Dear Michael 
I didn't mean to take away from people like Sigmund and Siglinda. Of 
Course I count Duchess Siglina as a Bard. She was head of the college 
for a while. I don't know how long ago. Baron Bjorn of Namron called 
for a Bardic challenge on the Nine Worthies. At that time no one knew 
what he was talking about. Bards through out the kingdom started doing 
the stories. I did one at every event I went to for a year and won the 
prize. After that Master Cadfan had a bardic project at the Peace with 
Calintir that spot lighted the Nine Worthies. While you and the people 
in the Coastal region did the work on your event the seeds were sown 
by performers before you.  His Grace, Duke Jonathan wanted to do a 
period tourney. He commissioned the performers and bards to tell tales 
about period styles of tourneys. Sir Jon heard the tales and realized 
the populace of Ansteorra had enough information to know how to behave 
at a period tourney and decided that the tourney he was planning could 
have a period base. Master Ivar, Master Orm, Master Bjorn, and Lord 
Vegthomas and myself to name a few have spent a lot of time telling 
period stories that give people a taste for their possible personas. 
Sharing information is not telling people what to do. Other 
storytellers and I have spent hours modeling how to talk to people of 
other ranks. It is easier to listen to a storyteller incorporate 
social customs in a story than taking a 101 class. Songs like "Born on 
the List Field" written by a Ansteorra Bard, Master Ivar and one of 
the founders and leading forces of the Queens College of Bards teaches 
more about fealty and the relationship of a Knight to the Kings then 
all the classes and papers done in the SCA. The Romance tales of the 
12th-14th century are the roots of the SCA courtesies and roots of the 
Code of Chivalry. The rules of Courtly Love came from them. The 
Romances and Chansons is where we get the "ought of beens" that we are 
studying. Sharing this information will give people insights as to 
their roles in the structure of the Kingdom of Ansteorra. A good 
Performer/Bard will share the information in such a way as it never 
appears to be a lecture. We are entertainers not preachers, but if you 
look at period works you will find that also all of the works have 
lessons to teach. this is one of the differences from "modern" 
entertainment and period entertainment. 

I will state again, " I do not believe that the College of Bards 
should tell individuals what they should do!" " Everyone should be 
free to take their own path!" "I personally believe that we should 
teach social behavior  and historical information with our performance 
and I am hoping to find other like minded Bards/performers, but I will 
fight to the death for individuals to do what they think is right." I 
will of course organize to have information available if someone wants 
to teach this information. 

The Queen's Bards of Ansteorra started in the North and during the 
time of the Principality and the first 6 reigns we didn't do 
competitions. During the time of the inquiry the Performers and Bards 
of the North and the Performers and Bards of the South were on 
different side. The Southern movement came out of Baron GreyRaven and 
Early Bjornsberg and was supported by the people out of Austin. They 
wanted the competitions. I was trying blend the groups. The folks in 
the North did not like the competitions. We tried them for a while and 
then the local groups wanted to run them. Early in the 20 year of the 
SCA the Queen's Bards voted by large amount of Performers and Bards 
that we would stop trying to run the competitions. We maintained that 
it was our duty to maintain the high ideals of the Kingdom, assist the 
Queens and past Queens to promote Courtesy and to maintain the history 
of the Kingdom and to assist Autocrats in creating Pre-17th century 
events. We stated we would help autocrats with their competitions if 
they asked. The competitions created a split within the 
bardic/performing populace. Some people became mainly competition 
Bards/performers. Many of them took to lording over others and wearing 
their marks on their belts as a sign of superiority. Others believed 
that our purpose was to provide information and entertainment to the 
people of Ansteorra. They believed that all Bards/Performers were 
equal. They wore the blue sash to show that they were a 
Bard/Performer. At the time of death of the college we were facing a 
problem. I don't want to offend anyone, but we viewed it as the 
Performer vs. the traditional Bard. The Performer wanted all the 
respect and honor due a bard, but didn't want to work for it. The 
Bards/performer wanted to do more. They wanted to teach. The Performer 
claimed that the Bardic College's was forcing them to live up to 
standards that were too high. The bards tried to explain if we got 
respect from the people it was only because we were serving valued 
functions. If you perform well you get some respect, if you are a 
source of social knowledge you get some respect, if you make people 
believe in the magic you get some respect. It adds up. The more roles 
you perform well the more respect you get. If you are Herald and a 
Bard you get more kudos from the people than if you are one or the 
other.  We could not get through to them that having little marks on 
your belt wasn't what gave you respect. Yes, this was a problem, but I 
think we could have worked it out. When His Majesty William the Bear 
said " You are messing up! Fix it" It was this problem that most of 
the Performer/Bards started to work on. The Performer won the 
conflict. Unfortunately the respect level of the Performer did not go 
up. The results were everything went down to the lowest energy level. 
We still had the competition and that became the major performing 
venue. We still had the circles, but the people who used to organize 
the circles for good of all had stopped working. There were fewer 
problems in the North because they had resisted the competitions and 
Bjornsberg had resisted them also. At the time they were playing the 
part mainly of the skald. The Skald functioned as an individual. The 
central was badly hurt. Places that are using the concept of 
recreating Pre-17th century events as their base had less problems. 
The Bard/performer had a social role in addition to the competition. . 
The Coastal region followed the path it had always. I cannot tell you 
how people behaved I had asthmas when I go the Houston area. The West 
and the East were too new. 

I believe the problems of the Old College are dead. I believe we can 
start anew. We need to think about problems that existed, but I think  
we should deal with things as they happen. The blue sash functioned as 
a recognition device for many years before the hash marks got to be an 
issue. I believe we should forget the hash marks. We have no control 
on competition or on how people behave when they win competitions. I 
believe their will always be and are now people who lord over people 
because they win things. If they have no marks on their sashes they 
will still have the things given to them by the groups. I believe that 
will always be differing views as what makes a good Bard/Performer. In 
the End it will be the people who will bestow the respect. It is not a 
race. If we are good performers,  and all of us are performers first,  
we will have bigger audiences and the people will be happy with us. 
Our first order of business is to learn to be better performer and to 
work with each other to produce a better show. Then we can break into 
smaller groups and discuss until cows come home on "What is a Bard?"
Yours Willow



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