lance) and the Outlands (Silver Lance) using variations for Grant level awards and Meridies using the Argent Lance for a non-armigerous award. The West's Grant level award is the Gold Scarf and Northshield's is the Destrer. Three kingdoms have an AoA level equestrian award (Artemisia, Atlantia and Lochac) and the remaining 8 have no award for equestrian activities.

• Atenveldt's Order of the Scarab is the only kingdom award named after an insect.

• In stark comparison to period, there is only one kingdom award named after a saint in the SCA: the Cross of St Joan from Trimaris.

• There is also only one kingdom award named after a modern person -the Brendon Swatko Award of the Outlands - although there are several awards that have been renamed after a heraldic charge in honour of a current or former SCAdian, such as the Doe’s Grace of the Middle Kingdom. This is probably because awards named after modern people are less likely to be registerable with the College of Arms.

• The most common words used in award names are unsurprisingly colours: gold/golden, silver, argent, white and sable. Other popular components of award names include: queen, king, dragon, lion and star.

• For personal awards from the Crown, 6 kingdoms use the name “Cypher” for one or more royal awards (Atenveldt, the East, Lochac, Northshield, the Outlands and the West). Favours and sigils are also common names for these awards.

• Most kingdoms (11) have a personal award from each of the King and Queen. Aethelmearc has a single award from both crowns, and four Kingdoms (Caid, Drachenwald, Lochac and Trimaris) have all three awards! Calontir only has an award from the King and the West has the opposite: an award from the Queen or from both Crowns but not the King individually. The Middle Kingdom does not have a specific award for personal favour from the Crown.

• Long time members of the SCA are well awarded in the Outlands. The Outlands has the Stag and Chalice for 15 years' service to the Kingdom, the Venerable Guard for 15 years of martial involvement and the Knights Pensioners of the Venerable Guard for 30 years of martial involvement.

• In Trimaris, the Crown proclaims the age of older gentles by awarding the Order of the Gray Beard to active fighters over age 40 and the Mermaid's Pearl for continued and exemplary service over the age of 50. I’m not sure many Lochac residents would want that sort of recognition!

• Heralds get special consideration in Meridies (Order of the Burning Trumpet). Trimaris goes even further with specific awards not just for heralds (Herald's Tressure), but for stewards and head cooks (Golden Galleon), chirurgeons (Healer's Lamp) and constables.

• Eight kingdoms including Lochac have a single youth award. 4 kingdoms (Aethelmearc, Caid, Middle and Outlands) have 3 awards, for martial, A&S and service. 4 kingdoms have 2 children's awards but each for different reasons: the East has no A&S award, Drachenwald no martial award, Atenveldt splits youth awards by age and Meridies has higher and lower level awards. The least-awarded children are from Calontir which has no awards for youths, and the most-awarded children are from Northshield (4 awards) and Atlantia (5 awards).

• Atlantia gives an award and title to children just for being the progeny of the current King or Queen. This is known as a Royal Augmentation of Arms. Royal Augmentations of Arms are also used by the East Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom for a completely different purpose.

• Every kingdom of the Known World except Lochac has awarded at least one Kingdom Augmentation of Arms. However, this award is specified in only a few kingdoms' Laws. Guidelines for the award for all kingdoms can be found in the College of Arms Administrative Handbook.

• Many kingdoms have a theme that runs through their award structure. The theme is often taken from the kingdom’s arms or the local geography. Some examples of award themes around the Known World are:

o An Tir – the lion;

o Ansteorra – the tincture sable;

o Artemisia – the gryphon;

o Atenveldt – the desert;

o Atlantia – the sea and sea creatures, real and mythical;

o Caid – the crescent;

o Drachenwald – Albion, the black dragon;

o Ealdormere – the wolf;

o East – the tyger;

o Gleann Abhann – the ram;

o Middle – the dragon; and

o Outlands – the stag.

For more information on the awards of the Known World, a good place to start is http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/jessa/

I take full responsibility for any inaccuracies in the above trivia. This article only considers Kingdom awards and excludes baronial armigerous and non-armigerous awards. Any comments are welcome either posted to me directly or for discussion on Stormlist.

Pursuivant Domhnall na Moicheirghe

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Copyright 2009 by Donald Campbell. <actrealdon at hotmail.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.