[ANSTHRLD] Heraldic Regalia

[Jennifer Smith]

On Fri, Feb 06, 2004 at 12:42:03PM -0500, tmcd at panix.com wrote:
> A shire isn't just a place, I'd say, but also a group of people.  A
> shire can have populace meetings; why not a meeting that happens to be
> at their own event?  And the seneschal would be the natural person to
> run it, just like a normal populace meeting.  And since it's outdoors
> or a big hall, someone loud really should be next to them to project
> information, so it would be natural to grab some lunk of a herald to
> do it.  And, of course, the event steward should be called forward to
> make announcements (you have to make announcements, after all) and to
> thank people (public word fame is good).  And people should be called
> forward to get their prizes -- the contests were public, after all, so
> the announcements of the winners and the awards should be.  And it
> would be only polite to cheer them with a proper medieval cheer, for
> example, "Vivat".  And it would be only loyal to cheer the crown and
> the kingdom at the end -- can't be disloyal, after all.
> 
> In real England, though, a shire had a shire reeve, and that "sheriff"
> was required by law to hold courts.  That seemed natural in the early
> days of the East, but the Board of Directors came down on it and
> suppressed the attempts and the title (except for grandfathering the
> Sheriff of Smoking Rocks, Yosef Alaric of the Baliset).  Given that
> silly SCAness, it's probably best to avoid the Worship Words "court",
> someone holding "court", and "awards", but I would suggest conducting
> a public populace meeting that bears a startling though ENTIRELY
> COINCIDENTAL resemblance to most of a court.

Yay!  I don't know the history of the tradition, but the ("tiny little")
shire of Mooneschadowe runs its populace meetings in this manner.
Seneschal sits at the front, herald opens the populace meeting and calls
various officers up for their reports, calls for old business and new,
and closes the meeting with the usual vivat group and kingdom litany.

It keeps the meeting moving, gives *some* semblance of ambiance
(dependent upon the peanut gallery), and is good practice for doing
court (the peanut gallery helps with this too, actually). 

I highly highly recommend this practice for all non-barony groups.

When we have actual baronial court at our events (with visiting
nobility, usually, although occasionally with a local court baroness),
we try to supply the herald if possible.  Again, good practice!  And
presumably the local herald knows how to pronounce the names of the
local populace. :)

-Emma de Fetherstan
Mooneschadowe Pursuivant

-- 
Jennifer Smith
jds at randomgang.com