Challenge of Colyne Stewart: AS 48

In the name of Ealdormere and of the blessed queen Adrielle, Saint Finnvarr and Saint Gillian, I Colyne Stewart, to exalt my name and honour my fortieth year upon this earth, knowing full well the renown of the prowess of the Ealdormerean fighting force, have, from the date of this present letter, taken a piece of a greave to bear upon my leg until I be delivered from it by an Ealdormerean performing a deed of arms as follows:

First, to enter the lists on foot, each armed as seems best to them, having their dagger and sword upon their body as they wish, and having a pollaxe as well. And this shall be the number of blows for all the different weapons and arms: ten strokes with the pollaxe, without intermission (sans reprendre); and when these ten strokes shall have been performed, and the judge shall say, 'Ho!' we will give ten strokes with the sword without intermission, or parting from each other, or changing our harness. When the judge shall say, 'Ho!' we will take to our daggers in hand, and give ten strokes with them. Should either one lose or drop his weapon, the other will be able to do as he pleases with the one he holds until the judge shall say, 'Ho!'

So shall I meet each fighter who would don harness and meet with me in glorious combat.

And there will be in attendance a gallery, and this gallery will consist of citizens of upstanding moral value. I shall, after consultation with these witnesses, surrender my greave to the fighter deemed most noble and virtuous and preaux.

This deed will occur in the Canton of Ardchreag on the 14^th day of April of this year.

To add greater faith and security to this letter, I Colyne Stewart have sealed it with the seal of my arms, written and dated from Colynesburg, Thursday the 30th day of January in the year 48."

Based on “The Challenge of Michel d'Oris: 1400”, Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Chroniques, Book I, chapter ii as translated by Will McLean, 2001.

Relationships in the SCA

Within the SCA I have a number of different and meaningful relationships that have developed over time.

Firstly, I am squired to a knight. With that I gained a number of squire-brothers.

I am also an apprentice, and that garnered me a gaggle of feral belt-sisters.

My knight and laurel are married and have a joint household, but I am also a member of another household, symbolized by the raven. Due to that I have my raven-brothers and -sisters.

This, as anyone who has been in the SCA for any period of time can tell you, is pretty standard.

However, I have one other set of SCA siblings: my sword-brothers. Sometimes, when a fighter truly inspires me (both on and off the field), and we have a bond and I wish we were squire-brothers though we are not, I approach them and ask if they would honour me by being my sword-brother. They are my brothers-in-arms who (aside from my squire-brothers) I would most like to stand with on the field. Over the years I have asked a handful of people to stand so, and all but two have said yes.*

The first of them were His Excellency Berend van der Eych, who at the time was squired to Duke Finnvarr de Taahe (though now both he and I are squired to Sir Nigel). So he is both a squire-brother and a sword-brother, and chiefest of this company.

This was followed by Sir Wat of Sarum (who was not even a squire at the time), THL Amelius Claudius Rattanicus and Lord Edward dit Lyon.

At a non SCA (but SCA related) event this past weekend, I approached another fine noble, and told him how I have come to admire him as he has grown and evolved over the past few years. He is always striving to improve himself and his game, has taken on thankless jobs which he handles with aplomb, and is quite frankly an excellent human being. I asked him to stand as a sword-brother, and he agreed. I am proud to include Lord Fulk Beauxarmes among my band of stalwart friends and comrades.

To symbolize our bond, I give each of my sword-brothers a sword (though it may be miniature in size). Fear not, Fulk; your's will be forth-coming.


* I should add, that the two people who said no were already a raven-brother and -sister and felt no further proof of bond was required.

Slight update to Achievement of Arms

I've made a small change to my Achievement of Arms, replacing the kingdom crest with a personalized one.

The heraldic beast now resting on the helm is a bonnacon, a kind of bull known for shooting excrement on its enemies. This is a reference to certain, shall we say, stomach issues that I am known for. I've also replaced the kingdom populace banner with a banner for House Arrochar.

Achievement of Arms

Today I finally sat down, cracked open the Ealdormere Scribal Handbook and designed my full Achievement of Arms.

As I have a Grant level award,I was entitled to use the kingdom crest, and was allowed to have two supporters. I chose wolves to represent that I come from Ealdormere (the lupine kingdom).

Hanging from the wolves' necks are the badges for the Order of the Wain (service award) and the Award of the Scarlet Banner (fighting award).

I used my new motto that HRM Adrielle gave me when she recently took me on as an apprentice. Roughly it means "words are fleeting, but writing remains". This represents that a lot of my arts and sciences endeavours are related to the written word: chronicling, histories, event reports and writing award scrolls.

Resource Page for Scroll Wordings

At the bequest of Her Excellency Mahault of Swynford, I am going to be putting together a resource page for wordsmiths to aid them in crafting the wordings for award scrolls. I plan on making this a collaborative effort, and I encourage other wordsmiths to send me their favourite online and hard copy resources, as well as samples of scrolls they have written.

Watch for a link to the new site soon.

Colyne Stewart's Event Reports

Between 2002 and 2007 I wrote around 80 event reports to ensure that the happenings of the days not be forgotten. Copies of most of these reports (originally published in various SCA journals) are now on this blog and can be viewed by clicking on the appropriate tags. I hope you enjoy them!

A Short Treatise on the Giving and Receiving of Tokens

Colyne Stewart, Sep AS XXXVII (2002).

I have now been in the SCA for nineteen months. In that time I have been the recipient of a dozen tokens and have given two. Some people may not realize the power that giving tokens has, especially if they are new to the Society. When I first started I soon noticed the rings and other items that many people carried about their neck or hung from their belts. Curious, I did some research and found an article on ring giving by Master Hector of the Black Height. In it, Hector expounds on what he perceives Ealdormerean culture to be, and a great part of that culture is ring giving.

The giving of rings was a very important custom to certain cultures in the past, cultures that some of us now play. Saxon, Norse, Germanic. The giving of a ring was a bond between the giver and the receiver, the circular band representing an unbreakable bond. This practice is still with us in the mundane world, just go to a wedding ceremony.

This ring giving is wide spread within Ealdormere. If someone does something that pleases and/or impresses you, you give him or her a token (usually a ring). The giving of this token shows the recipient that their acts have been noticed, that they have been appreciated. It makes them feel like they belong.

I received my first token from Baroness Gaerwen, which was given to Thorfinna and I to thank us for the gift of a set of playing cards and an “I am SCAnadian” t-shirt we had given to her and Cynred. This token I have worn on a necklace to almost every event I have been to since.

Tokens are important. I was brand new when I was given this ring. It made me feel like I belonged. Later tokens were given to me for the friendship I had shown others, or for my bardic offerings. Those tokens I received for my poems and stories encouraged me to continue telling and writing them. They made me feel that my work had merit.

That’s the receiving, but what about the giving? After reading Hector’s essay I thought, yeah, easy for you to say. Give away tokens. Who am I to give anyone a token? He’s Master Master Baron Serjent Hector. I’m nobody. You see, I had missed the point. The very point of Ealdormerean ring giving is that anyone can do it, that everyone should do it. It does not have to be done in public, though publicly stating your appreciation of someone’s self or work gives the giving more power.

Finally I came to realize this. I could make people feel the way others had made me feel. I could make people feel appreciated, that they belonged, that they mattered.

And so at Ealdormere War Practice I gave my first token: to Lady Ivanna the Oblivious, for her bardic talents, done at the bardic circle on Sunday night. As is common for some tokens, I asked her to hold it for a year and a day, and then to pass it on to someone who inspires her. In this way our tokens gain a history as they travel from person to person (and in some cases, from Kingdom to Kingdom). At War I gave another. This time to Alaani, a member of Septentria’s allied mercenary Household, Mjolnir, who watered me during battles. I walked from my camp to hers (each being as far apart from each other as possible) to find her not in camp. I waited but she did not return. Finally, I left the token with one of her house brothers. The next night, in the pouring rain, she walked all the way down the hill to thank me. I just saw her at an event last weekend and noticed she was wearing the ring.

The giving of these tokens made me happy, because they made the recipients happy. And they will only be the beginning. I have begun to acquire a collection of gifts that I plan to carry with me to give to those I deem worthy.

Who am I to decide who is worthy of a token?

I am an Ealdormerean. It’s what we do.

Permission is given to print this article in any SCA publication as long as the author is contacted by email in advance, proper credit is given and the author receives a copy of the newsletter. Please credit the author as Colyne Stewart (mka Todd Fischer), who can be reached at todd@todd-fischer.com