Category Archives: Research

So You Think You Can’t Do Any Research?

18 Tuesday Jan 2022

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Over the years I have heard from many SCAdians that they just do not have the skills or patience to sit down and write a research paper and, by extension, write documentation for an A&S project. There appears to be an unfounded fear that documentation, or a research paper, has to be 100 pages long and ready to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. This is not the case. No one in the SCA expects every person in the SCA to spend a year or more writing a paper. But this fear does keep many people from even trying their hand at doing some research and some writing. Huge research papers are nice, but they are not for everyone. Also, large papers are too long to be published in local newsletters, and newsletters are always looking for articles for publication.

My recommendation? Micro-research. Small papers about limited topics.

Writing about the entirety of the Battle of Agincourt would be a monumental task. Writing a half a page describing the pay scales Henry used for his army would be a far more manageable task for a novice writer, and would be a nice glimpse into a very complicated subject. Foot soldiers were paid 3 pennies a day but archers were paid 6 pennies a day. What were the requirements of getting archer pay? Henry had a legal contract describing how ransom would be split; one could certainly write a half a page describing that.

There are a whole host of topics for micro-research; everything from your experience in cooking a single recipe, to the different weights and measures used in the SCA time period, to a bird’s eye view of a battle, to an introduction to a person from history. Researching a limited topic, and writing a page or two about it, should be within the reach of most people. All information is useful and, again, every newsletter would welcome content for publication.

There are some things to keep in mind.

1) Write your paper in your words, even if you are getting your information from a single source. If you are making a thing from a recipe from Medieval Cookery, which provides translations and redactions, write how you made it: what steps you took and why you made any changes. This is your project, please write your thoughts in your own words.

2) While half a page describing Henry VIII’s bowling alley doesn’t require the research standards of a PhD thesis, it should be well-written and include your sources. Please feel free to pester a friendly Fleur or a lovable Laurel for editing and proofreading.

3) You do not have to be the first SCAdian to write about your topic. Do not think that just because Mistress So-and-So wrote a paper on medieval gift wrapping 30 years ago that you can’t add something new. Make sure that you give credit where credit is due.

4) Above all else, the SCA is an educational organization. The fighting, fencing, archery, courts, awards, and pageantry are the showy side of the SCA, but all of it is hollow without the arts and sciences that have been part of the Dream since the beginning. We need to do research and share what we find with others, even if it is just your interpretation of a 1,000 year old joke.

Another thing to consider: micro-research can inspire you, or others, to do a deeper dive into the subject. You might write a page describing Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch of a water-powered automatic saw. This might inspire you to do more research, which might lead you to discover that Leonardo most likely copied the design from the sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt, who drew it about a century before Leonardo was born. Then you might want to build a scale model of his hydraulic saw. Or, you might be drawn into the exciting world of how artists shared their sketchbooks with one another. Or it might lead you to other water-powered machinery. Writing about small subjects can send you down so many rabbit holes as you do your research.

You might take some pictures of pilgrim badges you found in a museum and then write up a brief paper on what you saw. This might lead you to a longer paper on a wider variety of pilgrim badges. And that might lead you down the rabbit hole towards lead casting and sandstone molds. Anything is possible.

One more consideration: micro-research can be used in larger papers. I wrote a small paper, 4 paragraphs – sort of a “fact of the month” article, on the varieties of sugar available in the middle ages. I can incorporate those 4 paragraphs into any paper I write that involves sugar. I already did the research, the writing, and the bibliography; no sense in re-inventing the wheel anytime I want to explain why I’m using a particular variety of sugar in a recipe. Research that you do for one paper, can be reused in other papers. I wrote documentation for some red wine that I made. In my research I found some very nice references that described how England imported a ton of red wine from France, particularly from Bordeaux. Years later, I was making mustard from an English recipe, which called for wine. But, what kind of wine would a 14th century English-type person use? How about some of that red Bordeaux wine that I already had the research for? Those two or three paragraphs can also be published on their own in my local newsletter.

You can also go through old newsletters looking for A&S articles that inspire you to revisit the topic. Is there more information available today? Thanks to the Internet, reference material is available to us through Project Gutenberg, Google Books, Academia, JSTOR, and other sites. Can you make an improvement to a recipe with a better redaction or more appropriate ingredients? Long ago, when I was the Chronicler of the Hael, I published an A&S issue of our newsletter. I published a recipe for a meat pie that called for pre-packaged bread dough and margarine. I know why the cook used the two (for cost and convenience for the former and dietary restriction for the later), however, if you wanted to make a more period meat pie based on that particular recipe, tell me how you would make it. Again, always give credit to everyone, and their work, that inspires you.

Image 1 - Tournaments Illuminated #124 Autumn 1997 - Society for Creative AnachronismI have in front of me issue #124 of Tournaments Illuminated (Autumn 1997). On pages 24 and 25 is a nice article by Diane Harper (Siglinde Harfinerstochter) titled “Drinking Vessels (Mostly Glass) of the Middle Ages.” It is a nice article and it does inspire me to use Siglinde’s overview on glass cups to do some of my own research. The article includes some crude drawings of drinking vessels with notes that some of them can be found at the Corning Museum of Glass, which is about a two hour drive from my house. I can certainly drive out to Corning and see these vessels for myself and write about them. Siglinde also has a small bibliography to lead me to additional resources to help me with my future research. I don’t know if Siglinde ever thought that anyone would be reading her article 25 years later, but here we are.

In the same issue of the TI, there is a redaction of a 14th Century German recipe by Debra A Hense (Kateryn de Develyn, page 15). The recipe is for marinated veggies that call for balsamic vinegar. Would a 14th Century German use a 17th Century Italian vinegar? I’m not saying that it wouldn’t taste nice, but I don’t think balsamic vinegar would be the best choice to use. I would use cider vinegar. It is perfectly acceptable to springboard off of someone else’s work because you disagree with their conclusion or methods. (Yes, documents describing the vinegar from the Balsamic region of Italy date back to around 1000AD, but I believe that the balsamic style vinegar that we can buy today only dates back to the 17th century. Don’t agree with me, do some research and prove me wrong. I look forward to your article.)

There are a lot of surviving broadsheet ballads from the end of the SCA time period. Find a high resolution image of a broadsheet and transcribe it into modern English (or other languages if you wish). At the very least, convert it into modern spelling. You can also take the time to make footnotes explaining any unusual words or phrases. You might be the first person to transcribe it. I transcribed two broadsheets into modern English, the Case For and Against Coffee. It was a fun project.

Micro-research doesn’t have to be 100% written for a newsletter. Remember, the Æthelmearc Gazette would happily welcome any short articles (ed. note: Yes, please!). Especially if there are nice pictures. There are several late-period manuscripts that explain how men and women should bow and/or curtsy. If you have nice garb and a partner to hold the camera, make a photo spread of the steps necessary to show that one was properly trained to behave in court. Re-create the woodcuts with pictures from multiple angles.

With YouTube, you can make video research “papers”. Do you know how to wrap “viking” leg wraps? Or how to properly roll chausses so that they don’t fall down? Make a video and upload it.

And I highly recommend that you create an A&S blog so that you can keep track of what you work on. WordPress and Blogger are two of the most popular. If you keep your research online, you will be able to, at an event, tell someone, “I know the answer to that. Just go to my blog at www. blablabla.com. and search for medieval pop tarts.”

Here are some ideas that might inspire you; either for a small paper, or for a deeper dive for a broader research paper:

  • Describe the White Ship.
  • Who was Black Agnes?
  • The wheelbarrow was invented in China and Europe at the same time: how were they different? Same with the stern-mounted rudder.
  • Describe a medieval fire arrow.
  • Did Shakespeare invent the Knock-knock joke?
  • Where do “crocodile tears” come from?
  • Who were the Green Children of Woolpit?
  • How would you make a given recipe “kosher” for lent?
  • How were coiners paid?
  • Describe England’s archery law.
  • How expensive were spices? Or pigments?
  • Tell me about Mahometta.
  • Explain a medieval idiom or phrase. (Were door nails really dead?)
  • What is the difference between a friar and a monk?
  • How did Mansa Musa cause an economic disaster in the 14th Century?
  • What was a mappa mundi?
  • How much profit could one get by buying sheep and then selling the fleece?
  • Who was Mayor Nicholas Brembre?
  • In “Romeo and Juliet”, why did one Italian tell a second Italian that a third Italian fights in an Italian style all the while standing in an Italian city?

I hope that I have inspired you, my readers, to take your first steps on the road of research, and I look forward to reading what you have discovered.

Baron Caleb Reynolds

What is the Pent in the Ice Dragon A&S Pentathlon?

11 Tuesday Jan 2022

Posted by in Arts & Sciences, Competitions, Research

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The Ice Dragon Arts & Sciences Pentathlon, often shortened to the Pent, is an arts and sciences competition dating back to the second Festival of the Passing of the Ice Dragon, held in 1978. But what exactly is this Pent? We’ve all seen arts & sciences displays at events, perhaps even entered a competition or two ourselves, but apparently the Pent different? While it has had many forms over the years, the most recognizable and often used is the current format of multiple categories anyone can enter and win individually. But what is unusual is that the Pent also has an overall competition among those who have chosen to enter a minimum of five different categories. And true to its name – a pentathlon is a sport that includes five different athletics events – entering the arts & sciences Pent can be quite the endeavor!

A wealth of judges and Her Majesty Margerite Eisenwald admiring a Scribal entry, at the 2017 Ice Dragon Pent.

The challenge here is more one of creative time management than of pure skill. Most artisans can’t plan a whole year, or more, to work on five separate high-level entries. What makes the Pent fun is to find those one, two or three entries that are complex enough on their own that their research and creation can be spread around several categories. The real challenge is to figure out how! Researched a unique beverage? Enter a Research Paper as well as a drinkable brew. Created a garment from scratch? Enter your garment in Fabric Construction, but enter the process of making the yarn, with nicely presented samples, in Fiber Arts. If you are especially nifty, you could even take a swing at an Applied Research Paper by documenting the dye used to color the yarn!

The pinch is that only entries from completely separate categories count towards the Pent (see the website for a list of the official categories). Anyone can enter up to five entries in any category, but only your highest scoring entry in that category will score towards your overall Pent score. Thankfully, entrants are allowed to cross enter one entry into one additional category, phew! Made a bag with wood handles? Enter the bag as a whole in Fabric Construction (formerly Accessories) and cross-enter the handles in Woodworking – voila, two entries!

Applied Research “Vinegaroon” entry by Lord Snorri skyti Bjarnarson at the 2018 Ice Dragon Pent

A category close to my heart, and quite useful in teasing out five separate Pent categories I find, is Applied Research. Extremely well researched items too simple or modest to compete fairly in a more traditional category fall under this. A fun category – experimental archaeology on a small scale – it is also one that does not seem to be utilized very often and why I wanted to spotlight it here. Some of the examples that come to mind are my entry of six simple soap ball recipes, accompanied by a veritable compendium of medieval soap research and recipes, as well as the unique Vinegaroon experiment, accompanied by ‘please try it!’ samples for the judges and general populace.

Be aware that due to the anticipated length of research papers (nothing to do with the soap compendium, I am sure), the paper/research portion of the Applied Research entry must be submitted in advance (received electronically or postmarked by February 15, 2022).

From a small local arts & sciences competition, the Pent outgrew its locale quickly to become a competition with Kingdom impact. Although, initially, not the kingdom you might think. Back then, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, our Sylvan Kingdom was only in the early planning stages and Ice Dragon was the premiere A&S event of the East Kingdom. It drew people from up and down the East Coast and could get in excess of 200 entries (so many judges…)!

Some of the more memorable entries, according to Pent autocrat Cori: the tiny dead people by (now Mistress) Luceta and the real poison (by THL Rue). And then there was the time John the Artificer entered his ferrets (I wonder if the populace could pet them?) and the agricultural entry that was a miniature of a rabbit warren (did the ferrets have anything to do with that?!). And then there was (now Mistress) Alizaunde de Bregeuf from the East who entered her upper torso covered with real woad… probably did not have trouble finding judges for that one. And what do you think (now Master) Clewin and (now Mistress) Fredeburg entered, “made with all authentic materials and processes”? They entered their newborn baby! With documentation. I can not confirm first hand how detailed, though, that you’d have to ask them.

Table of beautiful Fabric Construction entries at the 2019 Ice Dragon Pent.

Ice Dragon Pentathlon is for young (very young…) and old, for the beginner and the accomplished; even for the competing as well as the artisan more interested in display. The Pent organizers always arrange for a dedicated Display area. They also gladly make room for the infamous Misfit Table, brain child of Master Thorpe, for those projects that didn’t quite do what they were supposed to do. Now, if only we could enter a Misfit Experiment as a 5th Pent project… wouldn’t that make for an intriguing entry!

elska

Thinking about a research paper for Ice Dragon 2022?

24 Friday Dec 2021

Posted by in A&S Competition and Display, Arts & Sciences, Ice Dragon, Research

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Are you thinking about entering in the Ice Dragon Arts & Sciences Pentathlon this year? Great! It is fantastic to see our Sylvan Æthelmearc artisans get back in the swing of things – although some did not seem at all slowed down with the transition to virtual competitions in the past few years! We have faith next year’s Arts & Sciences Pentathlon will happen in some shape or form – preferably in-person, of course – which means we need to get our act together soon. The entry deadlines are starting to creep up… with the first one being:

Research Paper deadline (category Literary Arts): February 15th

The category Literary Arts includes, but is not limited to: Poetry & prose, Research paper, Musical arrangement & composition. Entries are not to exceed 10,000 words (approximately 40 pages double spaced exclusive of images) and should be sent electronically or via hard copy in the mail.

But what exactly makes a written work a research paper? Ideally, a research paper should do more than simply summarize known information. It should ask a question, make an argument, prove a point or present a conclusion about a topic of interest to those in the SCA. The subject might draw from history, or it might relate to the way in which we attempt to accurately recreate the past in the SCA. The end of the introductory paragraph of the paper usually includes a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved (called a thesis) and would offer a neat summary of the main point or claim of the paper. And like the literary arts, research papers come in different types, too.

Research papers can come in different flavors – which one is yours?

A research paper can be Argumentative: this would be a good one for writers presenting a debated topic. First clearly explain and present two opposite opinions on the issue at hand. Then take a position in the paper with your view for one side of the topic. Present facts, data and authoritative opinions in support of your position to persuade and convince the audience and argue against any contradictions. Argumentative papers can be quite fun to read!

Any paper by Baron Caleb is a fun read, and his example of an argumentative paper What the Norse Greenlanders Ate (2017/2020) is once again memorable. It was entered into the Kingdom Arts & Sciences Championship, 2020.

A research paper can Compare & Contrast: this type of paper is used to compare two different subjects, or concepts, and how they relate to one another in both similarities and differences. The paper’s statement provides clarity on the contrasts and comparisons throughout the paper. The goal is not to persuade the reader, but to neutrally inform the reader about distinctions between varying viewpoints of related topics or genres.

An example of this would be my comparison of medieval gruit beer with modern gruit ale, using oft contrasting viewpoints to figure out why and how gruit ale changed so much from its historic origins. It was entered in the 2018 Ice Dragon Pentathlon.

A research paper can be Analytical: here, you would focus on facts instead of opinions. It is informational in nature and uses a large variety of viewpoints and sources on a subject without a specific opinion. It provides the reader with as much information as possible, but allow the audience to draw their own conclusions. However, instead of merely presenting the information, you should be able to present a factual analysis of the data you are working from.

A concise example of an analytical paper (research does not need to be many paged to be effective) would be A Brief Survey of SCA Bardic Music by Gwendolyn the Graceful. Another, yummy, example would be Krupnik and the Plausability of Landrace Honey Cordials by Lord Cassiano da Castello, entered into the Kingdom Arts & Sciences Championship, 2021, and smartly accompanied by a practical, sip-able, example.

A research paper can be a Report: Report papers are merely an organized and detailed list of facts about a topic. In many cases the report works to outline details related to a case study or process. The statement of the paper would describe the subject being explored and define the scope of the report, and can include your personal experience related to the topic under consideration. Authors of reports choose a subject, research it, and convey the evidence to the reader using quotes, graphs, tables, interviews, experiments, a summary and appendix

Period zombies? Why, yes! Draugarnir: Revenants in Old Icelandic Sagas by Baron Fridrikr Tomasson would be a (somewhat creepy) example of a report paper, as would Luceta di Cosimo’s paper Dead Men Walking – an Overview of Apotropaic Burials, entered in the 2017 Ice Dragon Pentathlon.

A research paper can show Cause & Effect: These papers guide the reader through a series of “chain of event” scenarios. Such papers work to study results; considered, expected, probable or, perhaps, unexpected. Cause-and-effect papers are not written based on opinion, but on quantifiable evidence with supporting documentation. With supporting evidence, this format can be both informational and quite intriguing for the reader (especially when accompanied by YouTube videos!).

Experimental archaeology, finally! An practical example of a cause & effect paper (I did this, and that happened) would be Experiments with Bone Ice Skates and Their Associated Poles by Master Robert of Ferness, entered as an Applied Research paper in the Ice Dragon Pentathlon 2019.

I hope you enjoyed my TED talk on research papers; for sure a topic close to my heart.  Of course, don’t expect all papers to neatly fit into these five broad categories. SCAdian artisans are known for their out-of-the-box thinking and category mash-ups happen just as much in writing as elsewhere, of course. I do admit it took me more days to track down (mostly) appropriate research paper examples, than I did writing this post – so if you know of a better example, let me know. I can’t wait to see – and read – what will be entered in this year’s Pent – you’ve got winter break to start thinking if you have not already… nudge, nudge, wink, wink!

Yours in service,
elska

Want to know more about the Passing the Ice Dragon Arts & Sciences Pentathlon? Look no further, the website is updated with the latest information, including updated deadlines.

Chancellors of Æcademy are looking for in-person bids

24 Friday Dec 2021

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Staff Only! Greetings Æthelmearc from the Chancellors of the Æcademy,

We are looking for bids for both the Spring and Fall Æcademies in hopes that both can be in-person events with the potential for a virtual component as well.

Spring Æcademy: Preferred date June 18, 2022. As we are past the bid deadline, we are open to any group hosting.  Bids are due March 1, 2022.

Fall Æcademy: Preferred date November 12, 2022.  Rotation is to Region 4.  Bids are due April 1, 2022.

We are looking for sites ideally with the following (but will entertain any proposed bid):

  • a minimum of 5 rooms suitable for classes
  • WiFi capability – this is not a requirement but as we would like to try a hybrid in-person/virtual event we are hoping for the possibility
  • an area (indoors or out) for martial classes
  • a large commons area and suitable changing rooms, royalty room, and bathrooms
  • handicap-accessibility

Please feel free to contact us with any questions!
fridrikrinngamli@gmail.com or baronessorianna@gmail.com

In service,
Fridrikr Tomasson and Orianna Fridrikskona

 

The real history of Saint Nicolas, formerly known as Nicolaas of Myra.

05 Sunday Dec 2021

Posted by in Bardic, Research

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By Elska á Fjárfelli

Everyone over here knows about jolly old white-bearded Santa Claus, delivering gifts through a chimney, lured there by the enticing smell of cookies and good behavior on Christmas eve.  Many know this modern character is a reinvention of the European December 6th celebration of Saint Nicolas. What many might not realize is that the Saint Nicolas celebration is based on a real historic figure. And that the celebration itself, the giving of gifts, or coal, to our children goes back for so many centuries the tradition is actually SCA period. Forget Santa Claus and leaving him chocolate chip cookies – let’s celebrate Sinter Claes and have an historic excuse to hurl ‘pumpkin spice’ cookies & candy at the kids instead!

Saint Nicolas and the three boys he supposedly brought back to life (a variant of the three daughter legend). This is a typical Dutch wall insert, 16th century, at the Dam in Amsterdam, of which saint Nicolas is the patron saint.

The saint Nicolas is the patron saint of children, the poor, seafarers, butchers and merchants and became the patron saint of numerous churches in merchant cities like Antwerp (Belgium) and Amsterdam (the Netherlands). Currently more than seventy churches in the Netherlands are dedicated to Saint Nicolas, he’s that famous! The person Nicolas was born in Turkey, which was part of the Roman Empire at the time. He became bishop of Myra and died December 6th, 342 CE. A church was built on top of his grave which then became a popular pilgrimage destination. Centuries later, in 1087 CE, his remains were relocated to South Italy out of fear Muslim invaders would destroy them. At first, Saint Nicolas was only revered in Eastern Europe, but after his relocation, and as a patron saint of seafarers, he quickly gathered following in Western European coastal nations as well and by the 13th century December 6th had become his official name day or saint’s day.

This all sounds pretty normal for many of the Christian saints… So, what happened that morphed Nicolas of Myra into the well-known modern children’s icon Sinterklaas, as he is now known and celebrated? There are only a few historic stories (legends?) known about Nicolas of Myra. The best known is about a poor man with three daughters whom, thanks to the gifts of Nicolas of Myra, could properly marry instead of being sold into prostitution. To help them, Nicolas strew money through the open window, the likely genesis of the practice of strooigoed (strewn candy, specifically associated with this celebration) and, later, chocolate coins.

The Painting “De sinterklaasviering” by Jan Steen from ca. 1665 shows several traditions still in use today: the singing of saint Nicolas songs, the chimney with gifts in front of it, candy – and a whipping cane in the shoe of the bad kid (there is always one)

The celebration of Saint Nicolas coincided from about 1300 to 1600 with the folk celebration kinderbisschopsspel (children’s bishop game). A child plus retinue would be chosen December 6th as the Children’s Bishop and provided with food and gifts until December 28th. The other kids would receive a gift of money and a day off to celebrate December 6th.  Probably the oldest mention of this practice, dating to 1360, was found in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, quickly followed by a similar mention in Gouda, in 1363. By 1403 we first see the connection with spiced cake in the mention “honic, claescoeck en taert aen die kynders, op hunne patroen St. Nyclaes” (honey, klaas cake and pie for the children, at their patron saint’s day St. Nicolas). Medieval German and French cloister schools would celebrate Saint Nicolas Day with a miracle performance, where Saint Nicolas himself would appear to praise good students and reprimand the lazy ones.

Speculaasplank

A modern rendition of the medieval Klaaskoek, made with the help of a carved wooden mold.

In the late Middle Ages, in conjunction with the Saint Nicolas festivities arose the Saint Nicolas Markets; a similar development as the modern day European-style Christmas markets, inspired by the traditional German Weinachtsmarkt although perhaps a wee bit rowdier! The market would be visited after church, to buy gifts for the Saint Nicolas celebrations. One of those gifts could be the klaaskoek. [1] Hopeful boys would offer this cake, which is in the shape of a man and spiced with speculaas spices, [2] to a girl and if she accepted the klaaskoek… Quite likely inspired by the legend where Nicolas of Myra helped the three poor daughters get married.

The klaaskoek is still known to this day and age, even if its use as a marriage maker is mostly forgotten. [3] Another practice, and one that has become ubiquitous with the Sinterklaas celebrations even today, is the leaving out of a shoe. By the 15th century, poor people would leave a shoe in the church for the rich to donate money which would be distributed under the poor. Descriptions from the 16th century tell of children leaving out a shoe filled with oats and straw. [4] Parents would trade the contents of the shoe for toys, candy, ginger cookies, marzipan, pepernoten (peppernuts) and speculaas (speculatius cookies) – both made with speculaas spices. Other traditions would be the strewing of candy, often by an unseen entity, the singing of Sinterklaas songs and the giving of gifts on saint Nicolas eve – all traditions still practiced today.

Page of the 1600 Keurboek with the prohibition of the saint Nicolas festivities

Of course, after the Reformation not everyone was as amused with all the frivolity associated with a religious festivity and party pooper protestants tried to cancel the festivities, thinking them to be catholic superstition. Around 1600 Delft forbade the celebration of Saint Nicolas and other cities forbade the putting out of shoes and the sale of saint Nicolas specific cakes and candies. Instead, and influenced by Martin Luther, the saint Nicolas celebrations changed from a religious to a folk festivity. Even though the saint himself lost standing after the Reformation, the tradition was so popular that the celebration never completely stopped, not even with ultra-conservative protestants. Over time, the religious festival changed into an outdoor folk festival which again changed into a family celebration.

Interestingly, Saint Nicolas was not always portrayed as a stately bishop with a white beard and a red miter. [5] Likely due to the prohibition for northern Dutch protestants to portray catholic saints, saint Nicolas became portrayed as a scary black dude with leg-chains he would rattle to mortify kids into good behavior. [6] Sometimes called Zwarte Klaas (black klaas), this iteration of saint Nicolas developed into Zwarte Piet (black Peter), beloved by twentieth century kids’ helper of saint Nicolas, handing out candy to the good kids, giving coal to the bad – but also slightly white washed, so to speak, as twentieth century Zwarte Piet is assumed to be black from traveling up and down the sooty chimney to deliver the goods. Guess our parents’ generation was not that proud of that bit of Golden Age either – and the twenty first generation did away with Zwarte Piet altogether. Not quite sure about their substitute, [7] I doubt many kids will take candy from a Krampus!

By the 18th century, the back story of Saint Nicolas now portrayed him as coming from Spain – somewhat plausible as his ‘second’ home in South Italy at one point was part of the Crown of Aragon, associated with Spain. But whether he was thought to come from Spain, or only traveled to Spain to source oranges and other delicacies – the connection between saint Nicolas and Spain, his travel by steamboat and his servants gained a permanent foothold in the public imagination with the publication “Sint Nikolaas en zijn knecht” in circa 1850 by teacher Jan Schenkman. His book was so popular, that even its illustrations influenced public perception and saint Nicolas’ look as a stately old man with white beard, red bishops’ hat and mantel, and entourage of many black servants, the zwarte pieten, became the standard from then on. The ever-popular family tradition gained one more phenomenon in the mid-twentieth century hen gifts would start to be packaged in fun and unusual ways, [8] often accompanied by rather sketchy poetry.

At around the same time, in the 19th century, saint Nicolas emigrated to America, taking his white beard, red clothing, gifts and cookie tradition with him, and gaining a flock of reindeer along the way. [9] Having grown up with Sinterklaas, and having a kid growing up with Santa Claus, I think I prefer the one with the best cookies and candy. I am not in need of any klaaskoeken but man, do we miss the pepernoten… Santa Claus has no idea what he’s missing out on!

[1] ‘klaas’ is shortened from Sint Nikolaas, or Sinterklaas; which in turn became, when translated to English, Santa Claus, in case you were wondering.
[2] spices of klaas; very similar to pumpkin spice – yeah, not a new thing.
[3] Sad to say, I had never heard of it.
[4] for the horse, not saint Nicolas – who’d need a bribe a saint, right?
[5] the pointy hat; but not at all a wizard’s hat, even though he and the bag of gifts fits through a chimney, and he rides a horse on top of tiled roofs… yeah, not at all magical.
[6] oops.
[7] the history of Krampus goes back a long way, but its connection with Saint Nicolas is country specific. I had never heard of Krampus until Dutch society started looking for a zwarte Piet substitute. And while kids might prefer the brightly clothed, candy dispersing Peters, adults really, really took to dressing up in sheep skins, wearing horns and bells and going on parades to scare each other.
[8] the gifts would be called surprises, but with a Dutch accent. Ever received a gift-wrapped frozen pig’s head containing a set of silver earrings from your mother-in-law? That’s how that happens. It’s kind of similar to Secret Santa, but person-specific, and so much fun when played with creative people (often needing many months of R&D…).
[9] unsure how that happened. And why anyone trade in a perfectly fine Dutch Warmblood for a bunch of flying reindeer is beyond me.
[10] whom quickly caught on that ‘believing’ in both was advantageous.

There is much more to be found on this fascinating multi-cultural, multi-continental celebration. I did not even get to the Scandinavian variant, let alone Krampus! For easy reading check out the suggested WIKI pages – be aware that English counterparts are not necessarily carbon copy translations – and perhaps follow the trail of their bibliographies.

Sources

Images

Known World Colegio de Iberia June 4-6, 2021

31 Wednesday Mar 2021

Posted by in Announcements, Arts & Sciences, Event Announcements & Updates, Research, SCA @ Home

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The Known World Colegio de Iberia sponsored by the West Kingdom will be held over the first weekend of June 2021.

This is a weekend of virtual classes on the lives and times of the people who dwelt in the lands which we now call Spain and Portugal. The symposium covers the period from the Muslim Umayyad Conquest, and includes the great Muslim city-states and the four Christian kingdoms (Kingdom of Castile y Leon, Kingdom of Aragon, Kingdom of Navarre and Kingdom of Portugal), ending with death of the Habsburg king Philip II. We also explore some of the worlds who experienced colonisation by these kingdoms.

Come join us!
There is no need to pre register.

Website:

We have a website which will contain information about classes and our teachers, as well as the schedule. This is getting updated all the time so visit regularly! It is located here: https://scaiberia.com/known-world-colegio-de-iberia-2021/

YouTube Channel

Classes will be recorded where possible and will be uploaded to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2RmLGx_KiNzoFiM6GAu5Hg

SCA Iberia Facebook Group

There is a Facebook group that focuses on the culture of the Iberian peninsular called SCA Iberia (Spain and Portugal). Please come and join the community!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/338555562878719/

Facebook Event

We will be posting more updates about the event here as the event comes closer. Join us here: https://fb.me/e/28evEmlVo

The Zoom room details and password will be made available closer to the date and advertised on the Facebook event and the website. We will be having a range of breakout rooms depending on the number class tracks required.

We are looking for teachers!

If you are interested in teaching or know someone interested in teaching, please get them to fill out this form: https://forms.gle/UfvttUBQmCQd5xev9

We are looking for event support!

There are a range of different roles that we will need to make this event as easy and as fun as possible to run. If you would like to assist us in anyway please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/fHSy4DA7SkB37Y837

Please share among your networks.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Behind the Scenes: Caleb Reynolds shares his Champs entry

27 Sunday Dec 2020

Posted by in A&S Champs, A&S Competition and Display, Research

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Continuing the freshly-minted tradition of virtual sharing in these times of plague, the Kingdom Office of Arts & Sciences once again reached out to our fabulous Arts & Sciences Championship artisans to share their work with the populace at large on a more personal level. The virtual Kingdom Championship was also a juried competition, and included a week’s worth of face to face judging – with judges especially selected for their knowledge and background – as well as an online populace “meet and greet the artisans.” Master Hrólfr and I, your Kingdom Arts & Sciences officers, enjoy finding new ways to inspire and motivate our artisans in these trying times and we are happy to see the Championship ran so smoothly!

Today’s interview is with Caleb Reynolds, who entered the Kingdom of Æthelmearc Arts and Sciences Championship with his research paper “What the Norse Greenlanders ate.”

Baron Caleb with his trusty editor.

Could you tell me a little about you, your persona?

I am Caleb Reynolds. I joined the SCA in November 1984 after seeing an armored combat demonstration at the Texas Renaissance Festival. I tracked down my local chapter (Barony of the Stargate) by looking up Richard Lionheart’s number in the phone book. My persona is a late 11th century Norman in occupied Saxon England. My paper is about the diet of the Norse who occupied Greenland: I think it is possible my Norman alter-ego might have heard of Greenland, but would never have visited.

What inspired you to make your entry?

I am fascinated by the minutiae of medieval life. Most book concentrate on battles and who became King or Queen. I am interested in the little things: table forks, pretzels, weathercocks, bowling, fried fish, horseshoes, law suits, water mills. I was reading a book about the Norse expansion and the book devoted three or four paragraphs to Greenland. The Norse occupied Greenland for around 450 years and this book could only mention that Eric the Red discovered it; his son discovered America, and that the Greenlanders couldn’t grow anything because Greenland wasn’t green (ha ha, wasn’t that a scam to get people to Greenland), so they only ate seal meat and cheese. I was surprised since the details on Iceland, Shetland, and Dublin were very well written. My research took me to Jerald Diamond’s “Collapse”, which has a sizable section about the start and end of the colony. Some of his statements didn’t sit well with me and inspired me to do an more in depth search. The majority of the popular press only mention a diet of protein and dairy, but humans can’t live on a 100% protein diet: they must have eaten something other than meat and I wanted to know what they could have eaten.

Did the entry throw up any unexpected issues?

This was a straight up research project. Since I don’t have access to primary sources, and I don’t read Latin, Danish or other languages, my sources were primarily English ones. There is most likely a wealth of information that could have helped me but has never been translated. With the pandemic, JSTOR and Academic.edu opened up their libraries to everyone. This gave me access to a lot of information that I would not have known existed a year ago. The major hurdle I encountered was all of the rabbit holes this topic opened up. The paper was primarily a discussion on what food was available to eat on the island. But I had to reign myself in from running off on extended tangents.

Funny enough, two days after I was judged, I was recommended a paper titled: “Palynology supports ‘Old Norse’ introductions to the flora of Greenland” which details the plants the Norse brought to their new home.

The subject is rife with future papers, either for myself or for others:

  • Danish flour and iron subsidies to Greenland, Iceland and the Shetland Islands.
  • Norse donations of wine for Greenland church services.
  • What was the method of making wine from crowberries that King Sverrir taught to his son?
  • Were Cogs used to transport cargo to and from Greenland, or only knarrs and other longships?
  • What was the cost of trade goods on Greenland?
  • What was the markup of Walrus Ivory on the Continent?
  • Was salt produced in bulk on Greenland? If so, how?
  • Cooking over manure: pros and cons.
  • Were there people who to traveled to Greenland for a year or two just to make a fortune hunting walrus? Like wildcats in ’49 Gold Rush.
  • How long does a lamp fueled by blubber last compared to olive oil?
  • Why were the Norse such jerks to the Dorset, Thule, and the first nation people of modern day Canada?
  • How the Black Death and attacks by the Victual Brothers destroyed Bergen’s ability to send ships to the far colonies and how that impacted the survivability of the Greenlanders.

Did you learn something specific, something you would do differently, or would recommend others to do again?

One of the things I have discovered over the years is that pretty much every time you hear or read an absolute statement about the past, it is usually wrong, and the truth is far more interesting and a great topic of research.

“No one in the middle ages ever bathed.” What about all of the bath houses throughout Europe? Most of which were closed down during the Renaissance. The city of Bath was named for it’s hot springs and bath houses. (Or, baths were named after Bath. Someone should research that.)

“There were no pain killers.” What about all of the medieval manuscripts that talk about the pain relief properties of various plants and mushrooms?

“Everyone ate rotten meat, that’s why they used spices.” Really? Spices were expensive. If you could afford spices from the literal other side of the planet, you could afford fresh meat.

“Few people traveled more than 5 miles from where they were born.” What about traveling merchants? What about pilgrims? What about soldiers and crusaders? How did salt travel from the Mediterranean to the north seas to salt cod which was then moved throughout Europe? It didn’t fly.

Absolute statements are generally a jumping off point for a fun bit of research. For people new to research papers, I would recommend picking a topic and writing a few pages about it. A research project does not have to be book length. Nor does it have to be unique: you can write on a topic that others have also used; just present your own experience and interpretation. Are you interested in a strange image in a manuscript: write about it. A recipe you want to try: write about it. Did you come across an interesting duel: write about it. Every SCA newsletter would be happy with two or three pages of something interesting about the middle ages.

Here is my suggestion: if you have access to old newsletters or old editions of the TI, like 20 or 30 years old, look through them for anything interesting: Medieval wrapping paper. Cosplay during the Middle Ages. Obscure recipes for food or beverages. Modern veggies vs period ones. Soap or “tooth paste”. Use that as a starting point for your own journey: what new information has been uncovered since the old paper was published? How would you present that thing, today. Our A&S community is not just about one person writes something and then it’s fixed in stone; the SCA is living history. That article about a recipe for ale; the author said to use malt extract and whatever hops you can get. How would you make it using whole barley? What hops would have been used at that time and place? That recipe says to use a non-stick pan over a stove top; how would you make it over a fire? Period sources call for an egg to determine how salty a brine is, or how much sugar is an a wort: Tell me how that would have been done. You do not have to be the first person to research something; just tell us your experience and your methods.

What did you think of the virtual face to face judging concept?

I like the face-to-face judging. I’ve been on both sides of the table in previous Arts & Sciences Faires and Championships. As a judge, it’s really nice to ask the author a question about some point not covered in the documentation. As a victim…. I mean competitor, it is an opportunity to explain a point that you either didn’t cover in the documentation or expound on a different tact. The Zoom method was good: not perfect but it was good opportunity to talk to old friends. There also were no interruptions from passer bys or noise from adjacent tables. Perhaps next time, I will be one of the judges.

What motivated you to enter the Kingdom Championship?

I had no expectation other than to present a paper on a topic that I found fascinating. I hope that I can inspire others to not only do a deep dive on an unusual topic but to share their passion with others. I was not expecting to win (although I had a 50/50 chance for the first two or three weeks: at least until a third person threw in their hat). Those of you who know me, know that I love obscure topics and know that I love asking stupid questions that have complicated and interesting answers. I was also drawn to the chance to talk about my paper and be spun around and pointed towards new topics that I had not thought of. This was a far better process than just having a score assigned to a judging sheet.

Are you interested in reading more about the entry after this appetizing interview? You can! All entries including documentation and images are available at the Kingdom Office of Arts and Sciences website.

Behind the Scenes: Ishiyama Gen’tarou Yori’i talks about his VQPT entry

05 Friday Jun 2020

Posted by in A&S Faire, Arts & Sciences, Research

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One of the first artisans to enter, Shonagon Ishiyama Gen’tarou Yori’i graced our Virtual Queens Prize Tourney with his beautiful project. His entry “the Kyousoku Arm Rest” looks intriguing, and just asks to learn more about it! As we do not have the ability to converse with Shonagon Ishiyama face to face, the Virtual Queens Prize Tourney offers the opportunity to fawn over images and read the documentation right there on the Kingdom Ministry of Arts & Sciences website – even to leave feedback! And to learn a little more about the artisan and their thoughts behind their entry, the organizers decided to broaden our traditional entry of object and documentation with personal interviews.

kyousoku-finished

“Kyousoku” Arm Rest by Ishiyama-shi-i Gen’tarou Yori’ie: A piece of medieval Japanese furniture, made from wood using entirely hand tools similar to those that were available in period, finished in multiple polished layers of artificial lacquer, and decorated in the hira-maki-e (gold paint) style with a karkusa pattern.

Could you tell me a little about you, your persona. Is your entry something your persona would use?

My persona is a late period noble of the “kuge” courtier class. (As opposed to the “buke” warrior class.) The fiefdom of the Ishiyama clan contained a very famous temple (Ishiyama-dera), which was home to some warrior monks who made quite a bit of trouble for the Shogun. It is my conceit that that, as oldest son (“gen’tarou”) of the family, Ishiyama Yori’ie has been summoned to the capital to serve as a court representative of his family and as a hostage to assure their loyalty. He would have been assigned a position in the bureaucracy, but not had much actual work to do. So, Ishiyama took an interest in the crafts of the capital, with an eye toward bringing ideas for trade goods home when it was time for him to take over the family.

By this time in Japanese history, most of the furniture that was based on Chinese culture was no longer used. Japan had evolved into a floor-seated culture, and developed its own furniture to accommodate the new style. In both his work time in the palace and his leisure time at home, Ishiyama would have spent a lot of time sitting while interacting
with others, writing notes on his studies, and writing home to communicate with his family. This does get to be tiring, and I believe he would have had a kyousoku arm rest of this type to support him. The joinery of the legs is left unglued, so it can be disassembled and carried more easily by a servant if he traveled to visit another or went home to visit his family.

What inspired you to make your entry?

Most of my work in the SCA is inspired by desire. I see something, and the Ishiyama part of me says, “I want one.” Even in Japan, most of these things can be difficult to buy, and certainly very expensive. If I want it, I have to make it. If this takes figuring out a good method, learning new skills, or deciding on substitute materials, this is the nature of the challenges I pursue in the SCA.

I’d seen these arm rests in scrolls, books, and movies; and some other SCAdians had made some. This was enough to get “kyousoku arm rest” onto my to-do list. I asked a Japanese woodworking teacher the best way to do the sliding dovetail joinery, and after learning about the taper I had all of the information I needed to get started.This project was a good opportunity to be a stickler about doing all of the work by hand.

What is your intention with your entry? Are you looking forward to start putting your entry to good use, and if so, how could we envision this? Or is it intended as a gift, or a general household item?

I plan to use this arm rest at events, mostly at Pennsic. I already used it a bit in my vigil tent. I may make more of them in the future, but maybe not entirely by hand, and maybe not with the embellishments.

Did the entry throw up any unexpected issues? Or did it go exactly as expected, and what would you contribute to this smooth sailing?

The gold paint I used for the “maki-e” embellishment was not nearly sticky enough. I had polished the black finish very smooth, and then applied all the gold paint. I found that the gold paint was too easy to rub off, but trying to top-coat smeared the paint. I cleaned up the smears as well as I could, repainted the damaged designs, and sprayed the project with clear shellac to seal it. Then, I smoothed that with abrasives before applying several coats of clear lacquer to create a smooth, resilient, top surface. This added about a year to the process while I got over my frustration and waited for it to get warm enough
outside to proceed with finishing.

Did you learn something specific, something you would do differently, or would recommend others to do again?

In addition to the sliding dovetails, I learned how to do the “karakusa” arabesque scrollwork by hand. This gets to be a lot of fun! I wouldn’t use this paint again, though. In the future, I would probably mix metallic powder into clear finish for a more resilient design. In period, they would have used lacquer, which takes weeks to fully cure. Period technique would be to sprinkle powdered metal directly onto the wet lacquer. Sounds messy to me.

What motivated you to enter the Virtual Queens Prize Tourney?

I entered the tourney because I had already intended to show this project in a competition or display, now that it was done. I had taught a class on kyousoku and how to make them, so I had the material assembled for documentation. With Ice Dragon and War Practice cancelled, I was not sure when I’d get a chance to show this off. When the tourney was announced, I realized I was all set to enter!

Thank you, Shonagon Ishiyama Gen’tarou Yori’i, for sharing your wonderful work with our Kingdom’s artisans and populace!

If you would like to see Shonagon Ishiyama’s entry, follow this link. And if you liked his work, have a question to ask, or a tip to share – please leave your comments with his entry! You can “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of the entry’s page. We have four more weeks to peruse, enjoy and interact with the entrants. Make use of the opportunity, if you can!

Would you like to enter your own project? The deadline for entering the Virtual Queens Prize Tourney is June 30th, and you can find all you need to know on how to enter on the KMOAS website.

 

 

Virtual Ice Dragon: 12th-Century Embroidered Shoes

19 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by in Arts & Sciences, Research

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Amor Vincit Omnia: 12th-Century Embroidered Shoes
by Robert of Ferness, OL

I hope this article inspires other artisans to publish what they would have entered at Ice Dragon as well, that all may enjoy learning about what could have been seen there, if not for the current sickness in our land.

During the Viking Age and early Middle Ages, people in Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Northern Europe used runes to send messages to each other, and to posterity. In Bergen, a city on Norway’s west coast, a particularly large number of artifacts with runes on them has been excavated. They carry reports of business, statements of love, condemning curses, and sometimes gibberish. Most of these appear as carvings on sticks, but one particularly interesting example conveys a Latin quotation via embroidery on a shoe.

For Ice Dragon this year, I decided to make a reproduction of that shoe and its missing mate, a project summarized here. For details and citations for assertions made herein, please see my full documentation referenced at the end.

This project involved three main aspects: 1) understanding the runes of the surviving shoe and coming up with something appropriate for its missing mate; 2) devising a pattern from the original and making wearable footwear; 3) learning about suitable material and colors for the embroidery.

Fig 1

Fig. 1

As apparent in Fig. 1, we can see that the shoe has survived remarkably well after 800 years in the ground. Its surface sports numerous incisions, which are punctured by small holes through the thickness of the leather between them. This is the usual manner of applying embroidery thread to shoes, of which hundreds of examples are known (though only five with runes). In addition to the runes, decorative elements manifest in bounding lines for the letters and arcs on the ankle.

Fig 2

Fig. 2

The Runes
Fig. 2 clarifies the runes on this shoe, which, when transcribed to our Western alphabet, read mulil amor vincit omnia et, starting to the right of the ankle seam and running around the ankle, then jumping to the instep and running down to the toe. There are no word separators.

The first word, mulil, has proved to be untranslatable. It may be a personal name, some kind of magic charm word, or have some other meaning that may remain forever unknown. It does not appear in any corpus of Latin or Old Norse, either as-is or in any alternative that might have come from a misspelling or other sort of mistake. We can hope that someday it will turn up in a context that sheds lights on its use here.

The rest of the phrase, however, comes from the poet Virgil’s Bucolica Eclogue X, and is Latin for “love conquers all and,” with the rest of his phrase presumably continuing on the other shoe as nos cedamus amori “so let us surrender to love.”

Numerous aspects of runes can make interpreting them difficult. Their individual usage and form morphed through time based on changing pronunciation of their letters. Further, they varied from place to place, they were produced by people with different levels of literacy, and they could represent different languages. Additionally, different forms might be used on different media, and sometimes archaic runes were even written on parchment well after more modern forms were carved into other materials.

Konica_C364-20200311163151

Fig. 3 depicts the shoe’s runes and their Latin alphabet equivalents.

Notes: the same rune is used for “u” and “v”; the “o” and “r” of amor have been joined in a ligature, or bind-rune, a common practice to save effort or space by using the same stroke. The “t” used in this context is the thorn character ᚦ and an “o” is used in et, either by mistake or because of sound changes.

Making the Shoe
This general type of shoe, known as a turnshoe, consists of a sole and an upper. To make such a shoe, cut out a thick piece of leather for the sole, and a thinner, more flexible one for the upper. The upper will have a side seam, almost always found on the inside of the ankle, which is stitched before being attached to the sole. After the side seam is closed, the upper is stitched to the sole inside-out. Once stitched all the way around, the shoe is soaked in water until soft enough to be turned right side-out. I worked out a pattern for this shoe based on my previous work, essentially making the ankle opening a bit higher on the front and adding the skewed toes. Vegetable-tanned leather was used, dyed black with vinegaroon.

Embroidery on Leather
Unlike embroidery on cloth, leather-based work does not pass up and down through the material from one side to the other. Rather, it passes through the thickness of the leather, from one surface incision to another, leaving an area to be looped over. This technique means that the leather is not pierced from outside to inside and water will not then soak through holes when the top of the shoe becomes wet. Further, there is no thread on the inside of the shoe to abrade or catch on the wearer’s foot.

Fig 4

Fig. 4 shows the turned shoe with incised leather ready to be embroidered.

The incisions must be made before turning because cutting them into a three-dimensional form of flexible material does not appear to be feasible. I used a very sharp knife to incise the leather totally freehand, except for the long strips down the vamp where I used a straight edge for a consistent line. As for when to apply the embroidery thread, some excavated shoes clearly reveal it was added before turning. As an experiment, and because I was afraid of damaging the work, however, I first turned the shoes. This likely made it take longer to apply the thread because the formed shoe limited the freedom of manipulating the leather to best advantage.

Fig 5

Fig. 5 illustrates details of embroidering leather (from a previous project with three strips on the vamp from toe to instep, and reveals the inside of the shoe after application of thread).

The Embroidery Thread
At Bergen, 38 shoe uppers have retained traces of embroidery thread, although this shoe was not one of them. Unspun silk was used in all of those cases, and the thread was colored red or gold and has kept its bright and glossy characteristics during its time in the ground. My version of the shoes required about 785 ft. / 240m of red 2-ply filament silk applied two strands per pass by looping it through a tiny #12 glover’s needle eye and then applying via satin stitch. The gold elements required about the same amount. It took me 30 hours to embroider each shoe for some 7,500 total needle passes.

Fig 6

Fig. 6 shows various stages during the embroidery of the right shoe.

Final Thoughts
By no means is it clear who made the original shoe and added the embroidery. The shoemaker may have been itinerant or established; full-time or part-time; native or foreign; working alone or in a shop with others. Nor do we know who wore it originally, i.e., an extraordinarily rich person, someone moderately wealthy, or a person of more limited means. It could have been worn by a local, or by a visitor. However, some have claimed that a simple shoemaker could not or would not have added the embroidery and further that it would require an enormous cash outlay for such shoes. I do not agree with either of those assessments.

Fig 7

Fig. 7 offers a view of the completed shoes.

Acknowledgements
The surviving shoe is held by the University Museum in Bergen, cataloged as Acc. No. BRM 0/52927. Photos illustrating this conserved shoe, and others, are available on the web from the Bergen Universitetsmuseet site which are licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

Further Reading
Many details of this project have been omitted from this summary. Please see my publication on Academia.edu for further information, illustrations, citations, and references. I go into each aspect in more depth, including runes, making shoes, leather embroidery, medieval illustrations, and modern studies of all these aspects.

-Robert of Ferness, OL

The Æthelmearc Gazette welcomes all Arts & Sciences submissions! If you are not sure if your documentation would work as an Æthelmearc Gazette article, please feel free to ask Elska – she’s always happy to help format and edit as necessary.

The Kingdom Ministry of Arts & Sciences adds Virtual Resources to KMOAS website

14 Tuesday Apr 2020

Posted by in Announcements, Arts & Sciences, KMOAS, Research

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To help our artisans navigate the medieval and renaissance arts & sciences while living through our current time of making history, the Kingdom Office of Arts & Sciences has added a chapter of Virtual Resources to our website. On this page you will find links to interesting and informative YouTube videos, websites and Facebook group pages devoted to various topics, as well as other useful A&S information.

The information is divided into two parts: first we list all our Kingdom and populace resources, and second we list virtual resources from all over the Knowne Worlde. Included are Æthelmearc Book of Faces arts & sciences groups, as well as Society-wide arts & sciences groups; Kingdom & populace YouTube channels and playlists; populace websites; populace publications (hosted on Academia). As well as society-wide Virtual Learning, of which the Book of Faces group SCA Virtual Classroom and Artisan Display has gained the most traction, and society-wide general arts & sciences Facebook groups (of which there are so many!).

To see Tony Robinson squirm his way through fulling woolen fabric with lots of human urine, watch The Worst Jobs in History: Middle Ages

I even included a list of my favorite free YouTube channels and playlists of documentaries and shows detailing medieval and renaissance life for those days we’d rather see someone else go through the effort of… fulling woolen cloth with human urine (Tony Robinson in The Worst Jobs in History)… cooking indoor dinner over open fire without a chimney (Lucy Worsley in If Walls Could Talk)… building a castle from scratch (I kid you not, and that would be Guedelon Castle in France)… or kitting out and training a medieval war horse (Modern History TV) – there is something funny, intriguing, educational, for anyone.

Our list will be updated as information becomes available –and we hope this will be soon, too! Are you an Æthelmearc citizen and do you have a blog, a website, a YouTube channel, or an Academia profile that we did not as of yet list? Please share! The more, the merrier!

Of course, it is our full intention to keep our Kingdom collection of Virtual Resources available and updated for now, as well as for the future.

Yours in service,
Elska

Email the deputy KMOAS office
The website for the KMOAS
A direct link to the Virtual Resources page