ice dragon - Barony of the Rhydderich Hael

LEGENDS OF THE NORTH
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2013
ICE
DRAGON
Barony Meeting: The First Tuesday of the
Month. This is open to everyone. From 7:00 to
9:00pm.
Beau Fleuve Meetings: Third Wednesday of the
month at Fight Practice
Fencing/Fight Practice is at the Elks Lodge, 33
Legion Parkway in Lancaster on Wednesday evenings from 6:30p-10p unless other wise noted.
Barony Officers and Business
Meeting
All are invited
Date: 1st Tuesday of Every Month
Time: 7 PM-9 PM
Location: Elk's Lodge, 33 Legion Parkway
Lancaster, NY 14086-2553
(716)685-1478
Archery Practice: Archery has moved outdoors
at the Lasalle sportsman's club Tuscarora rd.,
Niagara Falls on Sundays from noon to 3
Thrown Weapons Practice: Regular TW practice is now as weather permitting' for Monday
evenings. Please check e-Group for updates.
Dance Practice: At Brigette's House (59 Sagamore Terr, Buffalo NY) every Thursday evening,
7p-10p. Middle eastern is taught during the first
half, European dance is the second half. Please
RSVP to Brigette if you plan on attending (716560-3374).
Music Practice: Every Monday at Sym and Ceol's
house Starting at 7:30pm.
Scribal Art's Guild: 2nd Tuesday of every
month, 7-8p at BILL GREY”S at 8214 Main Street
in the Main-Transit Plaza, Williamsville, N.Y.
14221
Brewer's Guild, , Cheese Maker's Guild: No
fixed date check the calendar, below, or contact
the guild head.
Cover: Photo credit:
thevikingworld.com
credit marked on some photos plus
Rhiannon Elandris, Mirel du Lac,
Joe Piselli, Phil Martino, Suzanne Vetter
Photo’s– google.com
GREETINGS FROM YOUR BARON AND
BARONESS
To the populace of the Rhyderrich Hael, The Baron and Baroness bring greetings
onto you all. We have returned from the lands of our cousins in the Debatable
Lands with glorious news of the War and the Peace. The pageantry and courtesy
of all was wonderful. It is true, when you pass troll, the greeting is “Welcome
home”. The weather was fantastic. We saw members of the Barony teaching
and attending classes, saw great works of beauty from our artisans, were moved
by the performance of the Bards and saw great deeds of strength and skill on all
martial fields; fencing, thrown weapons, archery, and on the battle field. To
name each individually would mean to chance to leave someone out. Congratulations to you all, the known world knows well the prowess and skills of the Rhyderrich Hael. We also enjoyed the bounty of the Hael’s skilled cooks and brewer’s. (in truth, my memory after some of the mead is a bit fuzzy, and fortunately
the walking allowed me to indulge in the Hael’s bounty). Looking ahead, we
look forward to seeing many of you at local gatherings and at Summer’s End. On
the horizon, the end of a wonderful Royal Reign and the succession of their
equally wonderful Heirs.
Carolus and Isolda
Photos by Travel-Viking.dk
RHIANNON ELANDRIS
ALL PAY HEED TO THE WORDS OF THE SENESCHAL
OF THE RHYDDERICH HAEL
Rhiannon Elandris
The Viking Age
The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman conquest of England
in 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history. Vikings used the Norwegian Sea[31] and Baltic Sea for sea routes to the south. The Normans were descended from
Danish and Norwegian Vikings who were given feudal overlordship of areas in northern
France — the Duchy of Normandy — in the 10th century. In that respect, descendants of the
Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe. Likewise, King Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, had Danish ancestors.
Geographically, a Viking Age may be assigned not only to Scandinavian lands (modern Denmark, Norway and Sweden), but also to territories under North Germanic dominance, mainly
the Danelaw, including Scandinavian York, the administrative center of the remains of the
Kingdom of Northumbria, parts of Mercia and East Anglia. Viking navigators opened the road
to new lands to the north, west and east, resulting in the foundation of independent settlements
in the Shetland, Orkney, and Faroe Islands; Iceland; Greenland and L'Anse aux Meadows, a
short-lived settlement in Newfoundland, circa 1000. Many of these lands, specifically Greenland and Iceland, may have been originally discovered by sailors blown off course. They also
may have been deliberately sought out, perhaps on the basis of the accounts of sailors who had
seen land in the distance. The Greenland settlement eventually died out, possibly due to climate change. Vikings also explored and settled in territories in Slavic-dominated areas of Eastern Europe, particularly the Kievan Rus. As early as 839, when Swedish emissaries are first
known to have visited Byzantium, Scandinavians served as mercenaries in the service of the
Byzantine Empire.
In the late 10th century, a new unit of the imperial bodyguard formed.
Traditionally containing large numbers of Scandinavians, it was known as the Varangian
Guard. The word Varangian may have originated in Old Norse, but in Slavic and Greek it
could refer either to Scandinavians or Franks. The most eminent Scandinavian to serve in the
Varangian Guard was Harald Hardrada, who subsequently established himself as king of Norway (1047–66).
There is archaeological evidence that Vikings reached the city of Baghdad, the center of the
Islamic Empire. The Norse regularly plied the Volga with their trade goods: furs, tusks, seal fat
for boat sealant, and slaves. However, they were far less successful in establishing settlements
in the Middle East, due to the more centralized Islamic power. Generally speaking, the Norwegians expanded to the north and west to places such as Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, and
Greenland; the Danes to England and France, settling in the Danelaw (northern/eastern England) and Normandy; and the Swedes to the east, founding the Kievan Rus, the original Russia.
Among the Swedish runestones mentioning expeditions overseas, however, almost half tell of
raids and travels to western Europe. Also, according to the Icelandic sagas, many Norwegian
Vikings went to eastern Europe. These nations, although distinct, were similar in culture and
language. The names of Scandinavian kings are known only for the later part of the Viking
Age. Only after the end of the Viking Age did the separate kingdoms acquire distinct identities
as nations, which went hand-in-hand with their Christianization. Thus the end of the Viking
Age for the Scandinavians also marks the start of their relatively brief Middle Ages.
The motives driving the Viking expansion are a topic of much debate in Nordic history. A common theory posits that the Norse population had outgrown the agricultural potential of their
Scandinavian homeland. For a coastal population with superior naval technologies, it made
sense to expand overseas in the face of a youth bulge effect. Raiding by sea may have been
easier than trying to carve out new farms in their vast interior boreal forest, which is not highly
productive soil. No such rise in population or decline in agricultural production has been definitively proven.
The Vikings explored new forests wherever they found them. They went westwards to England, Ireland, Iceland, south to France and east to Russia. They were colonizers as they expanded the seating areas and encouraged trade and subsequent town building. Written sources
claim that many were eventually robbers. The British Isles were an early goal. There they
found good opportunities for swidden cultivation. Bede (673-735) writes in the book in Chapter 1 (1979 Schjöth 13, 16 "Britain is fertile, with large forests and good pastures for cattle and
draft animals, and in some places also grown wine. The barbarians were unable to resist the
legion (Roman) attacks. They fled into the forests, remained hidden, and made more attacks on
the Romans, which caused great damage." These "barbarians" were swidden cultivators in the
forests. It is evident from place names, often - by and - thorp, (Domesday Book of 1086).
Newcomers settled outside of the older settlements, usually in sloping terrain (Sawyer 1971),
favorable for swidden cultivation and subsequent livestock.
Another explanation is that the Vikings exploited a moment of weakness in the surrounding
regions. For instance, the Danish Vikings were aware of the internal divisions within the Carolingian empire, beginning in the 830s and resulting in schism. England suffered from internal
divisions and was relatively easy prey given the proximity of many towns to the sea or to navigable rivers. Lack of organised naval opposition throughout Western Europe allowed Viking
ships to travel freely, raiding or trading as opportunity permitted.
The end of the Viking Age
During the Viking Age, Scandinavian men and women travelled to many parts of Europe and
beyond, in a cultural diaspora that left its traces from Newfoundland to Byzantium. But this
period of energetic activity also had a pronounced effect in the Scandinavian homelands,
which were subject to a variety of new influences. In the 300 years from the late 8th century,
when contemporary chroniclers first commented on the appearance of Viking raiders, to the
end of the 11th century, Scandinavia underwent profound cultural changes.
In the late 11th century, royal dynasties legitimised by the Catholic Church (which had had little influence in Scandinavia 300 years earlier) were asserting their power with increasing authority and ambition, and the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden had taken
shape. Towns appeared that functioned as secular and ecclesiastical administrative centres and
market sites, and monetary economies began to emerge based on English and German models.
By this time the influx of Islamic silver from the East had been absent for more than a century,
and the flow of English silver had come to an end in the mid-11th century. Christianity had
taken root in Denmark and Norway with the establishment of dioceses during the 11th century,
and the new religion was beginning to organise and assert itself more effectively in Sweden.
Foreign churchmen and native elites were energetic in furthering the interests of Christianity,
which was now no longer operating simply on a missionary footing, and old ideologies and
lifestyles were
transforming. It was not until 1103, however, that the first archbishopric was founded in Scandinavia, at Lund, Scania, Denmark (as of then).
The assimilation of the nascent Scandinavian kingdoms into the cultural mainstream of European Christendom altered the aspirations of Scandinavian rulers and of those Scandinavians
able to travel overseas and changed their relations with their neighbors. One of the primary
sources of profit for the Vikings had been slave-taking. The medieval Church took the position
that Christians should not own fellow Christians as slaves, so chattel slavery diminished as a
practice throughout northern Europe. This took much of the economic incentive out of raiding,
though sporadic slaving activity continued into the 11th century. Eventually, outright slavery
was outlawed and replaced with serfdom at the bottom rung of medieval society. Scandinavian
predation in Christian lands around the North and Irish Seas diminished markedly.
The kings of Norway continued to assert power in parts of northern Britain and Ireland, and
raids continued into the 12th century, but the military ambitions of Scandinavian rulers were
now directed toward new paths. In 1107, Sigurd I of Norway sailed for the eastern Mediterranean with a host of Norwegian crusaders to fight for the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Danes and Swedes participated energetically in the Baltic Crusades of the 12th
and 13th centuries.
Medieval perceptions of the Vikings
In England the Viking Age began dramatically on 8 June 793 when Norsemen destroyed the
abbey on the island of Lindisfarne. The devastation of Northumbria's Holy Island shocked and
alerted the royal Courts of Europe to the Viking presence. "Never before has such an atrocity
been seen," declared the Northumbrian scholar, Alcuin of York. More than any other single
event, the attack on Lindisfarne demonised perception of the Vikings for the next twelve centuries. Not until the 1890s did scholars outside Scandinavia begin to seriously reassess the
achievements of the Vikings, recognizing their artistry, technological skills, and seamanship.
Norse mythology, sagas, and literature tell of Scandinavian culture and religion through tales
of heroic and mythological heroes. However, early transmission of this information was primarily oral, and later texts were reliant upon the writings and transcriptions of Christian scholars, including the Icelanders Snorri Sturluson and Sæmundur fróði. Many of these sagas were
written in Iceland, and most of them, even if they had no Icelandic provenance, were preserved
there after the Middle Ages due to the Icelanders' continued interest in Norse literature and law
codes.
The 200-year Viking influence on European history is filled with tales of plunder and colonization, and the majority of these chronicles came from western witnesses and their descendants.
Less common, though equally relevant, are the Viking chronicles that originated in the east,
including the Nestor chronicles, Novgorod chronicles, Ibn Fadlan chronicles, Ibn Rusta chronicles, and many brief mentions by the Fosio bishop from the
first big attack on the Byzantine Empire.
In 991, the Battle of Maldon between Viking raiders and the
inhabitants of the town of Maldon in Essex, England was
commemorated with a poem of the same name.
From vikingworld.com
Google.com
GREETINGS LOVIES….JULIAN CHILDS HERE WITH A WONDERFULL DISH FROM MY HOMELAND…..JUST THE THING FOR THE
LONG ARTIC NIGHTS THAT WILL BE ARRIVING SOON…..THIS IS
ALSO A PERFECT CAMPING DISH…..WISHED I’D HAD SOME AT
PENNSIC…..SO SIMPLE AND RUSTIC….ENJOY...BONE APPITITE
Wheat porridge with raspberries, nuts
and apples
Recipe and photos by ribevikingcenter.dk
8-10 cup water
3 cup cracked wheat which has been left to
soak in cold water overnight.
1 cup nut kernels
1 cup raspberries
1 cup apples, diced
3-4 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon salt
Drain the cracked wheat. Mix the wheat with 8 cups water in a pot by the
fire. Remember to stir frequently and turn the pot to prevent the porridge
from burning. It may be necessary to ad a little more water ad you don't
want the porridge to become too thick.
Crush the nut kernels. Clean the apples and remove the cores. Dice the
apples.
When the porridge has cooked for about 45 minutes, you want to add the
nuts and raspberries. Season with honey and salt and cook for another 10
minutes. The raspberries will colour the porridge pink.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE PORRIDGE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR...ADD A DIFFERENT
FRUIT….BLUEBERRIES, PEACHES, BLACKBERRIES…..ALSO USE WHATEVER NUTS YOU LIKE
BEST...DRIED FRUIT CAN BE USED AS WELL….SOAK IT SEPERATELY OVERNIGHT AND ADD A
SLIGHTLY LARGER AMOUNT
Darraðarljóð (Song of Darraðar)
from the Icelandic Njal´s Saga. A man called Darraðar has a vision:
Twelve Valkyries are weaving the fate of an on-going battle on a grisly
loom...
Blood rains from the cloudy web
On the broad loom of slaughter.
The web of man grey as armor
Is now being woven; the Valkyries
Will cross it with a crimson weft.
The warp is made of human entrails;
Human heads are used as heddle-weights;
The heddle rods are blood-wet spears;
The shafts are iron-bound and arrows are the shuttles.
With swords we will weave this web of battle.
The Valkyries go weaving with drawn swords,
Hildr and Hjörþrimul, Sangríðr and Svipul.
Spears will shatter shields will splinter,
Swords will gnaw like wolves through armor.
Let us now wind the web of war
Which the young king once waged.
Let us advance and wade through the ranks,
Where friends of ours are exchanging blows.
Let us now wind the web of war
And then follow the king to battle
Gunnr and Göndul can see there
The blood-spattered shields that guarded the king.
Let us now wind the web of war
Where the sacred banner is forging forward
Let his life not be taken;
Only the Valkyries can choose the slain.
Lands will be ruled by new peoples
Who once inhabited outlying headlands.
We pronounce a great king destined to die;
Now an earl is felled by spears.
Photos by Valkyries.com
The men of Ireland will suffer a grief
That will never grow old in the minds of men.
The web is now woven and the battlefield reddened;
The news of disaster will spread through lands.
It is horrible now to look around
As a blood-red cloud darkens the sky.
The heavens are stained with the blood of men,
As the Valkyries sing their song.
We sang well victory songs
For the young king; hail to our singing!
Let him who listens to our Valkyrie song
Learn it well and tell it to others.
Let us ride our horses hard on bare
backs,
With swords unsheathed away
from here!
..."And then they tore the woven
cloth from the loom and ripped it
to pieces, each keeping the shred
she held in her hands... The women mounted their horses and rode
away, six to the south and six to
the north."
Photos by valkyires.com
Poem from icelanticpoetry.org
WHAT IS A VALKYRIE ?
A Valkyrie (pronounced “VAL-ker-ee”; Old Norse valkyrja, plural valkyrjur,
“choosers of the fallen”) is a female helping spirit of the god Odin. The modern image
of the valkyries as elegant, noble maidens bearing dead heroes to Valhalla is largely
accurate for what it is, but a highly selective portrayal that exaggerates their pleasant
qualities. To some extent, this tendency toward sanitization is present even in the later Old Norse sources, which focus on their love affairs with human men and their assisting Odin in transporting his favorites among those slain in battle to Valhalla,
where they will fight by his side during Ragnarok.
As far as we today can tell, the valkyries have always had such characteristics, but in
heathen times they were far more sinister. The meaning of their name, “choosers of
the slain,” refers not only to their choosing who gains admittance to Valhalla, but also
to their choosing who dies in battle and using malicious magic to ensure that their
preferences in this regard are brought to fruition. Examples of valkyries deciding who
lives and who dies abound in the Eddas and sagas. The valkyries’ gruesome side is illustrated most vividly in the Darraðarljóð, a poem contained within Njal’s Saga.
Here, twelve valkyries are seen prior to the Battle of Clontarf, sitting at a loom and
weaving the tragic destiny of the warriors (an activity highly reminiscent of the
Norns). They use intestines for their thread, severed heads for weights, and swords
and arrows for beaters, all the while chanting their intentions with ominous delight.
The Saga of the Volsungs compares beholding a valkyrie to “staring into a flame.”
This picture is confirmed when we turn to the lore of other
Germanic peoples. Amongst the Anglo-Saxons, for example,
the Valkyries (Old English wælcyrie, singular wælcyrge)
were female spirits of carnage. The Celts, with whom the
Norse and other Germanic peoples engaged in fruitful cultural exchanges for numerous centuries, had similar beings of
their own, such as the war goddesses Badb and the Morrígan.
Whether in their loving or bloodthirsty modalities, the Valkyries are best understood as part of the extensive and dynamic complex of shamanism that permeates pre-Christian
Germanic religion. Much like the ravens Hugin and Munin,
they’re projections of parts of Odin, semi-distinct beings that
are parts of his larger being
Photo by Valkyries.com
Brynhildr (also spelled Brunhild, Brünnhilde, Brynhild) is a shieldmaiden and a valkyrie in Germanic mythology, where she appears as a main
character in the Völsunga saga and some Eddic poems treating the same
events. Under the name Brünnhilde she appears in the Nibelungenlied
Google.com
and therefore also in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. The history of Brynhildr includes fratricide, a long battle between brothers, and dealings with
the Huns. She is also known as Sigrdrífa, as written in the poem Sigrdrífumál.
According to the Völsunga saga, Brynhildr is a shieldmaiden and seemingly valkyrie who is the
daughter of Budli. She was ordered to decide a fight between two kings, Hjalmgunnar and Agnar, and
knew that Odin preferred the older king, Hjalmgunnar, yet she decided the battle for Agnar. For this
Odin condemned her to live the life of a mortal woman, and imprisoned her in a remote castle behind a
wall of shields on top of mount Hindarfjall, where she sleeps in a ring of flames until any man rescues
and marries her. The hero Sigurðr Sigmundson (Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied), heir to the clan of
Völsung and slayer of the dragon Fafnir, entered the castle and awoke Brynhildr by removing her helmet and cutting off her chainmail armour. The two fell in love and Sigurðr proposed to her with the
magic ring Andvaranaut. The Völsunga saga also describes a subsequent encounter between Sigurðr
and Brynhildr at Hlymdale, the home of Brynhildr's brother-in-law, Heimir. There Sigurðr declared his
love for the shieldmaiden after spotting her in her tower. Promising to return and make Brynhildr his
bride, Sigurðr then headed for the court of Gjuki, the King of Burgundy. Following Sigurðr's departure, Brynhildr was visited by Gudrun, the daughter of Gjuki, who sought her aid in interpreting a
dream. This dream presaged Sigurðr's betrayal of Brynhildr and marriage to Gudrun..
In the kingdom of the Burgundians, Gjuki's wife, the sorceress Grimhild, wanting Sigurðr married to
her daughter Gudrun (Kriemhild in Nibelungenlied), prepared a magic potion that made Sigurðr forget
about Brynhildr. Sigurðr soon married Gudrun. Hearing of Sigurðr's encounter with the valkyrie,
Grimhild decided to make Brynhildr the wife of her son Gunnar (Gunther in the Nibelungenlied). Gunnar, having gained the consent of Heimir, then sought to court Brynhild, but was stopped by a ring of
fire around the castle. He tried to ride through the flames with his own horse and then with Sigurðr's
horse, Grani, but still failed. Sigurðr then exchanged shapes with him and entered the ring of fire. Sigurðr (disguised as Gunnar) and claimed Brynhildr's hand, and they stayed there three nights, but Sigurðr laid his sword between them (meaning that he did not take her virginity before giving her to the
real Gunnar). Sigurðr also took the ring Andvaranaut from her finger and later gave it to Gudrun. Gunnar and Sigurðr soon returned to their true forms, and Brynhildr married Gunnar.
However, Gudrun and Brynhild later quarreled over whose husband was greater, Brynhildr boasting
that Gunnar had been brave enough to ride through the flames. Gudrun revealed that it was actually
Sigurðr who rode through the ring of fire, and Brynhildr became enraged. Sigurðr, remembering the
truth, tried to console her, but to no avail. Brynhildr plotted revenge by urging Gunnar to kill Sigurðr,
telling him that he slept with her on Hidarfjall, which he swore not to do. Gunnar and his brother Hogni (Hagen in the Nibelungenlied) were afraid to kill him themselves, as they had sworn oaths of brotherhood to Sigurðr. They incited their younger brother, Gutthorm, to kill Sigurðr, by giving him a magic
potion that enraged him, and he murdered Sigurðr in his sleep. Dying, Sigurðr threw his sword at Gutthorm, killing him.. (some Eddic poems say Gutthorm killed him in the forest south of the Rhine, also
while resting).
Brynhildr herself killed Sigurðr's three-year-old son, and then she willed herself to die. When Sigurðr's funeral pyre was aflame, she threw herself upon it – thus they passed on together to the realm of
Hel.
However, in some Eddic poems such as Sigurðarkviða hin skamma, Gunnar and Sigurðr lay siege to
the castle of Atli, Brynhildr's brother. Atli offers his sister's hand in exchange for a truce, which Gunnar accepts. However, Brynhildr has sworn to marry only Sigurðr, so she is deceived into believing
that Gunnar is actually Sigurðr.
According to the Völsunga saga, Brynhildr bore Sigurðr a daughter, Aslaug, who later married Ragnar Lodbrok.
In the Eddic poem Helreið Brynhildar (Bryndhildr's ride to
Hel), Brynhildr on her journey to Hel encounters a gýgr
(giantess) who blames her for an immoral livelihood. Brynhildr
responds to her accusations:
Google.com
In the Nibelungenlied, Brunhild (or Prunhilt) is instead the
queen of Iceland. Gunther here overpowers her in three warlike games with the help of Siegfried –
equipped with an invisibility cloak. Firstly, Brunhild throws a spear towards Gunther that three men
only barely can lift, but the invisible Siegfried diverts it. Secondly, she throws twelve fathoms a boulder that requires the strength of twelve men to lift. Lastly, she leaps over the same boulder. Gunther,
however, defeats her with Siegfried's help also in these games, and takes her as his wife.
On their wedding night, Brunhild, refuses to yield her virginity to Gunther, and instead ties him up
and suspends him from the ceiling of their chamber. Siegfried (again invisible) violently subdues
Brunhild, by cracking her bones and taking from her her girdle and ring. Following this episode Brunhild loses her supernatural strength and becomes a devoted wife to Gunther.
Later, in front of the Worms Cathedral, Brunhild enters into an argument with Siegfried’s wife Kriemhild regarding their husbands’ relative prestige. Brunhild believes Siegfried to be nothing more than a
lowly vassal of Gunther’s, but Kriemhild reveals the deception and humiliates Brunhild by showing
her the ring and girdle.
The Nibelungenlied also differs from Scandinavian sources in its silence on Brunhild's fate; she fails
to kill herself at Siegfried's funeral, and presumably survives Kriemhild and her brothers.
Though the cycle of four operas is titled Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner in fact took
Brünnhilde's role from the Norse sagas rather than from the Nibelungenlied. Brünnhilde appears in the
latter three operas (Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung), playing a central role in the overall story of Wotan's downfall.
In Wagner's tale, Brünnhilde is one of the valkyries, who are born out of a union between Wotan and
Erda, the personification of the earth. In Die Walküre Wotan initially commissions her to protect Siegmund, his son by a mortal mother.
When Fricka protests and forces Wotan to have Siegmund die for his adultery and incest, Brünnhilde
disobeys her father's change of orders and takes away Siegmund's wife (and sister) Sieglinde and the
shards of Siegmund's sword, Nothung. She manages to hide them, but must then face the wrath of her
father who is determined to make her mortal and put her into an enchanted sleep to be claimed by any
man who happens across her. Brünnhilde argues that what she did was in obeyance of the god's true
will and does not deserve such a fate. He is eventually persuaded to protect her sleep with magical
fire, sentencing her to await awakening by a hero who does not know fear.
Brünnhilde does not appear again until near the end of the third act of Siegfried. The title character is
the son of Siegmund and Sieglinde, born after Siegmund's death and raised by the dwarf Mime, the
brother of Alberich who stole the gold and fashioned the ring around which the operas are centered.
Having killed the giant-turned-dragon Fafner, Siegfried takes the ring and is guided to Brünnhilde's
rock by a bird, the blood of Fafner having enabled him to understand birdsong. Wotan tries to stop
him but he breaks the God's spear. He then awakens Brünnhilde.
Siegfried and Brünnhilde appear again at the beginning of Götterdämmerung, at which point he gives
her the ring and they are separated. Here again Wagner chooses to follow the Norse story, though with
substantial modifications. Siegfried does go to Gunther's hall, where he is given a potion to cause him
to forget Brünnhilde so that Gunther may marry her. All this occurs at the instigation of Hagen, Alberich's son and Gunther's half-brother. The plan is successful, and Siegfried leads Gunther to Brünnhilde's rock. In the meantime she has been visited by her sister valkyrie Waltraute, who warns her of
Wotan's plans for self-immolation and urges her to give up the ring. Brünnhilde refuses, only to be
overpowered by Siegfried who, disguised as Gunther using the Tarnhelm, takes the ring from her by
force.
As Siegfried goes to marry Gutrune, Gunther's sister, Brünnhilde sees that he has the ring and denounces him for his treachery. Still rejected, she joins Gunther and Hagen in a plot to murder Siegfried, telling Hagen that Siegfried can only be attacked from the back. So Gunther and Hagen take
Siegfried on a hunting trip, in the course of which Hagen stabs Siegfried in the back with a spear. Upon their return, where Hagen kills Gunther in a dispute over the ring, Brünnhilde takes charge, and has
a pyre built in which she is to perish, cleansing the ring of its curse and returning it to the Rhinemaidens. Her pyre becomes the signal by which Valhalla and all the gods also perish in flames.
Brynhildr may be inspired by the Visigothic princess Brunhilda of Austrasia,
who married Merovingian king Sigebert I
in 567.
From Norsemyth.com
Photos by google.com
Snorri Sturluson, (born 1179, Hvammur, Iceland—died Sept. 22, 1241, Reykjaholt), Icelandic poet,
historian, and chieftain, author of the Prose Edda and the Heimskringla.
Snorri, a descendant of the great poet and hero of the Egils saga, Egill Skallagrímsson, was brought
up at Oddi from the age of three in the home of Jón Loptsson, the most influential chieftain in Iceland. From him Snorri acquired both a deep knowledge of Icelandic tradition and a European
breadth of outlook.
In 1199 Snorri married an heiress and began to acquire lands and power. In 1206 he settled at Reykjaholt, where most of his works were written between 1223 and 1235. During 1215–18 and 1222–
32 he was “lawspeaker,” or president, of the Icelandic high court. In 1218 he was invited to Norway
by King Haakon IV.
Snorri became involved in politics while visiting the Norwegians. He convinced Haakon that he could
become king of Iceland, and he became Haakon’s vassal. Snorri returned to Iceland in 1220, but in
the ensuing years his relations with Haakon deteriorated, and, in 1241, by Haakon’s order, Snorri
was assassinated.
Snorri’s writings are remarkable both for their scope and for their formal assurance. The Prose Edda
is a handbook on poetics. In this work Snorri arranges and recounts the legends of Norse mythology
in an entertaining way. He then explains the ornate diction of the ancient skaldic poets and explains
the great variety of poetic metres used in skaldic and Eddic verse. Snorri also wrote a biography of
St. Oláf of Norway, which he included in his Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings from
their legendary descent from the warrior-wizard god Odin down to Magnus Erlingsson (1184). A
three-volume English translation by Samuel Laing (1844) has been frequently reprinted. Snorri
based the Heimskringla on earlier histories, but he gathered much fresh material of his own. He particularly valued poems transmitted orally from the time of the original historical events they described, and he selected those poetic traditions that seemed to be both authoritative and reflective of
contemporary politics and human nature. His genius lay in his power to present all that he perceived
critically as a historian with the immediacy of drama
ICELANDIC POETRY.ORG
BREAKING NEWS
FROM THE WAR
FRONT
Society For Creative Anachronism Seizes
Control Of Russia
News • World • government • history • Europe • • ISSUE 35•20 •
MOSCOW—Official reports from the Kremlin Tuesday confirmed that the
Society for Creative Anachronism, a group of medieval-war games hobbyists, seized control of Russia in a bloodless
coup over the weekend.
SCA members guard
the recently
seized St.
Basil's Cathedral.
"Weakened by food shortages, political instability and widespread economic chaos, our military's combined forces proved no match for the enemy's
rattan-and-duct-tape broadswords and homemade weaponry," said deposed Russian president Boris Yeltsin during a national radio address in
which he relinquished ruler ship to the "Principality Of The Mists," one of
several dozen SCA "kingdoms."
"I can't tell you how humiliating this is," he added.
The SCA, founded in 1966 by a group of Berkeley science-fiction and fantasy fans, is a non-profit organization dedicated to fun and learning through
such medieval activities as metalwork, calligraphy, lute-playing and brewing. Boasting more than 20,000 dues-paying members in 14 countries, the
club is also known for holding elaborately staged mock battles, followed by
feasting and merrymaking amid the revelry of troubadours and jesters.
The seizure of over 70% of Russia's land mass marks the first time the
SCA has ventured into the arena of international politics.
"I can't believe how easy it was to claim Kiev for the Kingdom Of Ealdormere," said Royal Peer Gawain Falconsfyre, a 44-year-old tech-support assistant from a suburb of Toronto. "It was a piece of cake. Haven't any of
these Russians ever heard of a moving-shield-wall offense?"
Falconsfire and an SCA faction armed only with rubber maces successfully
captured two Russian tank divisions outside Moscow Saturday when fuel
shortages immobilized the armored vehicles.
Due to the disarray of communications within Russia, information regarding the actual
invasion is sketchy. It was confirmed, however, that St. Petersburg was taken without
a shot being fired late Saturday morning, after thousands of Russian soldiers deserted their posts, joining approximately 70 SCA knights advancing on the city in hopes
of being issued new boots and coats.
The SCA also overtook vast areas at the borders of former Russian republics Ukraine
and Belarus simply by trading several sacks of potatoes for enemy guns.
Former president Boris Yeltsin transferring
control of Russia
to Grand Seneschal Ulf Silverhawk.
"Forsooth, mine legions of brave war makers hath conquered the Lands West O' the
Urals! Let there be great rejoicing in our noble victory!" exclaimed Cedric, Bard of the
House of Æthelmearc, 36, hoisting a flagon of ale. "What, ho! Bring on the serving
wenches!"
Cedric, known as Harold Freed when among non-SCA members, is credited with capturing two military air bases and a string of missile installations throughout the north
Caucasus region along the Georgian border—an area rendered vulnerable by ethnic
infighting, corruption and military anarchy.
SCA leaders, who have called the weekend's campaign "a really good time," were
said to be especially pleased with the invasion's early wrap-up, as it left the remainder of the weekend free for social recreation in the form of mead-drinking, archery
contests, and the singing of bawdy madrigals.
Even captured Russian soldiers were invited to join in the fun and campfire dancing.
Such "good sportsmanship" has some analysts arguing that the SCA's power base in
Russia may even benefit the troubled land in the long run.
"Though civilian rioting and widespread starvation still rock the major population centers, Russia is actually more stable right now than it has been for the last 18 months,"
Harvard political science professor F. Horace Gunderson said. "Candle-dipping seminars are addressing the problems posed by energy shortages, and the booths selling
roasted turkey legs represent, in many regions, the first source of food in weeks."
"
This could be the best thing to happen to Russia in years," agreed State Department
foreign-affairs analyst Howard Plum. "The sale of jewelry, driftwood art and other medieval handcrafting at concession tables throughout Russia has boosted local economies, and SCA presence has even created new jobs in the custodial and
campground-rental fields."
The U.N. security council is drafting a proposal urging SCA forces to remain in Russia, at least until a more viable interim government can be structured.
"Under the current political system, the Russian people face Mafia domination of the
black market and a deteriorating national infrastructure," U.N. Ambassador Thomas
R. Pickering said. "With an elaborately networked consortium of amateur gamers in
charge, however, there will at least be some semblance of order."
Members of SCA nobility, however, say the group has no interest in running Russia
for any great length of time, especially with the members' need to prepare for their
next major event, this summer's Pennsic War between the East and Middle Kingdoms, to be held in Pennsylvania. Insiders expect the occupying forces to return
power to the Russian government "on the honor system" and return to their day jobs
by the end of the week.
"We're doing this for fun, not the vulgar acquisition of personal political power," said
insurance actuary and Arizona native Willownook Pendragon, of the Kingdom of
Atenveldt. "We're here to celebrate our mutual interest in the ways and customs of
pre-1600 feudal Europe, and to bedeck ourselves in the heraldic regalia of our fictional medieval personas, not to get mixed up in politics."
Pendragon added that "anyone who wants to have a fun time and make new friends"
should check out the SCA home page or contact the group's California headquarters
directly at its toll-free number for more information on an SCA chapter in their area.
"We're really just friendly folks who welcome outsiders," Pendragon said. "Plus, now
is a great time to get involved, because there's lots of super events coming up this
summer, and you'll want time to prepare the correct blazon for your heraldry."
The onion…May 26, 1999
Hurstwic.org
Well known Vikings and Norsemen of the Viking Age
Known from Viking Age sources
Bagsecg, a Viking who invaded and pillaged in England in 870, but was killed in 871 at The
Battle of Ashdown.
Cnut the Great, commonly known as 'Canute', king of England and Denmark, Norway, and
of some of Sweden, was possibly the greatest Viking king. A son of Sweyn Forkbeard,
and grandson of Harold Bluetooth, he was a member of the dynasty that was key to the
unification and Christianisation of Denmark. Some modern historians have dubbed him
the ‘Emperor of the North’ because of his position as one of the magnates of medieval
Europe and as a reflection of the Holy Roman Empire to the south.
Egill Skallagrímsson, Icelandic warrior and skald. (See also the medieval tale Egils saga).
Guthrum, coloniser of Danelaw.
Halfdan, pillaged in England conquered London and Northumbria, later remembered as a
son of Ragnar Lodbrok
Harald Bluetooth (Harald Gormson), who according to the Jelling Stones that he had erected, "won the whole of Denmark and Norway and turned the Danes to Christianity". Father of Sweyn Forkbeard; grandfather of Cnut the Great.
Harald Fairhair, remembered in the medieval sagas and thus commonly revered in popular
histories as the first king of all Norway, who conquered and ruled the whole extent of
medieval Norway from 870–930. Now considered by historians to have been the successful ruler of a more limited domain in south-western Norway in the 10th century.
Harald Hardrada. A half-brother of St Olaf, Harald cut his teeth as a mercenary in Russia
and Byzantium before returning to Norway in the mid-1040s. He forced his nephew
Magnus the Good to share power with him, and then ruled the whole kingdom alone after the early death of Magnus in 1047. Harald attempted to revive the North Sea domain
of Cnut the Great, but having failed to conquer the Danes he died at Stamford Bridge in
1066, during an unsuccessful attempt to conquer England. Harald was the first ruler of
Norway successfully to have guaranteed the succession for his own sons. Although it
was from him that the medieval Norwegian dynasty descended, his historical importance
has been obscured by the treatment of Harald Fairhair and St Olaf (Olaf Haraldsson) in
medieval writings.
Harald Klak (Harald Halfdansson), a 9th-century king in Jutland who made peace with Louis the Pious in order to win Frankish support in his struggle for power. In 826 he became
the first Scandinavian ruler to accept baptism, but he was unable to maintain his authority in Jutland and was possibly the first Viking to be granted Frankish land in exchange
for protection.
Ivar the Boneless, remembered as one of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok, he lead an army of
Vikings that conquered York. His nickname of "Boneless" has led some to speculate that
may have suffered from a physical handicap while others have speculated that it might
refer to unusual agility in combat.
St Olaf (Olav Haraldsson), patron saint of Norway, and king of Norway from 1015 to approx. 1030.
Olaf Tryggvason, king of Norway from 995 to 1000. Remembered as an aggressive missionary ruler in the
medieval Icelandic sagas, in which the extent of his authority has almost certainly been grossly exaggerated.
Ragnar Lodbrok, captured Paris. Developed into a legendary Viking hero in medieval writings.
Rollo of Normandy, founder of Normandy.
Sweyn Forkbeard, king of Denmark, Norway, and England, as well as founder of Swansea ("Sweyn's island"). In 1013, the Danes under Sweyn led a Viking offensive against the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of
England. The English king was forced into exile, and in late 1013 Sweyn became King of England,
though he died early in 1014, and the former king was brought out of exile to challenge his son.
Ubbe Ragnarsson, pillaged in England and was killed in 878 at The Battle of Cynwit, another supposed son
of the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok.
William the Conqueror, ruler of Normandy and the victor at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. William was a
Norman French-speaking fifth-generation descendant of the Viking war-leader Rollo, the first Scandinavian ruler of Normandy; but Norman historians since Dudo of St. Quentin still celebrated the old Norse
heritage of the ducal dynasty. William's great great uncle was the great Danish king Cnut the Great. The
Norman assertion of power in England after the successful invasion of 1066 saw the end of the AngloSaxon rule in England.
Known from later medieval sources
Askold and Dir (Old Norse: Hoskuld and Dýri), legendary Swedish conquerors of Kiev.
Björn Ironside, son of Ragnar Lodbrok, pillaged in Italy.
Brodir of Man, a Danish Viking who killed the High King of Ireland, Brian Boru.
Erik the Red, coloniser of Greenland.
Freydís Eiríksdóttir, a Viking woman who sailed to Vínland.
Gardar Svavarsson, originally from Sweden, the discoverer of Iceland. There is another contender for the discoverer of Iceland: Naddoddr, a Norwegian/Faeroese Viking explorer.
Grímur Kamban, a Norwegian or Norwegian/Irish Viking who around 825 was, according to the Færeyinga
Saga, the first Nordic settler in the Faeroes.
Hastein, a chieftain who raided in the Mediterranean, Son of Ragnar Lodbrok.
Ingólfur Arnarson, coloniser of Iceland.
Ingvar the Far-Travelled, the leader of the last great Swedish Viking expedition to pillage the shores of the
Caspian Sea.
Leif Ericsson, discoverer of Vínland, son of Erik the Red.
Sigmundur Brestisson, Faeroese, a Viking chieftain who, according to the Færeyinga Saga, introduced Christianity and Norwegian supremacy to the Faeroes in 999.
Thorfinn Karlsefni, explorer who, along with Freydís Eiríksdóttir, sailed to Vínland. His wife Gudridr gave
birth to Snorri, the first European known to have been born in the New World.
Thorgils (Thorgest), founder of Dublin according to Snorri Sturluson.
Tróndur í Gøtu, a Faeroese Viking chieftain who, according to the Færeyinga Saga, was opposed to the introduction of Christianity to, and the Norwegian supremacy of, the Faeroes.
From vikingworld.com
MAMAS, DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE
VIKINGS
- Words by Morric Haast
(c) 1984 by William Ritchie
( sung to the obvious tune )
Vikings are easy to find, but they're hard to survive;
They'd rather tear out your throat that leave you alive.
Long, greasy pigtails, and dirty old tunics,
and some town is burning today;
After they've robbed you and raped your poor wife,
They'll prob'ly just sail away.
<Chorus>
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Vikings,
Don't let 'em sail longships and crack people's heads,
Let 'em be farmers or shepherds instead.
Mamas, don't let you babies grow up to be Vikings,
Cause they'll rape and they'll pillage, from village to village,
Even when they're still at home.
<Chorus>
Vikings like smokey old mead halls, and burned Christian
bodies;
Fjords in the morning, and trollops who put up a fight;
Them that don't know 'em, won't live long, and them that do
Sometimes don't know who they're after;
They're mean and they're vicious, though no one knows why,
And they're sneaky but not too damn bright.
Author's Note:
(If you think the second verse is awkward, listen to
the original!)
All photos google.com
Common misconceptions concerning the Vikings
Horned helmets
Apart from two or three representations of (ritual) helmets—with protrusions that may be either stylised ravens, snakes, or horns—no depiction of Viking Age warriors' helmets, and no preserved helmet, has horns. In
fact, the formal, close-quarters style of Viking combat (either in shield walls or aboard "ship islands") would
have made horned helmets cumbersome and hazardous to the warrior's own side.
Therefore historians[who?] believe that Viking warriors did not wear horned helmets; whether such helmets were
used in Scandinavian culture for other, ritual purposes, however, remains unproven. The general misconception that Viking warriors wore horned helmets was partly promulgated by the 19th-century enthusiasts of
Götiska Förbundet, founded in 1811 in Stockholm, Sweden. They promoted the use of Norse mythology as the
subject of high art and other ethnological and moral aims.
The Vikings were often depicted with winged helmets and in other clothing taken from Classical antiquity,
especially in depictions of Norse gods. This was done to legitimise the Vikings and their mythology by associating it with the Classical world, which had long been idealised in European culture.
The latter-day mythos created by national romantic ideas blended the Viking Age with aspects of the Nordic
Bronze Age some 2,000 years earlier. Horned helmets from the Bronze Age were shown in petroglyphs and
appeared in archaeological finds (see Bohuslän and Vikso helmets). They were probably used for ceremonial
purposes.[66]
Viking helmets were conical, made from hard leather with wood and metallic reinforcement for regular troops.
The iron helmet with mask and chain mail was for the chieftains, based on the previous Vendel-age helmets
from central Sweden. The only true Viking helmet found is that from Gjermundbu in Norway. This helmet is
made of iron and has been dated to the 10th century.
Use of skulls as drinking vessels
The use of human skulls as drinking vessels—another common motif in popular pictorial representations of
the Vikings—is also ahistorical. The rise of this legend can be traced to Ole Worm's Runer seu Danica literatura antiquissima (1636), in which Danish warriors drinking ór bjúgviðum hausa [from the curved branches of
skulls, i.e., from horns] were rendered as drinking ex craniis eorum quos ceciderunt [from the skulls of those
whom they had slain]. The skull-cup allegation may also have some history in relation with other Germanic
tribes and Eurasian nomads, such as the Scythians and Pechenegs, and the vivid example of the Lombard Alboin, made notorious by Paul the Deacon's History.
There may also be some confusion between "skull" and the Norse/Icelandic word for a drinking cup, skál. This
is a common toast in Scandinavian countries.
Google.com
Barbarity
The image of wild-haired, dirty savages sometimes associated with the Vikings in popular culture is a distorted
picture of reality.[1] Non-Scandinavian Christians are responsible for most surviving accounts of the Vikings,
and consequently, a strong possibility for bias exists. This attitude is likely attributed to Christian misunderstandings regarding paganism. Viking tendencies were often misreported, and the work of Adam of Bremen,
among others, told largely disputable tales of Viking savagery and uncleanliness.[67]
The Anglo-Danes were considered excessively clean by their Anglo-Saxon neighbours, due to their custom of
bathing every Saturday and combing their hair often.[citation needed] To this day, Saturday is referred to as
laugardagur / laurdag / lørdag / lördag, "washing day", in the Scandinavian languages. Icelanders were known
to use natural hot springs as baths, and there is a strong sauna/bathing culture in Scandinavia still.[citation needed]
As for the Vikings in the east, Ibn Rustah notes their cleanliness in carrying clean clothes, whereas Ibn Fadlan
is disgusted by all of the men sharing the same, used vessel to wash their faces and blow their noses in the
morning. Ibn Fadlan's disgust is possibly because of the contrast to the personal hygiene practises particular to
the Muslim world at the time, such as the use of running water and clean vessels. While the example was intended to convey his disgust about certain customs of the Rus', at the same time it recorded that they did wash
every morning.[citation needed]
Www.askthevickinglady.com
Photos-google and ribe Viking center
Summer's End
Hosted by Canton of Beau Fleuve
September 14, 2013 09 AM - September 14, 2013 10 PM
The Canton of Beau Fleuve invites you to our end of summer celebration! Please come join
Their Majesties Maynard and Liadain to celebrate a war well fought and now behind us. The
harvest has been bountiful, the lands are at peace and joy has spread far and wide. All that is
needed is your presence to share such bounty and comradery.There will be fighting, fencing
and thrown weapons!
Artists be ready.We will be having a German/Irish themed A&S competition. Your skills will be
put to the test against other worthy artisans. Please nring completed works or just those in
progress.
The event site is our traditional site of St. John De LaSalle, 8477 Buffalo Ave, Niagara Falls, NY
14304. Site fee for adults is $7 and children $3.50. Feast fee will be $15 for adults and $7.50 for
children. Per Society, a $5 non-member surcharge will be collected at the event from any
adults without proof of current membership. Please make checks payable to SCA NY, inc - Canton of Beau Fleuve
The site opens at 9AM and closes at 10PM on September 14th. The Autocrat is THL Govindi
(mka Colleen Coil). Her address is 84 Sweeny St Apt. 207, North Tonawanda, NY 14120, [email protected] and 716-984-5782. The feastocrat is Padraig O'Branduibh, [email protected] or 716-812-1421. Contact him for any special dietary requirements or requests.
For more info please visit: http://beaufleuve.aethelmearc.org/
OFFICER’S REPORTS
Greetings!
Now that war is done and things settle back into normal routines... We prepare for fall ... The Hael
has had good fortune with two new families joining us! Don Ivan's nephew and his family and another family. Both have youth that are eager to try activities.. Welcome!!
Also, I will be mentoring Ursus as he has shown interest in becoming a castellan, he brings a good
amount of experience to the position. I will then be able to focus on
being a good regional chatelaine..
In service, Lady Maeve
A&S At Pennsic, I attended the Known World A&S Ministers meeting. We discussed all
sorts of topics, but one stuck out for me. How to get more people interested in organized A&S activities? We tossed some ideas around but I want to hear from you. What
types of projects would you like to work on, help with individual projects and/or group
projects? Do you want an A&S day scheduled in the near future? Would you like to
work on activities at Fight Practice? There are projects that I'd like to work on as a
group, i.e. award medallions and largesse for both the Barony and Kingdom. If you
have an interest in trying something new or have ideas that you'd like to share, let me
know.
Also, who taught or took classes at Pennsic? If you taught, what was the class? If you
took classes, what did you take? How about participating in the A&S Display?
What did you put out for display?
Webminister By the time that you read this, the event site for Ice Dragon 2014 will be up! There will
be more information that will be added later as we get closer to the event.
JulianaRosalia DolceDiSiena
The Report of the Court of Their Excellencies Carolos
and Iola, Baron and Baroness of the Rhydderich Hael,
held at Baronial Champs in the Barony of the
Rhydderich Hael held on the 8th day of June anno societatis forty-eight, Lady Miriel du Lac Herald.
Evening Court
Google.com
Their Excellences then welcomed all the children present to attend them. Ian, the son of Maeve Ni Siurtain
came forward. Their Excellences spoke of his help at the event through the day and how he had shot in the
archery tourney. They gifted him with some rubber duckies.
Their Excellences summoned the autocrat of the event, Lady Isabetta Orsini and thanked her for all her hard
work and time. They invited her to speak to the populace. Lady Isabetta thanks her event team and those
who had attended.
Their Excellences called forward Jael. They called for the populous to recognize her hard works in the kitchen not only at Champs but at Ice Dragon as well. Jael was gifted with a leather circlet by their Excellences.
Lord Magnus de Lyons was called into court. He spoke of an award for those who pre-registered for the
event. A name was picked and Master Charles of Alden was found victorious. Master Charles was given a
$50 gift certificate to The Purple Needles.
Their Excellences spoke of the Baronial Champion Heavy Weapons tourney held weeks earlier and the
champion Lord Ursus Epicurius. The scroll by the hands of Baroness Juliana Rosalia Dolce di Siena and
Lord Padraig O'Branduidh was read into court and would be collected at another time by Lord Ursus.
Lord Wolfgang Starke was called forth to share the results of the baronial champs fencing tournament. Baron Caleb Reynolds was named the Champion and called forward. Their Excellences asked if he would serve
as their champion. Baron Caleb accepted and was presented with the Champion regalia and a scroll by the
hand of Alyce Greene.
Don Behrend Von Elmendorf was called forth to share the results of the baronial champs thrown weapons
tournament. Master Augusto Giuseppie de San Donato was named the Champion and called forward. Their
Excellences asked if he would serve as their champion, Master Giuseppie accepted and was presented with
the Champion regalia and a scroll by the hand of Adhipati Govindi.
Lord Magnus de Lyons was called forward to share the results of the baronial champs archery tournament.
Brian Wypij was named the Champion and called forward. Their Excellences asked if he would serve as
their champion, Brian accepted and was presented with the Champion regalia and a scroll by the hands of
Baroness Juliana Rosalia Dolce di Siena and Lord Padraig O'Branduidh.
THL Sthurrim Cathnes was called forward to share the results of the baronial champs Arts and Science Competition. She spoke of all the wonderful submissions and Baroness Ekaterina Volkova was
named as the Champion. Their Excellences called forward Baroness Ekaterina, and asked her if she
would serve as their Champion. She accepted and was presented with the Champion regalia and a
scroll by the hand of Beth Huber.
Their Excellencies called forward Mistress Francesca Giovanna Delle Rovere and thanked her for
her service as the past Baronial Chivalry Champion. They then named Lady Katerine Starke as their
new Chivalry Champion and requested her presence in court. They asked Lady Katerine if she
would serve as their champion, she accepted and was presented with the Champion regalia and a
scroll by the hand of Lady Mary Elizabeth Clason.
Lady Logan Latta de Kent was called forward and their Excellences asked her to speak of the
Queen Anne Trophy, Lady Logan addressed the populace and spoke of the history of the Trophy.
Their Excellencies called forward Lady Miriel du Lac and spoke of her hard work for the barony even
with all the trials in her life. They named her as the next recipient of the Trophy, Lady logan presented Lady Miriel with the Trophy, a garter, and a gift of chocolate.
Their Excellences called forward Lord Bovi Davidson, they spoke of his fighting prowess and fierceness on the field. Because of this they named him their Most Improved New Fighter and presented
him with the New Fighter dagger. Asking Lord Bovi to stay their Excellences called forward the members of the Dragon’s Concordium. They spoke of Bovi’s hard work in the kitchens at multiple events
when he had just joined the Barony and his contagious enthusiasm for all things in the society. For
this they inducted him into the Concordium and presented him with a scroll by the hand of Lady Zofia
Kowalewska.
Their Excellences called forward Lord Magnus de Lyons and thanked him for his service holding the
Baronial Keystone. They then called for the presence of Lord Padraig O’Branduibh and asked him if
he would carry the Baronial Keystone for them, he accepted and Lord Magnus passed on the Keystone to Lord Padraig.
Their Excellences called for the presence of Lady Logan Latta de Kent. They spoke of her fencing
skills on the fencing field and her wonderful contributions off the field. Their Excellences then called
for their Order of the Dragons Combatant and in recognition of Lady Logan’s fighting prowess, inducted her into the Order. Lady Logan was presented with a scroll by the hand of
Mistress Gillian Llywellyn of Ravenspur.
Their Excellences called for the presence of Baroness Juliana Rosalia Dolce di
Siena. They spoke of her kindness, welcoming heart, and great courtesy to all in
the barony. Because of this they called forward Their Noble Union of Lords and
Ladies and inducted her into the Union. Baroness Juliana was presented with a
NULL Medallion and scroll by the hand of Baron Caleb Reynolds.
Google.com
Their Excellences called forward Adhipati Govindi. They spoke of her service
to the barony and kingdom at events and in so many other capacities. . Their
Excellences then called for their Venerable Order of the Ice Dragon and in
recognition of her quiet service inducted her into the Order. Adhipati Govindi
was presented with a VOID medallion and a scroll by the hand of Lady Isabetta Orsini.
Their Excellences’ court was suspended.
Google.com
Late Evening Court
Their Excellences court was continued as they asked for the presence of Lord Rhiannon Elandris of
Glyndrvdwy. Lord Rhiannon spoke of the coming Army Muster in Stormsport. She asked all who
could, to attend and support the Champions and Equestrians competing.
Lord Magnus de Lyons was then called forward and spoke of the charity aspect of the Archery Tournament. As a secondary reward in the Baronial Archery champion contest the winner of the shoot
got to pick a charity to donate $50, and if the tournament had ten or more shooters that donation
would be $100. There was 11 shooters that day, so Magnus said he would speak with Brian and
work out the Charity to receive the $100. (The charity picked by Brian was “Make a Wish” of Buffalo.)
Baroness Boudiccea Ravenhair was called forth to share the results of the baronial champs Bardic
Competition. Maestro Brian of Leichester was named the Champion and called forward. Their Excellences asked if he would serve as their champion. Maestro Brian accepted and was presented with
the Champion regalia and a scroll by the hand of Mistress Gillian Llywellyn of Ravenspur.
Their Excellences by order of elimination found Lord Wolfgang Starke to be their Iron Man winner for
the event. He was presented with a scroll by the hand of Baroness Ekaterina Volkova.
Baroness Ekaterina Volkova was called forward and spoke of the delicious desert competition held
that day. The winner was announced as Don Behrend Von Elmendorf. Don Behrend was presented
with a porcelain artichoke filled with mint candies.
Lady Isebetta Orsini was called forward and she spoke of the Heal Dragon Contest and all of the
outstanding contestants. The winner was announced as Lord Rhiannon Elandris of Glyndrvdwy with
her sleeping dragon in a shell. Lord Rhiannon was presented with a brass candle holder in the
shape of a dragon.
There being no further business, the court of their Excellences was
closed.
HERE IS A LIST OF SITES THAT I RAN INTO WHILE DOING RESEARCH ON THIS
ISSUE. ANYONE WITH AN INTREST IN THE VIKING / NORSE CULTURE MIGHT
LIKE TO HAVE A LOOK….
Ribevikingcenter.dk
Askthevikinglady.com
Thevikingsworld.com
Hurstwic.org
Valkyries.com
Foodtimeline.org
Leeds.rc.uk/youarewhatyouate
Vikingsonline.org.uk/
Caeranterth.northshield.org/links/livinghistory.html
Ravensgard.org
Vikingsofmiddleengland.co.uk/
Photos from vikingsofmiddleengland.co.uk
THE OFFICERS OF THE RHYDDERICH
HAEL
BARON AND BARONESS
THL Isolda Filia Georgii
Mary Petrakos 716-633-4990 please call between 6pm-8pm
312 Patrice Terrace Williamsville NY 14221
[email protected]
Lord Carolus Loke
Anthony Heibal 716-909-3363
429 Westgate Road Kenmore NY 14217
[email protected]
SENESCHAL (9/13)
PADRAIG O’ BRANDUBH
Patrick DeWind
56 Windermere Blvd. Amherst NY 14226
(716)-812-1421
[email protected]
PURSUIVANT
MIRIEL DU LAC
Sara Herringshaw (315) 360-0365
[email protected]
Deputy
THOMAS DE HAUEKESLE
Jeff Kruszynski
KNIGHT MARSHALL
HORATIAS CINCINNATUS
Zach Patterson (716) 830-8096
[email protected]
CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
BARON CALEB REYNOLDS 716-873-7057
Caleb Ronsen
[email protected]
DEPUTY
LORD ALEXANDER DU LAC
Ryan Rathsam 315-882-5471
10 Lombardy St. Lancaster NY 14086
[email protected]
[email protected]
NEW PERSON CONTACT “THE CHATELAINE “
REGION 4 CHATELAINE
MAEVE N SIURTAIN
Michele Nufer 542-4349 / 250-8450
No calls after 10pm
[email protected]
DEPUTY
LORD MAGNUS DE LYONS
Lance m. Kazmark
716-572-5106
[email protected]
CHRONICLER
RHIANNON ELANDRIS OF GLYNDRVDWY
Lauren Gascoyne 692-2327 no calls after 9pm
[email protected]
[email protected]
WEB MINISTER
JULIANA ROSALIA DOLCE DO SIENA
Julie DeWind
[email protected]
716-228-9340 no calls after 9pm
MINISTER OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
JULIANA ROSALIA DOLCE DO SIENA
Julie DeWind
[email protected]
716-228-9340 no calls after 9pm
MINISTER OF THE LISTS
BRIGETTE DE SAINTE MERE-‘EGLISE
Annette J. Wacha 716-560-3374
[email protected]
DEPUTY
MUIRGEL
Colleen M. Coil
716-984-5782
CAPTAIN OF FENCE
BARON CALEB REYNOLDS 716-873-7057
Caleb Ronsen
[email protected]
CAPTAIN OF ARCHERS
FRANCOIS BELGRAUNDE THE BLADEGATHER
Frank Benz 633-9517
[email protected]
CAPTAIN OF THROWN WEAPONS
THL AUGUSTO GIUSEPPI DE SAN DONATO
Joseph Piselli
716-574-4411
[email protected]
demo coordinator
LORD MAGNUS DE LYONS
Lance m. Kazmark
716-572-5106
[email protected]
HISTORIAN
BARONESS KATHERINE KIERSEY
Stephanie Carson 491-3668
27 Concord Drive Buffalo, NY 14215
[email protected]
E-GROUP MINISTER
FILIPO DE SANCTO MARTINO
Phil Martino 803-2425
[email protected]
GUILDS
SCRIBAL GUILD
ALYCE GREENE
Beth Puffpaff
[email protected]
COOK’S GUILD
MISTRESS YSABEAU TIERCELIN
Phoebe Waller-Sharp 622-2058
[email protected]
BREWER’S GUILD
BARON CALEB REYNOLDS
Caleb Ronsen 716-873-7057
TEXTILE GUILD
REGION 4 ARTS AND SCIENCES DEPUTY
MISTRESS YSABEAU TIERCELIN
Phoebe Waller-Sharp 622-2058
[email protected]
KEEPERS OF THE DOMESDAY
MISTRESS CORI GHORA
JULIANA ROSALIA DOLCE DO SIENA
MIRIEL DU LAC
CHEESE MAKER’S GUILD
MASTER BRANDRIC THE ROCKSLAYER
Larry Southwick 832-5094
CHANCELLOR MINOR
LADY CORDELIA COLTON
Colleen Martino 716-440-2423 no calls after 10pm
[email protected]
RHYDDERICH HAEL SIEGE GUILD
FILIPO DE SANCTO MARTINO
Phil Martino 803-2425
[email protected]
CHIRURGEON COORDINATOR ( LIFE )
AINE NIC LLYR DE DANANN
Pati Aine Guzinski 832-5094 no calls after 9 pm
[email protected]
RHYDDERICH HAEL EQUESTRIANS
MISTRESS YSABEAU TIERCELIN
Phoebe Waller-Sharp 622-2058
[email protected]
STEWARD ( LIFE ) THL AUGUSTO GIUSEPPI DE SAN DONATO
Joseph Piselli
716-574-4411
[email protected]
CHOIR MINISTER
MISTRESS BARONESS CEOL SEABHAC
Carol Waddell Sheets 667-7264
MINISTER OF DANCE
BRIGETTE DE SAINTE MERE-‘EGLISE
Annette J. Wacha 716-560-3374
[email protected]
OFFICERS OF THE CANTON OF BEAU
FLEUVE
OFFICAL BARONY WEBSITE
SENESCHAL
WWW.WNYSCA.ORG
THL AUGUSTO GIUSEPPI DE SAN DONATO
Joseph Piselli
716-574-4411
THIS IS THE “ ICE DRAGON”, A PUBLICATION OF THE
BARONY OF THE RHYDDERICH HAEL OF THE SOCIETY
FOR CREATIVE ANACHRONISM ,INC. THE ICE DRAGON IS AVAILABLE ON THE BARONY WEBSITE.
IT IS NOT A CORPORATE PUBLICATION OF THE SOCIETY FOR CREATIVE ANACHRONISM, INC. AND
DOES NOT DELINEATE SCA POLICIES. THE ICE
DRAGON IS PUBLISHED 12 TIMES PER ANNUM.
ALL ARTICLE COPYRIGHTS REMAIN WITH THE ORGINAL AUTHORS. ALL ILLUSTRATIONS, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED ARE
COPYRIGHT FROM PUBLIC
DOMAIN OR USED WITH PERMISSION
PURSUIVANT
NONE AT PRESENT
KNIGHT MARSHALL
SIR CALLIDUS
EXCHEQUER
LADY EDITH OF WINTERTON
Caroline Elliot
Deputy
Sthurrim caithnes
Minister of arts and SCIENCES
LORD WOLFGANG STARKE
MKA Eric Belser 716-201-1717
353 Park Lane Circle, Apt 12
Lockport NY 14094
CHATELAINE
NONE AT PRESENT
WEB MINISTER
MISTRESS CORI GHORA
Clare Jackson 692-0492
CAPTAIN OF THROWN WEAPONS
THL MORWENNA EVERDON
Jo Human 731-2346
THE ICE DRAGON
LAUREL GASCOYNE
WHEN I FIRST STARTED IN THE SCA IN1976,
THE VAST MAJORITY OF PERSONIAS WERE
MAINLY BASED ON THE NORTHERN EUROPIAN
281 EVERGREEN DRIVE
CULTURE….NOW WITH REAL ADVANCES IN
TONAWANDA,NEW
YORK 14150
ARCHEOLOGY , RESEARCH ( SCA AND MUNDANE ) AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB THERE
ARE SO MANY MORE CULTURES APPEARING
AT SCA EVENTS…..THIS HAS MADE THE
DREAM MORE COLORFULL, EDUCATIONAL ,
ENTERTAINING AND JUST A LOT MORE
FUN...GOING TO ANY LARGE EVENT LIKE
PENNSIC, IS LIKE GOING TO A LARGE MEDIEVAL PORT CITY...YOU NEVER KNOW WHO’LL
YOU WILL RUN INTO...I HOPE THIS CITY CONTINUES TO GROW….WELCOME ALL TO THE
“NEW” MIDDLE AGES
UNICORN POWERED