[Ansteorra] Persona development and lack thereof

Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace sirlyonel at hotmail.com
Wed Sep 27 10:47:22 PDT 2006


Salut cozyns,

When I first joined the SCA in 1986, I had a lot of people helping me get 
all the things I needed: clothing, armor, a name, heraldry, feast gear. I 
knew only a few folks who had personas. At least, I knew only a few who 
actively played at being in persona. Frankly the whole persona thing sounded 
a bit silly and far more theatrical than I wanted to be.

What I didn't realize and what no one explained to me was that a persona 
helps make everything come together. If you don't work around a persona, you 
end up with some serious mismatches. In my case, I found myself with garb 
from late 12th Century Outremer, a name from 16th Century England, and armor 
vomited forth from a time machine (14th Century legs, 15th Century arms, 
13th Century body armor, 10th century helm).

After a year or so, I started playing with persona development. I was living 
in Idaho, so fitting my clothing to a hot climate was complicated. I also 
found that I really hated the long tunics and surcoats. I did a lot of time 
travel and geographic wandering, clothing-wise, and decided I felt most 
comfortable in the late 14th/early 15th Century Southern French.

It's taken a few years for my armor to catch up, and I still have that late 
English name. I'm sure it confuses people. I remember it confused hell out 
of at least one herald who tried to announce me into a tournament with a 
French pronunciation of "Lyonel Oliver Grace."

I've thought about changing my surname (or at least dropping the middle 
name) and using a French pronunciation. After twenty years, though, it would 
be weird making the transition from the long i sound in the first syllable 
of Lyonel to the long e sound. (Before the linguists and onomasticians get 
on my case, yes, I know, the French pronunciation is actually a short i, but 
it certainly sounds like a long e to American ears.)

lo vostre per vos servir
Meser Lyonel
_________________________________
Micel yfel deth se unwritere.
		--AElfric of York





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