[MR] In defense of authenticity (fwd)

[Craig Levin]

Christiane de Paxtoun:

> I humbly seek to share my thoughts on the current discussion.  I have been
> honored to be apart of the SCA for the past year.  I remember sewing my
> first garb for my first, local, event.  I knew it wouldn't be "authentic"
> and probably wouldn't pass the "10-foot rule" but it met the "attempt at
> Medieval".  I remember my nervousness trying to remember to speak
> "foresoothly" and to remember my "SCA Name" and answer to it.  I carefully
> prepared myself, and my basket, so as not to include anything that would be
> offensively mundane.  Total cost of that first garb and gear?  Less than
> $20.

Well, that's one of the appealing things about the SCA, in my
eyes. We make it easy for people to get started. I had a close
friend who was an enlisted man in a War Between the States
artillery battery in Illinois, and the kit that just barely got
you in the door would put a guy out somewhere between $100 and
$200. I'm not a student, but I'm hardly a millionaire, and I
wouldn't undertake a purchase of that size without some serious
planning.

> What makes the SCA special to me...what makes me want to play?  I found in
> this society a love of learning, a love of sharing that knowledge, and a
> love of chivalric ideals.  I was inspired and continue to be inspired by the
> wealth of knowledge I find in the people I meet.  I am awed and humbled by
> their eagerness to teach and encourage.

We're doing this for fun, after all. So, actually, are most
professional mediaevalists. <grin> About the only guy I know in
that field who's made beaucoup dollars from being a mediaevalist
is Umberto Eco. </grin>

> What I don't understand is an attitude of "I want to play the game but I
> don't want to be bothered with any level of authenticity or "look".  If one
> wants to fight but doesn't want to bother with a minimal level of "the
> look", why bother with fighting in the SCA?
> 
> I also don't understand something else someone mentioned.  I read a post
> stating that there are people with unregistered heraldic displays at events.
> Isn't that also against the spirit of the SCA?  "In period" to display
> heraldry one has not gained the right too was a gross wrong...a most
> unchivalric act. (At least, that is my understanding.)  Why then, are such
> displays allowed in the SCA?  I have designed what I would like to be my
> device but must wait for funds to begin the registration process.  I would
> not presume to display the device -- even knowing it isn't in conflict --
> until it is official.  It's part of the game.

Here, you've uncovered a fascinating little sideline of mine:
heraldic law. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, there was
little, if any, regulation of arms. Barring outright duplication
of some non-related person's arms in your parish (or, at most,
bishopric or archbishopric), if you had the social standing to
use arms (a very low bar in a number of places, where you've got
burghers and yeomen with arms, like Switzerland and Italy), you
came up with whatever you wanted. For more on this, please feel
free to go to: http://pages.ripco.net/~clevin/lexarm.html

In Atlantia, you'll see most heralds getting into a tizzy when
somebody is treating another person's arms as their own (that's a
property rights issue, under common law), or if an entrant into
crown tournament or his inspiration don't have a registered name.
Even for the former case, the herald would have to know that this
is Richard Roe, not John Doe, using John Doe's arms. <grin> If
you thought that all of us get a brain implant containing the SCA
Armorial when we take the office, I apologize. </grin>

In the main, with heraldry, one has to rely on self-policing. As
long as people are aware that the heralds don't recognize arms of
assumption (the formal name for arms people simply come up with
without consulting the heralds) in the SCA, and as long as having
those arms registered means something bureaucratically, people
will run things past the heralds. It's not all that much for us
to get the papers in motion-just a bit more than what you spent
for your first event's gear. We're a bargain compared with the
English College of Arms-they'll charge you more than three
thousand pounds!

Pedro