The Art of Living

This past Saturday, after a year of being on the road and in my "funny clothes" over as many weekends as possible, and with an event scheduled only an hour's drive away, I went ... nowhere. Oh, not entirely. I went to the store and got cat food and a few other minor items, but my term as lady-in-waiting to a queen is over, not to start again unless she wins the crown again by her own or another hand, or one of the other candidates we're friends with wins, and we elect to serve under another pair. There are a few on the docket for next month's tourney, for whom we'd be willing to jump back onto the treadmill.

A very satisfactory part of the final court of the reign, and the first court of the successive one, was watching a truckload of people I know and love receive awards of one sort or another. Several of them were built around the averting of disaster at an event in January. One honored a very dear man for his exceptional courtesy. A few elevated people to the title of lord or lady, a couple of new baronesses were made, and two awards even went to children allied to my clan.

The one that surprised me was the one I received. I knew, because I had discussed it wth the queen's major domo, her husband, that my husband would receive some honor from her at her final court. But both of our names were called, to be given the Queen's Cypher. The cypher is given, usually at the end of the reign, to no more than 10 people, recognizing services above and beyond the call of duty. Usually, it is a small token of some sort, bearing the queen's initial. But not this time. Our queen did different ones. The only ones I saw up close were mine and my husband's, but I'm betting the rest were equally appropriate.

She made for us, by her own hand, a set of three-decade paternosters -- the medieval form of a rosary, beads strung loosely on a cord, so they'll slide, with a tassel. When she handed them to Padraig, she apologized for their being slightly outside the time period we recreate, since we portray the early 11th century, living in Norse Ireland. But we're Christianized Norse, and in our modern lives we're Catholic, so the paternosters are truly personal tokens of appreciation, and I am proud to wear mine on my belt, or perhaps wrapped around my wrist, if that works better -- I haven't tried it, yet, since I haven't been to any events since Coronation.

I talk about my SCA life a lot, I know. That's because it's the life in which I can play at being the self I would dearly like to be, among thousands of other people doing exactly the same thing, over centuries of history. It's a lot of fun, and you can be as historically accurate as you care to be.

To learn more about it, stop by the Deer Park in Bennington some Saturday, when the gang is out hitting each other with swords, or visit http://eastkingdom.org/ online to find a group that's closer to you.

Posted by Stephanie at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have to admit, I'm impatient.

About some things, anyway — and especially about the magic of spring. I've checked the irises and the daffodils every single day, measuring every slightest increase in size or bud. We put in the beginnings of a garden a few days ago, and I shook my fist at every snowfall since, worried about the fate of my peas, shallots and garlic. None of those have come up yet, so I'm hoping the cold didn't kill them before they got started.

My saving grace has been the little pot of herbs — chives, parsley, oregano and basil — sprouting on my desk, here at work. It's warm here, and safe from the depradations of our cats, and the dog, who at 70 pounds, THINKS she's a cat ... with the accompanying challenges. But they all like greens, so we're keeping the greens away from them.

The parsley is the tallest, so far, leggy and gangly, but it all bears the promise of tasty eating, down the line. I'm looking forward to getting it into the ground, and to plotting out my piece of land in the local community garden. Between my husband's spot and mine, we'll have garden space half the square footage of our house. We keep remembering more things we want to plant. Zucchini? Sure, but not too many. How 'bout leeks? OK. Mealy AND waxy potatoes? Definitely. Corn? Why not all three of the three sisters? Tomatoes? As many kinds as we can fit. Turnips. Onions. Strawberries. Yum.

But for now, what I have is a little biodegradeable pot on my desk, with a handful of herbs coming up, whispering promises. I'm listening. I can hardly wait.

Posted by Stephanie at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This weekend, it's all over.

For the past year, on as many weekends as possible and with duties that extended into the workaday world, I have been a lady-in-waiting in the train of Alethea Eastriding, Crown Princess and then Queen of the East, in the Society for Creative Anachronism. This coming Saturday, Her Majesty completes her reign, and I -- and a dozen or more others -- step out from behind the thrones and go back to sitting in the crowd.

It began last April, when a friend of my husband's and mine posted to his blog: "Darius has just won crown. My wife is the Princess of the East." Immediately, our hands shot up. Immediately, we went to work, I as a lady- and he as a gentleman-in waiting (or, as he prefers to be called, "the retainer of Lifting Heavy Things"). During events, my job has been to keep the queen on schedule -- a challenge, when everyone wants a moment of her time – or to hand her tissues, or cough drops, or to carry her cup or her knitting, or to polish the fingerprints off the surface of her crown. I've marched behind her in processions, and held a sunshade over her while she and the king knighted a man on the field during a battle. One day, in August, I found myself standing in the woods, watching as she participated in a fencing melee, and hanging onto said crown so it wouldn't get lost or damaged.

I've stood behind her during court, which is lots of fun, because you can see the surprised faces of the people being called up to receive an award. I've chased people down with messages. I helped her to don full court Elizabethan, an hour-long procedure requiring three people. One day, I helped her predecessor into her own, much simpler, gown – by the simple expedient of sewing it onto her as she stood in her tent. And I've put in time away from events, too, embroidering eight feet of Celtic knotwork onto an angel-wing sleeve, and then beading hundreds upon hundreds of tiny pearls in between the lines of the knotwork – with, if I say so myself, beautiful results.

That sounds like a frenzy of activity, but it doesn't reflect the quiet spots. Being part of the royal staff is like being part of the cast in a play. Even though everyone else present is "acting," too, there's more going on behind the scenes than I had ever realized. In January, we went to an event in a convention center in New Hampshire. The event, a Market Day at Birka, focuses on the "marketplace," a huge room full of merchants. But there's more to it -- meetings, classes, and fighting -- that some people never see. It was necessary to hold a mini-court in the rooms where the fighting was, so the royals went there, entourages in tow. As we left the fighting, a friend who was also retaining looked aside at me and said, "I never even knew that side of the event existed!"

It's like that. I've learned a lot about protocol, and how the magic is made, backstage. The best part is, I've gotten to know, or to know better, a number of people who I have admired from afar for years. Those relationships, and the memories I've gained, will be what I treasure, going forward.

In the SCA, though, royalty serve terms of a year, six months as heirs and six months reigning, and then they're done. My queen is a librarian in daily life; her king, a friend from New Jersey, is a pipefitter. Come Saturday, she'll be a countess, and he'll still be a duke ... and she'll be a librarian, and he'll be a pipefitter. And Lady Muirgheall, attendant to the queen, will be back to being Lady Muirgheall, Lady of Clan O'Riein ... and Stephanie Ryan, newspaper editor.

But the magic doesn't stop being magic, just because you know how it's done. For that, I am grateful.

Posted by Stephanie at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Are you on Princess Patrol, today?"
The woman asking the question is Mistress Thora Sharptooth, a Norsewoman honored for her skill at the arts and sciences, who looks like she just stepped out of a shop in the marketplace at Yorvík. Or she's Carolyn Priest-Dorman, wife to a Vassar College professor, volunteer in the college's Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, and inveterate researcher.
I'm Stephanie Ryan, arts editor of the Banner. Or else, today, I'm Lady Muirgheall O'Riein, a Scottish resident of Dublin, Ireland just after the reign of Brian Boru, co-leader with my Norse-Irish husband of my clan and, until at least next May, retainer to her Royal Highness Alethea Eastriding, current crown princess and soon-to-be queen of the Kingdom of the East in the Society for Creative Anachronism.
Welcome to the Pennsic War.
As it happens, when I meet with Mistress Thora, I'm just out and about at Pennsic with my clan-brother, not on duty at all. We're roaming the shops and stopping at the Moroccan coffeehouse, buying gifts for family and peering across the road to the battlefield, where my husband is indistingushable from the thousand other armored souls bent on "killing" one another with a minimum of actual injury.
Thora, as it happens, has been much more involved with the "political" aspects of our shared hobby than I have, over the years, so she fully understands what I have been learning, these past few months: retaining is a heck of a lot of fun.

Continue reading "Princess Patrol" »

Posted by Stephanie at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Two of Arts Weekend's most valuable features are the Arts Glance and Arts Calendar. Each is a great way to get your event announced. And if your audience checks the Banner's Web site, they'll know about it well in advance. While we're limited in space on the printed page, the space available on the Web is much larger. If you click the link, you'll find many more entries under each heading than can fit on a newsprint page.

With that advantage, Web readers can find out about your event that much earlier. Keep those event announcements coming!

Posted by Stephanie at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's so much to do in Bennington County, nearby New York and nearby Massachusetts this weekend that I dare not try to list it all — I'm sure I'll miss something. Or somethings.

Instead, I'll encourage one and all to check the calendar and Arts Glance online in the Arts Weekend section of the Banner Web site, and pick an activity or six to try. We have concerts, museum openings, theater, fiber arts and more. There is something going on to appeal to everyone. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful weekend, so get out there and enjoy the summer weather and the art of living.

Posted by Stephanie at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Stephanie at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)