Podcast - Interview with Drogo and Adina (SCA)

Our guests for this week's podcast are Drogo and Adina, Baron and Baroness of Ponte Alto.

(image by Eoin Shirloc de Redheugh)

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For those unfamiliar, the Society for Creative Anachronism is an educational, non-profit, re-creation organization that focuses on the period between 600 and 1600CE. The group began at UC Berkley in 1966 and has since spread across the globe. And although many people know the SCA by hearing about combat and the annual gathering at Pennsic, others, like me, are drawn to the Arts & Sciences.

Ponte Alto is one of the northern Virginia baronies within the SCA's Kingdom of Atlantia. A while back, I pointed out that anyone in the D/M/V area could fill every night of the week with SCA events. I wasn't being hyperbolic: check out Ponte Alto's calendar. Drogo and Adina gave us a quick peak into the variety of skills, events, and cultures that the SCA teaches. Listen in to the podcast for a great discussion about what it feels like to be in SCA combat, how the hierarchy of the court works, and other awesome stories. 

I have been trying to compile a list of skills you learn through the SCA, but I decided to settle with the following, woefully incomplete list: spinning, nålebinding, felting, sewing, calligraphy, illumination, bookbinding, brewing, jewelry, metalwork, cooking, dancing, archery, heavy combat, rapier fighting, atlatl, ballista, trebuchets, and heraldry. 

Odds are that if something is in period, there's probably a Laurel (SME) that you can get in touch with to geek out about it. Don't make the mistake I did of putting off checking out the SCA because you don't think you're "hardcore enough." Go to a newcomers' meeting and I have no doubt that you'll see how wrong that stereotype is. Here are a few link lists to get you started.

Ponte Alto:

• Website
• Facebook (there's also the Sewing Circle and Cooks' Guild)
• Calendar
• For those of you not lucky enough to be in Ponte Alto, use this to figure out your barony.

SCA:

• Website
• Membership
• Resources
• Facebook (and Fan Page)
• Pennsic Website (and Facebook)
• Kingdom of Atlantia

Upcoming Events!

• Ponte Alto Newcomer's Meeting (December 7) Fairfax, VA
• Yule Toy Tourney VII (December 7-9) Pickens, SC
• Baroness Roana de Laci Day of Dance VI (December 8) Towson, MD
• Yule (December 15) Richmond, VA

Thanks again to Baron Drogo and Baroness Adina for an excellent podcast!

Hi, I'm Aine, and I'm a Scadian.

Kids in garb are so adorable (via mebrett).

Friends are usually surprised when they find out I'm in the SCA. I know I've been guilty of more than a few misconceptions about the group myself. They manage to hit the center of an odd venn diagram that crosses history buffs, diy geeks, and combat reenactors.

I'm the type of geek that sews my own garb for faire, but I spent years talking myself out of the SCA. I thought there was no way I was "as hardcore." I mean, after all, my garb has all kinds of non-period things like corsets, machine stitching, and zippers.

So I didn't join. Then recently, because I work from home, I started getting into crafts again (I have to use that BFA in art somehow). My roommates and I spent a few months talking off and on about how we were interested in music, fencing, sewing, brewing, and a half dozen other archaic crafts and skills.

All of it is going on in the SCA, often on a weekly or monthly basis. It helped that we were already interested in the 600-1600 window of history that the SCA focuses on. In June, we went to our first event, Highland River Melee. We arrived just as the siege engineers were testing their ballistae. I was sold.

Unfortunately, we signed up too late to carve three weeks out of our schedule to make it to Pennsic.

A yearly event with over 11k attendees, Pennsic becomes the
third largest city in Butler County, PA (via danielle_blue).

If I wanted to, I could book every night of my week with local SCA events: choir, light fighting practice/fencing, heavy fighting practice/melee, scriptorium/calligraphy/illumination practice, bardic practice, sewing circle, archery, dance, cooking, brewing... And that's just in our barony. If I drive 45 minutes, I can add on events from about two or three more baronies.

The tone is very "Get excited and make things." Interested in Opus Anglicanum techniques from 1320-1350? There's online resources and probably someone willing to sit and talk shop for hours with you. Here's the Atlantia Arts & Sciences resource list.

Beyond the wide array of local, weeknight events, there are larger events every weekend. Last weekend, I attended Bright Hill University. It's an Atlantian event that occurs a few times a year. From 10am to about 6:00pm, courses are taught on all sorts of medieval subjects. 92 different subjects, to be precise (yes, I counted).

With all the different events going on, I was glad the organizers had reserved a middle school for the day. At first I thought it would seem silly to be walking around a school in garb, that it would ruin the suspension of disbelief. When I got there, I realized that 50% of what I love about SCA events is people watching. I wish I'd brought a sketch book to jot down all the different things I want to make. I was able to attend classes on:

• Middle Class Elizabethan Men's Clothing: 1570-1600
• Topics in Natural Philosophy: Cosmology
• Southern German Dress: Late 16th Century
• Post-Viking Runic Perpetual Calendars (which, while epic, was so niche that there were only three of us)

I skipped out on my last class to hang out at the Heraldry table and ask for help researching an appropriate name and device for my 900's Irish persona.

The day of classes only wound up costing $5 suggested donation, $5 for lunch, and I paid $2 for a class handout that was about 20 pages with full-color pictures. Membership dues for a whole year are less expensive than most conventions. Of course, once you sign up, you could easily start sinking tons of money into garb, armor, or crafts, so the price probably evens out in the end.

Now, I'm off to look up calligraphy techniques. I'll keep an eye out for big SCA events coming up. Everyone I've met in the DC/VA/MD area has been incredibly nice and newb-friendly. If you're interested, check which barony you're in and send a message to the local chatelaine.