Cavalier outfit, again

Here's a better portrait of of me in the Cavalier outfit that I mentioned in the previous entry. It was taken at Atlantian Twelfth Night 2009 by Baron Bardulf Rauen of the Shire of Border Vale Keep. He kindly takes portraits of Atlantians with a professional camera/lighting setup and doesn't even charge for it. I am most grateful to him for making me look good!

I do enjoy this Cavalier outfit, even though I don't wear it often (and definitely NOT at outdoor events). My only quibble is that I wasn't wearing a bum roll under the skirt because I couldn't find it in time. Now I think I know where I put it.

And, yes, I know that this has nothing to do with Lithuania ... but I think a Lithuanian woman visiting western Europe would have "done what the Romans did" and chosen clothing to suit her new environment.

I would really like to write about late-period Lithuanian clothing -- the little we know about it -- but that will have to wait until another time.

Update on post-Pennsic sloth

In my last entry I reported on "post-Pennsic sloth." So, what have I been doing?

I'm still working on the second of a pair of mundane knitted socks -- the first ever that I have knit. Eventually I'd like to knit stockings in a more medieval/Renaissance pattern, but that's for the future.

I started messing around with tablet weaving on a secondhand loom that Lady Teleri gave me when she moved several years ago. I'm only using cotton yarn from my stash. I'll have to post some photos.

The major project is a non-SCA wedding at which the musicians of Three Left Feet will be performing on September 26. I'll have to learn some new pieces, and I need to get my Cavalier outfit all in order. This will be a good chance for me to expand my musical horizons in terms of style (non-dance music) and ensemble playing (a different lineup of musicians from our normal Monday night dance practices).

Post-Pennsic Sloth

My apologies for taking so long to post the new-for-2009, improved handout from my Pennsic 38 survey course on medieval Lithuania. I will publicize the URL when it goes "live."

While you are waiting for the handout, please feel free to explore my online bookmarks at http://delicious.com/luscious_purple. Try the keywords "lithuania," "baltic," or "sig" (for "Slavic Interest Group"). Not everything in my bookmark file is period or period-appropriate. I've got some modern-day cultural stuff in there, plus even a few Victorian-era depictions of medieval folks like Mindaugas -- depictions that are so obviously wrong. But I bookmark things there as soon as I find them, and I figure that eventually I'll study them further and figure out whether or not they are accurate and/or useful.

In the meantime, I'm trying to poke myself into doing some A&S projects. I had hoped to make a proper apgalvis or diadem for the Tempore Atlantia competition at Coronation, which is this coming Saturday. Tempore Atlantia is a rotating series of competitions for reconstructed items of material culture from a given time period. I could probably argue that different types of diadems were worn in the Baltic era on both sides of the A.D. 1000 dividing line, although I was thinking of making an early-period one. Oh, well, I can always wait until the next pre-1000 competition, which will probably be next April. Maybe I could actually get the thing DONE by then.

Also, at Pennsic 38 I took three classes in Old Norse poetry specifically because of the upcoming poetry challenge at Storvik's 30th Baronial Birthday. One cannot possibly write verse in "Eddic style" without knowing what Eddic style is (and is not). Our Poeta Atlantiae has provided additional resources. Now all I have to do is find some inspiration and apply pencil to paper. Inspiration? Ha ha ha.

Oh, and I'm knitting myself some not-very-period socks ... and trying to find time to practice my music ... and last week a friend tempted me with a brief lesson in tablet weaving ... aargh!

Report on Pennsic 38 ... and looking ahead to Pennsic 39 already

Overall, I believe that my survey class on medieval Lithuania went well ... even though I forgot to bring the tri-fold display board on which I was going to post photos, maps, etc. D'OH!!! Good thing I brought my stack of books along, even though I had to spend most of my time at War worrying whether they would get wet if it rained. I was able to pass around some of the books to illustrate my points.

Once again, the tent was full of students, and some of them asked really good questions. One person told me afterward that she learned more about her ancestry than she had ever known before. I'm always glad to help in that regard!

Next year I'm thinking of doing Pennsic University a little differently. In fact, I have thought of two separate classes to teach:

• The 600th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald happens next year, just before Pennsic. Wouldn't an hour-long presentation about this battle and its historical context be just fabulous? Perhaps the subtitle of the class could be "Smackdown of the Teutonic Knights" or "Last Battle of the Crusades." Hee hee!
• A survey of Lithuanian women's clothing through the ages. (Sorry, guys, I am less knowledgeable about what the menfolk wore, especially since I don't have to dress a guy for the SCA.)

As always, I welcome comments from my readers! I'm particularly interested in hearing whether a non-fighter like myself would be a credible lecturer on a subject like Grunwald.

Also, at the annual Slavic Interest Group (SIG) meeting at Pennsic, I tasted some incredible krupnikas from a New England brewer. That was seriously smooth and had great legs! Sorry, the brewer doesn't seem to have a Web site, but I have his business card, so he may be getting an order from me.

Other Eastern European classes at Pennsic 38

I'm certainly not the only Pennsic University teacher who will be teaching about Eastern Europe. The summer 2009 issue of Slovo, the newsletter of the Slavic Interest Group (SIG), lists all sorts of cool classes on clothing, iconography, bardic arts, history, and material culture. You could even brush up on your conversational Russian.

Now, time for some Pennsic prep work!

My Pennsic class on Lithuania!

If you are going to Pennsic War 38 this year, you're invited to my Pennsic University class, titled "Lithuania: The Biggest Medieval Country of Which You May Not Have Heard." I will hold the class on Wednesday, August 5 (middle of "War Week"), at 2 p.m. in A&S tent #1.

Summary from the Pennsic book: "In 1400 CE, Lithuania stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. I will discuss its history from ancient tribes to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, plus clothing, names, culture, and more as time permits."

I hope to have a lot more copies of my handout this year than I did last year. I'm also considering putting up a cardboard display of various maps and pictures, so that people can browse them. I'm even hoping to display a few photos that I took at the local Lithuanian Festival in May:

These are some "prehistoric" artifacts in a display case at the Lithuanian Festival. But remember, in Lithuania, "prehistoric" tends to mean "prior to 1200 CE."

I also hope to attend the Slavic Interest Group (SIG) gathering on Tuesday, August 4, from noon to 3 p.m. in A&S tent #12. It's a great networking event for SCAdians interested in all parts of Eastern Europe.

Happy Rasos, Kupolės and/or Joninės!

Happy St. John's Day, Saint Jonas' Festival, or Fête St-Jean-Baptiste! Or maybe I should call it by one of its other, more Lithuanian Pagan names: Rasos, Kupolės, Joninės. So many names for a single day celebrated by so many cultures.

Yes, the summer solstice actually occurred on June 21 this year, but June 24 is the traditional date of Midsummer Day festivities -- a blending of Pagan and Christian sensibilities, or one or the other, depending on where you are and what you believe it. (Personally, I think it's cool that the day is important to both Lithuanians and French Canadians -- that takes care of all my ancestors.)

While poking around on the Web, I found this Vimeo video of a modern-day Rasos-Kupolės Pagan festival in Lithuania. At first the participants look as if they're getting ready for Pennsic, but shortly the techno music starts up and the festivities look like a cross between an urban rave and Burning Man. :-)

I'm starting to get my act together for my Pennsic University class, which will be held Wednesday, August 5, at 2 p.m. in A&S Tent #1. That's the day after the Slavic Interest Group (SIG) gathering on Tuesday, August 4, at noon in A&S Tent #12. If there's anything that you, my loyal readers, would like me to discuss on the general topic of medieval Lithuania, please let me know. However, please remember that I'll have only 50-55 minutes to talk.

It's festival time!

For the past several years I've been happy to attend the annual Lithuanian Festival held at the National Guard armory in Catonsville, Maryland (a suburb of Baltimore). The 2009 festival -- One Thousand Years of Culture! -- is coming up this weekend; the press release is here (PDF).

This is my annual opportunity to chow down on cepelinai and kopustai and kugelis and wash it down with Utenis or another imported beer from the native land. Then there is viryta -- a honey liqueur a bit more concentrated than regular mead, and flavored with a combination of spices that seems to have been dreamed up by Lithuanian immigrants to the New World (*sigh*).

I enjoy watching the dance group Malunas, even though the music and dances probably aren't medieval and the costumes certainly are not. The shopping is good, too; I've picked up a few decent books at past festivals, plus some amber earrings, which, sadly, I always manage to lose.

On Saturday, look for me in the red, gold and green tie-dyed shirt with the drawing of two skeletons dressed in Lithuanian national costumes. Bonus points if you know the story behind that picture!

Pennsic University Class

I have submitted my class to Pennsic University for Pennsic War XXXVIII.

Just like last year, the class will be titled, "Lithuania: The Biggest Medieval Country Of Which You May Not Have Heard." This year there's a strict character limit on class descriptions in the Pennsic book, so I wrote simply: "Survey of Lithuanian history from ancient tribes to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, plus clothing, names, culture, and more as time permits." Note those last three words. :-)

Last year I went to Pennsic wondering if anybody was going to show up for my class. As it turned out, every seat in the A&S tent was taken, and people were standing in the opening to the tent until the rain arrived just as I was wrapping things up. Granted, I don't know how many of the attendees are interested in the Baltic lands and how many just saw the class title and thought, "Holy [expletive deleted]! I've been in the SCA for 20 years and there's still a country I haven't heard about!" Nevertheless, I was gratified for the turnout.

Looking forward to another successful class in early August!

Question for my readers

Last year I taught "Lithuania: The Biggest Medieval Country Of Which You Might Not Have Heard" at Pennsic University. The link to the class handout is here (and it's also linked to the first post in this blog).

The deadline for getting courses listed in the Pennsic XXXVIII book is coming up FAST (a week from tomorrow, I think). Do you think I should teach this course again? Should I change the focus at all? I'm not sure that I have enough material to stretch into two separate one-hour classes, although I will try to work on that for Pennsic XXXIX in 2010.

Comments and suggestions welcome!