RE: [Mid] Re: Fictional Fealty oaths vs real

Carol Lynn <expotech@home.com> wrote:

>on 1/10/02 6:18 PM, sca-middle-digest at
>owner-sca-middle-digest@midrealm.org wrote:
>
>> Sometimes traditions get in the way of facts. (Can you say, Fealty oath
>> straight from Tolkien despite dozens of period oaths? I knew you
>>could. . . )
>
>Having sat thru a version of a real fealty oath back when such things were
>being experimented with (must have been around '72 or '73), I remember the
>King asking the Herald to speed it up, the populace leaving, the Great
>Officers on their knees moaning in pain, and the Herald apologizing
>because it was only a *part* of what we knew was actually done.

So...since the first try at using a real fealty oath didn't work, we should
immediately turn to Tolkien instead? That's not particularly logical.
I would think it be better to find a *shorter* version of a period
fealty oath instead.

>If you want to start a Society for Compulsive Authenticity, please feel
>free to do so. I won't be joining.

Is it better to have a Society for Compulsive Inauthenticity? The SCA's
libertarian approach to historical accuracy is fine most of the time, but
when you have an official ceremony, everyone is going to be forced to do
things the same way. I don't see why it's OK to force everyone to recite
Tolkien and not OK to force everyone to recite something medieval.

Fairfax
From: atterlep@cs.com
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Received on Fri Jan 11 12:08:24 2002