[Ansteorra] Thank You For the History Lesson!

[HerrDetlef at aol.com]

now
> THERE'S a Bardic/Heraldic project for each group...the History/Meaning 
> behind everyone's
> devices!
Raven's Fort.  Originally called "Ames Dunum" (the Celtic rendering, I 
believe), after General Sam Houston (Huntsville's most renowned citizen, and the 
subject of the enormous statue south of town on IH-45) who was nicknamed "The 
Raven" by local natives, and the "Fort" after the red brick walls of the 
Huntsville State Prison (now known as the Walls Unit).  The SCA college of arms 
returned "Ames Dunum," so the English name was registered for the Huntsville group 
in the early eighties (the "teens" according to the A.S. reckoning).

The arms show a red brick wall topped with embrasures against a white sky, on 
which sits a close-winged black raven.  From what I remember, the 
close-winged raven was chosen over a rising or displayed raven so as to avoid the 
appearance of "landscape heraldry".

I also remember people asking about the plate on the lower half of the arms 
(circled with the gold laurel wreath).  A few folks pointed out that it looked 
like a hole in the wall.  I can't remember who, but someone once explained 
that the plate was put there as a place holder for some future change in the 
armory.  The person who knows the most about Raven's Fort's armory is Baron 
Raven's Fort himself, Sir Kief av Kiersted.  It was from his mouth that I first 
heard the blazon of the arms: Per fess embattled argent and gules, a raven close 
to sinister sable and a plate within a laurel wreath or.

The supporters refer to two humorous anecdotes in the history of the barony.  
One member of old had said something about "demon cows from hell" at the 
Stones of Raven's Fort, and mention had been made during the time that Ansteorra 
and the Outlands were at war of the Frogs of War, whose main goal was simply 
not to croak.  The motto of the barony ("The raven conquers all by right") was 
originally rendered in runes on the achievement, in keeping with the 
predominantly Nordic flair of the group at the time.  

While I was court herald to Their Excellencies, the Baron and Baroness 
Raven's Fort, I once heralded my baron into court with the rather bombastic 
"Sable-Winged Excellency."  I was studying the Odyssey in an English class at the time 
and had become fascinated with Homeric epithets.  This also was around the 
same time that I first remember hearing the word "Stellar" appended to the 
Crown's title of "Majesty".  Their Excellencies took an instant liking to the 
epithet and it has continued in use to this day (I realize it's a gross usurpation 
of royal prerogative now, but the time for backtracking has long since passed).

The first baronial order, The Order of the Raven's Heart, was a reference to 
a number of people in Raven's Fort who had been said to sweat blood for the 
barony.  

A long time ago, the mascot of Sam Houston State University was the Raven.  
Because of the obvious association, Edgar Allen Poe was chosen to represent 
American literature on one of the plaques that decorated the windows of the old 
library (now the Estill Building, which houses the personnel, registrar's, and 
financial aid offices, as well as the undergraduate admissions offices).  
Other literary figures include Shakespeare for England, Tolstoy for Russia, Goethe 
for Germany, Vergil for Italy, and Homer for Greece.  The lake at Huntsville 
State Park (more of a pond, really) is known as Lake Raven.

An interesting piece of Raven's Fort/Sam Houston State University Trivia:  
The Old Main Building, which burned in 1980 and was subsequently transformed 
into an amphitheater, still has its original cornerstone, which was laid on 
September 23, 1889.  By a happy and little known coincidence, the first Baron and 
Baroness Raven's Fort were invested on September 23, 1989.  Because the ruins 
of the building were cut just above window sill level in the creation of the 
amphitheater, they now look like the crenelated walls of a medieval 
fortress.....another "Raven's Fort."

Peace, y'all,
Detlef

GO ASTROS!!!
2005 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!!!!


Indicabo tibi, o homo, quid sit bonum 
et quid Dominus requirat a te, 
utique facere iudicium, 
et diligere misericordiam, 
et solicitum ambulare cum Deo tuo. 
Micah 6:8