"I spent a year in Spain, the land of chivalry. Ah, chivalry - we quickly learned that Spanish men would rush to our aid if we cried. A young woman with a cute foreign accent can get anything if she bursts into tears: tickets to a full boat, the privilege of bypassing a slow-moving customs line, a first class sleeping berth for the price of a regular second class seat, etc. My friends and I enjoyed manipulating the Mediterranean machismo, because so often it's used to make women feel like mere objects, and inferior ones at that. It gave us a rare sense of power.
"While in sunny Spain, I constructed a very complex and melodramatic history for my persona, and changed my name to Siubhan Gabriela nic Cruimein de Pallacho. I did it so that my persona would fit into thirteenth-century Cordoba, but the rest of Felding maintains that I only did it to be difficult."
"The origin of my verse in the Felding Song is a car accident that we had on the way to an event in February while I was driving. We had signed out the big student organizations van from the college, but Cordelia and her boyfriend Rob and a couple of other Feldings decided to go in Rob's car and follow the van.
"So, we set out in two vehicles, and we were heading north on Route 128 and pulled into the exit lane to get onto Route 2. This rusty, cruddy car to my left a couple of lanes over apparently decided, 'Oh, this is my exit!' and began to pull over to the right very quickly. He was apparently aiming to cut in between the van and Rob's car behind us, but I could tell that unless he slowed down and changed his angle of travel he was going to hit us. I couldn't speed up because there were other cars exiting. I couldn't pull over. All I could do was watch this idiot sail right into us. I'm told that I broke into the most horrible string of swear words ever to come from my mouth - I don't remember it - and people were confused because no one but me could see this car coming.
"Then there was this horrible jolt. I never lost control of the van or anything - we just rattled and then were fine again. Now since Rob's car was behind us, they witnessed the whole thing and got the license number of the car. I took the first available exit and pulled over, and Rob followed me, but the jerk who hit us went on his way as if nothing had happened. We checked the damage, and it was actually not that bad. The back left corner was dented, and the end of the fender was peeled back, but nothing was falling off. We got back in and went on to the event site.
"Now, this was the event where we were planning to give the Felding Favor to Lord Gershom, so I was already a bit frazzled, and the accident didn't help. At the site I found a pay phone and called Campus Police. They told me to wait and they'd find an officer and call me back. After hanging up I noticed this little sign on the phone that said OUTGOING CALLS ONLY. So I called Campus Police back. They said, 'Well, it happened in Waltham, call Waltham Police.' So I went and got more change from people, called information for the number, and called Waltham Police. Waltham Police said, 'It happened on Route 128, call State Police.' State Police was a long distance number, and I couldn't get the phone to dial it. So I called Campus Police back and asked if I could just file a report when I got back. They said okay.
"I was pretty frustrated and stormed around the event for a while growling at people who got in my way. Eventually I calmed down, and in court we gave the Favor to Gershom in absentia. We had tried to get him to come to the event, but he had a business trip to Baltimore and wanted to visit family there, so he didn't go to the event. We wanted to surprise him, so we didn't tell him the truth about why we wanted him there. We made the award and then asked the barony not to tell him. Patri wondered if over a hundred people could keep a secret, but they did, because when we held an impromptu ceremony at the next dance practice to give Gershom the Favor, he was totally surprised.
"After the event I filled out an accident report form for Campus Police at 3 am. That was the last I've heard about the matter. You can still see the dents on the side of the big van. I think that they just put a new fender on and decided not to bother finding the guy who hit us since the dragon was the only thing injured."
Our fearless leader is Radegund.
She controls dragons both fearsome and great
Though one day another fierce dragon
Sought hers for to be his fair mate.
"Medieval dance can pop up in the most interesting locations - for instance, at a political march in Washington! You may remember the March for Women's Lives on April 9th, 1989. It was a large crowd, over 600,000 people, and yours truly, along with several other Carolingians (and ex-Carolingians), was thrown into the middle of it. Imagine nine people trying to keep together in this madness of the masses. The trick was to grab onto whatever part of your friends that you could find - arms, backpacks, but mostly hands. We finally ended up as a random line of people holding on to each other for dear life. Then one of us realized the similarity of our situation to a tangle bransle. Our eyes exchanged wicked glances, and before we knew it we were chanting fairly loudly, "1...2...3...4...1,2,3,4,1...2..." and so forth. We found we had a little more room around us after this endeavor, and in general we received lots of grins and good vibes. Moral of the story: Scadians will be Scadians wherever they go."
Provost: Radegund von der Feuchtenstadt
Steward: Juliana d'Antioche
Exchequer: Guendalina Francesca di'Antonio Cristiano
Chronicler: Pamela of Felding