The Queen’s Meadhall in Carolingia was where this song was first publicly performed. It was written after a conversation with Aneleda’s noble cousin and friend Gryffyn Dunham, who was on the unbelted team at the time, about what inspires us do do what we do on the field (and elsewhere.) Since I had no song that really fit that theme, I wrote this one.
I fight for you, my one, my love, my own You who give more strength to me than I would know alone. While my arms are bound in linen and my legs are wrapped in steel nothing brings me to my knees as the way you make me feel. I fight for you.
Many are the days and nights
when I have left you behind;
deep within a warrior’s trance
seemed to push you from my mind.
But know that you are all to me
no matter what I show
for I don the armor to protect
what I hold safely below.
I fight for you...etc.
The miles, they leave me lonesome
for the warrior’s road is long.
I miss your laughter ‘round the fire
And your voice raised soft in song.
As I look up to the star’s light
that I know above you shine,
I pray that my thoughts carry
to the love I know is mine.
I fight for you...etc.
Each buckle and each lacing
Marks the rituals of war,
Knowing solidly and firmly
that for you I would do more.
With my life I will protect you
and would keep you from all harm,
each time I step upon the field
I wear that knowledge as a charm.
I fight for you...etc.
When I have the time I watch you
‘neath the shadow of my helm.
But I do not do it often
lest my feelings overwhelm.
With all the honor in my being
I take every day for you
I swear that your belief in me
I shall never make you rue.
Visitors and SCAdians at Fort Knox in Maine. Photo by Ed Dumont.
We have a big demo annually at a beautiful granite fort which is a state park. It brings between 1000-1700 members of the general public on a single Saturday in September who see a day of SCA activities, staged somewhat like a theatre show or a circus – there is a large green where the “performances” happen and the “audience” is around them.
We have a parade, fencing, music, dancing, and a pas d’armes – the set takes about 2.5 hours and there is a fashion show in the middle before the second set begins. We also have A&S displays and martial displays happening around the fort. All four of the SCA groups in Maine attend and assist at this demo and sometimes folks will come from even farther to play!
Singers perform near one of the gun bays. Photo by Ed Dumont.
Because it can be overwhelming, one year I made a SCAvenger Hunt to help littler ones have a good experience. It worked really well! The next year we got neighboring Malagentia’s Mistress Carolyne de laPointe, to make a little scroll for us to give as a certificate. We photocopy them on cool paper and sign their name in calligraphy. We change some things every year and even adults get into the spirit of the thing!
it gives a goal and some focus
it ensures that visitors have an idea of all we do
people get a checklist of things to try
it is rewarding on its own; more with a token upon completion
it can be done on any timeframe (minutes or hours!)
it is easily adaptable
it is very inexpensive
it encourages people to interact with our SCA members and ask questions about the Society
Here is what we use – make some for your demo or event. We print them on half-pages of regular sized paper.
Or maybe give younglings a token when they complete the hunt!
This is our certificate:
SCAventer Hunt for 2011
There is a lot going on today! Do the things listed, and
get an SCA member initials beside what you’ve tried.
When you’re finished, come to the Info Point inside the
Fort for a special certificate!
Learn and say a medieval name.
Listen to a piece of music.
Touch something handmade.
Hold a piece of chain maile.
Touch a ballista.
Hold a sword.
Talk to someone in armor.
Count the feathers on an arrow.
Try on a helmet.
Find someone wearing a kirtle.
This is a leather game board which is a variation on “Il nuovo e molto dilettevole giuoco dell’oca” — “The new and very entertaining game of the goose” – a late-period Italian board game. It’s painted with acrylic paints, and the dice are hand made with sculpty clay which was baked and painted. The game pieces are carved stone cats, which were purchased at Birka (made in Peru!)
It was made as a gift in the East Kingdom Artisanal Exchange for the second EKAE swap, for Lady Matilda Fossoway. As her heraldry features cats and acorns, this version of the game features cats and trees.
Il nuovo e molto dilettevole giuoco dell’gato – The new and very entertaining game of the cat
Death is fishing for his cat.
The labyrinth has a seam ripper as the fountain statue.
The garden where all those heraldic flowers come from, the Inn, and also Gate – where you cannot leave until another player’s piece lands to take your place. (Originally the jail, but all SCAdians know how Gate works. Heh.)
The dice rolled in 4&5 or 6&3 send you to these. The dice are color coded. If you roll another kind of thing that adds to 9, you basically win the game by going cat to cat.
The rules on this version are as follows:
To play, roll dice and advance the number shown. If you land in occupied space, the player in the space goes to the space the other player came from. Some spaces have special effects. Cats – go double the dice forward, or backward, as the cat faces. Bridge – Go to square 12. Labyrinth – return to square 30. Gate – Stay until another lands, go to his prior spot. Skull – return to start. Roll a 6&3 go to square 26; if a 4&5 go to 53. To win get to 63 exactly, if too many, go backwards the surplus. He who reaches 63 is the winner of this fine diversion.
**Note: I ought to have noted that Gate may not leave until someone else takes their place, and pressed for space, these read a little like foreign translations of stereo installation instructions.**
“The new and very entertaining game of the goose” has a somewhat mysterious origin, but is rooted firmly in period. A version of it was given to King Philip II of Spain in 1580 by Ferdinando I de ‘Medici. It is said that Philip was quite amused by the game.◊
The boxes on the version of De ‘Medici were decorated with symbols that were part of the tradition: two dice, a skull , a queue, a bridge , a maze or a goose. Some believe that it is a simple gambling game and the winner would take the pot and purchase the goose for feasting. Others find deep symbolism in the goodness of the geese and the tragedies one may encounter as they journey around the board.
In general, the board is 63 squares in a spiral and is played with two dice, and what markers one wishes to use. Skill is entrusted to the luck of the dice, and the board offers blessings and curses – geese allow forward motion, or backward on occasion; hazards keep one from moving or, in the case of death, send one back to the beginning of the cycle.
The game board has been adapted by regions and in different times in history to represent many different things, though the root of the game is basically the same.
Variation in boards is found but all seem to have the a well/pit, prison, bridge, skull/death, labrynth/maze, and geese (or people), and specific places to be when specific combinations of dice are rolled.
As this is a gift board for a specific individual, it has been altered to suit her persona and interests. Geese have been changed to cats; it has a bridge, a well, a maze (featuring a seam-ripper sculpture fountain), death (who is fishing), and the jail has been replaced with an SCA event gate – since that is a space where one must stay until another lands and replaces the player – a lot like actual gate!
It features heraldic elements from Tir Mara and from the lady for whom it was made, as well as nods to the Boreal Army star, my own heraldry (snails) and the Northern Army’s star. The sea monster is for her home in the maritime provinces of Tir Mara. The seasons weave in and out of the game board. “Special” squares are highlighted in gold ink. The feature of the game is the center which boasts her coat of arms, and a medieval pavilion in which waits a cat. The sky is meant to represent the Duc du Bary illuminations which have beautiful colors of sky in them. Some parts of the board have actual constellations; Polaris is in her correct relative place, for example.
The “Gato” rules are a combination of the rules of several boards, simple as they could be made but still true to the original game as much as possible.
Below are several boards.
Il novo bello et piacevole gioco della scimia (1588)
Game of the goose with 99 spaces (17th century) from the print shop of Gabriel Guasp in Palma de Mallorca.
Filosofia cortesana de Alonso de Barros (1588)
Venitian board, possibly 1800s
Il novo et piacevol gioco del giardin d’amore (1590s)
Unknown origin
Il novo e piacevole gioco del pela il chiu (1700s)
The Rules
Variations in rules are remarkably limited – for the most part the game seems to survive with stunning similarity to its original version!
Book of hours, France ca. 1485-1490 (NY, Morgan, MS M.26, fol. 88r)
Ruleset 1
The object of the game is to be the first person to get to the end of the journey.
The youngest player goes first. Roll the dice and move your counter one square for each spot on the dice. Then it is the next player’s turn unless one of these things happens:
If you throw a 3 on your first turn you can move straight to square 26.
If your counter lands on a Goose square you can move again without throwing the dice. You move the number of spots of your original throw. For example throw a 4, land on a Goose, move four squares forward again.
If you land on the Bridge, square 6, miss a turn while you pay the toll.
If you land on the Inn, square 19, miss a turn while you stop for some tasty dinner.
If you you land on the Well, square 31, make a wish and miss three turns. If another player passes you before your three turns are up you can start moving again on your next go.
If you land on the Labyrinth, square 42, you will get lost in the maze and have to move back to square 37.
Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 130I, fol. 233r (Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, France ca. 1294-1297)
If you land on the Prison, square 52, you will have to miss three turns while you are behind bars. If another player passes you before your three turns are up you can start moving again on your next go.
If you land on Dead, square 58, you have to go back to square 1 and start all over again!
Players may not share squares, so if your dice roll would land you on an occupied square you will have to stay where you are until it is your turn again.
To win you must reach square 63 exactly. If your dice roll is more than you need then you move in to square 63 and then bounce back out again, each spot on the dice is still one sqaure in this move. If you land on any of the special squares while you are doing this then you must follow the normal instructions.
When you land on square 63 exactly you are the winner!*
Lyon, bibliothèque municipale, Ms 6881, fol. 30r (book of hours, Lyon, ca. 1505-1510)
Ruleset 2‡
Some boxes of arrival have a special effect. In the traditional version, the boxes representing geese (hence the name of the game) allow you to move forward immediately a number of squares equal to those covered by the movement just made. These boxes are placed every nine boxes from boxes 5 and 9 (a consequence of this provision is that an initial launch of 9 immediately brings the player to the box 63 and then to victory).
The other boxes special are the following:
at box 6 (“the bridge “), you pay the post and repeat the movement as in the boxes with the geese;
in box 19 (” home “or” inn “) you pay the post and remain still three rounds;
to boxes 31 (” pit “) and 52 (” prison “) will remain stationary until it arrives in the box another counter, which is in turn” imprisoned “;
in box 42 (” Labyrinth “) you pay the post and return to 39;
in box 58 (” skeleton “), you pay the post and return to 1.
The box of the target (63) must be reached with a roll of the dice exact, otherwise reached the bottom, you go back the excess points.
book of hours (the ‘Harley Hours’), England 13th century* (British Library, Harley 928, fol. 44v)
Ruleset 3 †
II. There are no captures in the game but as we all know from the old spaghetti-westerns , “this field’s too small for the both of our pieces”, so when you land on an occupied field the other piece has to move back to the field you just came from.
The board consists of 63 fields. Some of them are specially marked:
III. 5, 9, 14, 18, 23, 27, 32, 36, 41, 45, 50, 54, 57 – The Goose. If you land on the goose it allows you to move your piece again and again with the same number of pips until it lands on a goose-less field. You should say – “from goose to goose I move as I choose”. However some of the geese “take a backward glance” so then you should “move as you choose”, but backwards.
IV. 6 – The Bridge – if your piece lands on the bridge, you immediately advance to field 12, declaiming “from bridge to bridge come see if I miss”.
V. 19 – The Inn – we all know what happens when entering a nice pub – you lose a turn; but there’s one exception – if another player arrives at the Inn in the same turn, he or she loses a turn but you land on the field he came from.
VI. 31 – The Well – you miss two turns – if another player lands there, he or she frees you and you may return to the field you came from.
VII. 42 – The Maze – you must go back to field 30, sorry.
VIII. 52 – The Prison – you stay there until another player frees you – then you go to his or her previous field
IX. 58 – The Skull – skulls have never meant anything good, you have to return to field 1 and begin again.
X. 26, 53 – The Dice – if you throw a 6 and a 3 you automatically land on 26, whereas if you roll a 4 and a 5, you go to 53. You’re supposed to say “from dice to dice I slide and get by”.
XI. 63 – The Goose’s garden – yes, you won!
XII. But to win the game you have to land exactly on 63. If there are too many pips on your dice, unfortunately you have to move backwards in the amount of the surplus (counted from field 63) and try once again until you succeed.
A horn sounds out, its tone is sweet and strong.
Upon the ear sustained note doth lay.
It calls to goodly folk, “Come now along
heed war-fields’ call to sing and dance and play!
Swift, beside the stags and coneys, run
unto the place where gryphons, dragons meet,
a-gathered with their cousins in the sun
in fine display of kinship all too fleet.”
See now a land enchanted does appear
where all shall share in battle and in art,
from shyest maid to boist’rous cavalier,
each noble soul displays a nobl’er heart.
The echo’s path we followed, so contrived.
Beneath Estrella’s sky are all revived.
WHAT TO LEARN:
You are welcome to learn just the first line, and repeat it over and over – a task excellent for little littles perhaps – or you may learn the whole three-line phrase. =) (Trying to make it easy on everyone.) Since it all fits together anyway, I promise that it will work! =)
We will meet to rehearse this piece at Birka 30 minutes before Court. We shall meet where the youth fighting took place during the day – in the large room “behind” the ballroom (pass the ballroom, go up the stairs, into the big room.)
Thank you all so much!!
– Aneleda
(I will be posting some other songs we adults and teens might do as well.)
