Wiesenfeuer Baronial Championship, Part II

After feast, my feet were killing me so I parked myself in a chair (the first time I had sat down in nearly six hours!) and chatted with Lady Danielle while the feast hall turned into the Court of Their Excellencies Wiesenfeuer. Eventually the rest of Clan Namu joined me, as the unsuspecting Cadfael was up for an award. We cheered for the Baronial Champions, cheered for our newest Flaming Weasel (Lord Orlando burned a large hole through his froofy-sleeved shirt whilst cooking feast so he got what is basically our blooper award) and watched as our Baroness became an apprentice to the mesmerizing belly dancer Mistress Rhiannon.

Then HL Thomas Quilliam started reading the next award. Poor Thomas. Welsh is not his forte at all. As he read the scroll, I could barely understand the name Cadfael Ap Mynnydd Ap Dowen Ap Dafydd (not that I was surprised or anything... I can't pronounce it myself!). I turned to look at Cadfael who looked completely perplexed. "I think that's me?"

"I think that's you, man, maybe you should stand up and approach the thrones!"

While Cadfael made his way to Their Excellencies, escorted by his sister, Katrina, I darted around to the side of the audience with her camera and captured a few nice pictures of the moment. When Baron Elric turned Cadfael around and introduced him to us as the newest Lord of Ansteorra, our entire clan (all 6 of us) chanted "Namuuuuuuuuuuu!" and applauded him. It was a proud moment for us all.


When he came back to his seat, he still looked bewildered. I sat for a moment looking at his scroll until Thomas began again...

"Their Excellencies do call Emine Hatun al-Tha'labii bint Abdullah into their presence." All I heard was "Emine" (the rest proved that Turkish is not Thomas' forte either), but that was all I needed to start my hands shaking.

Since I was sitting on the outside isle, I started walking that direction. Ashikaga had expected me to follow him to the center isle, so I wasn't exactly escorted to Their Excellencies, but I made it there somehow. We bowed in front of Baron Elric and Baroness Dominique and I knelt on the baronial pillow.

To be completely honest, I didn't hear much of what Baron Elric was saying. I was too busy trying not to cry (it wasn't working) and the Baroness was making "Aww, honey, don't cry!" faces at me. His Excellency had me rise from the pillow as Thomas was reading my scroll to the populous and Her Excellency gave me a long, reassuring hug. After His Excellency gave me a hug, he turned me around to face the populous while Thomas showed off my scroll. I turned to look at it and couldn't help but clap like a little girl when I saw how pretty it was. The Baron introduced me as the newest Lady of Ansteorra and the populous clapped for me and shouted "Vivat!" while I heard the low, chanting tone of "Namuuuuuuuuuuu!" That's when I looked down at Ashikaga who was prostrating himself before me, resplendent in his Japanese court garb, reverence capturing his face.

I was awe-struck for a moment as they handed me my scroll and I walked back to my seat, forgetting to take Ashikaga's arm once more. When I sat down, my clansmen greeted me with hugs and pats on the back. Tomburr whispered in my ear, "After nine years, it's about time. Well deserved." I wiped the tears from my eyes and enjoyed the rest of court with a big, silly grin on my face and the overwhelming desire to go sit in my tent and cry.


Saturday Night
After court we went back to Their Excellencies' cabin once again to prepare for the hafla. Most of the populous was already at the covered pavilion and we could hear the drummers warming up while we stacked serving platters together to transport to the little kitchen down there.

As I mentioned in my recent blog on cooking, the hafla snack bar was a fantastic success. Branislava is a goddess and I look forward to learning more about Mediterranean cooking from her. We're planning on doing a cooking day in the near future so I can learn the right way to make rahat loukoum (aka Turkish delight). I have made it before according to a recipe and video on About.com, and it turned out exactly like the video portrayed, but it wasn't authentic at all and it didn't taste all that great. On top of that I have issues with food textures and it was just too much like Jell-O for my liking.

Anyway, as we were hanging out at the hafla, it started raining and by the time the party was over, there was mud everywhere. I was ready to go home to sleep (we live about 15 minutes from site) and come back to get our sopping wet things in the morning, but Ashikaga convinced me to give our Coleman tent another chance.

Just as I remembered, camping in the rain sucks. The next morning we packed in the rain and neverending inches of red, Oklahoma mud and drove home, leaving our tent there to dry. Turns out, our tent was leaking like a sieve so we trashed it. I guess that gives us even more reason to work on getting a period tent.

In conclusion, an absolutely amazing event. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend (trust me, I tried to convince the head of my Household that it was time to make me a full-fledged member, but he wasn't buying it hahahahaha).