[Bards] For the record

[John Hirling]

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Greetings fellow bards:

I assume that Her Grace Willow de Wisp (email below in full) refers to a
post that I made to the Laurel List.  That is the only discussion of
which I am aware. I am comfortable sharing the content of that post with
all of you.

In that post I mentioned  Ulf's dream of a Kingdom event featuring a
number of performance venues interspersed by merchants.  With Ulf's
leave, I pitched that idea to Their Excellencies Bjornsborg, Bryn Gwlad
and Stargate.  I suggested three venues, merchants, and food
vendors/taverns in lieu of feast, and a date in Spring/Summer of 2003.
My understanding is that all three sets of nobles and their populaces
are behind the basic idea with many details left to be decided upon.

I then offered my opinion that calling our competition for Kingdom Bard
"The Eisteddfod" is a bit of a misnomer because performances that are
the bread and butter of present day (if not historical) Eisteddfods
(e.g. dance, theater, madrigal, ensemble), do not score well at the
competition for Kingdom Bard .  I passed on that I had heard that some
of our judges (that is, judges for Kingdom Bard -- though I may not have
made that crystal clear) have said those performances are not even
appropriate to that competition.  Perhaps they are right.

I then asked what people thought of planning a Kingdom Eisteddfod for
the summer of  2004 based on Ulf's idea -- one that did not need to be a
competition though that is always a possibility.  My own opinion is that
it would be better simply as a festival -- again with food vendors,
taverns and merchants.  2003 seemed too soon to do the idea justice.
 Moreover it will take some time to educate the populace that this would
*not* be the competition for Kingdom Bard.  The competition for Kingdom
Bard would be freed to attach to any event -- including the Eisteddfod.

(Back to this post) It was not then -- nor is it now -- my intention to
interfere with the choice for Kingdom Bard.  How it is conducted, by
whom it is judged and the criteria upon which it is decided are beyond
my suggestions.  I would, however, love to see a Kingdom  Eisteddfod
that could stand alone as a Kingdom event and as a performance event.

If I've failed to make myself sufficiently clear, or if you have any
questions of me, feel free to direct them to this list or to me
personally.  I always regret the miscommunications that so often take
place in this medium we call email.  A request for clarification goes a
long way to avoiding misunderstandings.

--ihon



Fitzmorgan at aol.com wrote:

>>I
>>Greetings to the Bards of Ansteorra
>>
>>The Laurels of Ansteorra are talking ( and I mean they are just talking)
>>about taking over the Kingdom Eistoffod ( sorry about the spelling) and
>>making it a proper event. A festival  with group singing and group
>>performance and everything that takes place at the event in Wales. I
>>assume that they would also run it with their judging forms and rules on
>>documentation and of course they would be the judges. The statement I
>>heard that by this way a true kingdom bard could be chosen. Before I go
>>and make an ass of myself I would like to know what you think of this
>>idea.
>>
>>Personally I hate the idea and I am thinking emotionally not logically at
>>the moment.
>>
>>Willow de Wisp
>>
>>
>
>       I like the idea of having an entire event devoted to bardic.  It's
>something that has been discussed for years but the feeling is that unless it
>was done on the cheap it wouldn't draw enough people to pay for it's self.
>If we did have an event devoted to Bardic it might make sense to choose the
>kingdom bard there.  I'm also not against the idea of trying new formats for
>choosing our kingdom bard, though I must admit that I'm fond of our current
>format.
>       However the comment that "by this way a true kingdom bard could be
>chosen" carries the implication that there has been something lacking in or
>former Kingdom Bards.  I strongly disagree with that.  Of course I''ve not
>been privy to these conversations, and do not know what was said or how it
>was said, but if there are those who feel that our Kingdom Bards do not
>measure up then I respectfully disagree.  I might even disrespectfully
>disagree.<snip>
>
>Robert Fitzmorgan
>
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