[Ansteorra] Ansteorra Digest, Vol 5, Issue 55

[Paul DeLisle]

*S*...I bow to your superior knowledge, you Olde Fossil....but I was
pointing out the "accepted" time-frames...not the "official" ones (and,
let's face it... way-back-then, who really cared about Corpura?...I seem to
recall several stories of yours, from a *much* later time, when you were
SRM, of trying to convince other Kingdoms that the Society Rules really
mattered!)

I was trying to give my perceptions of how our time frames were really
thought-of...not the "Party Line".

Alden
(Not-quite-so-Olde-Farte)


> (snip)
> >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
>