[Bards] The Matter of Ansteorra

[Peter Schorn]

In period, the Matter of Britain was the collected prose tales of King
Arthur. They were given their best-known form by Mallory, but they existed
long before then as separate stories and poems.

In period, the Matter of France was the collected prose tales of Charlemagne
and his Paladins.  They were given their best-known form by Ariosto, but
they, also, existed long before then as separate stories and poems.

It seems to me that after thirty years as a Kingdom, we have the beginnings
of the Matter of Ansteorra.  Not as prose tales collected and written down
by a single author, but as the raw material that period authors used in
making such collections: individual stories, poems, and songs, definitive of
their kingdoms and their people.

Here is a list of what I think the Matter of Ansteorra includes.  It is not
a complete list, but it is not intended to be. It is my own roll of those
pieces which, I feel, sing of Ansteorra to the world:

1) Pieces written by SCA members:

_The Rising of the Star_, by Count Sir Finn Kelly O'Donnel, OL
"Karelia's Song", by Master Iolo Fitzowen, OL
_Chanson d'Ansteorra_, by Master Cadfan ap Morgan y Godrudd, OL
"Born on the Listfield", by Master Ivar Battleskald, MA
_The Baron_, by Baron Don Robin of Gilwell, OP, OL

2) Nonperiod pieces written in period style by nonmembers:

_The Death-Lay of Bowie Gizzardsbane_, by John Myers Myers

3) Period pieces:

_Sir Orfeo_, anonymous 14th-century English, as translated by Professor J.
R. R. Tolkien, CBE

These are all that occur to me at the moment.  Fellow bards, what would ye
add? 

--Cadfan