September Crown

Well, this recent September Crown event in An Tir was quite an event.

HERALDRY
I had a lot of opportunity to work as a herald at September Crown.  I did three town cries, and the site had amazing acoustics.  I almost had the chance to do one of them from a horse-drawn chariot, but the equestrian side and the herald side didn't quite connect.

I also attended the Black Lion meeting (the meeting of the An Tir College of Heralds, under the direction of the Black Lion Principal Herald).  Midhaven had a great showing:  I was accompanied at the meeting by Libuše Makovička, Cailin Cobb, and Fujioka no Kaorime.

I also had my first opportunity to herald the Grand Processional at the invocation of the lists.  What this means is that in the royal court preceding the actual Crown Tourney, all the contenders and their inspirations process into court to present themselves to the King and Queen and seek permission to compete for the Crown, sometimes with entourage (banner bearers, children, etc.)  If accepted, the King invites certain of the combatants to assemble on his right side, the rest assembling on the Queen’s left.  Those on the Queen’s side challenge their choice of those on the King’s side for the first round of the tourney.  Anyway, the College of Heralds provided six heralds (including me) to be available to announce those fighters who approach the thrones without their own heralds.  It was fun, and now that I have the experience of this processional, I would be better prepared for future opportunities to do this.  BTW, due to my being a relatively junior member of the An Tir College of Heralds, I slid into this opportunity because the person whose place I took didn’t show up quite in time for court to begin.

I also had the fortune to herald a section of royal court on Sunday evening.  I enjoyed the chance to herald court for King Vik and Queen Astrid, and see how heralding their court is different from heralding court for Thorin and Dagmaer.

Finally, my liegelady, Duchess Angharad, asked me to assist a friend of hers, Mistress Gulenay Khazari, OL from the Barony of Stromgard, with her own heraldic submissions.  Her name is proving to be an extreme challenge.

ADDING TO THE FAMILY
On the Saturday of September Crown, Cailin Cobb accepted my invitation to become my student.  He has been working with me recently on chain mail and voice heraldry, and shows great potential. It is my pleasure to give him a bit of guidance and to advocate for him, and I consider him a good friend and a great human being.

CAMPING
I have to take this opportunity to extol the praises of Lady Elewys Cuyter of Finchingfeld and her daughter Lottie Blacksmith.  Lady Elewys was incredible with helping us set up camp, run the "kitchen", doing stuff with Lady Avelyn, helping with our kids, and helping us strike camp on Monday.  Lottie was a godsend also, helping tremendously with the children.

THE EMBELLISHERS’ GUILD OF AN TIR

At September Crown, the Embellishers' Guild was granted official status by the Crown.  We had a couple of Expert-level challenges, and saw a major project that the guild inherited:  100% silk summer cloaks for the King and Queen to be worn in the grand processional at Pennsic.  Queen Astrid was so impressed with the project (even at it’s current early stage) that She was moved to tears, and jealous of the future Queens of An Tir who will get to wear this cloak after its completion.

Also, the guildmistress, Lady Aelianora de Wynteringham, gave me a couple of really useful resources for blackwork embroidery.

EQUESTRIAN ACTIVITIES
Having requested that our campsite be in the “quiet” part of the site, we were relegated to the farthest away part of the entire site, behind the equestrians.  When we checked in, the local equestrian marshal extended the hand of welcome and came to talk to the kids in our encampment about safety around the horses.

The next day, after the kids had traipsed a few times through the equestrian encampment to the biffies and back, Her Excellency Contessa Ilaria Veltri degli Ansari, OL offered to let Emily ride.  The next day, Sunday, Emily and Jaren both got to ride a very friendly horse, named Toby.

MADAME JACQUELINE DE LIONCOURT, OP
Madame Jacqueline, who is the Minister of Family Activities for the Kingdom of An Tir, had some really great ideas for the kids.  Emily, Jaren, & Edwin, and also Lottie got to do a scavenger hunt around the erics and merchants row, looking for shells.  Once they found as many shells as they could, they would redeem them at the family activities table for beads with which to make necklaces.

Edwin also got a bit of fabric and embroidery floss with which I began to make him a little belt pouch.

On Sunday evening at court-time, Madame Jacqueline graciously entertained Emily and Jaren (within sight of Lady Avelyn) so that they wouldn’t be utterly bored and restless during court.  Great thanks and huzzahs to Madame Jacqueline!

BARDIC
I took the opportunity to wander a bit from bardic circle to bardic circle and perform my An Tir/West War Anthem.