[Ansteorra] Ansteorra Digest, Vol 5, Issue 55

[Chris Zakes]

At 09:42 PM 9/20/2006, you wrote:

(snip)

>I think I might be able to satisfy your curiosity, Milord (or, at least,
>present my recollections and observations); and I ask any other Older Fartes
>out there to confirm-or-deny:
>
>IMO, this is not an IKA question...it is a *history* question (perhaps a bit
>Revisionist in-nature.)
>
>Way-back-when...in the Dark Ages, when everything was made out of wood, and
>Freon Cans were an Endangered Species around SCAers; there *were* no
>Governing Documents (not the way we are forced to tolerate them today...)

Um... I'm afraid you're mistaken on that, Alden. The SCA's Corpora 
has been around for a *long* time. There's a story from around the 
time I joined (AS 10/1975) of someone asking the local seneschal what 
this "Corpora" thing was, and being told that it was "a secret 
handbook for seneschals." When I was staying with Duke Siegfried for 
the Board meeting where rapier combat was formally approved 
(September of AS 14/1979), I helped his lady sort and label the 
SCA-wide mailout of the second edition of the Corpora.


>The time-frame of the SCA was "commonly" accepted as 600-1520, or, more
>commonly, "the Fall of Rome to the Cloth of Gold."  (Remember that the First
>Tourney was trying to replicate the Age of Chivalry; which is thought of as
>anywhere from 1066 to the mid-1400's.)

1520? Now *that's* a cutoff date I've never heard before.


>With the "discovery" of more impressive (read: much "cooler") outfits, and a
>few people playing with this "rapier" stuff (remember that there were epees
>and fencing masks at the First Tourney...); the deadline was "fudged" up to
>1600 (technically, 1603, the death of Queen Elizabeth.)
>For awhile, there was discussion (and arguing, fighting, pouting, ranting,
>etc) about moving it to 1650, or even 1680 (so we can do the "really cool"
>Cavalier and Musketeer stuff...)

There *was* a widespread belief for a while that the SCA's cutof date 
was 1650, not 1600, but the official date has *always* been 1600. 
Nevertheless, I've talked to folks in the last ten years who *still* 
believe that the SCA runs to 1650.


>However, around this time, the BOD began to insert itself more firmly into
>the workings of the SCA (and, more specifically, each Kingdom.)
>A lot of cultural- and historical- reasons went into the final decision that
>our date was "formalized" to "pre-17th Century", by the Bod-on-high
>(Gunpowder, the rise of the Middle Class, the fall of the French
>Aristocracy, lots of people with Very-Early-Period-Personas, etc.)
>
>There is also some apocryphal data that suggests that, *very* early-on
>(perhaps as early as the Second Tourney), 1600 was chosen, because it was
>the earliest that people could smoke... (actually, that would have been
>about 1585...Ahh, how the Gods have feet of clay...LOL)

FWIW, the original Articles of Incorporation, which were filed in 
1968, specify "pre-17th century." (they can be seen here: 
http://history.westkingdom.org/AHP/Articles.htm)

         -Tivar Moondragon
         Ansteorran fossil