ARCH - An Ideal (was: Greater Unity)

[Filemaker]

Galen here...

Plachoya wrote:
> Sounds like when rapier fighting started? How great were the numbers that
> could match Don Tivar when the White Scarf was created? Must archery have
a
> waiting list for a grant award befor one is created? Why can't the award
be
> created with two three or four awards given as the principle and build
from
> there? How meany were capable of being Knight when the first Knight was
created?

I wasn't around when Rapier or Heavy Weapons started.  We do,
I believe, have one of Tivar's cadets on this list, perhaps he could
help us learn a bit of that history.

At the SCA's first tourney, all the participants were knights, except
one guy who came as a squire, and was knighted during the course
of the day (and so is listed in the history as the SCA's first knight).
I don't really see this as being a similar situation, as we're not
stumblingly founding a new group.

OTOH, I do see a parallel to the founding of the Order of the
Centurions of the Sable Star, the heavy weapons grant-level
award in Ansteorra.

The Order was created with six members whom the Crown felt
weren't suitable candidates for knighthood (nor I think were con-
sidered likely ever to be), but who they felt deserved a higher
level of recognition.  Seems reasonable.  It was another year
before anybody else got this award.  Another two years after that
before anyone else did.  Then the Crowns started changing the
criteria.  For a while, it was for excellence in melee combat,
especially in command roles.  Now it seems to be an award for
hot-stick-up-and-comers, just a stepping-stone to knighthood.
(Yes, this is my opinion.)

I'm concerned that unless we _do_ have a "waiting list", as
Plachoya put it, the purpose of the award may become con-
fused and the standards difficult to maintain.

Which is why I posed the question, taken up by nobody so far,
of what would constitute the ideal archer.

For instance, I'm a knight.  I work very hard to be a good knight.
But am I the ideal of knighthood?  I doubt anybody other than my
lady would argue that I am.  So I try to identify areas of improvement
so I can be a better knight.  Could I find opportunities to be more
chivalrous, or a better teacher, or more courteous or courtly, or a
better fighter, or more authentic?  Could I be more pious or humble?

Are these the sorts of standards that should be applied to archers?
If I'm evaluating a fighter for knighthood, I want him to look good.
Is looking good important for an archer?  Should it be?  I want
a candidate for knighthood to be somebody who adds to the
pageantry of a tournament.  Is that something the ideal archer
should do?  Or are we just looking for a hardworking teacher
who also shoots well?  Is there some standard for courtesy or
diplomacy we should be asking for?

Before demanding recognition, what exactly is it that we want to
have recognized?

I'm not telling anybody, "you're not good enough".  I'm just
asking for a discussion about ideals.

- Galen






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