[Ansteorra] Ansteorra Digest, Vol 5, Issue 55

Paul DeLisle ferret at hot.rr.com
Wed Sep 20 19:42:51 PDT 2006


> > Studying the time period between the fall of Rome and 1600 is our
> > official purpose. Teaching by doing is our technique. Our costuming
> > is one of the ways we teach. We learn from each other. If we dress
> > out of period we are failing to teach correctly. We show the Crown
> > that we are ready to go to the next stage by our costuming and
> > behavior. If we flip our noses at the concept of  making our garb
> > more period

>  Only one problem with this post:  The time period we study is
> "Pre-Seventeenth Century Western European Civilization and cultures with
> trade contact"  No starting date is anywhere in the Governing Documents
> of the SCA.  When the Board of Directors asked the Grand Council to
> consider a modification in dates, including assing a start date, the
> resounding answer was NO!
>
>   It may be a good piece of Interkingdom Anthropology to study
> differences that people believe the SCA covers.  I'm really curious as
> to if there is a difference from Kingdom to Kingdom  (many people here
> in An Tir and in the West believe either 600 - 1600 or 650 - 1650 for
> some reason)
>
> Brendan ap Llewelyn
> Grandcouncil Member (at large)
> Tymberhavene - Adiantum - Summits - An Tir


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...)
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.)

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...)
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)

Let me point out that these are not *facts*...merely my memory of history as
I was taught (and later experienced) it. I was around in A.S. XVIII; there
are a lot older folks out there!

Hope this helps!

In Service, I remain
Alden Pharamond
Tir Medoin, Ansteorra





More information about the Ansteorra mailing list