The Diggers, and Repossession of Commons by the People

Local landowners, alarmed by the actions of this group, and their assurance that their numbers were soon to grow, as they were offering to feed folk who came to work on the land, “to ten thousand in five days”, called on the New Model Army to help oust the radicals, but after interviewing Winstanley and a few others, the commander of the force sent in response decided it was a civil matter, and that the landowners should deal with it through the courts. However, the ability of the landowners to call on the military for assistance spooked some of the initial founders, and the occupation of St George’s Hill did not last.

It is an understanding of Western culture that land can be owned, and a great deal of the hereditary structures built into our culture were based on this concept. Throughout the Middle Ages, a mostly agrarian society, villages had lands held “in common” where poorer folk could graze their animals, but from an early time, this land was not farmable, as in, crops could not be grown there. In later centuries, through the process of “enclosures”, the commons became part of the local feudal responsibility, and the land became controlled and no longer part of the common weal.

In 1649, at a time of tremendous civil unrest in England, with war combining with several bad harvest years, starvation loomed. A group of religious radicals, who had named themselves the True Levellers, took possession of St George’s Hill, part of the commons of Weybridge, in Surrey, and began to plant crops in order to offer succor to the starving smallfolk. Their activities on the Hill led to them being nicknamed the Diggers, and this is the name they have worn down through history.

Led by radical writer Gerrard Winstanley, the core group of fifteen men tried to create a grass-roots movement toward the abolition of property, and the creation of a utopian society more closely interrelating man and his environment. Some of their tenets, published in Winstanley’s manifesto¹, included public health insurance and early socialist priorities, such as communal ownership of property. Aspects of their philosophy and reasoning could be traced back as far as the Peasant’s Revolt of the 1300’s.

The Diggers were not permitted to defend themselves at the trial, and lost. The work at St George’s Hill was abandoned, but several other satellite farms were started over the next year, and the movement gained some traction with the initial assistance of a local landowner at one of the new locations. He quickly turned against them however, and became the leading edge of property owner resistance. In the end, the movement petered out in the face of continuing legal challenges to their position.

The Diggers absolutely inspired a faction within the first hippie communes in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury Park, as well as numerous other expressions of similar sentiments in the next several decades. The establishment of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in 2020 may be seen as a distaff descendant of the Digger’s ideas, although missing some of the nuanced thought and religious focus of Winstanley’s writing.

Citations:

1. The text of of the Digger’s various manifestos can be found at Project Gutenberg. The reading can be heavy, but it is informative. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17480/17480-h/17480-h.htm

A Declaration by the Diggers of Wellingborough: http://www.rogerlovejoy.co.uk/philosophy/diggers/diggers3.htm

Website of the 1960’s Digger movement, with a great multimedia index of the original English Diggers: https://www.diggers.org/overview.htm

A True, Black Knight

A True, Black Knight

by Briana Cassia, Lions Gate, An Tir

(for the SMASH, Team SwanSong)

Morien was the son of Aglamore de Galis, who was the eldest son of King Pellinore, and brother to Percival. (It is posited circumstantially that in earlier versions, Morien was Perceval’s get, which parentage was redacted with the growing trope of Perceval’s inviolable virginity, but such arguments are beyond the scope of this paper.) When Arthur sent the Knights in search of Lancelot, Aglovale found himself in Moorish lands, and became enamored of a princess (unfortunately unnamed, so far as I have found). While he did promise to marry her and they consummated their betrothal, Aglovale then left to continue his quest, leaving his fiancee to bear his child and raise him as befitted a Prince of Christendom. When she was disinherited of her lands, she sends her son to seek his father to redress that wrong. It should be noted that Moriaen and Moryan, both spellings found in the extant Middle Dutch text, are synonyms for the Moors themselves. As well, Saint Maurice was a favoured saint of that region during the Middle Ages, and was as dark of skin as the literary figure of Sir Morien.

Morien is described as being very large and with very dark skin: “He was all black, even as I tell ye: his head, his body, and his hands were all black, saving only his teeth.”¹ Indeed, he has trouble trying to get across the sea to Britain, as the sailors were made afraid by his dark skin and huge frame, and thought him a devil, so he could find no passage. At the same time, it is remarked how well-formed he is, how beautiful, as only the flower of chivalry may be seen to be. “...his head, which was black as pitch; that was the fashion of his land--Moors are black as burnt brands. But in all that men would praise in a knight was he fair, after his kind. Though he were black, what was he the worse? In him was naught unsightly.”¹

Of the several “fatherless son” tropes seen in the Arthurian mythos, Morien’s case is better justified than most, and has as happy an ending as these romances can: he succeeds in finding his father after a series of adventures with a few named Knights, including Lancelot and Gawain. Aglovale and Morien together return to the Moorish lands of his birth to succor his mother and regain her lost kingdom. She appears to have been a Christian, as Morien was raised in the faith shared with the other Knights of Arthur’s court, and is heard to call upon God, which reassures Gawain that he is no devil, however tall and black he is.

It is interesting to note that Morien is but a youth when he comes to find his father “...he was taller by half a foot than any knight who stood beside him, and as yet was he scarce more than a child”, but already is so ferocious a warrior that he could cut a spear flung towards him in two with one great stroke, “as if it were a reed”, which reminds this equestrian historian of the Turkish mounted martial game of the Reed Chop, which we play in the SCA.

Sources:

1. All citations in italics were taken from this text, a modern retelling into prose. No obvious liberties taken with the text, but much more accessible to read in this format. Ancient Texts Library (Online): https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/morien.html, by Jessie Weston.

Middle Dutch text, with side-notes. The Google-provided English translation is shaky for a quick read, but one can tease out more meaning if the time is taken. https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_mor001mori01_01/_mor001mori01_01_0008.php

Online article listing several famous Medieval people of colour: https://atlantablackstar.com/2014/06/01/moors-saints-knights-kings-african-presence-medieval-renaissance-europe/

Image source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/not-all-knights-round-table-were-white-180949361/

The Line is Hot!

Our first event as Borderline under our belts, and the fun is underway. I have a long to-do list, but I am making sure I have the time to do it all. A bit of work every couple days, and we'll be rolling along great guns.

I did get a couple of arrows off on Saturday, and my trust in my form and my physical awareness just seems to grow. My wrist was no problem, even though I shot my higher poundages. I will pick up a bow every day this week: need to make it a part of my daily again. I always enjoy it, and in refreshes my energy, so I need to push myself to it more consistently.

A walk in the woods to stump shoot would also be fun. And I need to get Josh going, too, and get everyone else back on track with scheduled practices. Whee!

New Year, New Goals...

Mmm, bowporn!

So... I broke my arm in November: did a thorough job shivering the bulb ends off of both radius and ulna right at the wrist. So surgery and exercises later, and I am not up to shooting yet, but once my surgeon clears me, I'm in like Flynn.

I am making new arrows for myself: pretty Turkish style decorated arrows, and probably a couple dozen arrows for Borderline as well: there's the real news: we are up and running, insurance will be coming very soon and then I can get to work publishing our practices and events! I am over the moon on this end: so glad we have things finally moving forward.

So will be updating more news soon. Yay!

Golden Fleece

Attended an event in the Interior of BC, about five hours from home. It's a fun, light-hearted event that I contended for and won last year and was very happy to return to this year, as something of an anniversary trip with my sweetheart.

One of the components was archery, so I brought my lightweight pretty horsebow, and the longbow I have been messing about with,  and all my arrows, in hopes to get in some extra practice and connect with the very nice archer-boss up that way, Markus Pheilsmid.

The competition was in the early afternoon of Saturday and it was a glorious day for shooting. The targets were set up at rough;y 20 yards, so it was not too difficult a distance. The backdrop was a wide open field with a lot of rocks in the clay base, so there were a few broken arrows on the day. The targets themselves were the commercial mesh foam blocks, which are not friendly to glued on tips: there were a few lost tips at the end of the day too. That said, they do live for ever!

The first phase was a graduated shoot: you had to get into target 1 before moving on to target 2, etc. Only six arrows, and the maximum. 1 point per arrow in the first round, 2 points in the second, for a max score of 9. I got a 7. Apparently when the marshal is feeling mean they do it timed.

Second phase was a graduated plus/minus: first target was only worth plus or minus 1 and 2, second 3 and 4, third 2 and 5, misses count for nothing, so it was possible to do better by missing than by hitting. I had two of six arrows scoring in the target for a score of 4, bringing my total to 11.

Last round was a Marco Polo sheep picture, (the theme of this year's Golden Fleece was the Travels of Marco Polo), and you just had to hit the body or head of the sheep for 1 pt per arrow. I managed to completely miss the sheep, even though I put 5 out of 6 arrows in the target face. So with a final total score of 11, I came in third, out of 14 shooters.

I then helped by running the line, and tested a friend's draw length so I could make him some custom arrows. I will be setting to work on those soon, likely while working on cooking day food for the next event on the calendar.

I also got some good tips n how to improve my performance with the longbow from Archos Markus. I wish I had some cash, because I would have loved to unload a bunch on him, as he has a LOT of stock at great prices! I highly recommend anyone in the Interior in need of traditional archery supplies or instruction, seek out Markus, (mka Jeff Betke) at his shop Bow Sinister Archery.

Thwack Addicts

One of the boarding clients at my work made the mistake of expressing an interest in mounted archery, so I took the time to give her the basics as it was a way to get me back to shooting regularly at work. For the last two months we have been trying to get together 2 or three mornings a week to pend a half hour or so just shooting, working on form and flow.

She commented that the sound of the arrow hitting the target was addictive, and she is not wrong. Thwack! = a rush of positive endorphins and excitement: it's an immediate reward for success.

So I coined the term Thwack Addict to describe us. It's pretty accurate. I am looking forward to shooting more regularly.

She has really come along, and even gotten her husband involved. He's had two sessions with me already, and soon, theywill be going to our local archery supply store to get their basics set up, as belated Valentine's gifts. It's appropriate: Cupid is an archer, after all!

Daffodil

One of the challenges I had for myself was to compete in every archery tournament at every event I could attend this year. I had hoped to start that with Ursulmas and Lionsdale's Winter Tourney, but was unable to get to either of those events, so my first tournament shooting opportunity was Daffodil. I have only made it to three Lions Gate practices so far this year, but I have done some practice on my own at the Wode, in helping Ange discover the fun of archery, so while I am not quite up to speed, I am getting closer to my potential.

So we went to Daffodil. The site precluded shooting on the day of, which allowed me to finish a certain satirical song instead, and the feast was delicious. I had a headache Saturday night, so went to bed by 11 and actually got a full night's sleep. My head was still oochy, but not bad enough to dissuade me from going to the shoot.

We garbed up and headed off, and I was very glad I had taken the time on Friday to make sure my shooting gown would work, as I was confident in the fit and feel of it, and I looked pretty cute, too. :)

We had three practice ends, which the marshals were clear about how many bolts/arrows we could shoot, which I felt made it as fair as possible. I  will steal that for any tourney I am running.

There were two shoots, one in two stages and one in a single stage. The first was actually the one I was hopeful to do well in as the second phase of it was moving target on a timed round. However, the elimination was too tight: a 15 cm target when I haven't had an hour of warm-up is going to make me fight for contention. I fought, thought I got in, but I had hit the tape, not the target. We got the chance to shoot Norman, the seven foot tall cardboard knight on a pulley, although not times. Considering how little actual practice of my quick draw I have made time for, it's probably for the best as I could have embarassed myself mightily.

As it was, when it came time for the suspended target shoot. I did not do too badly. Two ends of six arrows, I scored 4 (two hits of the large daffodil targets) in my first end; and a fifteen in my second (three hits of the small sun targets) in the second.

That score of 19 put me into third place, behind James with 40 and Athelina with 25. we were in three different categories as well, so I placed first in period recurve. Since there were enough competitors, the shoot can be registered as a Grand Archery Tournament, which means I'd have a score on that chart.

The thing that was the most interesting about the suspended target shoot was the feeling. Once I had calibrated in on the larger target, I had the feeling as a took my spot for the second end that it was achievable to go for the smaller target. When I threw my first arrow downrange, I *knew* I was going to be able to put the arrows where I wanted. The feel was there. It was wonderful to find that sense again, it's been missing except fleetingly for the last year. It was there and it stayed. When I practiced on Monday, it was still there.

I had a great time shooting with Seagirtians, and am very glad Roesia and I got a chance to play with our old hometown. Aniko, Seagirt's Archery Officer, and Esa, the Champion who ran the tourneys, did a great job both explaining their shoots and keeping things running safely and smoothly, and it was just genuinely relaxed and fun.

Thanks for hosting us, Seagirt! Hope to shoot against many of you at Sea Lion War!