From: dburgdor@cwis.unomaha.edu (Darryl Burgdorf)
Subject: Re: Fighting in crown: a thought
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 03:34:38 GMT


Unto the good folk of the Rialto come greetings and wishes for a merry
Yuletide, from Elwyn of Thornbury!


Lord Aryk Nusbacher, earlier in this discussion, asked, "Why on earth would
you want to open the possibility of becoming SCA royalty to non-fighting
couples?"

Perhaps, my lord, because some of us do not believe that the ability to fight
well and the ability to rule effectively are either inherently or exclusively
connected.

Indeed, the very idea that fighters are somehow automatically more fit to
rule than non-fighters is absurd, whether looked at from a modern or from a
medieval point of view.  (Of course, taking it a step further, even the idea
of "choosing" our rulers at regular tournaments of *any* sort is inherently
non-medieval.)

I don't for a minute expect the current system to be changed any time soon,
but I can certainly see reasons for changing it.


Later in the same missive, Lord Aryk states "the SCA rules don't care about
your persona .... SCA rules don't bind persona .... The SCA's structure takes
almost no notice of personas with respect to offices and awards."

True enough.  However, many of those gentles *in* the SCA *do* care about their
personas.  Many have invested great time and effort in creating coherent and
believable persona, and are loath to do something that flagrantly violates
the "self" they have created.  Ld Padraigh / Ly Caitlin (forgive me if I have
misremembered or misspelled the names, please) seems to be one of those folk.

I personally find the idea that such a person should have to abandon that
work and ignore their own carefully developed persona history and nature in
order to become King or Queen to be, at the least, disappointing.  The SCA
is an organization that, at least in theory, encourages individual efforts
toward authenticity and consistency.  Does it really make sense that its
rules should actively *discourage* such work?


Finally, in his later missive, Lord Aryk states that "fighting Crown without
wanting to be King (and make one's inspiration Queen) is like washing your
feet with your socks on."

An interesting analogy, to be sure.  And I will freely agree that someone
who fights in a Crown Tournament *only* for the sake of the glory of the
tournament itself is probably missing the whole point.

But please explain the difference between someone who fights to put himself
and his inspiration on the throne and someone who fights to put the *couple*
who inspire him on the throne.  The latter may well be a gentle who has no
aspirations to power, or simply someone who feels those for whom he fights
are more suited to it than he is himself; in either case, though, he is 
still fighting for someone, and is still fighting with the intention of
winning, because of the inspiration of those for whom he fights.


(By the by, my use of "he" and "him" throughout this epistle is in no way 
meant as an insult to the many notable female warriors who grace the tourney
fields of the Known World.)


	In service to Calontir, the Society, and the Dream,

		Ld Elwyn of Thornbury


   << Darryl C. Burgdorf:  dburgdor @unmcvm.unmc.edu or @cwis.unomaha.edu >>
        "I let my mind wander, and it never came back...."