Old Newsletters
Long ago I joined the SCA. I was a member of the East Kingdom, and I was fascinated by its history. But I was even more fascinated by its lack of history.
By this I mean that I could not figure out how a group dedicated to recreating history was so lax about recording their own history. As time passed and I matured I came to recognize that there was some kind of curse on historians of the East Kingdom. I am not a superstitious person, but in this case I acknowledged the obvious: that whatever Easterner took the position of historian in the East, their life exploded before the conclusion of their two year term of office.
In fact, in recent years, the office of historian of the East has gone vacant.
In addition to the office of historian, there is the office of archivist whose job is to curate the ancient files of the East. I once held this position.
A few years ago, Countess Sir Fern de la Forêt convinced me to write the formal history of the East Kingdom because no one in the kingdom had accepted the assignment, and of those outside the kingdom, I was most recommended. I wrote a short history for the event book, and a version almost ten thousand words long for display in the great hall. It was the history of the East I had always wanted to read. That long history is available elsewhere on this website.
Two years later, that long history was updated and included in the event book for the event celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the East Kingdom.
I offered that history to East for their website, and as a result the historian/archivist of the East Kingdom (Michel Wolffauer) established contact with me. But apparently, the curse upon Eastern historians has expanded. His term of office was ending and no one was stepping forward to succeed him. As a result, the archives were headed for storage.
But before he retired from office he inquired whether there "were there any documents you were looking for but unable to find" and I requested any pre-Pikestaff East Kingdom newsletters extant in digital form. Two months later he fulfilled my request, and an amazing resource was created. You can find it here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/li172hh9lplrgee/AACS1OvqVr7E_H3jz_vJDglXa?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR2qqRNXY9CZ4VtbhNsr-PXW-g_2H1gObkLha3DR5x-C8lQZG7Q46rBPyPE
By this I mean that I could not figure out how a group dedicated to recreating history was so lax about recording their own history. As time passed and I matured I came to recognize that there was some kind of curse on historians of the East Kingdom. I am not a superstitious person, but in this case I acknowledged the obvious: that whatever Easterner took the position of historian in the East, their life exploded before the conclusion of their two year term of office.
In fact, in recent years, the office of historian of the East has gone vacant.
In addition to the office of historian, there is the office of archivist whose job is to curate the ancient files of the East. I once held this position.
A few years ago, Countess Sir Fern de la Forêt convinced me to write the formal history of the East Kingdom because no one in the kingdom had accepted the assignment, and of those outside the kingdom, I was most recommended. I wrote a short history for the event book, and a version almost ten thousand words long for display in the great hall. It was the history of the East I had always wanted to read. That long history is available elsewhere on this website.
Two years later, that long history was updated and included in the event book for the event celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the East Kingdom.
I offered that history to East for their website, and as a result the historian/archivist of the East Kingdom (Michel Wolffauer) established contact with me. But apparently, the curse upon Eastern historians has expanded. His term of office was ending and no one was stepping forward to succeed him. As a result, the archives were headed for storage.
But before he retired from office he inquired whether there "were there any documents you were looking for but unable to find" and I requested any pre-Pikestaff East Kingdom newsletters extant in digital form. Two months later he fulfilled my request, and an amazing resource was created. You can find it here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/li172hh9lplrgee/AACS1OvqVr7E_H3jz_vJDglXa?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR2qqRNXY9CZ4VtbhNsr-PXW-g_2H1gObkLha3DR5x-C8lQZG7Q46rBPyPE