Re: Dominion of Myrkfaelinn?

[edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com (Alfredo el Bufon)]

Poster: edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com (Alfredo el Bufon)

> > >                   [...]  While browsing, I came across
> > > the reference to the local group for Ithica, NY, as the
> > > "Dominion of Myrkfaelinn".  What is a dominion?
> >
> > A Dominion is like a Barony, but without a titular head.
>
> So how is that different from a Shire?

I believe that it _is_ considered an alternate name for a shire
for administrative purposes.  How is an Earl different from a Count?

> When I finally got to the website for Myrkfaelinn, it said that it
> isn't under the East Kingdom (or I guess AEthelmarc now).  So does
> that mean that it is "responsible" directly to Corporate?
>
> Puzzled....

Not all groups in the original Middle Ages and Renaissance were
monarchistic.  This is not well represented in these Current Middle
Ages.  Myrkfaelinn is set up non-monarchistically, obstensibly along
the lines of the government of Iceland.

I think the Laws presented at that Myrkfaelinn website
( http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/galak/sca.htm )
give a good indication of the Dominions nature, so I will
post it here (with mine own comments added in brackets).

-----------------------------------------------
Laws of the Dominion of Myrkfaelinn

   1.Because they are bigger than us, we resolve never to
     open hostilities against the East kingdom without due
     provocation.

   2.It is customary at the Pennsic War to fight on the side
     which has the best chance of getting out of the reserves
     and into actual combat.

   3.The king of the East is a nice guy.

   4.Fighters who respect the King of the East as a worthy
     fighter may do so, provided they salute him by name.

   5.Any fighter who complains excessively about insult or
     injury received on the field shall be named a member of
     the Pink Pikes.

   6.There is an event at Myrkfaelinn in the fall and one in
     the spring. There is no high table.

[There is also never any court in Myrkfaelinn.  If the king and/or
queen are there, it's not in any official capacity.]

   7.All comers to a Myrkfaelinn tourney challenge into the
     first round.

   8.The senechalate changes hands approximately once
     every two years when the last victim throws the key at
     the next, whether or not the next victim catches it.

   9.The armorer doesn't have to if he doesn't want to.

  10.The autocrat has first dibs on all cloved objects.

  11.It is wrong to beat live musicians, even if they play
     badly.

  12.We deplore the stealing of sheep.

  13.There is no gossip in Myrkfaelinn.

  14.There are no politics in Myrkfaelinn.

  15.It's all John's fault.

["John" here is Master John the Pell.  Early in Myrkfaelinn's history,
he took the blame for some problem or other just so people would work
on fixing the problem instead of fixing blame.  I was surprised to
find this wasn't the first law.]

  16.The best prophylactic against the fear of darkness is a
     lighted candle.

[This alludes to the group's name (which means "Fear of Darkness"
in Old Icelandic) and its device, which is Sable, a lighted candle
argent within a laurel wreath vert. (The green wreath on black gives
an idea of how old Myrkfaelinn is.)]

  17.There are too many laws on this list.

-----------------------------------------------------
Perhaps some group in Atlantia might heed the example of
Myrfaelinn, and set themselves up in the pattern of, say,
an Italian Republic, or the Swiss Confederacy.

-- Alfredo
 
Alfredo el Bufon
Elvegast, Windmaster's Hill, Atlantia
edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com
______________________________________

If painted figures move you so, how are you
to be trusted with living flesh and blood?
   Giovanni Francesco Caroto (c. 1480-1555), Veronese painter
     (to a priest who called his paintings "too lascivious")

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