Crown Games and Paens

The first-ever Crown Tournament to be held in the Crescent Isles (ASXXXIX) was sure to be one in which many new faces would be seen. I was asked to organise a game that would get people together and talking, and possibly learning a little about each other. And so was born Banking As an Organised Pursuit. Another activity evolved from an incautious enquiry to the Guild of Performers and Entertainers as to whether Lochac had a tradition, as in Caid, of undertaking paens in recognition of those who fought for the Crown. "Good idea", I was told. "Can you organise it?" And so the Crown Tourney paens project was begun.

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Banking As an Organised Pursuit

I spent some time trying to think of some activity that encouraged people to seek out total strangers -- for some reason, the game KAOS (Killing as an Organised Sport, aka Killer) sprang to mind (nothing to do with having been the country's founding dictator some decades ago during my university days, honest!). But how to dress it up as something suitably period? What sort of activity or event saw people seeking others out? Here's what I came up with:

Fugger Bros Announcement

Do you have what it takes to be an agent for the Fugger Brothers Bank?

The bottom has fallen out of the silver market and the Fugger Brothers are calling in their Letters of Credit. As their agent, your job is to pursue creditors and collect as many Letters of Credit as you can.

How to Play

(1) Fill in your own Letter of Credit at the Gatehouse, or use this PDF. Deposit the letter in the Fugger Bros Strongbox at the Gatehouse by ten am (10am) Saturday, or hand to katherine kerr of the Hermitage before that time. You cannot participate if your letter is late.

(2) A Bank representative will later provide you with the Letter of Credit of the first creditor you are to seek; searching commences from the official start of the Crown Tournament. (NOTE: Letters of Credit may not be served on anyone in the lists or on official business during the Crown Tournament such as participating fighters, heralds or marshals. Your discretion is urged in other arenas.)

(3) When you have correctly identified the named creditor, they must surrender to you the Letter of Credit for the person whom they are currently seeking, who becomes your next case, and so on. To ensure a smooth collection process for all, please have your Letters of Credit to hand at all times.

(4) If a bank agent arrives with a Letter of Credit bearing your name, you must hand over the Letter of Credit of the person you are currently seeking (as per item 3). Take any other letters you have already collected to the Fugger Bros Strongbox at the Gatehouse. These will be used to determine your ranking; special recognition will be accorded to the most successful agents. Deposits accepted until two pm Sunday, no later.

Good hunting!

How it worked

A number of people were familiar with the concept of the game, and these ones tended to really get into the spirit. As soon as the announcement was made that the letters of credit were active, people started to circulate and ask others for information about their sought creditor. The one disadvantage this format had was that there was no way you could prevent a letter of credit being served on you and, once that was done, you were out of play. But that was the price for wanting to keep it reasonably simple and self-regulating.

I produced a Letter of Full Credit for those who played the best, not just in terms of gaining the largest number of letters, but also in the spirit of the game. This letter was based on an equivoke said to have been written by Cardinal Richlieu. An equivoke is a piece of poetry or prose which can be read two ways, which seemed eminently suitable for such a game! It was typeset so that the two columns appeared much closer together and your initial thought would have been to read across rather than down. Fortunately, those who got one seemed rather pleased with it, rather than insulted by any possible aspersions cast on their character.

Letter of Full Credit

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Crown Tourney Paens Project

The Lochac Guild of Performers and Entertainers set forth to immortalise the worthy deeds of the November ASXXXIX Crown Tourney in prose, poem and song. Enough volunteers were found to cover the victor of Crown Tourney, the runner-up, the wreath of valour recipient and wreath of chivalry recipient, and a general overview involving all the tourney participants.

This is something I'd done years ago as a member of Caid, though in the days of post rather than email, which made turnaround a matter of a few days, rather than weeks! In Caid, they called for anyone to volunteer and so were often able to supply one bard per Crown aspirant, which simplified the logistics greatly. However, being some 10,000 miles away and having never seen mainland Kingdom and met very few inhabitants thereof meant sometimes that could prove a problem when writing something about someone you didn't know at an event you hadn't attended with minimal information about them. You can see one piece I did for the Caid Crown Tourney Poems here.

So I tried to make it easy for participating bards, sending them information about the fighters, including information on awards, place (SCA and period), device or badge, as well as tourney opponents and results, along with any particular aspect of the bouts. I had a couple of reporters set up to take notes through the tourney, and the lists officer and Tourney Herald provided their information sheets (it helped being a field herald on the day!), so that the bards had some good basic information from which to produce a suitable poem, song or prose item.

An appeal to the illuminators of Lochac was answered by Katherine Alicia of Sarum, who kindly provided a range of French 14-15th century vine and staff work to be used as border elements for the final typeset pieces. She was good enough not to be horrified by my suggestion of "Lego illumination" whereby I asked her to produce a set of staffs, vines, leaf ends and the like which I could "connect" together at will to suit the layout and size of the works being so illustrated.

After much hunting about for a readily available font, I decided to use JSL Blackletter. Although late period, it was a reasonably acceptable approximation to match the artwork in style. The layout itself was developed after scrutinizing numerous examples to see how to produce the right sort of combination of lettering, layout and artwork.

The concept was to make the items visually appealing as well as verbally, and to make the final result available in a readily accessible format for individuals to access and print from a Web location, should they like a remebrance of a fine event. I produced a set of fully typeset versions on 185gsm art paper, along with plain text material, and made a hard-cover portfolio for presentation at Twelfth Night Coronation. There was a bit of nail-biting involved to see if the portfolio made it across the seas in time! The various efforts are to be availale on the Lochac Guild of Performers and Entertainers Website.

The collected works.

Here below is my effort, in text and final typeset form; the full set is to be accessible on the Guild Website. Hear Now of Heroes was inspired by Stanzas XVII/XVIII from Beowulf wherein Wealhtheow, the Scylding queen, turns to the seat where her two sons were placed next to Beowulf and speaks of battles of old, asking Beowulf to "these striplings here counsel in kindness". I wanted a way I could present information on all the Crown Tourney fighters without it becoming too much of a rote list, so I framed it as a lesson for my own young sons, Dickon and Pippin, who had both served as list runners during Crown.. Hence the framing story introducing the various sections. And it starts off with "So it was…" as a nod to the Anglo-Saxon attention-getter Hwaet!

Hear Now of heroes

So it was….
When warring was over, then went the woman
Having watched all the weapon-play, well-marked the warriors
Called she her sons to her, to sing of the day's strivings
In a hall full of heroes, highly honoured, great hearted
Her young boys beside her, bade them learn of the battle.

First on the field, facing a former king,
sword-maid Alesia staunch-heartedly strove.
Her Crown-companions Henri and Kitan
had at each other, till Henri hard fell.
A mace-wielding man made much of his might
though lethal in lunge, Luan relinquished his life.
The captain who cares for the Canton of Cluain,
Fulk fought like the fire-wyrms found on his arms.
St Florians' Stephano, shielded by Sebastian,
laughed in the lists as he laid on left-handed.
Bernard of Stirling stood stalwart and silent,
boldly he did bear his arms to the battle.
First to fall were these fellows, felled in the fray
But in no wise less noble than those who came after.

The man of Medici, merry Martuccio
was proud in his bearing, his prowess pre-eminent.
Bartholomew Baskin bore a bevy of blows
though grounded, he managed a goodly engagement.
Green-garlanded Agro grappled with gallants
the pirate did perish at the hands of his pupil.
Callum, the cunning, Chrettienne's crafty lord
his years of youth-foxing forced others to yield.
Six-fingered Rugen fought as a Florentine
standing square-on to those who would skirmish.
Quick in combat was Torum, called well The Hasty
danced like the sunlight dappling his river lands.

From this clash of combat came the final contestants.
The mother admonished her mites to remember.
Stern of eye, soft of speech, her sons she did counsel
Learn from the lessons of these skilful lords.

Seek you the speed of Cicilia's seigneur,
dextrous and daring is Inigo, knight
Circling space, spins steel in spirals,
like to the lianes of the leaves that he wears.

Staedefaeste in name and no less in nature,
Aedwarde the Earl is a man of account
Uncommonly quiet but ne'er less than courtly
Speaks volumes in silence, consider that strength.

Chivalry is a state to which you should strive
The buttress that braces this band of brothers
Courtesy no less valued than courage in combat
Well-regarded as the wreath awarded to Kitan.

Be gracious and generous, guided by good
as the honourable Sir Ulf, heed well this hero
A leader in learning and like-wise in battle
Adroit and disarming in any domain.

Vigorous Bran showed his virtue in valour
Breaking fast, the black boar sped to the battle
Imprimus in instruction, impressive his instance
Mark well the mastery of Mordenvale's man.

Be like Brittanica's son, bold-blooded Blaeney
seen as a saint, so well-versed he in service
Amongst men a master, strong-muscled his mettle
No challenge there is to the Fates' choice of Champion.

These fearless ones fought to be first amongst equals
But one of them only could aspire to that honour.

The hunting horn heralded the high-ranking hero
Stephen Aldred did answer the Crown's call to arms
Twice-praised by peers, his life-partner likewise,
Gentle Mathilde girds her lord with his war gear.
In battle royal he bowled his foes to an end
In truth, he did profit, earning a princely prize.
A sire to sons, he's now that to his subjects
Crowned as our liege lord - Stephen, King of Lochac!

The typeset version. Or download the jpg print version (1.8MB). If you want to print it out, bear in mind it's set for A3 landscape production. It looks great if printed on a heavy cream art paper. I used 185gsm Lanaguarelle Fine 100% cotton water-colour paper, and it ran through our Canon S900 inkjet to produce a very fine copy.

I tried to get appropriate references into each entry on the individual fighters, relating specifically to them: style of fighting, results of their bouts, armour, consort, where they came from, distinctive aspects and so forth. It helped that, for the first time in two decades of playing this game, I actually knew many of the people involved! I am hoping that each individual will appreciate the references which relate to them, if not necessarily those of their comrades-in-arms. But if you're really keen to pick up the references, here they are:

First on the field, facing a former king, sword-maid Alesia staunch-heartedly strove.
Her Crown-companions Henri and Kitan had at each other, till Henri hard fell.
Alesia had to face Earl Aedwarde in the first bout; she was consort for both Henri and Kitan.

A mace-wielding man made much of his might, though lethal in lunge, Luan relinquished his life.
The comment on the lunge refers to Luan's skill at rapier.

The captain who cares for the Canton of Cluain, Fulk fought like the fire-wyrms found on his arms.
Fulk is the Seneschal of Cluain and has two dragons combatant on his shield.

St Florians' Stephano, shielded by Sebastian, laughed in the lists as he laid on left-handed.
Stephano's shield had a painting of St Sebastian in a loin cloth, pinned to a tree with arrows.

Bernard of Stirling stood stalwart and silent, boldly he did bear his arms to the battle.
Bernard's arms include a bear rampant.

The man of Medici, merry Martuccio was proud in his bearing, his prowess pre-eminent.
Martuccio is famous for his fabulous codpieces which he wears with distinction.

Bartholomew Baskin bore a bevy of blows though grounded, he managed a goodly engagement.
Bartholomew was legged in one bout and managed to take out Rugen with a surprise face-shot.

Green-garlanded Agro grappled with gallants the pirate did perish at the hands of his pupil.
I liked the use of gallants to cover both Agro's opponents and provide a nautical reference. One bout saw Agro dispatched by his squire, Callum.

Callum, the cunning, Chrettienne's crafty lord his years of youth-foxing forced others to yield.
Callum has often quoted the wise adage that old age and cunning can beat youth and enthusiasm, more often as he has got older himself.

Six-fingered Rugen fought as a Florentine standing square-on to those who would skirmish.
Rugen does have the normal complement of fingers - it's his shield which has a hand with six fingers. I'm told his square-on stance comes from his helmet being bolted to his breastplate to protect his neck.

Quick in combat was Torum, called well The Hasty danced like the sunlight dappling his river lands.
Torum the Hasty comes from Riverhaven.

In the next set of lines, I doubled the material on each fighter in recognition of their progress in the tournament.

Seek you the speed of Cicilia's seigneur, dextrous and daring is Inigo, knight
Circling space, spins steel in spirals, like to the lianes of the leaves that he wears.
Inigo made the crowd gasp when he did a fast backwards roll planting the top of his helm in the ground and then coming up in a fighting stance. His surcote and device bear vine leaves.

Staedefaeste in name and no less in nature, Aedwarde the Earl is a man of account
Uncommonly quiet but ne'er less than courtly Speaks volumes in silence, consider that strength.
Enough said! Though I did like the subtle play on Earl and account…

Chivalry is a state to which you should strive The buttress that braces this band of brothers
Courtesy no less valued than courage in combat Well-regarded as the wreath awarded to Kitan.
Kitan was the winner of the Wreath of Chivalry.

Be gracious and generous, guided by good, as the honourable Sir Ulf, heed well this hero
A leader in learning and like-wise in battle Adroit and disarming in any domain.
All true, with a slight set of punning references in the last line - Ulf is right-handed and lost both arms in his final bout (so more disarmed than disarming in that instance, but that's poetic license for you).

Vigorous Bran showed his virtue in valour Breaking fast, the black boar sped to the battle
Imprimus in instruction, impressive his instance Mark well the mastery of Mordenvale's man.
Tricky, as I didn't know Bran, the winner of the Wreath of Valour. However, a little research revealed his alternate title of "the Breakfast Baron" and his alter ego Imprimus, apparently relating to the heat source of said breakfasts. So I left a deliberate misspelling in there rather than use imprimis, meaning first or exemplar. He is a Pelican, hence the mastery reference.

Be like Brittanica's son , bold-blooded Blaeney seen as a saint, so well-versed he in service
Amongst men a master, strong-muscled his mettle No challenge there is to the Fates' choice of Champion.
I am told that Master Blaeney is referred to as Saint Blaeney, so the service reference suits both the ecclesiastical motif and the fact that he is a Pelican. "Strong-muscled his mettle" is accurate in both character and armour, as the latter included a sculptured muscle torso for a breastplate with star-shaped nipple protectors as part of his Romanised British look.

The hunting horn heralded the high-ranking hero Stephen Aldred did answer the Crown's call to arms
Twice-praised by peers, his life-partner likewise, Gentle Mathilde girds her lord with his war gear.
In battle royal he bowled his foes to an end In truth, he did profit, earning a princely prize.
A sire to sons, he's now that to his subjects Crowned as our liege lord - Stephen, King of Lochac!
The hunting horn is part of Stephen Aldred's arms. Both he and Mathilde are double-peers. I am told that boules is a favourite pastime and bowling does involve ends. Stephen's surcote has proficio veritate around the bottom, which translates as "to profit from truth". I'm sure I don't need to point out the double-meaning of sire….

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