Greetings Æthelmearc, especially all webministers:
We are happy to announce that our form server has been moved to the Kingdom server, in line with some of our current goals and data policy requests from the SocWeb. This was the final outstanding item from the Kingdom server move of 2020.
You may now start filling out web forms again, such as the Award Recommendation and Webminister Report Forms. The Form Server looks and feels the same as before, except for the URL. Previously, the URL started with https://ae.scaforms.org, but now it should start with https://aeforms.aethelmearc.org. All links to forms have been updated on the Kingdom website.
We have requested that the old server be shut down as soon as possible. We kindly ask that you check any links on your website, especially those related to Officer websites or bookmarks on your Internet browser, to ensure they are updated as well.
If you notice any issues or forms not functioning properly, please notify the Æ Helpdesk at helpdesk@aethelmearc.org. If possible, please include a screenshot.
Thank you for your patience during this transition. In service,
The Festival of the Passing of the Ice dragon is less than a week away. The time of year has come in the Barony of the Rhydderich Hael to celebrate the passing of winter and the welcoming of spring and warmer weather after a long snow-filled winter!!
Activities for the day will include the traditional A&S Pentathlon, a hall of Merchants with a wide selection of items, Martial tournaments, a host of Bardic and other performing arts performances, and activities for adults and youths.
There will be a Quiet Room available for any attendees that need a break from the activities of the day. A children’s activity area will be available for unstructured play time and crafts.
SCHEDULE FOR DAY OF EVENT:
8:30 a.m. – Site opens
9:15 a.m. – Pent room opens – Room G200 – 2nd floor – Student Success Center
– Pent registration begins
– Pent judges check-in
10:00 a.m. – Morning Court (LOCATION TO BE DETERMINED)
10:30 a.m. – Pent registration ends
10:45 a.m. – Pent judging begins
10:00 a.m. to 1 hour before court – Heavy fighting bear pit Tourney – GYM
11:00 – 11:30 a.m. – Fencing list opens for authorizations,
instruction, warm-ups—GYM
– Youth Heavy combat tournament begins. – GYM
11:00 a.m. – Vigil for THL Eleanore Godwin- Room S103 – Student Union
– Children’s Activities begins—Room B252—2nd floor above cafeteria
12:00 p.m. till finished – Heavy fighting Elimination tourney – GYM
1:00 p.m. – Fencing tournament begins – GYM 1:00 p.m. – TROLL CLOSES
– Children’s Activities Ends
1:00 – 3:00 p.m. – Bardic Tavern – T102 (No Food or Drink)
3:30 p.m. – Pent judging ends
4:00 p.m. – Merchants close
5:00 p.m. – Afternoon court (LOCATION TO BE DETERMINED)
6:00 p.m. – Pickup pent entries + prizes
7:00 p.m. – Pent room closes
8:00 p.m. – Event closes, all attendees be off site by this time
MERCHANTS THAT WILL BE SELLING THEIR WARES:
Sleepy Unicorn
Medieval Misfits
Aries Design
TheCoribirdDesigns
11th Century Badger Ltd
Goblin Parlour Games
Rencraft
DrKimsFineArts
good clean fun soaps and crafts
Duchess Sir Rowan stuff
Earth and Loom
Cool Craniums
Rapier Rose
Lions Tower
Snoods by Moniczka / Sun Moon and Starflowers
HEAVY COMBAT TOURNAMENT INFORMATION:
Bear Pit tournament. 1 point per fight, 1 point per win. There will be a max number of wins before cycling though based on attendance but no more than 5. There will also be an Elimination tournament. Last one standing is the winner. Single or Double Elimination depending on attendance.
YOUTH HEAVY COMBAT TOURNAMENT INFORMATION:
Tournament will be a prize tournament. The Wheel of Fate will choose your weapon. (Weapons will be available for all options on the wheel of fate). A casting of the dice (large and foam) will choose your (division appropriate) opponent. This will be a bear pit style tournament. 1 point for entering the list. 1 additional point for victory. There will be a prize for the most points earned as well as the fighter that shows great courtesy and chivalry.
FENCING TOURNAMENT INFORMATION:
For those participating in the Reduced armor experiment, Reduced armor will be allowed. The format will be a bear pit and an unlimited win list with wounds retained. The morning will be open for authorizations and instruction.
THE FOLLOWING RULES OF GYMNASIUM ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Non-marking shoes are required by EVERYONE, not just fighters. This includes things like buckles, spurs, hobnailed boots, etc… not just the soles themselves. Please be respectful and inform others.
Next, going to knees is forbidden. Two leg shots will suffice as a kill. Acknowledge the first leg blow from your opponent, then announce dead for the second. Armor cannot be placed on the gymnasium floor!!
There will be some bleachers to watch from… but the first few rows will be for armor dump. Please sit higher up if you’re watching and keep your armor footprint small as there is limited space. To that point, there will also be mats around on the floor for armor to go on.
For additional information regarding the event please visit the Facebook page here.
There is also information on the Ice Dragon website found here
For any further questions regarding the event, please contact the Co-Autocrats Lady Genevieve O’Connor at email here and Baroness Miriel du Lac at email here
The Society is currently assessing the Anti-Drag Legislation recently passed in Tennessee, in addition to the proposed similar legislation in 14 other US states. The Corporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, in conjunction with SCA Inc.’s Legal Counsel and President, is undertaking an impact assessment for the Board.
This aims to determine potential impacts for the Society’s participants in terms of public interaction and other potential safety consequences.
Did you know there is more to the Ice Dragon Arts & Sciences Pentathlon than the competitions? The Pent area hosts the competition entries and judges, of course, but it also makes room every year for general A&S displays. Not everyone is interested in judging feedback, and to accommodate those artisans the Pent organizers will reserve several tables, to display with pleasure, without pressure!
One display which had everyone a-buzz – and not only because one of the shoes had a honeycomb pattern – was set up by Master Robert of Ferness (then THLord Robert) at the 2019 Ice Dragon Pent. Master Robert brought a plethora of medieval shoes of all different styles; needing to use three tables to set them all out! His display drew the attention of all those visiting the Pent area, as well as some gentles who came especially to take a look at this famous Flight of Shoes.
The Flight of Shoes A&S display by Master Robert of Ferness at the 2019 Ice Dragon Pentathlon
Not everyone realizes the Pent has two types of Display. One is meant for our dearest works in progress and treasured works of art. The other is meant for A&S disasters we’d honestly rather quietly bury in the backyard…
Quite a few years ago, Master John Michael Thorpe started the Failure Display at the Ice Dragon Pent. As the then-Kingdom A&S Champion he had been asked by a Crown Tournament autocrat to enter something in their A&S tournament. He felt it would not be appropriate to enter his Champs project, but that he could bring his current project that had just been placed into the kiln for display: thinking if the experiment worked it would be a fun display, and if it failed he would display the failure. Master Thorpe, the then-Kingdom A&S Champion, ended up displaying a failure – which contrary to expectation was very well received! Many gentles talked about how important it was to make it acceptable to sometimes fail, and this sparked the idea to add a Failure Display section to Ice Dragon, and to encourage Fleurs and Laurels to display their failures as a source of inspiration – and fun! – to the Kingdom at large.
Failure: a necessary part of the research and learning process. by Master John Michael Thorpe
One concept most often left out of the A&S display and competitions is the process of learning, especially re-creating lost techniques and arts, and the failures that are a necessary part of true physical research. Over the years as I have taught people crafts and arts, the one thing that seems to come up over and over is the implication that my ability to do things comes from a talent that mysteriously sprang fully formed out of the void. That couldn’t be farther from the truth! I find that people who are new to arts and sciences (especially those outside of the normal A&S genres) look at the work on display at Ice Dragon, and similar venues, and then try their hand at what they saw and become discouraged. The point of this display is to highlight the work that nobody ever sees, the learning and discovery process.
My goal in what became this failure was to try to recreate period casting techniques for high temperature metals (silver and bronze) using clay molds as described in Theophilus (lost wax, Theophilus chapter 30: Casting the Handles for the Chalice: Theophilus, On Divers Arts,Translated with introduction and notes by John G. Hawthorne and Cyryl Stanley Smith. New York: Dover Publications,1963) and Dress Accessories (ceramic mold for mass production of buckles pp122, illustration 80 – Egan, Geoff, and Frances Pritchard . Dress Accessories. London: The Boydell Press. 1991). My process for the lost wax mold was to follow the directions in Theophilus, carving a chalice handle in beeswax (darned impossible stuff to carve, I need to see if sun-bleaching it makes it less sticky). I figured that a clay with a low vitrification temperature would be susceptible to thermal shock when the metal was poured from the burnout process vitrifying it, so I chose a high firing clay to avoid vitrification. I followed the instructions in Theophilus, coated my wax and the vent and sprue, then as they dried built up more layers.
I kept getting shrinkage cracks, so I figured that I should support and encapsulate the mold in powdered clay so that any leaking would be contained. I made the mold for multiple castings shown in Dress Accessories from 2 slabs of the same high fire clay; carved sprues, vent risers, mold cavities etc. in the clay, and let it dry. As it dried I got shrinkage, and cracking, ultimately one side of the mold split in half right at the main feeder sprue. The next morning I put both molds in a bread pan of powdered clay and put them in a kiln for preheat (and burnout of the lost wax) When I went to check on them at lunch time the big mold had shattered spectacularly all over the inside of the kiln, and although the lost wax was not yet fully burned out, it was missing it’s top.
The exploded lost wax clay molds in the kiln.
My friend ABS Mastersmith Kevin Cashen once said that you can tell more about a knife maker by the pile of blades under his workbench than you can by his display pieces. The experiments that didn’t work are often more valuable to the craftsman than the easy successes.
The next step is going to be trying to figure out what I can do to the clay to minimize the shrinking and cracking as well as figuring out a way to keep the whole thing from blowing up when I heat it. I have bounced one idea off of a couple of potters and they think it might have possibilities: elsewhere in Theophilus (Bell casting I believe) he mentions including dung in the clay mix, and in a documentary I watched on church bell casting they mixed horse manure in their casting sand as a binder, and have been doing it that way since the early 1800s, so the next experiment will be mixing some strained horse manure into the clay. I am hoping it has the same effect as the chopped straw I mix into the clay I build my smelters out of. So far I have learned that my off-the-shelf high fire clay does not work. That failure means that I will have to explore other materials and techniques. Sooner or later I will hopefully find a mix that holds it’s shape and doesn’t crack in the drying process, then I will work on modifying that until I have a mold that survives the casting process. Typically, a process oriented project like this will take me 2-5 years to develop.
Would you like to display a work in progress, an unassuming, or even spectacular failure, or two? There is no sign up or pre-registration required for the Displays – although if your display will take up a table, or three, it might behoove you to let the Pent coordinators know beforehand!
For more information on the Pent, take a look here
Have questions? Need three tables?! Contact Cori or Elska by FB or email.
Why a Wiki?
A wiki allows for a group to develop and maintain shared information. Rather than having a top-down flow of information this allows for many people to contribute information in an easy-to-access way. It also can promote people sharing what they have either contributed to or accomplished within a community. This helps to encourage individuals who might not feel comfortable sharing in a larger context, to share what they’re passionate about with others in an accessible way. In short, a wiki fosters community through shared information.
Memorandum of Purpose
The Unofficial Æthelmearc Wiki is a place to gather the history, customs, and shared culture of the Kingdom of Æthelmearc of the SCA. This purpose is furthered and enhanced by encouraging the people of Æthelmearc to participate and contribute generously.
Less formally, the wiki is also a place where the populace of Æthelmearc can share history and knowledge of themselves, their personas, their participation within the Society, and other elements of factual and personal natures. Pages about people are to be left to be edited by those individuals and will only include the information that they provide. Some pages exist for persons of historical importance to Æthelmearc and are not associated with an individual wiki account. These pages serve to reflect the historical record, and contributions to these pages should be limited to factual content and should be made with citations when possible.
What Kinds of Things May I Add to the Wiki?
This is a non-exhaustive list of the kinds of things that you can contribute to the Wiki:
A populace page where you would list your awards, contributions, and successes.
Write an entry about your area of study: Cooking, Leatherwork, Brewing, Clothing, etc.
Write about your Barony, Shire, Canton, or College.
Create an article about the history of your Household
Write about songs or poems you or someone else has written (ex: “Scarlet”), with lyrics and the story behind why you wrote it.
Create an “In Memoriam” article about someone we have lost.
Share pictures
The possibilities are broad and it entirely depends on what kind of information you would like to share. We are also discussing improvements that can be made over time to make the Wiki a more valuable resource.
How Else Can I Participate?
There are opportunities available for topic-specific editors, general assistance, and subject-matter experts. Please visit the Current Events page for details. We also have a Discord channel.
Information Sharing and Security
Given the open nature of a Wiki, there have been some concerns expressed about information security and how the editors will handle vandalism.
In order to create a page for yourself, you will need to create an account and then provide the information you choose to share in that article. Because of the way that the Wiki is structured, changes can only be made by accounts that have been created and are associated with a specific user name. Every change is tracked and catalogued so if any article is vandalized, the responsible person can be banned from the server and the information removed.
We are doing everything we can to ensure that private information isn’t made available without your consent and have mechanisms in place to monitor information provided on the wiki.
The success of the wiki entirely depends on your participation and we want to make that as easy as possible. If you have any questions, want more information, or would like to volunteer for an open position please don’t hesitate to contact us.
THL Sumayya al Ghaziyya [medieval (dot) megan (at) gmail (dot) com]
Don Marcus skalpr Grimsson [marcus (dot) sca (at) gmail (dot) com]
Meesteres Odriana vander Brugghe [odriana (at) members (dot) aethelmearc (dot) org]
Greetings!! Baroness Thalia Papillon here, Gazette editor and proud inhabitant of the Kingdom of Æthelmearc, continuing with the tradition of populace in focus. Our Kingdom is a vast and wonderful place filled with many great people, but how many of these people do you see event after event and have never met, or maybe wondered more about?
This is open to the entire Kingdom and is not limited by rank, position, or time in the SCA. There is no deadline, when I have articles, I will post articles. I am also interested in interviewing couples, households, fighting units, or any other element that makes up the Kingdom. Even if you don’t live in the Kingdom anymore, but still call Æthelmearc home in your heart? We would love to hear from you too.
If you are interested in being interviewed, please contact me (information below) and I will send you a series of questions to answer. When completed return the answers to me. Please include at least three to four photos to use in the article. One should be a good profile picture. Answers with no photos will not be published.
Spring Coronation fast approaches, and upon that glorious day, our new Queen will have need of the warriors of Her kingdom – be they fighters, fencers, archers, duellists, huntsmen, and warriors – to stand guard over her as she performs her duties at our events, and at the 50th Pennsic War!
To that end, Their Highnesses Prince Andreas and Princess Kallista have made me their Captain of Guards, and charged me with the duty of recruiting, training, regulating and equipping such warriors who might decide to take up service in the Guard.
If you have previously served on a Queen’s Guard, and desire to do so again, or we have already spoken on this matter, you need read no further. Simply follow this link and fill out an application: https://forms.gle/6A6UZnGFUj2jPBDu5
I appreciate your willingness to serve.
If you have not previously served on a Queen’s Guard, but are interested, please allow me to briefly explain the scope of the duties you would be volunteering for.
At events, during the day, Guards will take a shift or two as the on-duty guard. Shifts generally last an hour. During Courts, all guards will process in with Their Highnesses, then rotate in and out every few pieces of business, so that no one need stand the entire time. At Pennsic, this works the same, except that typically Her Majesty will need to be guarded each day of War Week, between 9 AM and 9 PM, give or take an hour.
Guard shifts will be signed up for weeks in advance by you online, so you will know when you are guarding, and you need only sign up for shifts at events you are attending – there’s no need for someone from Region 1 to travel up to Region 5 JUST to pull Guard duty. The goal is to have many guards, distributed throughout the kingdom’s five Regions, so that all can share the load.
As for what you will actually be DOING, you are there to guard the person of the Queen from physical harm, to add majesty and dignity to her retinue with your presence, and to clear a path (verbally) for her travels through crowded areas. You are not a retainer, you are not a servant, you are not a page. You do not fetch-and-carry, you do not hold drinks, you do not carry an umbrella. You are there strictly as a martial presence – courteous, but fierce.
Queen Kallista dismissing her Guards at the Last Court of Their previous reign. Photo by Baron Friderich Swartzwalder.
The only requirements for this position are that you are a subject of the Crown of Æthelmearc, you are able to walk and stand for an uninterrupted hour under arms, you possess clean, presentable garb fit for the Royal presence, and Their Majesties approve of you.
Finally, you may be asking yourself, “Why should I do this?”
There are a number of benefits:
++ You get to serve your Kingdom doing a necessary job!
++ You will be noticed and thanked by the Crown
++ You will meet new people and make new friends
++ You will get a glance “behind the curtain” and see how a Reign is run
++ You get to be up front in court, so you see and hear everything
++ It’s a great chance to finally carry that awesome sword or axe you bought five years ago that you never use for anything because it’s not list-legal!
++ Serving on a Queen’s Guard is an entry-level stepping stone to positions of greater responsibility, if you desire
++ Serving on a Queen’s Guard is a great, low-stakes way to find out you HATE serving in very visible roles 😉
So, please, if you have read this far and are still interested, I would ask you to go here and fill out the short form therein: https://forms.gle/6A6UZnGFUj2jPBDu5
Yours in Glad Service,
Baron Snorri skyti Bjarnarson
Captain of the Guard
ps. If you have ANY questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me via ANY of these channels: