NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/org/sca/17168

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-30 | 3.5 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!stanford.edu!agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cleveland.Freenet.Edu!bq434
From: [e-mail] (Michael A. Chance)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Annual Xmas Depression; moan, weep, gnash
Date: 30 Dec 1992 19:44:55 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
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Reply-To: [e-mail] (Michael A. Chance)
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In a previous article, Tibor wrote (responding to my suggestions):

>I will point out that it is MUCH TOO LATE to change the laws of
>Drachenwald.

Nonsense.  While it may be too late to change the *initial* version, the
first King and Queen of Drachenwald could institute a wholesale
revision, if they wanted to.  (Note: I don't expect that to happen.)
No kingdom's laws are engraved by the finger of God in granite.

>Their law doesn't specify anything about Awards/Grants/Patents. except that
>former monarchs may be granted a Patent when they step down.

This is pretty much consistent with the current Principality law.

>Corpora allows them
>to bestow Grants, but they didn't mention anything about them.

Good for them!  Corpora may allow it, but it's a modern creation of the
SCA, with no basis in historical fact (not that the SCA has ever let
that stop anything before).

>  2)  Don't hold elimination Crown Tourneys.  Have a challenge tourney,
>  or a round robin format, or a series of "days" a la Bjornsborgs's
>  Tournement of Lions.
>
>Their preliminary Kingdom Law makes no mention of this.  For that matter,
>neither does Corpora, nor East Kingdom Law. (Well, EK Law specifies a
>double elim sort of list if the Seneschal is forced to supervise a Crown
>Tourney when the Crown is held in regency).

Name the last time that the East Kindgom held a Crown tourney in other
than a double-elimination tree format.  During the 4 years that I lived
in Drachenwald, I think the format was not used on perhaps one
occassion, when there were only 5 contestants (round robin was used,
instead).  It may not be in the laws, but it's become "tradition since
the beginning of time".

>The East Kingdom does not have standard oaths, so our former Principality
>has never been burdened by them.  Hey, while your at it Mikjal, throw
>off *your* yoke...

Again, by tradition, there *are* psuedo-standard oaths used in
Drachenwald, imported by the folks that started the SCA in Europe (all
originally from the U.S.), with minor adjustments by other Americans
(from other kingdoms) in the insuing years.  As noted in the thread on
Ioseph's article on fealty, much of the SCA's "standard" oaths date from
the first Twelfth Night in AS 2, which, as I understand it, were written
with a minimal amount of knowledge as to the wording of actual medieval
oaths of fealty, hommage, and service.  Since we now know (collectively)
much more about them (and I'm eagerly awaiting Haj Hossein's treatise),
we should use them.  And the Drachenwalders have the best access to the
information of any of us.

BTW, one of my projects as baronial herald for the upcoming year is to
replace all of the ceremonial oaths used by Three Rivers with ones based
on medieval models.  Slowly, the yoke is being removed...

Mikjal Annarbjorn
--
Michael A. Chance          St. Louis, Missouri, USA    "At play in the fields
Work: [e-mail]                             of St. Vidicon"
Play: [e-mail]
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