Sir Cariadoc of the Bow Interview

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 09:38:33 -0800
To: Craig Brown
From: david friedman
Subject: Re: Interview
Content-Length: 13250

It looks fine, aside from one or two misspoken words by me. Corrections are marked below.

At 7:45 PM -0600 11/24/97, Craig Brown wrote:
>Sir Cariadoc of the Bow
>
>Sir Cariadoc is a man of many gifts and talents. In the tradition of the
>great scholars of the Levant his sage counsel is oft sought for its insight
>and deep learning in diverse fields. In addition to his erudition, in his
>younger years, he was a fey warrior of whom legends are told. In his youth
>he was styled Prince Under The Mountain, and there was more than a little
>of BullRoarer Took in him when he took the field. As he grew in puisance on
>the field, he won the Crown of the Middle by right of arms on the slope of
>Wilmot Mountain, and long ago was crowned the first king of the Middle
>Kingdom. Later he likewise took the throne of the East, and great things
>came of that, herein told. Knight, Pelican, and Laurel, the Society has
>awarded him all such awards as could be granted. Few have done more for
>the Society. Let that never be forgotten.
>
>CD: Master Crag Duggan talking with his Grace, Sir Cariadoc of the Bow for
>the Calontir Living History series. We are at 19th Pennsic War, which is a
>contest of some importance to his Grace, and he is of some importance to it.
>
>CD: Today I was going to talk with his Grace and ask him questions about
>the origins of the Middle Kingdom with respect to our lineage, from the
>MidRealm to the East Realm. We realize that these events occurred sometime
>in the past and memories can be treacherous.
>
>CoB: That is correct. I am speaking from memory, not from documents and
>therefore, undoubtedly, some things that I say will turn out to be mistaken.
>
>CD: With ill towards no one and good for everyone intended. Can you tell
>me when you first joined the SCA?
>
>CoB: Let me think about that. I think it would work out to be twenty-one
>years ago which, I think, makes it in 1969. At that time there was no SCA
>in the Midwest. The SCA existed on the West Coast and was fairly new on
>the East Coast. I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago.
>Some people I knew, I think through the local science fiction club,
>although I'm not certain, had heard about the SCA and had a copy of the
>Handbook of the Current Middle Ages, whatever the twenty year ago
>equivalent of the Handbook of the Known World was but much shorter. It
>looked very interesting and a number of us decided to start a midwestern
>branch of it. We really didn't have much contact with the East or the
>West. At our tourney there was a lady, Adrianne of Toledo, who had been
>queen of the East at one point and she knighted me after I had won. I
>think it was then later decided that that didn't count because she wasn't a
>knight and I got knighted by whoever was then king of the West when I was
>out in the bay area later that summer. Also later that summer when I was
>out in the bay area I trained briefly with Master Edwin Bersark so, in so
>far as I have a master at arms it is Edwin. That was after I had won the
>coronet, I should say. At the point where we fought for the coronet, we
>were all self-trained and doing things all wrong, of course.
>
>You were saying something about influence from the East and the West. I
>don't think there was a very direct influence from either. I had spent some
>hours, maybe longer than that, talking with West Kingdom people when I was
>in the bay area that summer and getting their feeling of things. I visited
>at Rivendale which was a great house there. I don't think other than
>Adrianne that I talked to any of the East Kingdom people. We had, of
>course, the Handbook of the Current Middle Ages as a source and beyond
>that, my impression is that we decided how to do things more or less
>ourselves. I'm pretty sure that the ceremonial, much of which I wrote and
>much of which is still being used with incrustations over the years was
>more or less done de neauvenu. I don't think that I got any of that from
>either of the other kingdoms.
>
>CD: Why are the fighting conventions of the MidRealm and the East so much
>alike? Why are we in the Middle (I started in the Middle many years ago)
>so much more like the East than the West or Atenveldt?
>
>CoB: That's an interesting question. I don't think it can be explained by
>the early influence. One answer might be the Pennsic War. That was pretty
>early in the history of the kingdoms. It meant that people from the two
>kingdoms got together every year for a weekend and then later for longer
>than a weekend and so influenced each other. There was, I'm sure, some
>pressure to have consistent fighting rules because we needed them at
>Pennsic. I suspect also that intermigration occurs a little more between
>the Midwest and the East than the Midwest and the West, although that
>wouldn't be a big change[***"change" should be "difference"***]. I don't
>think, as far as I can remember, that up
>to the point when I left the Middle Kingdom, which was at the end of my
>second reign, that I had any substantial contact with the East kingdom.
>
>CD: Can you remember the ceremony in which you were made king, your
>coronation?
>
>CoB: Vaguely. What was happening was that there was a science fiction in
>St. Louis and there was simultaneously a convention of the Young Americans
>for Freedom also in St. Louis and I was attending both of them. The
>coronation -- I'm afraid I was late for my own coronation. That, as I
>remember, was a matter of miscommunication of some sort although I no
>longer remember the details. I was crowned, I believe, by the King of the
>West but I won't swear that is right. I know that we were officially a
>Principality of the East initially. At some point in the process of the
>coronation, I think the East ceded us the eastern part of our lands and the
>West the western part. The East and West had been divided at the great
>river originally and we got lands on both sides with the western side
>basically being what is now Calontir. The eastern side included what is now
>the Middle and also a chunk of what is now Meridies.
>
>CD: What about the Canadian part? Did they cede you that initially, too?
>
>CoB: Let me think. Castel Rouge was a fairly early part of the kingdom, so
>it must have been. I just don't know how they divided the lines
>[***should be "drew the lines"***] but my
>impression is that it was something like from the Rocky Mountains to
>somewhere at the Pennsylvania border or something, but I don't know in
>detail how we divided it because there was nobody in most of that territory
>so no one was worrying much about it. I remember that there was a very
>strange gentleman, Jamie Fox, who was from Cleftlands and he swore me
>allegiance and took the title Margrave of the Cleftlands. I think there
>were various problems thereafter because although he was a nice fellow, he
>was a little strange.
>
>CD: Do you remember anything in your mind that you wanted to do
>differently in the MidRealm from the East or the West?
>
>CoB: It's a long time ago. My feeling is that [***should be "my feeling
>is that that wasn't ...***] wasn't the way that I saw
>it. I think it was more how do I wanted to do things here [***should be
>"more a matter of how I wanted to do things here"***]. I had read
>what the handbook said and had talked to people in the West a little, but I
>don't think I knew the West Kingdom well enough to think in those terms.
>Many years later I had opinions about this, perhaps ten years later, after
>a tour of the Known World when we travelled through the West among other
>places, and I formed some opinions then about differences. I'm not sure
>they were correct opinions but they were opinions. My impression is that
>when we were starting we didn't have a clear enough idea so that it was a
>combination of trying to do it the way we were supposed to plus trying to
>do it the way it seemed to me it should. [***make it "it should be done"***]
>
>CD: One last question, because I know you're going to run short on time.
>Can you give me a brief version of the story of how Pennsic War was begun?
>
>CoB: Surely. Prior to the end of my second reign there had been some
>casual talk about the idea of having a war between the East and the Middle.
> When I left the Middle throne, I was travelling to the East coast to live
>there for mundane reasons. I decided that I was still in allegiance to the
>King of the Middle and I was merely spying out the land for the
>possibilities of future conflict. At Twelfth Night I came back to Middle
>Kingdom Twelfth Night in the Province of Treegirtsea and there gave a
>report in verse to Iriel of Brannoch, my successor upon the Dragon Throne,
>as to the prospects of war. If you wish to see that report, it is in the
>Miscellany, so far as I can remember it.
>
>In essence, I took the role of the wise old knight arguing that, of course,
>the young squires and border lords wanted to start a war at a drop of the
>hat but that wise men knew that war was a serious business. "I do not make
>war for an idle game; I fight for my king and my kingdom's gain." I then
>went down the list of the heroes of the East Kingdom and proceeded to match
>them up man-for-man with our heroes, to show that they had great heroes but
>we could beat them. I then discussed their groups and the army and then
>our groups. My conclusion was: "I say again as I said before, that only a
>fool goes blind to war. I have served as eyes for the Middle King, harken
>all to the word I bring." The final conclusion was that we shouldn't start
>this unless we can win it but we can win it. "Sire, my word is war, war,
>war." I had the whole hall up. I had prepared a war arrow as a token of
>war and I presented that to Iriel and asked him to give it back to me that
>I might take it as token of war into the East which he did. I then
>returned to the East Kingdom where I was dwelling.
>
>The East Kingdom had serious internal problems at that time which are not
>relevant to this discussion. As a result, it took me a long time to track
>down the Shogun, the then King of the East, Rakkurai of Kamakura.
>Eventually in the Barony of Carolingia I attended an event at which he was
>present. I presented the war arrow to him with a long speech about how
>"this is the war arrow that is sent from farm to farm to call out the hosts
>and I know not if you have such a thing but sure you will have need of it
>for ere the summer wanes His Majesty is upon your border with a great host
>of the Middle Realm" and some more oratory along those lines. Rakkurai,
>who to the best of my knowledge had not been warned, took the arrow in his
>hands, broke it in half and cried out, 'So we will do with the host of the
>Middle' and then called to the autocrat at the back of the hall, 'Is there
>any more entertainment?' which I thought was very well done. My brother,
>Patri du Chat Gris, accused me later of having upstaged his knighting which
>happened at the same event.
>
>I should say that I had also prepared some verses in case the Shogun
>decided to reduce the army of the Middle by one duke on the spot. I did
>not know how people in this far land felt about the privileges of
>ambassadors. Those verses are also in the Miscellany. I did not have to
>use them but they essentially took the form of "if you imprison me, my lady
>will get all my friends and they will come after you" which struck me as
>the medieval response to that. Part of what I was trying to do, in a way,
>was to make the point that the army of the King of the Middle, like any
>medieval army, does not include all of the kingdom's fighters. I've seen
>figures somewhere that the Duke of Normandy had a larger levy than the King
>of France. Therefore attacking me was not merely a part of attacking the
>Middle, it also meant that all of my friends would come after him, but the
>issue didn't arise.
>
>The war was declared. As happens with all kings, the end of the Shogun's
>reign grew near and they held a crown tournament to chose his successor.
>As I was a knight dwelling in the East Kingdom I entered that crown
>tournament and Allah it is that giveth victory and defeat. A week
>thereafter Andrew of Seldom Rest, Iriel's successor, was to be crowned.
I >came to his coronation and presented myself before him and said, 'Your
>Majesty, as I have served the Middle Kingdom long and loyally, I beg from
>You a boon upon Your coronation.' He asked me what the boon was and I said
>that the boon I begged was that I be released from my allegiance to the
>Middle for so long as I might sit upon the Eastern throne that I might wage
>most bloody war against him. He granted that, otherwise we couldn't have
>the war. As a result, when the war occurred, I was King of the East and
>Andrew was King of the Middle.
>That is at least a part of the tale that you were asking for.
>
>CD: Thank you very much. You have a meeting to go to. It has been a
>privilege and pleasure to have you talk with us today.
>
>CoB: Thank you for the opportunity.
>
>---Corrected 11/6/90; 11/24/97

David Friedman
Professor of Law
Santa Clara University