From: ds4p+@andrew.cmu.edu (David Schroeder)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Grand Pennsic
Date: 20 Aug 92 13:32:31 GMT
Organization: Doctoral student, Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Greetings, good gentles,

I read Lord Hossein's reply to my post asking about the relative 
"bloodiness" of tournaments versus wars in period (which, by the
way, I'd still like to hear more about, please, please -- and I'm
sorry we never met this Pennsic, though it was a pleasure to meet
and visit with your fair lady)...

I do agree that the _reasons_ given for shifting to "Pennsic as
Grand Tournament" are ill-conceived since hot-headed turkeys will be
every bit as likely to be excessively hot-headed over a tournament
as a war.  A much better case for the change can be made by appealing
to "authenticity" arguments -- as in, "What we do at Pennsic is much
more like a medieval tournament plus a fair, rather than a medieval war."
I believe His Grace Cariadoc himself has made that case and encouraged
a change in the way we think about Pennsic.  Also, Mistress Ellisif has
indicated that there were intimations of "Pennsic as not-a-war" in some
of the pre-Pennsic publicity (which I personally can't remember and 
therefore can't cite, sorry), so perhaps something mitigates the
sense I had that this was "sprung" on everyone. [I'd love to see
examples...  I just flipped through the pre-Pennsic XXI Information
Booklet and a quick scan found no references...  in the booklet
given to all _at_ Pennsic, the East and Middle royalty's greeting
_does_ refer to "war" (using the double quotes), but that's a rather
minor mention.]

What bugs *me* the most about this whole thing is that the wonderful
opportunity to persuade, rather than impose, (concerning the idea of 
Pennsic as Grand Tournament and Fair), has passed.  Too many people
were walking around saying "Huh? What happended to the War?"  And to
be honest, the alternatives for saying "War," like "Police Action,"
et cetera, swiftly got too cutsie-poo and non-period for words.

The shift from Pennsic War to Grand Pennsic could have been done
"right."  It wasn't.  Then again, as a friend of mine said a few
years back, "Of course it's Pennsic Fair -- there are four non-
combattants for every fighter and archer -- but if they want to
keep calling it a War to make the kings happy, they can do so."

My question is "Now what?"  Will Pennsic flip flop from being a war
to being a fair/tournament from year to year?  Will there be a backlash
and ten more years of just "Wars?"  Will "Grand Pennsic" catch on as a
name?  Might we not say that a "war" is one of the elements of the
"tournament?"  (Any precedence for that one, Hossein?).

It should be interesting...

My best to you all --  Bertram

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Bertram of Bearington                                      Dave Schroeder
Debatable Lands/AEthelmearc/East               Carnegie Mellon University
INTERNET: ds4p@andrew.cmu.edu                         412/731-3230 (Home)
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