Quill won at Mendersham's Bardic competition last night. This means I have to come back next year and run it. (It also means I won a big basket of goodies, including a new drinking horn and side dagger. I was also graced with a number of favours, including one from the Baroness of Bonwicke, and one passed down from the Barony of Bjornsbourge.) Competition was exceptionally stiff, and I can't really say what did it for me in the end. Probably my rendition of the Anthem of Arms.

I feel obligated to note also that others from Trelac did well at Mendersham. Rizardo won the Rapier tournament, and our Baron Gavin won their Chivalric.

Pickup fights were really good too; it's nice to duel people on approximately the same skill level who also have different advantages (ie. size in one opponent, strength in another) from mine.

Furthermore, Bernetta accompanied me, and had a fantastic time. She participated in Knife Ax & Spear Throw, and was basically a fine little social butterfly all around. Certainly she intends to get involved with the Kingdom of Drachenwald back home, once she returns to Oxford.

All in all, a really great one-day event. I'm really looking forward to next week and Steppes Warlord.


...I WIN!

I return once more from yet another weekend of medieval fun and sexual harassment both unwanted and welcome. (On the one cheek, Wilheim kissed me, molesting my face with dirty beard; on the other, a new lady friend, Anistashia, chewed on my neck, amongst other things. *shivers of disgust and pleasure respectively.*)

I got to spend some time with my foster-sister and a new brother (who just happens to be her boyfriend as well - Huzzah for SCA genealogy!)

Finnecan was elevated to Laurel, an extremely emotional moment for everyone, including me. I cried, and Quill does not ever cry in court.

I was ordered by the Baroness of Bjornsburg to participate in the Bardic competition, very much against my will. The results are an extremely exciting and involved tale to tell, but suffice to say that I had Master Darius of the Bells beg a boon for me of Robin of Gilwell, whilst Finn was being shanghaied from his vigil in order to see me perform.

Basically, for those of you who have no idea what I'm on about, I have the attention of some VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE. These are overwhelming circumstances. (Though to some, not unsurprising.)

For the record, I did not win Steppes. I did not even make it to one of the 3 finalists (of 16 competitors I might add). However, I did play some small part in the ascension of the winner, and we are friends now, comrades.

Right, if I go on I'll have to get into better detail.

VIVAT ANSTEORRA!!

Gray

Technically Gray is the "real" (as opposed to Quill, see below) me; an English-grown and college-bound pretty boy who often believes he's the reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes (sans the opium addiction).

This fall I attend SMU, where I'm aiming for a BA in Linguistics (though I haven't chosen a concentration yet - perhaps Insular Celtic tongues) as well as a minor in Stage Movement. Currently I'm still living at home with both biological parents (including a Captain Chaplain sir) and three younger brothers and their cat, just biding my time...

Though an old (and old fashioned) soul, I don't deny that I'm young and full of myself, high on life and love being me, though I often have to be taken down a few notches. I'm also an introvert, but most people seem surprised by this fact, in much the same way they're surprised to find I'm not actually a liberal, or any of the other large number of things it's easy to assume of me.

Did I miss anything?

Quill

Quill - short for Cuillioc - is, at the very basest level, a Cornish man from around the late 13th to 14th century. He is a Bard, in the most general sense of the word, being a performer who travels about learning songs, poems, and stories to tell, recite, and sing in order to entertain, enrapture, teach and remember.

Originally he was just my SCA persona, and technically that's still the case, but the line between Society life and thinking with what we call "mundane" reality has become so tangled and blurred that Quill is now much more.

My definition of "Bard" does indeed encompass the traditional definition, as well as the idea of bairdd, scop, skald, player, minstrel, troubadour, jonjour, Senechie/seanachie, herald, gleeman, minnesinger, courtier, thespian, and everything in between and beyond, for the moment. That isn't to say that to me these are all the same, but that they share a common thread which I travel on, having yet to find a place to settle. Being an amateur, I have no profession.

Quill does a bit more than sing – he also plays and sometimes dances! As I explore greater aspects of my persona, I’ve found an interest in rapier fighting, in the basics of garb-making, in cooking, and also heraldry (that is, in crying, in blazoning, and even paper-pushing).

Currently Quill resides in the Barony of Steppes, in the Kingdom of Ansteorra, though he considers himself more at home in the Shire of Trelac, and has roots in the Northern Region in the Barony of Namron.