Becoming Beathog

With yet another holiday season (Easter, for my family) upon us, I’ve been giving some thought about what celebrations, if any, were celebrated, by my people, in the Scottish Highlands during the 14th century.  First obvious question is, Is Beathog a Christian?  A pagan?  What rituals or observances would she participate in?

My first (albeit uneducated) guess would be that Beathog might have been a Christian (and perhaps only in later life), but I believe those living in the rural Highland areas (and, therefore, Beathog) held on to many pagan practices, regardless of any conversions that may or may not have taken place.

I just read an interesting book which discusses the ancient Picts and the heavy influences left by them in much of Scotland.  The author, who is attempting to make an historically-based claim to the modern practice of PectiWita, describes the religion of early Scotland (before the coming of Christianity) as Druidism, “a form of sun-worship peculiar to the Celtic peoples…

… the conversion to Christianity (in Scotland) was a slow and very drawn-out process.  By the middle of the seventeenth century the conversion was complete only in so far as it applied to the townspeople and upper classes.  In the country, it made little impression on the minds of the peasantry, who continued to adhere to the old beliefs to which they were accustomed.”

Beathog, then, in the 14th century, would necessarily still be influenced by Druid practices, I would guess.  This author describes this belief system in Scotland to be a precursor, if you will, of modern-day conservationists.  His belief is that the Highlanders were individuals that tied-in their lives with the passing seasons and probably used herbs to heal or for other magickal purposes, and who were not concerned with more ceremonial religious practices until a much later time.

Hmm.  Beathog as a tree hugger.  I like that. 🙂

————

My family has been suffering, a bit, from an “organized religion hangover” for several years, so much so that several of my daughters (unnamed) have resisted the idea of getting together for a traditional Easter celebration.  Okay.  So, this year, we are celebrating in a little different way, embracing a few ideas from a somewhat earlier tradition.

Easter traditions, I understand, have their origins in earlier Pagan traditions.  The name, “Ostara” is derived from Eostre, the Goddess of Spring, and Ostara is a celebration of the Vernal Equinox (the first day of Spring).  Ostara celebrates the balance of light and dark and marked the time for sowing new crops in the northern Saxon countries.  Many creatures gave birth at this time, so symbols of fertility, such as eggs, were traditionally eaten at this time.  The rabbit, chicks, eggs and the equilateral cross are symbols that were borrowed from Pagan tradition by early church leaders.

So, this year, my family is celebrating Spring!  We will have a great day, celebrating our family (and, most definitely, red wine and chocolate).  I think I may also hug a tree.  And I think I will be just a little closer to Beathog this year.  🙂

SCA-Beathog went to war.  At the request of her king, Edric V, she followed His armies onto the lands of the Kingdom of Atenveldt, where Caid would lend support to Her allies there, both in and out of combat.  A non-fighter, SCA-Beathog, and others of her household, support both Crown and Kingdom by entertaining the masses with both story and song (a kind of SCA USO Show, if you will), and often play the role as bard, carrying news throughout the Known World.

———-

That’s my SCA story, so far, at least.  But, how might my Beathog persona  fit into this scenario, I wonder?  How might she be comfortable taking such a trip?

I spent a lot of time packing my car and trailer, during the days before the war, as I always do.  I began to wonder just how much of the stuff I take with me, each and every war, would be a comfort to Beathog on such a journey, and how much of the stuff would be strange to her or would be, jarringly, of another age.   I had originally planned to take photos of the different areas of my camp, to examine the details, later.   The inclement weather made this exercise difficult, but the harsh weather, in itself, offered quite another very interesting perspective for me.  The endless rain, the subsequent muddy roads, and the bitter cold were certainly a common occurance in 14th century Scotland.   I think, in the area of persona studies, this would be called the immersion method of study. 🙂

I did manage to make several observations, which I find somewhat helpful.  I list the following items to be those that help me to feel like Beathog, for whatever reason.  Hey, if I can feel like Beathog, I can become her.

1.  my spurtle – it’s a stick that’s intended for stirring oats, brought from Scotland, and always kept, near at hand, in my camp kitchen

2.  my 14th century drop spindle & several varieties of Yorkshire wool, purchased there

3.  a sheepskin brought, by my parents, from Scotland – the ONLY thing I found to be efffective in  keeping my seat warm!

4.  my hood & liripipe, in Donnachie red wool – I hardly feel like Beathog at all, without this item!

5.  rain, bitter cold & MUD – This was annoying, but manageable, with leather shoes, woolen socks (my shoes were muddy, certainly, but my feet were always warm and dry} and hat (yes, even while sleeping!), layers of clothing in linen and wool.  It really is a great thrill to find out your garb is much, much more than a costume!

6. chamber pot – yes, yes, yes!!

7.  period menus – For the most part, we do an excellent job in eating foods available in the SCA period and, when I am cooking, I rarely use foods that were not available in the 14th century.  I think the most important part of this, for me, is that the foods I eat at war are different than the foods I eat at home.  I eat sausage at home, but the sausages Domhnall makes for war have period seasoning and thus a different taste than the varieties we eat at home.  I use so much oats and leeks, as well, that I get the attention of the grocery clerks when we shop for war.

8.  camp furnishings – While not a requirement in our camp, we do have many period pavilions.  My personal pavilion may not be a 14th century style, but it is quite comfortable and I accept it, gratefully, over a modern tent alternative.  We have replaced (most) of our plastic tables with wooden ones (using one plastic table, still, for dishwashing) and we are on our way to having (only) wooden benches for dining.  We are (currently) working on replacing all of our chairs with wooden ones.  I love, love my new chair, and do not care that it is more appropriate for SCA-Beathog than my 14th century persona.  It is NOT my former, 10-year old director’s chair.  Yay!

———-

Getting rid of ALL of our modern chairs is our priority, certainly, as they would be quite jarring to Beathog (some of them are quite jarring to everyone, SCA or not).  While we do work very hard (at my insistence, I admit) at enjoying a period menu, I think Beathog would certainly be confused by much of the other items, found in our camp, at any given war.  I have been trying to encourage everyone to use a critical eye and to keep the much-necessary plastic containers out of site.  We seem to be getting quite lazy about our serving dishes, for example, and serving out of plastic storage containers and bags, rather than using all of those beautiful dishes we carry around with us.

We are doing so much better at occupying ourselves with period activities, and limiting conversations about modern subjects, such as television, and the like, but many of us still have a long way to go in this area.

An SCA friend of mine has a brilliant insight about this, I think.  She says some people never leave the realm of Modern Life – they have been raised in that world and do not feel comfortable leaving it.  I think she’s absolutely correct, and that’s why I’m trying to encourage all of my household to get to know their personas, and to feel comfortable about walking in those shoes for awhile……… Yes, even in the mud!

“So, as I see it, the challenge is the one we were given in the very beginning – to create a persona of a person who “could have lived” in the Middle Ages. And the challenges carried by that phrase are as minimal or enormous as we make them.”

———-

I suffer from the tendency to try and go in many directions at once, and often trip myself in the process.  My husband reminded me of a simple fact:  I am trying to develop a persona of someone who could have lived in the Middle Ages, not someone who lived during the entire Middle Ages!  I think this is where many of us go wrong.  If something was known “in period”, and we like it, we embrace it as our own.  This is not necessarily harmful, if you don’t mind the train wreck that happens with some people’s garb choices when they do that.  We’ve all seen it, and most of us have done it on occasion, mixing several centuries and cultures (and using a bit of creative license, for good measure) into one smart outfit!  Again, it harms no one and is not against any rules (that we, thankfully, don’t have).  But, it is a bit hard on the persona. 🙂

I recently had a very enlightening experience.  In an attempt to get to know Beathog a bit more, I sought to learn a bit more history from her time period.  To begin, I went to one of those On This Day websites, to copy recorded events that happened in Scotland during my century-of-interest.  I included items that occurred earlier, especially those that may have had a direct relationship to the Wars of Independence to come, or that might somehow influence what Beathog may think or know.

What should have been a very simple exercise turned out to be a rather hard exercise in self discipline!  I kept coming across entries that I was very interested in, and I had to (strongly) fight the urge to include items that were way too far in Beathog’s future for her to have any use of them!  I soon realized that Beathog (presently) has a very strong connection to Scotland (generally).  I feel very connected to castles that I have visited, and I was being seduced by wanting to include events that occurred in places I have been, as well.  Beathog may live to be a very old woman, but she could never have known, or heard of, Mary Queen of Scots!

So, the first step for becoming Beathog is to narrow the search.  The Battle of Bannockburn has to be an important turning point in her life.  I think, as she shares this experience with Domhnall, it makes sense for that to begin their story together somehow.  And, as Joe and Rebecca’s story began as very young teenagers, I think it feels right that Beathog and Domhnall’s story begins there, too.  Being a teenager during the Wars for Independence helps Beathog in several ways.  First, she can have lived in the Highlands as a young girl (and known a certain lifestyle), but have opportunities, in the years to follow, to live in Edinburgh or some castle or another (and known a different lifestyle).  I had to develop a simple persona story to use when doing private demos with Baroness Aurelia, that included my life in a castle.  I chose Lochlevin Castle, because I had been there and because I knew Robert I (Robert the Bruce) had stayed there several times.  The castle had also been used to store valuables and part of the Royal Exchequer.  It made sense to me that Beathog could have traveled there, as well, in Domhnall’s company, and as a part of the entourage.

I think that I have been embracing Beathog as a woman from Scotland, rather than from 14th century Scotland.  Part of that is, certainly, because I have so little information relevant to this time period in Scotland.  I will probably have to make some decisions in some areas, and determine when my Scottish persona is more important that my 14th century one, and vice-versa.

———-

I know several people who have decided their persona is much younger than their actual age.  While it may be nice to pretend to be younger, I don’t understand this rationale.  I’m not interested in putting on my persona face and playing it, like I would play a role on stage.  I am interested in getting up on a Saturday morning, grabbing my basket, putting on my coif and becoming Beathog for the day.  I cannot pretend that I have not lived for 55 years, and I would not want to.  I have had many wonderful experiences and have grown wise as a result of these numerous life experiences.  I like to think the same has happened to Beathog.  As a girl, she witnessed her people struggle to achieve independence.  She has vivid memories of living with her family in the Scottish Highlands and has experienced sadness as some of them were lost in the years to follow.  She has lived many years with the man she loves and has traveled and learned many new ways.  She is now living in this beautiful kingdom of Caid, where she has seen many new and wonderful things.  I cannot imagine why I would want to limit Beathog in such a way that robbing her of all those years might do.

We are often asked, in the SCA, the following question: What do you want to be in the SCA?

Do you want to be King? A knight? Pelican? Maybe a Laurel?

Are you a Viking?

Maybe you are a Seneschal? Or an Arts and Sciences Officer?

And then, there’s my favorite: Perhaps you are a bard, if there can even BE such a thing!?

I have recently come to realize that I am guilty, guilty, guilty of sitting around at tourneys and doing what MOST of us do… gossiping or carrying on mundane conversations about things that have no place at an SCA tourney, such as television programs, freeway traffic, or (the horror!) penises… Yes, we have recently sunk to an all-time low!

Why?!? Because we don’t know how to do anything differently. We have chosen names we like, and most of us know from whence we came. A few of us make at least an attempt at dressing in clothing that may have been worn in our chosen time and place. But we have not given much more thought, than that, to a persona.

I think the key to developing a persona is, not knowing WHAT you are, but, rather, WHO you are. I intend to compile a list of questions to answer, to find out, a bit better, who Beathog is.

I could ask, simply, “Is Beathog an archer?” But, I learn so much more if I ask, rather, “Does Beathog have the need to be able to shoot a bow?”

I have some serious challenges ahead of me, because we have so little documentation from my chosen place in time. We cannot KNOW exactly what was worn, only make an educated guess. I admit that I question some of the research done in this area, particularly the implication that the Highland men wore no shoes and were bare-legged! I have been to the Scottish Highlands (and Lowlands), and IT IS DAMN COLD there, even in summer. I have seen the rugged terrain and cannot imagine anyone in their right mind come running down the side of the Ben without shoes! And would Beathog, living in that particular time and place, really chose to mimic her English enemy in adapting their style of dress? How much contact would Beathog actually have had with her neighbors to the south (or the Lowlanders, for that matter)?

There are no published cookbooks from Scotland before the 18th century, that I know of. What would Beathog eat? How was it prepared?

Is Beathog a pagan? A Christian? Can she read or write? Has she ever traveled outside her native homeland (other than to Caid!)?

I am very excited about taking this journey, because I know it will do so much to enrich my SCA experience, which I truly love. Feel free to travel along with me, if you wish. I welcome your comments, as long as you remember that I am learning along the way and may make mistakes. Please do not take any of my guesses or assumptions as fact, or think that I am trying to state them as such! This journey is for Beathog, and Beathog alone.

One thing that creeps me out: I have heard a few people say, “My persona was born in ____ (year) and died in ____(year). WTF?! ! First of all, knowing when you DIE is just creepy! But, if your persona has “died”, I think you might have difficulty in staying within your persona in the SCA… by killing your persona ‘off’, you have made it inaccessible to use. Just a thought…