Mouse's SCA Natterings

Hi! I've been busy, which is why I haven't posted lately (like a month, yeegh). But busy in a good way! As my living space has slowly been coming together, I have been able to do SCA stuff! For example, I went to Coronation a couple of weeks ago, ostensibly to help out my friend Maegan with her merchant booth thing place, and I really quite enjoyed myself. The traditions and ceremonies here in Northshield are so different than the West, and quite frankly I like the way Northshield does things. Yeah, in the West you get a sense of the early days of the SCA and that can be pretty cool, but in Northshield, the newest Kingdom, the coronation ceremony manages to convey the full gravitas of what it means to reign, which I feel is important to impress upon an incoming King or Queen. It's a big deal to rule, it's a huge amount of work, time, and expense to reign. There's an old SCA song by the great bard Baldwin of Erebor, "Burden of the Crown", and it's so true. Look it up, and be prepared to shed a few tears.

I was going to go to Crown Tournament this weekend, but it's too far to daytrip, so my next event will be Bardic Madness up in Inner Sea (Duluth MN) in a couple weeks. It should be fun!

ALSO I find out next week if MusicMakers can repair my harp for me! \o/ They're local-ish, so I'm hoping they can. I really would like to have my harp back and playable for the class I'll be teaching in July at Warriors and Warlords (and again at Pennsic eeeeeeeeeeee), "Harping on Harps: An Introduction to the Medieval Harps of the British Isles." Excited and nervous at the same time!

Right, lunchtime. Onward!

I'm still working on getting my wee harp repaired after the time spent in the dryness of Starkhafn caused more of the old glue to fail, resulting in part of the soundboard to separate from the box and some staves on the soundboard itself to split. The wood itself isn't damaged, just the glue holding it together disintegrated. I'm trying to find someone local/regional to do the repair, since I really don't have the tools or the space in my studio apartment to do the work myself. I want the harp that's Siobhan ni hEodhusa's legacy to sing again!

ANYWAY YES, harp class at Pennsic!!! Regardless of whether I can get the harp fixed in time, I'll be doing a class at Pennsic on the harps of the British Isles -- not the music, the harps themselves. I wrote a paper a few years back called "Harping on Harps" that covered this topic; I entered it with Telynor's encouragement in the Wreath of Athena arts display competition, and I tied for second place! So I'm taking this paper and revising it, updating and expanding it a bit into a lecture-based class with handouts and plates, and I hope to hold two sessions of it sometime at Pennsic 52.

To say that I'm nervous and excited would be an understatement! XD Will keep y'all updated!