There but for the grace of god...

[jducoeur]

Anyone who asks why the East has so many Royal courts, just look at the subheadline of this article in SCAToday:

"The outgoing Majesties of AnTir honored many subjects in a nine-hour, marathon closing court at the kingdom's January 10, 2004 Twelfth Night and Coronation."

Nine hours. The mind boggles. I mean, I like court more than most, but geez...

Comments

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

It would be interesting to compare the number of awards given in the course of a reign between the two kingdoms. I wonder if they have fewer, bigger, longer courts, and we have (nearly) weekly ones that are generally under an hour.

[antoniseb.livejournal.com]

I would expect that we have more total awards, but possibly fewer per capita. Yes it would be an interesting comparison.

[jducoeur]

My understanding (from the Durhams, I think) is that it's just as you speculate: they have relatively few courts, which wind up brain-numbingly long.

(The nine hour court included five Laurels and six Pelicans, IIRC. I don't think my knees would survive one such court.)

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Boggle likewise. An excellent argument for some sort of sitting in state for presentation of awards, rather than a typical SCA court.

[tpau]

oooh,a whole day of court?? cool!

Delegation, it's a beautiful thing

[dmnsqrl.livejournal.com]

Time to start fedexing thick wads of paper out to the landeds. Make them work for those pointy hats ;)

(Ah, the bravery of someone who hasn't been to an event in over a year...)

"<i>Closing</i> Court"?

[siderea]

"Closing Court"?? As opposed to what?

Tell me that "closing" is what AnTireans call "Last" when it comes to Courts, not that there was also an opening court to the same event!

Re: "<i>Closing</i> Court"?

[dmnsqrl.livejournal.com]

Well, the next line does begin "The outgoing Majesties of AnTir" so I would guess they do mean in the 'closing out the reign' sense....

[galiana-db.livejournal.com]

Oh, those poor heralds. I hope they took turns!

Come to think, poor royalty! They don't have that luxury. :(

[metageek.livejournal.com]

No, but they get to sit; and they get to have the heralds do most of the talking.

I wonder if they took bathroom breaks?

Naughty brain!

[dmnsqrl.livejournal.com]

Seeing this again this morning I suddenly have Gilligan music floating through my head. "A nine hour court...."

[baron-elric.livejournal.com]

Nine hours? Way too much. Many years ago I attended a Western coronation, and I was the only retainer for the King and Queen of Atenveldt (my rulers in those long-gone days). As a result I stood in service to them through a total of four and a half hours. That was murder. Even with breaks and rotating staff, I can't imagine a nine-hour court.