[Bards] Bardic, this was a great challenge

[Genie Barrett]

At 05:05 PM 5/5/2008, Elanor wrote:
>My thanks!
>
>Eleanor Cleavely
>Bard of Elfsea

I just wanted to say that I had a wonderful bardic competition at 
Springfaire this weekend.

I usually don't have a hard time preparing for a competition.  I 
usually have most, if not all of the pieces needed in my brain 
already, but this one, this was different.

There were three pieces required.  The first: perform a piece with 
either "elf" or "sea" in the subject matter.  This was not a 
challenge, I simply had to choose one.

HE Druine, Baroness of Elfsea, gave us all a more unusual challenge 
for the second.  Tell a tale from the Decameron.  What a fun 
challenge.  I chose one that I found delightful, day 9 tale 1.  I was 
especially happy to find it, as it fulfilled a challenge I had given 
myself as well.

You see, at Eisteddfod I was given, from that dreaded box of doom, 
the subject "Creepy" something I was horrified to discover I had 
nothing to fit.  This tale filled that subject well, and gave me a 
fun piece about love from a perspective you don't usually hear.  If 
you are intrigued, ask me, or just go look it up.  The Decameron is a 
fun read anyway.

So, the third piece was one about Elfsea.  Again, I didn't have 
anything ready made, so I did a fun "filk" to the tune of Three 
Ravens.  My only regret was that I could not sing it as well as 
hoped.  It went well, though, as I had many a good laugh.

I have found that we as bards sometimes sell ourselves short, and 
don't give ourselves challenges when it comes to some of these 
competitions.  It was a hard competition, but I would do it again, 
hopefully with a voice, without hesitation.  Thank you Master Robin, 
and to their Excellencies Elfsea for raising the bar and making me 
truly enjoy competing even as I struggled and stretched.

Maggie MacPherson
Who welcomes Elanor Clevely back to Ansteorra and into the rank of Elfsea Bard.