ANST - Belts and their meaning..

[Tim McDaniel]

On Mon, 6 Apr 1998, Dennis Grace <amazing at mail.utexas.edu>
wrote:
> in taking the title *squire* in the SCA,

A nit that Lyonel doubtless knows well but others may not:
"squire" isn't a title, it's a job description or
relationship.  Not "Squire Foo", but "Foo, squire to Bar".

> a gentle is openly announcing his or her bid for the
> Chivalry.

There's something bothering me about "bid for the Chivalry",
or bidding for any award.  I suspect Lyonel was writing
quickly and didn't want to insert the SCA-standard Deathless
Prose about Not Striving for an Award but Desiring to be
Worthy of It.

Perhaps I'm crabby tonight (and grouchy, crotchety, ...),
but I don't like equating "squire" = "aspiring knight".  In
practice, that's what it's become in the SCA.  My
understanding of the real term is, as above, "squire" is a
job.  If, before a battle, someone buffs up the king's
armor, helps him armor, hands him his drinking cup, and
towels his forehead, he's the king's squire (at the time),
whether he's Duke Inman or Joe Newbie.

(Hmm.  Maybe I should ask to be Da'ud ibn Auda's squire.
He's not a knight, I'm not a fighter, but he *does* fight
occasionally and needs as much help armoring up &c as anyone
else, and as much more as he is so old.  Nah.  I *think*
it'd be period -- *was* learning to fight usually part of a
squire's definition? -- but it'd infuriate those it wouldn't
confuse.)

> constantly striving to develop and display the attributes
> most highly prized within the Chivalry.

Shouldn't most of us be doing that for some of the virtues
of the Chivalry?  After all, many of the chivalric virtues
are virtues for others.  E.g., no prowess and courage would
be expected of a mere merchant, but largess, courtoisie, and
pity for women, priests, and the weak in general are
commendable for him.


To modify what I wrote earlier: I like someone displaying
that he's someone's man.  My most prized garment is my
surcoat with my lady's badge on it.  (The surcoat is black
floor-length trigger, so in this kingdom I wear it only at
12th Night +/- 2 months.)  I just wish
1) we didn't color-code by belts, restricting colors to
   various extents
2) it wasn't so restricted to squires
3) that squiredom wasn't restricted to "knight wannabe"
4) that people used more documentable means -- the example
   given of a knight giving his badge is *lovely*

Daniel "bidding for knighthood?  OK.  5 pounds sterling of
the Tower fineness" de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work address.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.
============================================================================
Go to http://www.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.