Caitlin's Crossroad

All right then. In the 5th century, Anglo-Saxons reoccupied the old Roman hillfort of South Cadbury (a traditional site of “Camelot”). Modern archeologists discovered finely made kitchen pottery that turned out to be … get this… re-used Roman funerary urns! For KITCHEN pottery! And how do you think the Anglo-Saxons got hold of said pottery? They raided local cremation cemeteries and so knew exactly what those pots were that held the castle  flour supply.

Certainly the Anglo Saxons re-used pottery from earlier cultures and in Kent they used Roman funerary urns  too. But heh, they used them for new burials and not, say, tonight’s dinner!

A particularly bad undead was the Icelandic duagr or revenant. These pesky undead might be confined to the barrows but the more powerful could range around. The worst of all attacked animals, humans and whole villages.

Click to read “Remnants of Revenants,” a short research paper on the dreaded draugr of Iceland and Norway.

Lady Avicia was kind enough to send me a link to an article on a strange unearthed burial practice in 8th century Ireland.  

The article led to more research, which led me to realize I had a big misconception about the Viking timeline in Ireland. I replied to Avicia that 8th century Ireland was home to several Viking kingdoms, which thus explained the presence of the Norse legend of the duargr – the revenant. This may have been one of the techniques of burial where the Norse kept the dead from getting back up again. (Note that cremation wouldn’t take care of the  problem — the ashes from the burning landed on animal food and salt licks, and infected animals with a seriously bad temper and supernatural strength.)

However, it turns out that I was “dead” wrong (get it?) about the timeline — the Vikings’ first recorded raid in Ireland wasn’t until the end of the 8th century and they did not start settling inland until at least 830. I am sure that individual Vikings had sailed to Ireland already, thus the subsequent arrival of well-prepared raiding parties who concentrated on wealthy coastal monasteries  like Iona. But I would hesitate to ascribe a burial practice to theoretical individuals. And we have no way of knowing for sure if the stones applied to revenant legends, although the Norse prescribed certain burial rites to keep the dead from rising again.

To be sure, Ireland has always been a hotbed of supernatural activity. They have medieval legends of the corporeal walking dead as does northern England. (Southern England’s ghost stories are largely monastic and center on demon-inspired haunts.) But did the revenant tales occur independently in separated cultures — or due to the cross-pollination of Viking raids or Irish slaves?

* Here is a link to a short paper I wrote on the duargr:“Remnants of Revenants.”

With my usual ironclad grasp of detail, I thought that the next Caid Pentathlon was in 2012. I grant you that I usually do my Pentathlon entries at the last possible moment but I’m trying to do better. Therefore I was thrilled to realize that Pentathlon is in fact 2013. Much better!

I am entering. I entered 3 Pents in a row and took a break last year to judge. I needed the break and judging experience but I really missed being a contestant. I know there is a question in some quarters as to whether Laurels should enter. This is not due to some theoretical universal expertise; everyone enters at least 4 categories and no one is an expert at everything. It’s more due to judging needs. Frankly Performance and Composition seem to be covered as I was only a judge in a single section last time. I don’t need to skip Pent so I can judge one section. If I were an expert in a bunch of period arts with a heavy number of entries this might be different, but I’m not. So there.

I’ll get smart and align my Pent entries with my A&S 50 Personal Challenge, and I always try to create things that I can use or that entertain others. Win-win (-win?)

I panicked this morning when I thought I only have 3 weekends left including this one before GWW. There are 3… sort of. Today is Sunday so this weekend is almost over. So I guess I should panic after all.

I’ve divided my goals into some challenges that my household (Cliar cu Buidhe) is sharing. Except for one: WASH MY PAVILION. If I try to set up my dirty pavilion again then I think the household encampment will pack up and move upstream without me. Even though mine does make the other pavilions look clean. I mean really, I have the Pigpen Pavilion. With that in mind, here are my GWW goals:

1. Wash said pavilion. Seriously.
2. Household Persona challenge: Make one new thing that defines your persona for you. I’m doing a couple of  things. 1)I feel like my persona when I’m wearing wimples and/or braids.  So I finished a new wimple and am refurbishing my braid sets since I cut my real hair. 2) This is new — painted furniture! The Anglo-Saxons loved bright colors and I’d like to paint either my bench or my small table. Ideally I’d like to replace my (dirty) white pavilion with a colored one but that’s a ways off.
3. Household Scary challenge: This being me, the Scary challenge was of course my idea. I challenged the household to think of one supernatural thing that their persona would have known was dangerous. Ghosts, werewolves, revenants, demons, elves, etc. — these things were quite real to people throughout the SCA time period. I already know my answer BECAUSE I HATE THOSE BLOODY ELVES IN MY WHEAT FIELD.
4. Household heraldic challenge: This is our initial response to an upcoming kingdom heraldic challenge. There is a lot more to it but basically we’re challenging ourselves to  create something new with our device on it. If I get really tricky I’ll paint my device on the to-be-painted furniture I mentioned above.
5. Not a challenge really but I have a new story to deliver around the GWW fire. It’s the Orkneyinga Saga version of the Raven Banner story where things end badly for our hero! It’s OK though, he deserved it. Stupid raven banner.