[Ansteorra] Please share your favorite memory of getting largess

[Stefan li Rous]

Lady Eleanor Cleavely wrote:

> His Excellency Galen of Bristol, my Baron at the time, presented me
> with a beautiful cloak clasp and praised what he called my  
> "bravery" on the
> Bardic field.
>
> Though I did not win the Bardic that day (thank the gods I  
> didn't!), those
> two piece of largess meant so much to me. To this day when I  
> perform, after
> many competitions, titles and fires, I still remember the scent of  
> those
> candles and the feel of the clasp in my shaking hands. I will never  
> forget
> that day or how it felt.

Lady Eleanor's comments reminded me of two pieces of cherished  
largess I have received.

The first was an unexpected beaded brass necklace that Baron Galen of  
Bristol gave me for acting as his champion in the Nobles Archery  
Shoot at the 30th(?) year Ansteorra Celebration.

The second happened, as it did with Lady Eleanor, at a bardic fire.  
My one, and only :-(, bardic tale at this point is a story that I  
read in the Pennsic newspaper about ten years ago and tell by  
removing all modern references. Basically a newly-wedded couple and  
their Scotsman friend were traveling to Pennsic when someone in a  
passing car tossed out a lit cigarette, which landed in their  
trailer. By the time they realized it and could pull off the road,  
the trailer was ablaze. They lost almost everything they had. One of  
the few things that survived was the Scotsman's kilt. They decided to  
go on to Pennsic anyway since this was their honeymoon and all. Well,  
at Pennsic, word got out about what had happened and quietly people  
they had never met would come by and offer a tent, an extra cooking  
pot, some food and clothes etc.  They literally left with more stuff  
than they had originally started out to Pennsic with. I thought, and  
still think, that is an excellent example of the best of our Society.

So, I tell this as my bardic tale. Two or three years ago, I was  
telling this tale at a small bardic fire at Pennsic down by the lake.  
A little while after I told the tale, a Scotsman motioned me over and  
went digging through his stuff. He told me he was the Scotsman in the  
story I told and presented me with a cloak pin. The cloak pin which  
was on his kilt when the trailer burned.

I now try to have that cloak pin with me and bring it out when I tell  
that story.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****