ANNO SOCIETATIS XIII (June, 1978 - May, 1979)

Events

Stories

The Hawkwoods' Wedding Feast, as remembered by Lord Kale Harlansson of Gotland:

"I remember that when Dona Laura de Segovia and Captain David Hawkwood were getting married, Laura asked me and Lark if we would co-autocrat their wedding. I said sure, she said sure, and then we looked at each other and said, 'You've had experience autocrating, haven't you?' So we tried... We held it at Alumnae Hall. I remember we borrowed my grandmother's station wagon and used a kitchen up in the Quad. We cooked stuff up there, put it into the station wagon, and drove down the hill and up onto the sidewalk. Then we backed down the sidewalk and up to the doors to get it into the hall. A lot of people said they had a good time, but as an autocrat I think it was just terrible."

The Song of Roland Masked Ball ("Franks, Incensed, and Moors"), as remembered by Lord Kale Harlansson of Gotland:

"We had a masked ball where the theme was 'The Matter of France' which was the cycle of legends about Charlemagne and Roland. We did the Song of Roland, which was certainly the most humongous epic Cecil B. DeMille-style production Carolingian members have ever done. It had a cast of dozens, it had a set that included heaven and hell, the entire Frankish army Part I, the entire Frankish army Part II...

"They started with a bare bones outline, usually pretty faithfully taken from a period source, and they tried to compress it into something that would be about twenty minutes of dramatic presentation... [The writers said,] 'Why don't we just start here and make puns on this subject, bringing in every possible change of puns on this subject, and then go on?' Someone would make some reference to falconry, and people would go around making falconry puns for a while: 'Surely you jess!' 'Pull the other one, it's got bells on.' Then all of a sudden someone would make a calligraphy remark: 'Oh, capital, capital!'... When Charlemagne and the Emir finally square off in the climactic battle scene, they are trading Lord of the Rings puns... It was a really strange production. They also dropped in cute little in-jokes which were only in-jokes if you knew some of the legends about Charlemagne. They were fun because every now and then someone in the audience would laugh when no one else understood what we were talking about."

[Editor's note: Lord Kale omits to mention that he played the role of Charlemagne. Lady Caryl de Trecesson, his lady, played "Angilbert, Charlemagne's personal confessor (i.e., Charlie's chaplain)". The Entire Frankish Army parts I and II were played by one person each.]

The Felding Chorus, as remembered by Lady Lark of Esherwood:

"There was one bus driver who routinely had the route dance practice night [and the Feldings always sang on their way to dance practice]. When attendance dropped so low that there was usually only one person on the bus... One night he actually stopped me as I was getting off the bus and said, 'Why don't you girls sing anymore? It was the only thing that made this route bearable!' Not only did he enjoy it when he was actually on the route, but many years later, after I had graduated and he was no longer working for the company that ran the senate bus, I met him driving an MBTA bus, and he remembered us."

Provost: Lark of Esherwood