Reaction to receiving the Order of the Maunche

Of all the awards in the East Kingdom, the one I have admired and yes, coveted was the Order of the Maunche. Because it was purple. 

This surprises anyone? 

There are a wealth of other reasons, but the Maunche is the only officially purple award we have. 

The East Kingdom in the SCA has an internal theatricality that I have loved from the beginning. Pomp, circumstance, sound and noise. My initial attraction to the arts changed over the years and became internalized as I focused down the many rabbit holes of service.

When health issues took away my ability to both do both service and my art, I found a new one in historical poetry, specifically towards award documents. Who knew Chaucer was a gateway drug? 

Then time passed. A lot of research, learning, mistakes, and successes in composition and poetry happened. 

Then today. 

I went to this event to witness my dear friend, Marisa al Qattan, begin their protégé journey. Then I got to witness a uniquely historic Crown Tourney. 

(I actually watched the final bouts on someone's device because the crowd was too thick to see anything. Let's hear it for the streaming crew!) 

I then went to court awaiting the announcement of the new ranged peerage. 

New History! New Royals! New Peerage! What a court! 

As court proceeded there was an incident I was involved with,  a bit of a cautionary tale:

An Order was called. I don't remember which one, for the reason that follows.

The rows of chairs were well spaced out and there seemed plenty of room for folk to get to and from their seats to the thrones, but only if you went along the row.

Suddenly a person started to go, not down the row, but between my seat and the one to my left. They didn't say anything, no communication whatsoever. I tried to lean as far to the right as possible. 

As this person pushed their way through us, what felt to me like their fist, or phone, hit me in the center of my back with some force. 

It was all I could do not to scream in surprise and pain. 

Later on a friend who had witnessed this told me it was that person's elbow. 

To say that I was thrown for a loop is an understatement. 

The person did not come back the same way, for which I was grateful. 

I sat there trying to recover when they called the Silver Crescents up. Judith le Alefondere, my friend of 20 odd years who was sitting behind us, came up when the Order was called. She got my attention on my left side (which is important because I can't see on the right).

My face must have said something because her first reaction was to ask what was wrong. 

I quietly explained what had happened and she hugged me and let me hug her back. We stood there for the rest of the award, which, again, I couldn't pay any attention to. 

But it grounded me and let me get over the shock of what had occurred. Thank you Judy! You made the rest of Court and the surprise that was to come go from barely bearable to enjoyable! 

So please, be conscious and careful of the people in the world around you. Excuse yourself, make eye contact, make sure they know you’d like to squeeze through. You could be harming someone and not realize it. 

By the time Their Majesties called in the Order of the Maunche I felt fine. I also had no clue and was completely gobsmacked when they called my name. 

My pelican, Mistress Leonete D'Angely gave me a family medallion, Baroness’ An Dubh, Fiona The Volatile and Hugoline the Delicate, some of my bestest scribe buddies, gave me a gorgeous amethyst medallion by Alex the Scribe, and Bróccín MacIvyr (sneaky husband is sneaky) handed me a medallion made by Baroness Amalie Reinhardt of Aethelmearc. 

There were INTERKINGDOM SHENANIGANS involved. What more can I ask for? 

Fiona, Violet Hughes, and Jenna Childersley made my most purple-bat-tastic scroll I love it! 

Their Majesties, Ryouko'jin II and Indrakshi II are truly amazing and the gratitude I have for them is greater than all the heavens in the skies.

Thank you to everyone that's been working for me on this for ages. 

Thank you to everyone involved who got all the men on the chessboard up and told where to go. (To misquote White Rabbit. Or, rather, to filk the White Rabbit.)

You're all amazing and I love you. 

Photo by Sofia of the Orange

 

Photo by Brenden Crane

Photo by Brenden Crane

Photo by Kay Leigh Mac Whyte

Photo by Harun al-Najm al-Shirazi

Photo by Harun al-Najm al-Shirazi

Photo by Harun al-Najm al-Shirazi

East Kingdom Gazette: The Court of Their Majesties Ryouko’jin & Indrakshi held on May 3rd, A.S. LX (2025) in the Shire of Glenn Linn at the Crown Tournament of Ryouko’jin & Indrakshi

Queen & Crown's Arts & Sciences Championship Reaction Post

Reaction Post to A&S Championships, 2-29-2020

The day didn't have the most auspicious beginning. It's a very large site with a working, stubbornly gated vintage elevator. I make use of it extensively any time I am at that site and I am grateful for it. 

I was on my way up to the A&S display space when another gentle joined us in the elevator. 

He was encumbered with his belongings and bent over to adjust something. This unfortunately caused me to be bashed in the center of my chest with an inkle loom. It was just above my breasts and below the hollow of my throat. Right along my transplant scar. Needless to say I completely lost it. 

I think I screamed, "Don't touch me," when, in all concern, he reached out to help me. 

I'm sorry that I freaked out whoever it was. Unfortunately I was not in a place that I could curb my reactions in regards to anyone else. I continued to sob in the elevator for a while. 

Thank goodness Broch was there to both explain to the gentleman that the accident was worse for me for a wealth of reasons, explain what was going on and be able to hold me through the worst of my reactions. Honestly he expected me to want to go home after that.  But a sense of obligation and an adrenaline rush will do wonders for getting through the day.

He had calmed me down enough that I could go to morning court. Many thanks to Wentlyanna Bengrek for sitting with me through said morning court and providing me some needed stability/hugs until I stopped shaking. I somehow managed the rest of the day. 

The long and the short of it is that I did not win. I did not even advance to the next round. I was not disappointed, I hadn’t even expected to. 

What I did get was fantastic discussions. I had 2 judges and 2 shadow judges.

-Magnús hvalmagi

-Brunissende Dragonette

-Grim the Skald      

 -Xavier the Sinister

I got to describe the scroll in detail, pointing out the parts that I loved, the parts I had, shall we say, fudged a bit, my general concept and inspiration for the scroll and my new and all abiding love for kennings. 

After the initial judging, Grim Mangus came back for further discussion. Whereupon (to my horror) I learned that I had made a very basic error in my interpretation of the Dróttkvætt metre. 

The basic metre I used was:

Only to find out that it should have been doing this: 

A - A B - - - 

 B - - - - -

 

Only to find out that it should have been doing this:

A - A - - - 

A - - - - -

I went back to my source of the metre and no, the incorrect interpretation is entirely on my head. Somehow I read it very differently (damn my eyes). I'm not even sure what or how I did to come to that conclusion. At that point I was pretty much horribly embarrassed that I had made such an error. This is for a scroll that has gone out! I can't go back and change it. Argh. EMBARRASSED. But Ever Forward. The 3 of us then went on to have a great discussion with lots of books and authors to look up later. After they left I had a bit of time left in the A&S room. I then remembered that I had brought a handful of my bat tokens! I had some great fun handing them out to a few folk. The only reason I didn't hand them out to everyone was that the A&S floor had accumulated a lot of people by that time and I couldn't get to everyone to give them a bat! Then I had the absolute best part of my day. Dutchess Caoilfhionn and her daughter were touring the A&S floor. Her daughter was putting out little tokens, on the pieces that caught her eye. Her Grace looked at my display and said, "Wait, this is for wordsmithing? This changes everything! I put so much research into the words… I could enter my words!" THIS. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I DID THIS. I stated entering competitions to highlight an often overlooked aspect of the C&I world. There are folk out there who are putting in great amounts of research, artistry and heart into words, but because of their ephemeral nature (they are only read in court the one time), they can easily be overlooked. I really want to promote wordsmithing. Make it so other folk can show their work, so we can celebrate what we do! After that they announced the next round. I was, as expected (even more expected once I'd learned about my error) not one of the finalists. Then, because the elevator was full, I foolishly walked down 3 full flights of stairs to the basement level and food area. It was at that point I realized that I had been so busy all day that I hadn't gone to the vigils! And I had particularly wanted to go to Chiaretta Di Fiore’s! I was so happy for her. We sat through a long court with 2 rounds of Silver Crescent and 3 peerages. It was very long, but had a lot of happiness in it. I got to see many folk get well deserved awards, including the most wonderful Cassair Ni Deoraine receiving a Court Barony. I am so incredibly happy for her. As soon as court was done we changed and left. We were both starving and I was on the verge of collapse. I was having serious decision making disorder and Jeff wisely made the command decision to look for an Italian restaurant. As much as I love all the flavors of Eastern cuisine, for me, comfort food is Italian. We ate at an excellent little restaurant called Goodfellas. It had the Godfather and Goodfellas playing on screens in the restaurant. The food was delicious. I was very glad we didn't try to drive all the way home before eating. We made it home around midnight and I crashed hard. That was such an amazing time. I am so glad I did it. I already have an Idea of what piece I'm going to put into competition next. Not Norse though, I need to do some work on that!