SR - Old subject

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, keyna wrote:
> So I see that we are back at slamming people again for things that
> some folks would like to see done.

Well, not exactly.  Nobody questions that insignia is generally
useful; it seems to be more a question of the challenge and
personalities -- not the goal, but the means.

> Without insignia how would we know a baron from a king?

Duke Vissivald in the East once had a coronet made.  It was plain; it
had no strawberry leaves or projections at all.  Someone asked him,
"How on Earth is anyone to know that you're a duke?".  He replied,
"If we meet in the hall, we will be introduced.  If we meet on the
field, they will know soon enough.".

Henry II, first Plantagenet king of England, was noted for abandoning
some of the ceremonial crown wearings, traditionally held at the great
feasts (Easter, Christmas, Michaelmas?  I could check if anyone
cared).  The "embattled coronet = earl, strawberry leaves = duke, et
cetera" system was codified only in England after our period
(Restoration of Charles II comes to mind; again, I could check).  Some
honors had defined insignia -- the Garter collar was codified by Henry
VIII, if memory serves -- but many did not.  On the other hand, with
tenures of many years you got used to what the king looked like, and
people given stuff could often point to the stuff or the perks to
prove their claim.

That scribes, illuminors, and insignia-makers are about the only
craftspeople in the SCA expected to regularly donate materials and
time is a little depressing to me (and I wot it's quite depressing to
them!).  I think the printed charters -- promissory notes, in a sense
-- used in Ansteorra are a good thing, and since period charters were
often not illuminated, there's something to be said for not coloring
them.  I think it's good that the Steppes local awards are only
danglies and not charters.  My AoA was spur-of-the-moment; I got no
charter, but only a kind of incuse coin from the king of the Middle.

I wonder occasionally if we could move away some from the standard SCA
model, saving work while not moving further from period (or even
getting closer to period) AND while not disappointing recipients.

But I digress.

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; 
if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com is my work address.
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