Chivalry and Courtly Behavior

[SCAEtain@aol.com]

Poster: SCAEtain@aol.com

Greetings,

There was this guy I know who was attending his first-ever Pennsic as an
archer.  He was new to the SCA and had only been shooting for a couple of
months.  He wasn't really that good, but he was pretty enthusiastic about it
and had managed to get included in the Baroness' Guard for his home Barony.
The only thing this meant was that he was going to go shoot at the same time
as the other members of the Guard, with the many of the rest of the Barony
looking on for support.

When the Guard arrived at the Clout shoot, this guy suddenly stopped and asked
one of the ladies there if he could borrow a pen.  He then pulled six arrows
from his quiver and proceeded to mark them up.  When asked what he was doing,
he explained that it occurred to him that there were six ladies who were
providing him his inspiration that day -- his Queen, the Crown Princess, a
territorial Princess, his Baroness, his lady at home who could not come to
war, and a lady from his Barony who had given him her favor when no other Lord
had offered to bear it to the field for her.  He was going to shoot an arrow
for each lady, and had marked them with their initials so he could keep them
straight later.

The Guard approached the line, and the arrows were loosed.  As he shot each of
his arrows, he spoke aloud the name of the lady that particular arrow belonged
to. Those who were looking on thought it was a little corny, but still kinda
touching.  When they were done shooting, the range was closed as the marshals
took to the field to tally the scores.  The archers were then released to
retrieve their arrows.

Word came down the hill to the Barony that he had shot a six!  And back up the
hill went a great cheer!  A lord who was present was also member of the King's
household.  He insisted that this guy present the arrows to each lady for whom
he had shot, and made arrangements for audiences with each of the Royals.
Rumor has it that when he presented an arrow to one of the Princesses, she was
so taken by his simple act of chivalry that she wept.

In Service,
Etain ingen Thadgain (of Dun Carraig and Lochmere)
(that's AY-den)
=======================================================================
List Archives, FAQ, FTP:  http://merryrose.atlantia.sca.org/
            Submissions:  atlantia@atlantia.sca.org
        Admin. requests:  majordomo@atlantia.sca.org