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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'm going to disagree with a recent opinion
expressed here.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I think Kingdom Eisteddfod is too *short*.
That's part of the problem of marginalization.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We spend all day at Kingdom A&S choosing
an Artisan. We spend all day at the field choosing a Queen's
Champion. We spend all day at the range choosing the Royal Huntsman.
We spend all day choosing the Crown.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Why shouldn't we spend all day choosing the Premier
Bard?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Please don't compare Kingdom Eisteddfod to the
King's Champion Tourney. As a chivalric fighter myself, I know that King's
Champion is not one of the top competitions. Crown, Steppes Warlord,
Namron Protector and Kingdom Warlord (when we still had it) all have higher
prestige, and all take most of the day to finish.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Twenty years ago, the Premier Bard was chosen by a
double elimination tournament, All competitors performed at least twice,
some performed five, six, or seven times. That competition was the major
activity at the event (like all the competitions mentioned above), and dozens of
people chose to watch -- including, quite often, the Crown. When I won in
1989, there were at least seventy people watching the final rounds. When
Harold Bodvarsson won in 1983, there were 40-50.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>But it was worth it. There were lots of
competitors, and therefore lots of great performances to watch.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So how did it get moved to a little room in the
attic? The answer is simple, obvious -- and depressing: because it
fits there now. Step one to fixing it is to make it exciting enough that
people want to spend time watching it, and therefore big enough that it
overflows the little room. And that won't be done in a year or two.
The goal needs to be, not to make it perfect right now, but to make it better
this time than it was last time. Then do it again. And
again.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Why should the rest of the kingdom watch it if even
most of the bards don't bother to? Why should the Crown spend their time
there when less than two dozen of their hundreds of subjects think it's worth
it?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>With no College to rally around, Eisteddfod is the
only kingdom-wide symbol of bardcraft in Ansteorra. When we don't support
it, we send a message throughout the kingdom of exactly how valuable we think
Ansteorra's bardcraft is.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Let's start sending the right message.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(Meanwhile, I'll talk to the Baron and Baroness and
the event steward about the room. Let's see if there's anything we can
do.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Robin of Gilwell / Jay
Rudin</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>