Notes: The extent of the St. Brice's Day Massacre is debatable. We have Aethelred's own words, from a church charter in Oxford, describing slayings taking place in that town, and an archaeological find that may be related. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also notes it as a slaying of "Danish men" in England. Later Norman chronicles extend the carnage to women and children, and one adds some lurid details. It must be admitted that later Norman chroniclers had a vested interest in making English kings look bad. Period sources do give Gunhilde's death as a reason for Sweyn's invasion. This could be true, or it could be a "just so" story. Eadric Streona would only just have gotten to court in 1002 and probably wouldn't have been at the Witan. Later in his life, he betrayed and killed a Danish nobleman who had accepted his hospitality, and he is generally the most famous English villain of the 11th century, so the plot seemed like it would be right up his alley. I put him in under fictional license. Aethelred "the Unready" was actually Aethelraed Unraed, "Noble Counsel the Poorly-Counseled." Of course there exist no records of the Witan meeting where the massacre was decreed. But we have Aethelred's word that it happened: "For it is fully agreed that to all dwelling in this country it will be well known that, since a decree was sent out by me with the counsel of my leading men and magnates, to the effect that all the Danes who had sprung up in this island, sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat, were to be destroyed by a most just extermination, and thus this decree was to be put into effect even as far as death, those Danes who dwelt in the afore-mentioned town, striving to escape death, entered this sanctuary of Christ, having broken by force the doors and bolts, and resolved to make refuge and defence for themselves therein against the people of the town and the suburbs; but when all the people in pursuit strove, forced by necessity, to drive them out, and could not, they set fire to the planks and burnt, as it seems, this church with its ornaments and its books. Afterwards, with God's aid, it was renewed by me." https://web.archive.org/web/20091007141741/http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/2002-03/v15n1/05.shtml

Thank you! BTW, I've since found my notes (hiding in plain sight on my Desktop) - if you're interested in Anglo-Saxon cushions, I'll make sure to get them up soon.

Thank you very much, your Grace! I'll go and have a look.

Yep! I will send out an email today or tomorrow to those who RSVPed with the "how to park at Teleri's house" instructions.

It really helps if you have more than one person to set up. I'm usually either camping by myself - in which case I don't want to be trying to get 6+ pavilion poles staked out on my own - or with my family - in which case, folding down the back seats would *really* inconvenience the kids. I'm sketching out a sort of hybrid solution in my head. Something like a geteld could be as small as the Boy Scout 2-man tents we used in our Girl Scout troop, with just 2 vertical poles and a ridge pole. The canvas for a small tent packed to about 'large sleeping bag' size, although much heavier. Then use a modern self-inflating air mattress and hide it under wool blankets. I got an Exped MegaMat for Battle on the Bay. Either it's got a puncture already, or I didn't let it self-inflate enough, because I had to keep re-inflating it all night long. >.< Gonna try it again this weekend to try to debug the situation.

Oh, reaaaaally? I hadn't realized things were so different in the Chiv. That's probably a really good reason to post it, then. It's hardly aliens-from-outer-space weird - just a suggestion that, since we already treat at least the Orders of Chivalry as something like guilds (there are journeymen and masters), we consider allowing the presentation of masterworks by those who would be masters. You know, instead of holding our breath and hoping that senpai notices us. (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-hope-senpai-will-notice-me) Totally shows my arts/academic bias - hello, it's a thesis defense - although service Orders could certainly ask candidates to put together portfolios describing their work done. Martial Orders could do combats/shoots.

Derp. And thank you for the head's up on the embroiderer's guild!

Maybe this is from last year, then? http://www.roxburymill.org/events/sands/class_schedule.htm There's a live link to it on the sands main page.

Mystery of the Missing Silk Solved! The silk shreds when I tear it. I lost about 1/4" on another piece from where I measured to the width after I tore it. (I can't cut a straight line to save my life, so I prefer to rip fabric along the grain when I can.)

Weirdly enough, the last time I did any embroidery (KASF Pentathalon 2009, I think) I followed the same rule. It just never occurred to me to use it in non-embroidery situations. I don't know why... Certainly, it would look nicer and won't make lumpy scratchy knots, which is a real bonus.

Not since this: http://moeticae.typepad.com/mi_contra_fa/2012/09/whistle-update.html Some combination of PVC not being a good stand-in for bone, me not being a good carver, and not getting the fipple right - not sure exactly which is the driving factor, there. I'm thinking my next step ought to be to use something like a turkey leg bone (fairly easily available) to try to make a 1-note signal whistle. That'll tell me if I'm doing the carving right. Or maybe bamboo? Something with a thinner wall than that PVC, definitely.

Hello! No, I never did, although now that my kids are a bit older, I'm coming back to this hobby. The lyre book is definitely on my list. In the meanwhile, I can recommend Lani Thompson's "My Kantele is My Teacher" ebook: http://www.kantelemusic.com/product_bookteach.html It has music for 5- and 10-string kanteles (Finnish traditional zither). The 10-string music won't fit on a lyre, but the 5-string does admirably (if you're tuned do-re-mi-fa-so-la), and 19 out of the 36 given tunes have 5-string arrangements. It runs $20, which is a buck a tune - not too bad for sheet music! Better, the tunes are mostly of a very period 'home and away' form, repeating simple patterns a step apart, or repeating with variations. They're a great basis for learning how to compose your own simple but plausibly period melodies, and for learning how to ornament a simple melody.

I'm so glad you like it! This is not the original, which is a medieval French piece, if I recall correctly. It's not even a very close translation - it's just the basic outline of the tale set in my own words. I haven't really researched it, past reading a translation myself, so I can't even say if my take on the tone is a good one. I found it to be pretty comic, and so I present it that way, but the original may have been more serious.

Well, thank you! But please don't bow out on my account - I'm not competing in my own contest. (Conflict of interest, much? :) ) My tentative idea is, with their Excellencies' permission, read my poem as part of the festivities during court, and have the winner (and maybe some other competitors) of the contest recite during feast.

The Hubble, Compton and Chandra observatories continually redefine our understanding of the universe, addressing cosmological issues that have been studied for ages. Planetary probes bring back information about what else is out there, perhaps to one day answer questions on the origin of life. But if you mean how it impacts Jane Average: On a daily basis, I can plot my trip using Google Maps - illustrated with satellite imagery. I check the weather forecast, greatly improved by the use of weather satellites. (Accurate forecasting can save lives, in fact.) My in-car GPS unit - that gets my position by referencing the Global Positioning System satellites - helps me out if I get lost. I listen to XM radio, broadcast by satellite. The news is full of the latest environmental predictions, backed up by data taken from space. It's utterly transformed the way the US Armed Forces do their jobs. Has it really changed human life? Not in the way fire or writing did. But it impacts basic science and it impacts our daily routine.