NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/org/sca/16002

Text File | 1992-11-21 | 5.4 KB | 102 lines

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!news.hawaii.edu!uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu!callred
From: [e-mail] (Curtis Allred)
Subject: Re: Persona Name
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (News Service)
Nntp-Posting-Host: uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu
Organization: University of Hawaii
References: <dickerso.721591624@fester>
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 02:00:16 GMT
Lines: 89

Greetings all fair gentles on the Rialto!

    I am planning on getting seriously involved with the SCA in
the very near future (about a month), but for reasons I'd rather not
go into in detail and waste bandwidth, etc. I will not be contacting
the SCA folks where I am presently domiciled, but will wait until
after I move to get involved with the people at the new location.
Geesh, I hope this makes sense.

    Anyway, I am in the process of bringing together my persona,
and have run into a few snags.  I realize that these questions could
very easily be answered by a local group, but because I will be moving
*right away* I don't really want to go to the bother of talking to
some one local about joining up and then just to move on (dang- I
wasn't going to talk about this-oh well).  What I am wondering is
about the creation of a name.  I have monitored a lot of the .sig
files from various posters on the Rialto, and it appears that pretty
much everbody creates a name that has very little overtly to do with
their mundane one.  I am interested in establishing a persona in the
late 1200's to late 1300's (still kinda general, I know), and it just
so happens that my mundane name would fit very nicely with a few minor
alterations into that time period for someone from England, at least
so far as I can gather.  My first name is Curt, which I *think* is
period for Middle English, and my last name, Allred, comes from Aldred
who was the Bishop of Kent that crowned William the Conqueror King of
England, and so I *know* that it would be period (all of this is from
family history, which isn't necessarily gospel truth).

    So I figured that if I changed my name around a little and
made it Curt Ald Raed it would be different eenough to be unmistakebly
*not* my mundane name, but I don't know about this because everybody
else on the Rialto has such exotic or at least very different names
from their mundane--perhaps I should let go of any kind of family
pride and just make up a fantasy name which would fit into the period.

    This leads into the other subject:  Arms.  I wonder if anyone
out there fights under their old family arms, or is it considered
pretentious to have a *real* set of arms in the SCA?  I am just
curious about this, seeing as how instead of using the old family
griffin couped design, I made up my own instead.  I figure this
probably would best be discussed under the heraldry newsgroup, but it
kinda fits into the SCA one as well.

    One more thing, in any study of the period of time that the
SCA encompasses (especially the latter part), the Christian Church is
such a dominate ttheme as to be almost inescabably omni-present in
*every* aspect of life.  I have noted tthat there are those who come
to the Rialto who are self-avowed non-Christian (as is myself), but
how does one reconcile that with the way things were back then?  I
understand that there were many who went along with what the Church
said, but who had there own private beliefs on the side (in fact, if I
am nnot mistaken, this happened well into the 18th century).  I am
referring to people practicing the old European paganism in their won
quiet way, in opposition to the religious genocide of the Inquisition.
I am *hoping* to *not* discover that the Inquisition is part of the
world that the SCA seeks to re-create.  I have read that the SCA seeks
to create the Middle Ages as it *Should* have been, so I am assuming
that does not include any men dressed in red waiting to put me on thhe
rack to tear my *confession* from me before they burn my eyes out with
white-hot tongs and then burn me at the stake (maybe that is what that
earlier-reported large bonfire inside the tent was). Actually, it
would rather be fun to see if *this* time around whether the pagans
might be able to win out over the Christians.

    What I am wondering, is there a lot of overtly Christian
panoply or ritual that occurs within the context of the SCA?  I really
wouldn't care so much if there was, as long as other fomrs of period
religious beliefs were not suppressed --even though to be in complete
accuracy, they would need to be.  I guess what I am asking is, what is
the basic religious element at SCA events?  To be completely in
period, does one undergo fasting and bathing before receiving
Knighthood?  Do some SCAdians take on personae as Christian Monks or
Nuns?  Or for that matter, Anglo-Saxon Pagan Priests or Priestesses?
Or is any kind of public religious demonstration frowned upon (I
already know about the Pentacle issue).

    Thank you dear gentles for allowing a humble beginner to
intrude upon your limited space of this narrow bridge to bequest a few
points that have been troubling me.

                    In earnest,

                            --Curt Allred

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  Curt Allred                    |  Curt se Eald-Rae'd    +Azure, lozenge
  [e-mail] | argent, an otter sejant regardant natural+
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