Thoughts on Unwanted Awards, Award Resignations

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

Heilsa All, and especially Diarmuit.

After reading the volumnious posts about Diarmuit's dismay at receiving an
AoA which he feels that he does not yet deserve, I found that I had several
thoughts that moved me enough that I'm putting them "pen to paper" as it
were despite my sore hand (yep, it does feel as though a rabid weasel were
gnawing at the palm and wrist... sigh).

Firstly, Diarmuit, by my observation of your accomplishments you do most
certainly deserve the AoA.  For the Society, an AoA says that you have a
clue, or at least the beginnings of one... you have a costume, a name, and
you work to make the SCA better in some way.  (Actually, I think the award
was probably long overdue.) Persona wise Diarmuit might never have been a
"Lord,"  but that's no reason to let the title interfere with the way you
perceive or play your persona.  If you truly feel that you do not DESERVE an
AoA, well, console yourself that you are in good company.  Remember back in
the dawn of Ansteorran History, the Night of the Living Laurels?  That was
an occasion when PEERAGES were given out indiscrimiately, in at least one
case to a person who didn't even have an AoA and who had not been in the SCA
very long at all.  My advice to those who feel they have been given an award
that is not yet deserved is, treat the award as a covenant between you and
your friends:  they beleive that you alreay live up to the rank, so go out
and hold up your end of it and show them and yourself that you actually can
be worthy of it.

When Gunnora found herself the recipient of a similar honor many years ago,
it translated persona-wise into a small landholding upon which she
considered herself extremely wealthy because she had SIX pigs!!  The foreign
title "layh-dee", in young Gunnora's ears, was the Ansteorran equivalent of
O.N. bondi, or small farmer.  "Mistress" is no more appropriate now than
"lady" was then, in terms of my persona... any woman in charge of a medium
to largish farm-holding (as Gunnora is now, with outbuildings, 18 pigs, 20
sheep, a horse, five cows and a gaggle of geese) would certainly be much
more a "master of the arts" of spinning, weaving, dyeing, cheesemaking, food
preservation, husbandry, etc ad nauseam than  I mundanely ever will be in
the SCA! And my mundane Scandinavian correspondents see the "Herskerinde"
title (the Danish equivalent of "Mistress" since Gunnora lives near Hedeby)
on my e-mail signature and have visions of a 6-ft tall blonde in black
boots, leather corset and weilding a whip!! (then immediately upon having
this unlikely vision, they fall over and roll on the floor, laughing)
(unless it's one of my apprentices... No not really.  I don't beat my
apprentices. Yet.).

Some folks have mentioned the fact that you may, if you choose, decline to
accept an award at time of presentation.  Most people feel that refusing an
award in court is rude, to say the least.  I suspect that a sincere
protestation of "Lord King, I am truly not yet worthy of such an award,
please wait a while longer until I feel that I am worthy" would not horribly
offend, but it still would be embarrassing to the Crown and the folks who
recommended you for the award.  [I'd like to hear comments from those who
have sat thrones as to how this would be perceived:  how would youhave
reacted if someone did this in one of your courts?  How would it have
affected your perceptions of the person in general, and how would it affect
your decisions regarding the person if you sat the throne again?]

Others mentioned the fact that one can resign an award after it has been
received.  This is true, but Diarmuit, I'd offer some caveats on this: do
think long and hard before you decide to resign an award.  What people will
always remember is NOT that you did not feel worthy.  They will remember
that you were ANGRY.  This unfortunately is not good for one's reputation,
although the general rule in SCA life is that you can live just about
anything down after 5 years or so.  Resigning an award because you feel you
do not deserve it is a reasonable motive.  However, people remember
resignations much longer than the 5 year "forgettery" period I mentioned
above.  

And because you once resigned an award, I think it makes people much less
likely to ever recommend you for another (whether due to embarrasment, not
being sure you want or would accept awards in the future, etc.).  You may
not think this is a big deal now, but there may come a time when you want an
award, such as a peerage, not because you want the rank but because you want
to have your voice heard within the kingdom... the fact that we have the ear
of the Crown, and that they must listen to our advice even if they do not
take it is nearly the only privelege of a peer (there are many, many
responsibilities, however!)  

I can think of one person who has resigned award(s) in the past, and that
would be Leonidas.  You might ask him or his friends how that affected his
SCA career.  [There are probably others out there who have either resigned
awards, or who know people who have resigned awards... what effects has this
had on the resigning party?  I'd like to hear from anyone who's seen how
this effects one's SCA life and career.]

Not only that, Diarmuit, but your reluctance for one or more awards can
spill over and hinder others near you from getting awards.  Damaris of
Greenhill found out that she would have been recommended for a Thistle a
long time ago, but people in her home barony thought she didn't want any
awards... which was an incorrect perception: her ex had been the one going
around loudly saying "I won't accept any award until I'm good enough to get
a Laurel", but unfortunately people remembered the statement but mistakenly
attached it to poor Damaris long after her ex was gone.

There are four other scenarios for resigning awards which I want to briefly
discuss here as well, although they do not have much to do with Diarmuit's
situation at all.  But while I am on the topic, I've had some thoughts I
wish to express about resigning awards in general.

The first award resignation scenario would be the person who resigns one
award in order to take another, i.e., exchanging a Knighthood for a Mastery
at Arms or vice versa.  Under normal circumstances this has no stigma
attached, unless someone is forced to do so against their will, which would
be A Bad Thing.

The next reason would be a person resigning awards because they want to
"start over" in the SCA , possibly at the same time they take a new persona.
One can probably do this without too much of a stigma being attached to the
action, but I'd expect that earning awards the second time around might be
more difficult than the first.  The only person I've had close contact with
who sucessfully did a major persona overhaul was when Lady Elizabeth
d'Erisby transformed to Mari ferch Rathtyen, and she did not resign her
awards when she switched personas.  {How about it... is there anyone out
there who has resigned awards to fit a new persona?  What were your
experiences?]

The third reason to resign an award would be because the person's
circumstances have changed, and they cannot honorably carry out the
responsibilities of the rank.  An example would be a knight who for some
reason could no longer fight or teach, and who might feel compelled to give
up the peerage because of this.  There should be little or no problems with
this type of resignation, either, and in fact I would honor someone who did
this out of a feeling of responsibility to their rank (but not if they were
doing it only as an example of "Eating Worms."). [I can't think of anyone
who has done this, but again, I'd like to hear accounts if there are any
such out there.]

The last resignation scenario is what I term "Resignation in Spite" or
"Resignation as Power Play".  This is the situation when someone says, "I
don't like what you're doing so I'm resigning my award in protest." Or, "If
you make that person a member of this order, I'll resign my membership in
the order because it will be worthless then."  This does carry a stigma, and
by god it should!  

 (NOTE: Personal Opinion Warning.... If anyone wants to be offended by
anything I post after this point --- or for that matter, at any point!---
feel free so long as you are not a big whiner and are willing to say that
you're offended to my face.  None of the comments herein expressed are
directed at any specific person, or reflect any specific incident.  I am
merely commenting on the practice in general.)

The "Resignation in Spite" is evil.  Flat out evil.  I feel it is an insult
to the Crown who gave the person that award, an insult to the sitting Crown,
and an insult to every other person in the SCA who has that award.  And
maybe an insult to everyone else who holds an award at that level of rank,
in some instances.  The nasty thing about the "Resignation in Spite" is that
90% of the time, the person who makes the threat does not actually resign
the award... they were just waving their weenies around and showing what a
big bad person they are, and never had any intention of maintaining their
personal honor by following through on their stated word.  None the less,
even with our current system, in my opinion people who say they are going to
resign an award, especially when it is part of a threat or power play, have
proved themselves to be honorless nithings and not worthy of consideration.  

And in the few cases where someone does actually resign the award in a
"Resignation in Spite" case, going through all the steps, notifying the
heralds and the BoD if necessary, frequently they somehow get the award
given right back to them later.  In Gunnora's Perfect World (which is NOT
the SCA as we now know it, and which I never realistically expect to come to
pass) anyone who commits "Resignation in Spite" should not only be stripped
of the award immediately, but should never be allowed to hold that award
again for the rest of their SCA career.  

OK, enough digression.  Back to Diarmuit's immediate situation.

The long and short of it is, Diarmuit, that you can work around your SCA
award "rank" and maintain your persona as it should be played.  Someone
(Etienne, I think) commented earlier about how Leon Dunne, a professional
peasant, managed to work his "Lord papers" into his persona.  I simply
ignored the medieval connotations of the rank, and thought about how my
culture would have recognized achievement (a gift of a small farm from the
local jarl or jarlinde I served), and adjusted my persona accordingly.  

As a "way out there" analogy, U.S. citizens cannot receive noble ranks from
foreign governments unless they are purely honorary.  But if for some reason
the Queen wanted to bestow a knighthood on you, are you really going to say
no?  American citizens in this situation get honorary knighthoods on the
rare occasion this happens.  And then they take little notice of it in their
"real" life when they get back home to the U.S.

Whatever you decide, Diarmuit, give it some time (a month at least, wait
until after Twelfth Night or even Candlemas!) and really think about your
options.  I would suggest speaking to some of the Lions of Ansteorra to see
how they would handle a similar "mismatch" of SCA title and persona:  the
list is long, but the ones I'd go to first are Sir Pendaren Glamorgan,
Master Leon Dunne, Chieftess Mari ferch Rathtyen, Master Ragnar Ulfgarsson,
Thordis Hakonarsdottir, Thorgard ins Svarti, or any of the other exemplars
of persona in our fair realm.

Wassail!
::GUNNORA::


Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde
===========================================
Ek eigi visa (th)ik hversu o(dh)lask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna
heldr hversu na Hersis-A(dh)al