Laurel Prize Tourney

Gunnora Hallakarva gunnora at bga.com
Mon Nov 11 09:29:02 PST 1996


Lyonel and Aquilanne asked regarding Laurel's Prize Tourney:
>Who did what?  How spectacular was it all?  What really cool goodies did the
>artists get?  How many artists displayed their work?  How many and which
>Laurels attended?  What other neat/bizarre/fascinating/horrifying stuff
>happened?  
>
>Details.  We must have details.

Heilsa, Ya'll.

The displays at LPT were outstanding.  I literally did not see a bad
display... there was no shlock present.  I personally tried to look at every
display and every piece of documentation, and I can say that overall, the
level of research has vastly gone up in the kingdom and that people's
documentation is getting better.  

There were 3 children entrants, the eldest of whom complained that he wanted
to compete in the Adult Division, not with the children, for which I give
him great honor and respect!!  

Three Laurels had displays, mine, Master Thomas and Mistress Clare.

Of the regular entries, several were just amazing and astounding... there
were several times I felt like I was looking at something swiped from a
Museum of Antiquities somewhere.  As has already been mentioned, the
tailor's shoppe was outstanding.  The work was to the highest level of
authenticity I have ever seen in or out of the SCA.  What wonderful work,
and a wonderful example to set for the rest of us!!

The next items which caught my eye were displayed by Margaret Pierce, who
had one illuminated panel that made me almost go blind looking at the
detail, the work was so fine.  She also has been working on more
authenticity in Viking costuming, which has resulted in her constructing a
Viking apron-dress by hand, sewing it with wool she spun herself, using
Viking seam treatments which she had researched... her seams are sewn the
way the Vikings actually sewed their seams.  

Eowyn ferch Rhys was another of our stellar entrants.  Her display included
some excellent examples of really nice block prints, some very tasty mead,
and I loved her poetry.  I'm sorry that I didn't get to go and look at her
display until the end of the day when I was tired, or I'd have more detail
to report.

There was a gentleman there from, I think, Northkeep, who had the best later
period poetry that I have seens since that flighty Elizabethan woman
Elizabeth d'Erisby was writing sonnets.  I believe that the gentleman was
Robert Fitzmorgan, and for other poets out there, take a look at the man's
work, which proves that it is possible to write poetry that is both beatiful
and metrically accurate!  This man received high word fame from both Master
Thomas of Tenby (who I at least acclaim the best poet in Ansteorra) as well
as Mistress Mari ferch Rathtyen (who runs neck-and-neck with Thomas in my
opinion for the quality of her poetry).

Rhiane, the lady autocratting the event, turned out another of her amazing
displays. You may recall that I was marvelling after Elfsea Defender that
Rhiane had, in addition to cooking a 10 course Viking feast, had gone out,
gathered goldenrod, and proceeded to prepare a dyebath and dye wool using it
right there on the site.  Well, Rhiane hasn't slowed down at all.  Her
letter of intent was embroidered on linen using wool, and the artwork was
very reminiscent of some of the themes found in the Oseberg burial site....
the picture shows a Norse woman with a distaff. spindle, dye pot, dyed wool,
a loom, herbs racked and drying  etc.  Her display in fact included a goodly
selection of wools and silks that Rhiane had dyed using herbal and lichen
dyes, some very nice original wool embroidery, a large chunk of stone being
carved with serpents in the Gotland style, and a selection of herbal
products.  Rhiane was honored for the best embroidery.

The best vintning honor went to Lady Danaris of Greenhill, which will
surprise no one who has ever sampled any of her excellent wines.  This time
she displayed a mustang grape wine, a blackberry wine (very dry) a peach
wine (also dry and crisp), a mead, peach melomel, cyser, and a strawberry
melomel.  The range of colors in these brews was gorgeous... the clear
vessels in which the liquids were poured for display showed this nicely, as
well as the good clarity of her wines.  She had also displayed some Viking
"random" bead necklaces and some weaving.

The display whioch I was most impressed with belonged to Lady Penelope, who
has found her field in woodwork.  She had a handcrafted oak Savonarola chair
and matching portable table which were extremely well-made.  SHe had chopins
(those tall clog-shoes worn in period to keep your feet and hems out of the
muck in the gutters).  She had turned wooden vessels.  She had food.  She
had a bronze Celtic handmirror polished to a honest-to-pete mirror finish.

Clunaidh of Bjornsborg was the gentleman I honored for Viking static works
(non-textile) for his display of drinking horns and horn mugs.  He is really
taking off with his works in horn, and plans soon to expand his repertoiry
with bone and antler.

I did not give away my ivory box.... although there were many very nice
Viking works on display, I wanted to see work with greater scope for the
box.  As a result, I have issued a challenge to Ansteorra:  I will offer the
ivory box again as Tournee de Lyonesse in March, again for a Norse static
display other than textiles.  I will consider stone or woodcarving, tools,
household implements, sledges, skis, skates, cooking vess4els, jewellry,
metalwork... all I ask is that it be as accurate as you can make it, it
should be documented at least verbally (I will know if you are making it
up!), and I want to see something that approaches the scope of work that the
prize ivory box does.  The box took about 80 hours of work, all together.  I
don't require that the winning project take the same length of time, but I
do require that in order to win the box, a  display must wow and amaze me as
much as my bnox wows and amazes others.  Can someone rise to the challenge?
Rhiane is already plotting....

I cannot wait until the next Laurel's Prize Tourney.  All our Ansteorran
artisans, keep up the excellent work!

Wassail,

::GUNNORA:;



Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde
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