ANSTHRLD - what about...

Dr Tiomoid M. of Angle tiomoid at yahoo.com
Mon Aug 23 09:04:05 PDT 1999


- --- Darius and Monica <dmmerlick at earthlink.net> wrote:

> As we set into place the systems to support heraldry in areas that
> will soon have fewer branch officers, how should we encourage new
> people to participate in heraldry? Certainly there will be some who
> appear ready and armed to be a pursuivant, but we will also have 
> many who are not. we will need new blood in the college. People who
> want to learn and lend a hand. How do we teach them what they need 
> to know?

Historically, we (and by this I mean the entire SCA) have depended on
people picking stuff up on their own. Oh, we hold occasional classes
and every now and then a symposium, but mostly we hand them a list of
books and say, "Go to it." I have always disliked this method. Heraldry
is like the scribal arts: It's not just a case of a period "interest"
that people can follow as the spirit moves them -- we need trained
people to function as officers in that field. So we need to be far more
proactive than we've been in the past.

We need to encourage people to use armory everywhere. This might
include giving additional prizes in arts competitions/demonstrations
for projects that use armory well.

We need to hold demonstrations to show people how heraldry can enrich
their lives. There are books out there with luscious illustrations of
good armory; let's get these and show them around.

We need to compile introductory materials designed to transmit
elementary heraldic knowledge as painlessly as possible. We've been
hammering these out on an ad-hoc basis over the last twenty years, but
we need to (a) ask people what they find hard or confusing about
armory, (b) find out what seems to be working and what doesn't, and (c)
come up with a supply of materials that we can use to lead people from
Know Nothing to Useful Commentor by comfortable stages.

We need to promote films that do heraldry well, such as Branagh's
"Henry V" and "A Man For All Seasons".

We need to dump on movies that do heraldry badly, like "Ivanhoe".

We need to encourage authenticity at every turn, because Authenticity
Is Our Friend -- we want people to pick authentic names and good
period-style armory.

We need to set up systems so that forms and reports, while still doing
everything they need to do, are as unburdensome as possible.

We need to run training so that prospective officers of arms won't get
stage fright when doing court and field heraldry. That includes
devising formulae that all are happy with and them making everybody
memorize and use them. Spontaneity is fine in its place, but people
work better within a framework of well-known, comfortable ritual. (This
also means stepping on people who want change just for the sake of
change. If a change isn't NECESSARY, it's BAD.)


Strong letter follows....


Tadhg, Hanaper

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