Calontir-hst-msg - 3/28/10
Histories and stories of the SCA Kingdom of Calontir.
NOTE: See also the files: Middle-hist-msg, Northshld-hist-msg, SCA-hist1-msg, SCA-stories1-msg, An-SCA-History-art, royal-deaths-msg, child-stories-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2009 07:24:38 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Calontir's Jubliee Celebration
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
What I was curious about is what dishes were used to represent the first
reign. I doubt anyone used any of the dishes we prepared for the first
Crown tourney, as it was done without recipes and no records were kept.
The operative word in my comment is "try." First Calontir Crown Tourney was
held in Lincoln, Nebraska. We drove in in the middle of a blizzard,
literally following a snow plow up the highway on the last leg. We arrived
at between 4 and 5 in the morning to find the rooms we had reserved were
still occupied by the state high school wrestling conference, that had been
trapped by the blizzard. We caught a few hours sleep stacked around the
motel as the blizzard blew out and got to the site (a gymnasium) around 10.
About an hour later, the Baroness of Vatavia finds out the head cook has
caved under the pressure and pulls Erlich off the list field. Erlich looks
at the damage and pulls me into the kitchen.
The group holding the Crown tourney is new. They have no experience in
doing dinner for two hundred. They have no recipes. They have no schedule.
They have sacks of groceries. The next ten hours are kind of a haze. We
concocted marinades, sauces, prepped veggies, roasted game hens, poached
salmon and figured out how to stretch everything. There are no secrets or
magic to what we did. It was the application of 50 some combined years of
experience to a rather thorny problem.
What we didn't have control over were the roasts, which were being done on
barbecue grills outside. What had worked fine in the summer test run failed
sub-zero weather and the guy doing it was too obstinate to bring them into
the kitchen and load them in the oven. They were later described to me as
"raw and frozen."
While we salvaged some of the food, we did not salvage the feast. Whoever
had done the (non)planning had based the feast reservations on the occupancy
number of the gym (fans in bleachers) and not on the layout of the tables on
the gym floor. To accomodate all of the people, rows of tables were set up
wall to wall with no room for servers to get through. As a result, people
on the side near the kitchen got fed while the people opposite did not.
Erlich and I pulled off getting the feast out of the kitchen, but the feast
failed on the logistics of service. My experiences with this feast are part
of the reason I demand absolute control of the kitchen and the hall when I
do a feast.
Bear
<<< Remembering the nightmare Erlich du Battenhelm and I had trying to salvage the feast at the first Calontir Crown Tourney, what, pray tell, did you serve in remembrance of the 1st Reign?
Bear >>>
So what happened and how did you manage to salvage things? I'm always
looking for stories and good advice for my fast-disasters-msg file. :-)
As far as the memorial dishes, it sounds like these dishes were chosen
from those of an entire reign and not from just a single Crown or
Coronation feast, so I imagine they had a lot to choose from.
Stefan
From: Ingeborg Ulfsdottyr <alianoraree at YAHOO.COM>
Date: December 2, 2009 5:22:09 PM CST
To: CALONTIR at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: [CALONTIR] Anthems/singing Was Re: Treason
<<< Does Calontir have a kingdom anthem? If so, what is it?
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra >>>
While Calontir doesn't have an *official* kingdom anthem, an unofficial one
is "Song of the Shieldwall" by Malkin Gray and Peregrynne Windrider.
Since the Calontiri motto for singing is: "Don't let timidity compound lack
of talent," or, "If you can't sing good, sing loud," there's more than one
reason Alastair was ducking... I would have to say that, while legal and
acceptable, his statement would constitute rebellion.
Being ashamed of one's voice is very sad, especially since singing, well or
poorly, is such a part of our culture as an expression of Calontiri unity.
While I'm a fairly good singer myself, the only two men I've ever fallen in
love with can't carry tunes in buckets, but don't let that stop them from
enthusiastically joining the army or the post-revel in "At the Battle of
Maldon," or "Cruiscin Lan."
A bardic competition or a choir is a different animal, but most of the time,
Calontir sings "in the key of Army."
Being embarrassed to sing with us is like going to a nudist colony and being
ashamed to drop your towel because you're overweight. Guess what? While
there may be a naked supermodel to your left, to your right is a
dreadnought-class Huscarl letting it all hang out. Both of them are
participating in the group hug that you can't join if you're too busy
holding your towel closed.
(And yes, you can pick who to stand near for the group hug.)
Yours In Song
Ingeborg
From: john heitman <gottskrieger at GMAIL.COM>
Date: December 3, 2009 9:52:28 AM CST
To: CALONTIR at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: Re: [CALONTIR] Period Anthems WAS Re: Treason
Responding to your first post on national anthems, my mental file
cabinet says we "have" such a song.( I BELIEVE the following to be
correct, but that file cabinet was knocked over by the cats. files
scattered, papers mixed up.)
If you go WAY back in Calontir history, we did declare a "national
anthem". Or rather, Queen Arwyn did. Its title was "None but
Calontir-O", and was written by Baron Hrolf. (please don't ask me to
spell his last name.)
Hrolf is the same man who made the original Royal Pavilion. Oddly, he
got his Court Baronage for the song. Which is why I remember it
existing.
Now, what has happened that the song is not remembered is anybody's
guess, but it was so deemed "the kingdom anthem" by the Crown.
Franz
(of course, the USA didn't have an "official anthem" until the 20th century.)
From: Fernando Vigil <Fvigil at AOL.COM>
Date: December 3, 2009 10:14:24 AM CST
To: CALONTIR at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: Re: [CALONTIR] Period Anthems WAS Re: Treason
gottskrieger at GMAIL.COM writes:
>>Hrolf is the same man who made the original Royal Pavilion. Oddly, he
got his Court Baronage for the song. Which is why I remember it
existing.<<
My memory of this is a bit different. I was under the impression that Hrolf's Court Barony had a lot more to do with the Royal Pavilion and his other work, than with his songs.
>>Now, what has happened that the song is not remembered is anybody's
guess, <<
Some of us remember it, and its still on Katriana's songbook page at:
http://www.calonsong.org/CalontirSongs/nonebutcalontiro.htm:
but you are right in that its basically dropped off the song charts. I think there are a couple of reasons for this.
First and foremost it's a long song. It's 7-8 fairly long versus plus a longish chorus. For comparison purposes, the song the tune was borrowed from (Follow Me up to Carlow) has only 3 versus. Songs this long very rarely make it into the popular (anyone will start it) lexicon - they tend to be songs that the author's lead, or maybe a couple of others pick it up and add it to their repertoire, and then folks sing along on the chorus. Rolf quit playing and no one else picked it up.
Second, it's rare that two songs using the same tune remain part of the regular collection. Erich plays Follow Me Up to Carlow a lot, so it seems less likely that.
>but it was so deemed "the kingdom anthem" by the Crown.
Since this declaration did not make it into Kingdom Law, or even get published in the Mews, that means its a "whim", which expires at the end of the reign. :)
Even before the first reign, Song of the Shield Wall was already popularly considered the Kingdom Anthem. It is less so today, but its still as close to one as we get.
Fernando
From: "Niewoehner, Hugh" <Hugh.Niewoehner at FLIGHTSAFETY.COM>
Date: December 4, 2009 5:14:30 AM CST
To: CALONTIR at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: Re: [CALONTIR] Period Anthems WAS Re: Treason
While I’d think of Song of the Shield Wall as more of an SCA anthem. Go to almost any kingdom and start singing it folks will gather.
In early years I’d think Brom’s “Calontir Stands Alone” was bloody close to being the unofficial anthem. I still have an old email Crag posted to the list describing its genesis and written as a call for those in these later days to remember those things which motivated us in the beginning. It’s a real rabble rouser who’s purpose may not be needed today but it’s still a good song and bloody fun to sing. There are others trying to find or create a similar unifying spark in their areas of the world.
HE Damon
From: "Niewoehner, Hugh" <Hugh.Niewoehner at flightsafety.com>
Date: December 4, 2009 4:10:41 PM CST
To: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
Subject: RE: [CALONTIR] Period Anthems WAS Re: Treason
Here you go Stefan,
Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 21:46:10 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Craig J . Brown" <cbrown at alumni.uark.edu>
Subject: Re: period/non-period (long)
Calontir Stands Alone
(guitar accompaniment, playing the melody softly of CSA (Johnny comes marching home). Then dropping back to quiet background chords)
A long time ago, there lived a smith in the Barony of Three Rivers who
made his way as an armorer and bladesmith of no little skill. His hands
could mold iron: forging and shaping it to suit himself and those he called
friend.
As cunning as he was with iron, he wrought words even better to kindle the
hearts of his listeners. When the evenings grew late and the air grew chill,
while the fire flared and flickered around the circle, the spirit of his
ancestor sometimes came over him, and Brom Blackhand would sing tales of the
northern lands. Then our hearts would be filled with heroic sagas of dragon
ships raiding from sea and battles on the strand.
I first met Brom at a post-revel many years ago in Standing Stones. Our
seneschal had taken a shine to this short burly smith and made sure he came
often to help our struggling young shire make armor and hold fighter
practices. About that time Brom and Kyrieth- who will forever be known as
Kinky Troll or the Spandex Baroness- became lovers. Their romance became
famous and their exploits were the envy of even that liberated time.
Brom was an iconoclast, an image breaker, a shit stirrer, a rabble rouser,
a trouble maker, or a great patriot depending on who you asked. He was and
is too plain spoken and impatient for these later, dare I say ... almost
Midrealm ... times...
Well, once upon a time it happened that Brom went to fight in a tourney
nursing a wounded hand. As the Norns wove his fate, that day he was early
retired, but had not his lady to attend. So it was that when he was asked to
write a song to for a contest held later that day, he assented.
On a trestle table in the mead hall he sat down to write, and for the space
of half an hour he poured out his love for Calontir, his chafing ire at the
Middle Kingdom, and his readiness to be away on our own. Thus was born the
national anthem of Calontir:
(hear play and Marcus sing the First Verse)
My Ladies and Lords of Calontir, Waes Hael, Waes Hael!
Come gather around and lend a ear, Waes Hael, Drink Hael!
Oh gather around and lend an ear
I'll sing you a song of Calontir ( sing broadly with minor dip)
And you all shall know why Calontir stands alone.
[At that time the Middle Kingdom, of which we were a region, was enormous.
Once it spanned all the lands between the East and West Kingdoms. In the
early years of Calontir it still spanned that breadth, less the Atenveldt
principalities of Meredies and Ansteorra, and was still four times larger
and five times more populated than Calontir itself. The largest and least
populated regions were Calontir, Eoforwic, and Northshield, while the rest
of the kingdom was relatively smaller and more populated.
The Middle Kingdom had two founding groups- Northwoods in East Lansing
Michigan, and Tree Girt Sea in Chicago. The early history of the Middle is
the history of these two groups struggling for power, with the emergence of
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois at about the time Calontir was borne. Rivenstar
in Indiana was the home of Moonwulf who had recently sat the throne, and was
a friend to Calontir.]
We're far from the Northwoods Barony, Waes Hael, Waes Hael
And damn near as far from Tree Girt Sea, Waes Hael, Drink Hael
And Rivenstar with its flag unfurled
Is damn near the other side of the world
And that's one good reason that Calontir Stands Alone.
[And so we were, for all practical purposes left to develop on our own, for the Mississippi River was a great psychological barrier to travelers from
the rest of the Midrealm- not unlike, alas, it has become for us traveling
east nowadays. For this reason, we felt rejected and ignored. We felt our
arts, our sciences, and our fighting were as good as anybody's. Given how
much we had accomplished in so short a time, we had a right to be proud of
our work. If we were not yet as good as we proclaimed ourselves to be, our
momentum soon carried us there. It chafed that in all of Calontir, the
Middle had only recognized one Laurel, and there were no Companions of the
Pelican.]
Our tourneys and feasts to none compare Waes Hael, Waes Hael
And good times are far from rare with us Waes Hael, Drink Hael
So come to us for our food is good
There's a merry song in our hall and wood
And that's one more reason why Calontir Stands Alone!
[Our fighting, too, had made great strides. A few like Brummbar and Ternon
were contenders if they fought in Crown Tourney, and others like Bellwood,
Chepe, and Humpk were not far behind. Yet there was a pervasive feeling that
our fighters were looked down on by the Midrealm Chivalry, and that some of
the Chivalry had it in for Ternon and Humpk. Imagine that in all of Calontir
there was not a single Knight or Master of Arms. Our Huscarls were formed to
be the Chivalry that the Chivalry wouldn't recognize. Unbelted Knights.]
We haven't got belted chivalry Waes Hael, Waes Hael
We fight for the love of battle we Waes Hael, Drink Hael
But on battlefield many we've stood the test
Proved our bravery skill and honor the best
We shall smite our foes till Calontir Stands Alone.
[And then he wrapped it up and threw it back in our face. He cast down the
gauntlet. Because he knew no one would do it for us, it was up to each one
of us to go out and make Calontir a principality and thereafter, a kingdom.
Brom asked nothing more from us, than he himself already gave. Today we are
a kingdom proud and strong and free. Sometimes people ask why this song is
important. Without it I think we would still be a part of the Middle
Kingdom, we would still be waiting for someone else to our work for us.
"For Calontir to be a kingdom, it must act like one."]
My Ladies and Lords of Calontir Waes Hael, Waes Hael
Put your hearts into what you do this year Waes Hael, Drink Hael
And in the end I think we'll see
A Merry Principality
On that high bright day
When Calontir Stands Alone!
[My Ladies and Lords of Calontir, in recent years it became politically
incorrect to sing this song for fear of offending our friends and allies in
other kingdoms. Then it became politically incorrect to sing it because the
new bards knew nothing of what it meant, how important it had been to our
history. And the old ones ceased to teach the new ones the lessons we had so
dearly bought. Ancient good became uncouth.
Woe to us, for we have become so insular we no longer see or hear what goes on in other kingdoms. Little wonder that the Army muster is down, and we
struggle on the field with our opponents- for we no longer look beyond our
own circle. Little do we heed what others do and say, what tactics their
armies are learning, while relying on our reputation to carry us.
More and more we have come to resemble the Middle Kingdom we
left: so status quo, so little aware or caring about the great world out
there around us. If we would regain that edge, if we would be again the
preeminent kingdom at war, then we must get hungry- find that lost fire in
the belly. We must again study the world outside our borders. Those who lead
us must make the glory of Calontir their glory. Those who would stay home
and live off the fat of the land should step aside and let a new generation
of fighters gain renown, carrying the Falcon Banner before them.
Baron Crag Duggan
Master of the Pelican
Thegn Calontir
Grimfells, Calontir
Seventh day of February AS XXX]
Also stored at:
http://www.calonsong.org/CalontirSongs/calontirstandsalone.txt
And the thoroughly withdrawn from the SCA Brom Blackhand now lives in Salisaw, OK making his living as a first rate gunsmith.
There are still many characters from those days still active and on the Calon list. Alban, Fernando, and Pavel just to name a few.
Regards,
Damon
From: firsthirth at AOL.COM
Date: January 27, 2010 5:38:27 PM CST
To: CALONTIR at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: Re: [CALONTIR] Which came first
<<< A gentle asked me which came first: Champion of Calontir or Warlord of Calontir? He asked what circumstances were involved and why.
I don't know these answers, so I turn to you, the experts.
Lorraine >>>
This is all covered in Master Craigs "The Chronicles of Calontir, Vol. I". But, if you don't have access to the histories, here is how it came about.
Geoffri of Wariene first developed the idea of a region within the Kingdom. He presented it to the Midrealm Crown on May 29, XII (1977). The Midrealm Crown recognized Calontir as a region within the Kingdom. Calontir had no regional rulers or officers, it existed in name only
at this time. Geoffri, felt that there should be a figurehead for Calontir, a Champion. He selected a tournament at the upcoming event in Forgotten Sea to find this Champion.
On August 13, XII (1977) Forgotten Sea hosted "Sibling of a Summer Solstice". Geoffri decided that the winner would be declared the Champion of Calontir, however he didn't tell any of the fighters of this since there was a non-Calontir fighter competing, and he had a very good chance of winning. If this person
won, Geoffri's competition would pass on to the next tourney. As it turned out the tourney was won by a Calontiri (myself), as victor I was given the title of "Champion of Calontir", a small trophy made from a 54mm figure of a Viking (which I still have) and a pouch with 25 silver dollars (which I no longer have).
On July 29, XIII (1978) Forgotten Sea hosted the "Tourney at the center of the Known World". At this event the new regional officers (Calon Council) gave out the 1st regional awards from the newly created orders (Hyrth, Fyrd, Silver Hammer, and Lily).
At a meeting of the Calon Council a short time later we decided to create a lower and higher position for our leaders. This was to be the champion and after a period they would become the warlord. I felt it unfair to simply advance to warlord, so I suggested that we go through it from the start. This time announcing the tournament for Champion.
On September 3, XIII (1978) Coeur D'Ennui hosted the first "Calon Tourney". The three top competitors were Ternon de Caer Liant, William of Bellwood, and myself. Ternon was knocked out in the first round when blocking one of my leg shots with the back of his left hand, we still aren't sure if it was broken or not. I faced Bellwood in the finals in what turned out to be the best two out of three. I was then declared the 2nd Champion of Calontir. I served as Champion till the next Calon Tourney.
On April 21 XIII (1979) Ystrad Stradelle (Now Carlsby) hosted the 2nd Calon Tourney. It was at this event that I stepped up from Champion of Calontir to Warlord of Calontir.
It is not by coincidence that the Champion to Warlord parallels the later Principalitiy's Heir to Prince and the Kingdom's Prince to King progression, even then we were looking to the future of Calontir.
If you want more detail on the early days catch me at an event or give me a call, I hate typing. :)
Yours,
Brummbar (aka Bear)
Viscount Brummbar von Schwarzberg, MSCA, OP, etc
<the end>