T h e S h a r d NEWSLETTER OF THE BA RONY s OF SHATTERED CRYSTAL Volume 31, Issue 4 AUGUST 2019/ AS LIV P a g e 1 T h e S h a r d s I N S I D E Master William T H I S Blackfox Award ISSUE: Winner, Best Special Edition, Fioled Letters 2 A.S. LI (51) Missives 5 Acknowledgements Onyx Oven 6 Cover art: picture by Malina an Eich Gil with rework by Tiarna Cináed Ulric Wood block print of “Orange Tree & Pantheon pg 1, Coronet Magical SCA Logo for Their Excellencies’ missive, “Toasting Gift Givers” wood block 9 Moment print page 5, “Pies” wood block print page 8, Haematite Hospice logo page 9, “Cat Sidhe” wood block print page 10, and “Celtic Cats” page 15 are from Cináed Ulric. Haematite 9 Photos of Largess in the Baroness’ Missive are by Petrona de Hospice Manciano. King & Queen wood print, page 5 , is from Caxton's Game and Book of Playe of Chesse, 1470s and is in the public domain. 10 Bards Horizontal and Vertical dividers, and woodcuts on pages 4 and 15 are from the web page Goode Cookery, and their page on Medieval Woodcuts Clip Art collection from the 15-16th centuries. Their permis- Calendar 18 sion-use statement is: “Those who wish to reduce or alter these im- ages for their own use are welcome to do so.” All articles, except “The Letters of Fioled Wathen”, are written by the folks underneath the article’s title or end. “The Letters of Fioled Wathen” is written anonymously and the author(s) wishe(s) to remain anonymous. All Creative Work, Photography, and Model release forms for every article, photo, or artistic graphic are on file with the Chronicler. Volume 31, Issue 4 P a g e 2 The Letters of Fioled Wathen To Lady Yarwood, val at this time is won- fullest. The beginning derful with the coming of the harvest season My goode friend, of Gŵyl Awst, the was always mam's fa- Aeronwyn, I cannot feast of August, vorite time of the year tell you how grateful known as Lammas day and to celebrate this and my mind and heart is locally, or as Lughna- her arrival our cook, that you had one of sadh by my new found Guiscard, is set out to your marshals accom- Irish friends. She de- make a feast overflow- pany my mam on her scribed her journey into ing with a bread for journey here to mine town as beautiful as each course: a wastel and Rhion's manor in from the outlying farms loaf, a rose petal loaf, Briar Hollow. Her she saw shocks of and lammas plait all decision to travel right sheaves standing tall served with herbed but- when Pennsic War and drying golden in ter and bilberry jam. was happening, had the sun. Along the Needless to say mam both Rhion and myself roadsides in the bram- cannot wait for this constantly at church bles and bushes, many a feast day and has set- giving intercessory young maid were busy tled in nicely in our lit- prayers to St. Chris- picking bilberries and tle guest quarters which topher. Still, her arri- filling baskets to their opens up to the back P a g e 3 T h e S h a r d s part of the courtyard folklore. He has many though, much of the garden. stories to tell about the Barony is going off to In the second full benevolent or vengeful the lands of Swordcliff week of August, the lo- Cat Sith, cat fairies, to participate in some cal bard, Cináed Ul- large black cats with a good revelry known as ric, is planning to be in spot of white on their Baroness Wars, this the town square telling chest that roam around time redubbed Duchess stories while decked out at night guarding Wars. Baronial mem- in a jester's outfit that things, taunting people, bers are of course going resembles something or even blessing homes. to support our Baron- like a house cat. He is In particular however, ess, Petrona, in the ac- practicing some stories he will warn of Cat's tivities she patrons and he hopes to tell and Night, in which a witch supports, but there will trade at the Known who had transformed be so much going on World Bardic Con- herself into a cat eight from Arts & Sciences gress and Cooks Col- times, would become a classes and competi- legium that is being cat permanently, if she tions to coursing of held in the Barony at transformed herself for hounds, discussions the end of August. a ninth time on August and advice from her- He iss warning people seventeenth. Perhaps alds, as well as armored, to beware the Cat's this is why folks say rapier, archery, and Night on August 17th, cats have nine lives? thrown weapons compe- a legend out of Irish Before that event titions, so much to do. Volume 31, Issue 4 P a g e 4 Of course there will is still towards dolls also be merchants and and play. craftsmen there, among I do so hope you which I hope to find a can come and stay for a steyner for a project visit sometime soon. next month. My days right now are I must close as tied to the manor as we mam is calling me, and continue to get it set up today we begin to teach and Rhion further sets Anest what she needs up his textile shop with to know to run a house- Gareth in tow. Hop- hold: herb garden, medi- ing to hear from you cine chest, linens and soon. clothes, as well as other tasks should her future Your friend, husband be gone for an extended time and she Lady Fioled Wathen needs to be in charge. Mabyn & Glynnis will follow behind for some of these things, but they are still young enough their attention P a g e 5 T h e S h a r d s M i s s i v e s quested drawstring bags I would like to thank all of these (Banbharun Briana Morgan of folks for participating in Lady the Valley, Azzah bint al-Badawi Malina an Eich Gil’s largesse al-Murabbiyah al-Rualliyyah, Deb competition and for giving me Speer, Margaret MacLeod, & the opportunity to share the From the Mwynwen "Strawberrie" Ysig- bounty and talent of Shattered Baroness nidd ), 13 beaded veil pins Crystal with our Royal Family. (“Vienne la Main”), 13 lavender Watch for an announcement of sachets (Banbharun Briana), 13 the competition winner soon. On Saturday, July sixth, wood burned spoons and dish- Pietro and Heather helped me washer magnets (Shannon present the baskets of largesse Mullis), and 13 assorted pater- Baronessa Petrona to the Royal Family at Simple noster, earrings, and prayer Day. We were able to give the beads (Lina Duman). The Royal . Crown; close to 250 of the re- Family sends their gratitude. de Manciano Volume 31, Issue 4 P a g e 6 The Onyx Oven E m i l i a n Ț e a p ă f i Bilberry Tart Mixed with Cinnamon & Sugar Before I get to the recipe, I suppose I may need to tell a few people what a bilberry is. Obviously it is a berry, and it is one I've come across mentioned in a number of Medieval texts and discussed on Me- dieval or Renaissance re-creation t.v. shows. Bilberries, Modernly referred to as European blueberries, bilberries are primarily an Eurasian species of low-growing shrubs, bearing edible, dark blue berries. They are originally native to Europe, heavily listed throughout the British Isles, although many a report claims that the Scandinavian countries have them growing so much over their countryside it's almost like kudzu here in the American south - except of course people like this plant. In fact it is thought that's where they name came from. The name appears to have a Scandinavian origin, possibly from as early as 1577 C.E. (A.D.), being similar to the Danish word bølle for whortleberry with the addition of "berry". It is also known by a number of other names including blaeberry in the Scots language, whortleberry in southern England, (which pleased me to find out as whortleberries are a prize mentioned in a Facebook game I play and I had no idea what they were...) and wimberry, whimberry, winberry or whinberry in south Wales. They differ from North American blueberries in the fact that they are non-climacteric fruits with a smooth, circular outline at the end opposite the stalk, whereas blueberries retain persistent sepals there, leaving a rough, star-shaped pattern of five flaps. Also bilberries grow singly or in pairs rather than in clusters, as blueberries do, and bilberries are darker in color usually appearing near black with a slight shade of purple. A curious part of their cooking descriptions is that they have an intense flavor of concen- trated blueberries, which given the fact we would know about bilberries before blueberries one would think that the blueberries’ description would be "a similar fruit that is less intense taste of bilberries." For all the mention that bilberries receive in the texts and programs, one would think that there would be a decent amount of recipes to find containing them, but alas that is not so. As it was such a common fruit, and one that was frequently described as just served with cream and sugar or made to fla- vor a wine or mead, the recipes were perhaps too simple to be considered for writing down and just passed on orally, or they were thought of being more of a peasant dish, so it didn't make the royal or no- bility's cook books, that much of our Medieval recipes come from.