Newsletter of the College of Heralds of An Tir Volume 3, Number 1 ~ June 30, 2004 Happy Birthday to the Heralds' Page!

Table of Contents:

• On Shields for the Kingdom List Board
• A Report on Mounted Town Criers
• Town Crying - Organization and Execution
• Help Wanted : William Tell
• Help Wanted : Wyewood
• The An Tir Internal Letter of Intent
• March Lion's Blood Meeting Results
• New Submissions
• Return to the IL Archive Page

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On Shields for the Kingdom List Board

from Lady Alessandra de Montefeltro, Kingdom Lists Minister
supplied to the Heralds' Page by Ciaran Lowenmähne

The shields are 4 inches from center top to center bottom and 3.75 inches across the top from left to right. Holes 1/8 inch in diameter are 7/16 from the middle of the top edge (on center) and approximately 1/2 inch from the center bottom point (on center). The holes should be NO smaller than 1/8 inch as they become difficult to attach to the hanging hooks currently in use on the Kingdom List Board.

Also, the shields or tourney tiles as a general rule are wood but can be metal or plastic. These should be 1/8 inch thick or less. Any thicker and the holes for hanging them must be correspondingly larger. I have also seen them as round shields (Viscount Steinn Vikinsson and Viscount Einar Vikingsson for example) created by Her Excellency Gemma to replicate their actual fighting shields. The "holes" for these are paperclips attached on the back side. If round, I would suggest no more than 4" in diameter.

Cardboard blanks are available at the Kingdom Lists table along with coloring pens for creation the day of the tourney if needed or for taking home as a template afterward.

In Service,
Lady Alessandra de Montefeltro
Kingdom Lists Minister
lists@antir.sca.org
An Tir Lists website: http://www.antirlists.homestead.com/home.html

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A Report on Mounted Town Criers

by HL Margaree ny Kenneth vhic Kenneth, Equestrian Pursuivant

I'm pleased to report that our first experiment with Mounted Town Criers at a Crown event appears to have been a great success. The overall reactions from the populace were very positive, and though I wasn't there, I'm told that there was huge public support expressed at closing court to see mounted heraldry at future events. My thanks to the autocrat, Johanna Katerina Morgenstochter, for her cooperation and support in allowing mounted town crying to happen at May Crown. Elisabeth Pomegranate, Briana, Guillaume, Margaree, and Onya, a brand-new voice herald, were all authorized at the trot on the herald's mount. Of these five, Elisabeth, Briana, and Margaree had the opportunity to actually herald the camp on horseback for the eight town cries that went out over the weekend.

We received a great deal of support for this initial trial run from outside of our heralds' community. Three warranted Equestrian Marshals took turns escorting the heralds on every town cry: Earl Edward Ean Anderson, Countess Ilaria Veltri degli Ansari, and Her Ladyship Briana nic h'Eusaidh. Another member of the equestrian community, Constance, volunteered as an experienced out walker and trained two others. Countess Ilaria, completely of her own volition, covered two safety helmets in green and gold fabric, and then donated them to the College for our continued use.

I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all these equestrians, who ensured the safety of the mounted heralds, the populace, and the horses at all times. Thanks to their skill and vigilance, there were absolutely NO incidents, injuries, or falls connected with any equestrian activity this weekend, including our experiment. Congratulations to Her Ladyship Briana for being the EMiC of a completely incident-free equestrian event, and my thanks to her for all her hard that helped turn a proposal into a reality.

At least two scheduled town cries were cancelled due to a lack of announcements. As well, two requested town cries were declined by the mounted heraldry team: the first as a result of the mounts being required for the previously scheduled equestrian games (an unfortunate result of the rental horse arrangements falling through only days before the event), and the second because it was already too dark to cry the camp on horseback with any degree of safety. Overall the coordination between the equestrian area and Herald's Point appeared to run quite smoothly, and all seemed pleased with the division of labour. I will be looking into acquiring an FRS radio for our future use.

I've decided for simplicity as well as security reasons, at future events we will be referring to any horse used by the heralds as "Montjoy", and any horse used by the marshal escorts as "William" (as inspired by Shakespeare's play Henry V and history's William Marshal). These "codenames" will prevent people (especially minors) from successfully feigning sufficient familiarity with a horse (or the horse's owner) in the hopes of being permitted to groom or handle the horse. Obviously, if the individual isn't referring to the horse by its real name, they aren't as familiar with the horse as they might be claiming.

There was one occurrence that left some people a bit confused, which I would like to clarify here and now. On the Sunday of May Crown, during the Squire's Tourney, the EMiC and autocrat made the necessary arrangements to have the horses ridden inside the equestrian facility's buildings to cry the only announcement we had been given. Appropriate out walkers were arranged, including the EMiC herself. All went smoothly at the Rapier tournament next door, however "William" had never seen heavy fighters bashing on each other before, and his nervousness at the noise and confusion was evident when we entered the main building and he could not be calmed down. The mounted marshal made the call, and we exited the building immediately without crying the planned announcement (safety before pageantry, always).

During "William's" nervous pacing, which required the full attention of the out walkers and riders, "Montjoy" pooped on the dirt floor about 20 feet from where His Majesty was standing, and having witnessed us then quickly depart without explanation or removing the manure, the King expressed His concern to others. Perhaps a total of three minutes had actually elapsed between the time the manure hit the ground, and the EMiC returned, unprompted, with the shovel and wheelbarrow from the next building, which included the time it took her to ensure both the horses were calm outside and their riders safe.

The reactions of those perceiving the mounted heraldry team entering and leaving the building for no apparent reason and leaving behind manure for someone else to clean up was based entirely on misunderstanding and lack of awareness of the situation actually occurring at the time. I can only highly commend the EMiC, mounted marshal, and out walkers for handling the situation so calmly, quickly and discreetly that the greatest concern raised by onlookers was over the issue of littering, instead of feeling unsafe around the horses.

Finally, I would like to express my thanks to the populace of An Tir, who expressed such appreciation for what we were doing, and did not hesitate to move out of the way of the horses, slow or stop their vehicles, or obey the marshal's instructions each time we rode through the camp. A large part of this experiment was to see how well the populace would react to the presence of horses walking among them, and no one could have asked for more patience, courtesy, and cooperation than was received on the roads of May Crown A.S. 39.

Greatly looking forward to doing it again, I remain
Yours in service,

Margaree, Equestrian pursuivant (pro tem)

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Town Crying - Organization and Execution

by Master Finngall McKetterick, Summits Herald

Greetings from Master Finngall!

Having been in charge of town crying for a number of large events, I have been asked about procedures for it. I'm probably as well qualified as anyone to answer this.

Things to do, big and small, in no particular order:

• Make a schedule of cries, and STICK TO IT! For a large event, you probably should expect to do at least three cries per day. I suggest 8am, 12 noon, and 4pm as a good starting point--vary it as you need to depending on what the overall event schedule is. Crown events will require more frequent announcements, since there's a lot more going on. But expect a limited volunteer pool, and try not to burn out your volunteers (or yourself) if at all possible.
• Unless it's an emergency, be firm with people (even autocrats, if necessary) who come to you with a request to make an announcement "right now". The odds are that you probably won't have enough volunteers to be able to send people running at the drop of a hat for a 2pm meeting that nobody bothered to tell you about in time for the noon cry. Make sure your fellow staffers are aware of your schedule, and pray that they have a good grasp of what constitutes an emergency. Serious injuries are an emergency. Lost children (or lost parents) are an emergency. Headlights left on are probably not an emergency. Calls for volunteers are definitely not an emergency.
• If possible, line up volunteers in advance of the event. These don't necessarily have to be criers--it never hurts to have someone who can just man the table while you're out making announcements or grabbing lunch.
• If you've been to Egil's or An Tir/West War lately, you've seen the large message boards that Adiantum has made for posting a copies of the announcements. You don't have to get that elaborate--the crier posts at Estrella that Baroness Khalja speaks of are small wooden posts with a small crossed-trumpets sign and large binder clip attached with plastic cable ties. Either way, it's nice to be able to post announcements in addition to shouting them, especially if not all of your criers have big voices.
• If the site is large enough, divide the site into small enough sections that announcements can reach the whole site in a reasonable amount of time. Make sure each section has a reasonable, logical route that your criers can easily follow. I absolutely love the wheel-and-spokes street layout that Shittimwoode has used in their recent Crown events. That site, and most Crown event sites, can be divided in two or three. Buford Park (recent An Tir/West site and former Egil's site) is a three-crier site. The Estrella site was divided into Merchant's Row and four other sectors. (Although when I volunteered there, I usually had to do two sections due to insufficient volunteers. Don't try this at home, kids...)
• Make sure you have sufficient office supplies: pens, pencils, legal pads, index cards, clipboards. If you have a place to actually post announcements, put them in plastic sheet protectors. If you don't have the luxury of a copy machine to copy announcements, then good old-fashioned CARBON PAPER is your best friend. For snacks, bring lemon drops, pretzels, and MAKE SURE EVERYONE IS GETTING FLUIDS! Including yourself.
• The two announcements everyone is sick of hearing, and which most criers get sick of announcing real fast: "We need volunteers!", and "Move your cars to the parking lot!" Unfortunately, both announcements are invariably necessary at any large event. Try and stick these announcements at the end of your list--if you lead off with these, a lot of folks are going to think "oh, same old thing" and tune out before you get to less run-of-the-mill announcements.
• You'll often need to tell people about cars that need to be moved for one reason or another, but don't let them stick you with a long list. If you read off a list of license numbers, people are going to stop paying attention after about two or three. With regard to cars in encampments that need to go to the parking lot, I try and avoid mentioning the possibility of towing unless it's really, truly going to happen. (And to the autocrats who are reading this: one car actually getting towed is more effective than ten thousand threats to tow. People simply won't believe the threat until it's backed up with action.)
• If heralds are willing to do crass commercial announcements for merchants or others, these advertisements must never be done in conjunction with official town cries. Furthermore, since CCAs are not official announcements, the people making them should not be wearing crossed trumpets or other working herald clothing when they do so. If someone comes to you wanting to hire a herald for a CCA, by all means pass the word on their behalf if you wish, but in the end, it's not your job and not your problem.
• For the morning wake-up announcements, if there are things scheduled early in the morning, be sure to gather announcements the afternoon/evening before. For a Crown event, get in touch with the royalty the evening before to find when they want the wake-up call and to go over the morning's schedule in case they want to make adjustments.
• After the last scheduled town cry of the day, I may keep Herald's Point open for a while longer, but not too long. There may yet be an evening court for which a time has not yet been announced, so make sure you have people left to handle that. But once that's done, I'm usually done for the day, except for announcements done by direct order of autocrats, royalty, or modern public safety personnel. You've probably already put in a 10-12 hour day by that point--get some rest.

In joyous service to Crown and Coronet,
-- Finngall McKetterick, OP, Summits Principality Herald, formerly Lowenmähne Herald
Or, a triskelion of armored human legs vert.

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Help Wanted : William Tell

Greetings! I need to make sure that I have a back-up herald for River's Bend's annual William Tell Archery and Equestrian event. It runs Friday-Sunday, July 23-25th. This event calls primarily for Town Crier and 2 awards ceremonies. There is a minimal amount of field heraldry. I don't know if my physician will be wanting me to do any projecting by that time (I've just had sinus surgery), and so I want to make sure my Shire is not without help. We hope to also have some Ithra activities, and we hope to use the big meadow for kite flying this year. Please contact me at like2read@netzero.net, or contact our autocrating team via Alastair Gunn at gunnwerx@direcway.com . I think you would have a good time. Contact us, or see our website via the kingdom calendar for more information.

Eglentyne Merryweather, River's Bend Pursuivant
Vert, a bend vair.

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Help Wanted : Wyewood

As the Wyewood Pursuivant, I am arranging for heraldry needs at Sir Cire's Celebration of Chivalry on July 23-25. I am looking for some assistance.

Please let me know if you are able to assist in any of these areas:

Be a "herald" for fighters participating in the Ransom Tournament on Saturday morning. I'm using the quotation marks around "herald" to indicate that in no way does this require you to be an official herald or even have any herald experience. Each fighter in this tournament must have a "herald." Sir Cire keeps saying that he means them to be like the "Geoffrey Chaucer character" in A Knight's Tale, who lavishly praises his knight during the competition. This is something some people can really have fun with, I think. The purpose of this "herald" is to represent the fighter. First, the "herald" of each fighter will present him or her to the Royal Patrons at the morning court. During the tournament, the herald shall hold onto the fighter's coins. All the heralds will stay in a safe zone. When a fighter finishes a round of combat, each fighter's herald is responsible for exchanging the ransom coins with the herald of that fighter's opponent. During the tournament itself, heralds may feel free to engage in cheering and rooting for their fighters.

Sitting at Heralds' Point/keeping an eye on the Heraldic A&S Display. This is a location where event coordinators can come to say they would like announcements added to the next town cry. It's a really easy job! You can hang out and work on a project while keeping the post manned. Town cry. Please consider the other areas of assist before volunteering for town cry. The Wyewood herald already has some assistance lined up in this area.

Also, I am considering having a consult table at the event, but I don't know how consult tables are usually arranged for (especially at camping events). Does the College of Heralds usually take responsibility for setting up and staffing a consult table, or is that something done by the event coordinators? The problem is, our shire does not really have pavilions and tables to spare. If someone else brings equipment for a consult table, I would be more than happy to get it set up for you.

Thank you for your attention,

Esclarmonde de Porcairages, Wyewood Pursuivant
Quarterly argent and purpure, a chalice Or between two mullets purpure.

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An Tir Internal Letter for June, AS XXXIX / 2004 CE

Lady Marya Kargashina lions-blood@antir.sca.org

May 31, 2004 Send thy comments here:

Jessica Smith-Carlock 5114 SE Holgate Portland, OR 97206 503-772-0002

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Commentary on this Letter will be due August 13th, 2004.
(Send comments to Lions Blood Herald, information at top of this page)

The July Lions Blood meeting will be held on Sunday, July 11th, 1pm, at the home of Cathy Holmes: 7013 SE Martins, Portland, OR. Call Marya Lions Blood for info: 503-772-0002.

Directions: From north or south of Portland use I-5- to I-405 and take the Foster Road exit, number 17. Turn toward Portland (left if coming from the south, right if coming from the north) and follow Foster Road to SE 72nd Ave and turn left at the light (there's no left turn light, so take care). Proceed down Foster to SE Martins, which is one block past the light at SE Woodstock Blvd. Turn left onto Martins, the house is halfway down on the right and has a fence.

From within Portland west of 50th Ave.: Get onto SE Powell and follow it to where SE Foster cuts off. Bear right onto Foster and proceed to the light at SE 72nd. Turn right, then right again onto Martins which is one block south of SE Woodstock. House is halfway down on the right.

The August Lions Blood meeting will be held on Sunday, August 15th, 1pm, at the home of Christopher Queue Forchee: 7757 40th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98115. The house is in the Wedgwood area, East of Ravenna, North of UW.

Directions:
By Bus: Bus route 71 stops at the end of my driveway, tell the driver you want to get off at 80th St. Bus route 65 stops on NE 80th St & 35th Ave NE, walk 5 blocks east on 80th.

By Car: ** IMPORTANT PARKING NOTE **
The curb in front of my house, and the space directly across the street from it is a bus stop. Don't park there, even though the paint is faded. Easiest parking is on NE 80th St., on the side of the house.

From the South I-5 *Express Lanes*: Take the Lake City Way exit (it's a left-ramp off the freeway). Get into the Right lane of the ramp as soon as possible after exiting the freeway. Turn Right at the first light (NE 80th St). Note: NE 80th does not go through to my house, there's stuff in the way, so... Turn Right at the first 4-way stop (20th Ave NE.). Turn Left at the first light (NE 75th St). Follow the "From NE 75th St" directions, below.

From the South via I-5 (incl. 520 & 90): Take I-5 to exit 171 (522, Bothell). Stay to the right hand of the ramp. Just as the ramp goes around a bend there will be an exit to your Right. Take it. Merge into 73rd heading East (only option). Stop at the stop, stay on 73rd. Turn Left at the next stop sign, onto 12th, heading North again. Turn Right at the light, onto NE 75th St., heading East again. Follow the "From NE 75th St" directions, below.

From the North via I-5: Take the exit for 80th St. & 85th St. Follow the signs for 80th St. East Bound, turning left at the end of the ramp. You will cross over I-5. Continue on 80th St. for a while. Turn Right (south) @ the 4-way stop on 20th Turn Left (east) @ the first light (NE 75th St.). Follow the "From NE 75th St" directions, below.

From NE 75th St: Turn Left at the 4-way stop (onto 40th Ave NE). Go two short "blocks." The house will be on your Left just as the school yard ends, on the corner with NE 80th St. If you completely pass the school yard, or cross over 80th St., you've gone too far.

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Greetings from Lions Blood.

Commenters, please remember that saying there is a lack of support or documentation for a submission is only really useful when you either look for and cannot find support (if this is so, please state that in your commentary) or if you can find something that will help the submitter. Simply saying that the submitter didn't provide sufficient documentation isn't really all that helpful, but the commenters regularly do help submitters by locating exactly the information we need to send submissions to Laurel. So being helpful is better than being just negative and helps both the College and the submitters. I really appreciate supplemental information from commentary and regularly use it; keep it coming.

МАРЫА КАРГАШИНА (Marya)

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RESULTS OF THE MAY LIONS BLOOD MEETING:

The May meeting was held at the home of Lions Blood on a delightful Wednesday evening. In attendance were Marya Lions Blood, Teceangl Ounce, Ciaran Lowenmahne, and Laurence of Damascus.

The following names and armory have been sent to Laurel (May LoI) --

The following were returned for further work:

NEW SUBMISSIONS: