[Ansteorra] the how of persona play

[willowdewisp at juno.com]

Dear Gentles 
I had a long conversation with Sir Richard op Morgan and we were talking about how we could understand how people could get uncomfortable around people who play Ultra historical high persona, like Duke Carodoc. We were happily talking about that we understood where persona begins and where persona ends. Sir Richard stated that there were Knights in America. He was "A Knight" in the Society of Creative Anachronism. He also stated he knew where the SCA starts and The SCA ends. I stated I understood this too. 
Then I started wondering if people understood that we knew this .
In the old days we thought there was an off stage and an on stage. We believed the purpose of persona was to be a prompt for individual research and learning and teaching method. If fact we felt that all aspect of the SCA was a learning about period situation. 
For example , Candlemas persona play. Right off the bat I can tell you I had never seen so many Norse outfits. I saw so many different kinds of turtle brooches and little hats. I saw not so many Saxon women outfits but that might have been that other than the Nuns that there were not many  spotlighted Saxon women. 
I had a small persona conflict. I am a Scot which makes me Norse and Pict and Irish. I came ready to impress the Saxon Court but when I got there and saw so many Norse ladies I felt undressed without more jewelry. I grabbed this lovely Norse lady and she help me to choose jewelry. I experienced a persona moment where my Norse side got the better of me. I was envious all day looking at these lovely strings of amber. 
I have know for years that in many of the early cultures getting dressed up mean putting more jewelry on but this event made it real for me again. 
Also the amount of period jewelry was wonderful. There were museum pieces and ingenious home crafted pieces of art. To choose so many good examples of Norse and Anglo Saxon jewelry means there had been a bunch of research.Newer people and people with other time period personas could learn a lot about a very important art form just by looking. 
Learning by experience is the main premise of the SCA as a learning organization. 
Just by observation , Countess Octavia wore a lovely latter period dress and was wearing a perfect latter period cabochon necklace. After seeing the early period jewelry her necklace really bought home the style differences.  It made history and the concept of history and people changing really come alive for me. It was very interesting. 
I entertained my self for a couple of hours just looking at people iconcepts of Anglo Saxon and Norse early dress. 
Willow
 

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