ANST - New noncombat topic

[Mitchell-CON, Paul T]

Galen of Bristol here!

I have always felt that A&S competitions without Laurels
were like tournies without knights.  Sorry Siobhan,
I think of so much by analogy to combat, and this is
one of those things.

For instance, Timo won Steppes Warlord.  He's neither
a knight nor even a fighter of long experience.  In so
doing, he outperformed Duke Mikael, HRM Kein, and
myself, among many others, belted and unbelted
alike.  This is far more impressive a victory for the
fact that there were knights in the tourney.  If there
hadn't been, we'd be on the sidelines going, "Yeah,
he's good, but I can take him."  Of course, in real
life, none of us did.

I have to imagine the Laurels are doing the same
thing.  "What a lovely gown!  Almost as nice as
the one I made for Inman's third Coronation!"  It's
hard to keep in mind, without going back and
comparing, how much higher the standards of
excellence are today than 10 or 20 years ago.
That's no less true of excellence in the arts
than it is of excellence in combat.

It's been awhile since I've seen a Laurel in a
bardic competition, which is the most common
sort of A&S Competition I take part in.  (I
exclude the Bardic fire at Gothic War, to 
which I arrived late and from which I left
early, due to growing inebriation which threatened
to impair my courtesy to my fellow performers.
So I don't know if any laurels competed there.)

We bards know who the best of us are, and why.
I perform reasonably well, but I was recently shut
out of a bardic competition by someone who's 
always done more period stuff than I, and who's
been improving her performance style.  I watched
her perform and I knew that she'd bested me, and
I congratulated her most sincerely.  I once won a
competition in which someone whose bardic talents
I highly respect participated, and I told her that it
was made better for the fact that I'd had to beat her
to get it.

Years ago, one of my squires was fighting in his first
Ansteorran Crown Tourney.  He drew a count in the
first round.  My squire walked out on the field and
at the call of "lay on", slew the count with a single
blow.  I knew then that I'd been right, and that he
was going to go places.  Of course the count made
short work of him in the next two fights, but they were
good fights, and the squire did go on to excel; he's our
king today.  Losing to an expert can be a real education,
not just in how to do better, but in how well we're
already doing.

I never expect to be a laurel-quality bard, but it would
be nice to see bardic laurels in the competitions, so
I can know how I compare to them.  If I did aspire to
that honor, I know I would want to see what they can do,
so that I'd have a better idea of what I need to improve
to become one of them.

Honor and chivalry in the arts?  Be courteous, do your
own work, don't cheat, don't denigrate others' efforts, 
and if someone gets hurt, it's because somebody did
something really wrong.

- Galen

> ----------
> From: 	Mjccmc01 at aol.com[SMTP:Mjccmc01 at aol.com]
> Reply To: 	ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG
> Sent: 	Friday, September 05, 1997 8:59 AM
> To: 	ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG
> Subject: 	Re: ANST - New noncombat topic
> 
> Hello from Siobhan.
> 
> I've been reading the "honor and chivalry on the field" with great
> interest,
> and it sparked a couple of  non-martial questions.  (Besides, the list
> has
> been pretty combat dominated lately, and I get plenty of this at
> home.)  
> 
> Should Laurels compete in A&S competitions?  At the Steppes Artisan
> before
> the most recent one, a Laurel did compete and win, leading to much
> comment.
>  What is the general sentiment on this subject?
> 
> Also, how do the requirements of honor and chivalry translate into
> non-combat
> competitions, or do they?  In an A&S competition, exactly who is your
> "opponent," others with entries in the same categories, or, as some
> recent
> discussions seem to indicate, the person judging the entry?
> 
> Hoping to spark some less warlike discussions, I am,
> Fondly,
> Siobhan
> 
> 
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