Category: Awards

The East Kingdom Order of Precedence site, generally referred to as “the EK OP”, records tens of thousands of kingdom and baronial awards issued over the East’s fifty-year history.

It’s an impressive feat of data collection, given the all-volunteer nature of our Society, but it is not flawless. The reporting process involves repeated transcription of unfamiliar names, and I am given to understand that the web interface used to enter and update data in the system is not particularly easy to use, so a number of errors and omissions have accumulated over time and it can take a while to correct them. Continue reading “Provincial Awards Missing From the Kingdom Order of Precedence”

The Order of the Sea Dog of Østgarðr is an award for service to one of the cantons of Østgarđr. Its name is sometimes written as a single word, “Seadog.”

The name and badge are rich with allusion, as “sea dog” is both nautical slang for an experienced sailor and the heraldic term for a half-dog/half-fish creature with a broad scaly tail that is often identified with the beaver, a creature that was plentiful in the territory of Østgarđr during the medieval period, and is memorialized on the seal of New York City, adopted in 1686.

The Bylaws say “The Order of the Seadog is granted by the Viceregency to citizens for service at the Canton level.”

Recent recipients of this award have been given both a medallion of the order, and a small fuzzy beaver finger puppet.

The Annals of Østgarđr report that the order was founded in 1998, “at Agincourt on October 31. The initial recipients were Brekke Franksdottir and Marion of York from Lions End, Aurora ffolkes and Thomas of Northpass from Northpass, and Brithwen of Bores Hulla and Anabel Ravaya de Guzman from Whyt Whey.”

The heraldic registrations for the order’s name and badge were approved in 2008.

The list of recipients of the Sea Dog in the East Kingdom’s Order of Precedence is sadly incomplete, but a request for corrections has been submitted.

[Update, Dec 1:] The online Order of Precedence has been updated with this information and I believe it now has a correct and complete list of recipients as of this date.

The Award of the Sea Star is a token given to recognize service at an event in the Crown Province of Østgarđr.

According to The Annals of Østgarđr, it may be awarded by the Viceroy, Vicereine, or Provincial Seneschal.

It is described in the Provincial Bylaws as:

The Honor of the Sea Star: Bestowed by the Viceregency upon individuals who have, on a particular occasion, served the Province well and ‘made things happen.’

An individual may receive this award more than once; indeed, it is not uncommon for a single person to have more than a dozen Sea Stars.

The token takes the form of a small starfish charm.

The Sea Star was introduced by Ian and Katherine on June 2, 2001, at the Riding of the Marches in Northpass. The Annals of Ostgardr report that “the first recipient was Alastair of Clan Campbell (from Rusted Woodlands), the event’s Head Chef.”

The heraldic registrations for the order’s name and badge were approved in 2014.

Former Viceroy Alexandre Lerot d’Avigne wrote in the Lochac wiki, Cunnan, that

In the reign of Ian and Katherine, the Seastar was traditionally awarded at events for service at that event. However, sometimes “back Seastars” were given at subsequent events. Alexandre and Eularia opted to award Seastars in Viceregal Court at a subsequent event to raise the profile of the honor.

During the reign of Gui and Johanne, Sea Star awards were given out more frequently, often to everyone who worked at an event, and at a few small, special events, to everyone who attended. Suuder and Lada have continued this tradition, awarding them in person during the course of an event rather than in a formal court session.

Due to the generous and informal distribution of Sea Stars, no complete list of their recipients exists.

The Order Of The Silver Sea-Lion is the martial award of the Crown Province of Østgarđr.

It was created by His Excellency Gui Avec Chival (Viceroy AS XLVI–LI) to recognize both martial prowess and the leadership and training of others in the province in those skills.

The motto for the order is “I Go Forth, So That Others Might Follow”.

The heraldic registration for the order’s name and badge were submitted in 2011 and registered in 2012, although the name was returned and then accepted after a rule change. (I’ve previously posted the submitted image and other details of these registrations.)

The list of recipients of the Silver Sea-Lion in the East Kingdom’s Order of Precedence is sadly incomplete; a more accurate roster is set forth below.

On November 5, 2011, at Season’s Beatings in Brokenbridge, it was awarded to its principal:
• Llewyllen ap Rhys.

On February 12, 2012, it was given to:
• Valgard Stonecleaver, for armored combat.

On April 27, during Viceregal court at Crown Tournament in Østgarđr, it was awarded to:
• Suuder Saran, for archery.

On September 7, 2013, at the Feast of John Barleycorn in Northpass, it was given to:
• John the Bear, for thrown weapons.

On January 7, 2017, at Twelfth Night in Valhalla in Brokenbridge, it was awarded to:
• Alexander MacLachlan, for fencing.

On September 9, 2017, at the Feast of John Barleycorn in Northpass, it was granted to:
• Conor O’Caellaigh, for archery.

[Update, Dec 1:] The online Order of Precedence has been updated with this information and I believe it now has a correct and complete list of recipients as of this date.

I’m continuing my earlier series of posts on the orders and awards of Østgarđr with some more detailed writeups of each one. More should follow soon. — Mathghamhain

The Order Of The Silver Lantern is an Arts & Sciences award of the Crown Province of Østgarđr.

The award was created by Her Excellency Johanne i Visby (Vicereine AS XLVI–LI) to “acknowledge skill, sharing and teaching in the Arts and Sciences.”

The heraldic registration for the order’s name and its badge were submitted in 2012, but the first design of the badge (which lacked the star) was returned for conflict and needed to be resubmitted before passing in 2013. (I’ve previously posted the submitted image and other details of these registrations.)

It is the only provincial order to not have the word “Sea” in its name, and as a result it is often mistakenly called the Order of the Sea Lantern.

The list of recipients of the Silver Lantern in the East Kingdom’s Order of Precedence is sadly incomplete; a more accurate roster is set forth below.

On February 21, 2015, at Lions In Winter, it was awarded to its principals:
• Alienor Salton;
• Godiva Eclipea Blackheart D’Mer.

On September 12, 2015, at the Feast of Barleycorn, it was awarded to:
• Aquilina of the Sea Cliffs, for brewing, workshops, and running the Barleycorn brewing contest;
• Oliver de Bainbridge, for excellence in brewing and teaching, along with the title “Brewer to the Vicereine”;
• Angelica de Nova Lipa;
• Friderich Grimm, for skill at cooking.

On September 10, 2016, at the Feast of Barleycorn, it was awarded to
• Ervald la Coudre the Optimistic, for bardic performance.

(Due to a scribal error in recording the previous year’s awards, it was also presented to Angelica de Nova Lipa for a second time, but as people may only receive this honor once, this is considered to have no effect.)

[Update, Dec 1:] The online Order of Precedence has been updated with this information and I believe it now has a correct and complete list of recipients as of this date, except for mis-stating the date of Lady Angelica’s award.

Following a recent discussion of kingdom and provincial orders and awards, I thought I’d try my hand and putting together a visual overview, in part to force myself to wrap my head around all of them, and also in hopes that the result might be of use to others.

My point of reference for this was the East Kingdom Awards Overview created by Tola knitýr, which is itself based on a similar chart created for the Middle Kingdom by Gebhard.

Rather than just copying the existing chart, I wanted to make sure I understood the underlying awards, but after looking at various write-ups online, it turned out that many of them were out-of-date following a significant reorganization of the East Kingdom award structure that took effect in October 2015.

The definitive source of information is Section IX of the Laws of the East Kingdom, which is the governing document that authorizes the current set of awards. The SCA’s main web site contains a friendlier presentation of that information, and the Awards page in the East Kingdom Wiki has a bunch of useful background information, as well as tangential material like lists of old, now-closed orders.

To this I added Østgarđr’s orders and awards. Some of these are described in section IV of the provincial bylaws, although an update will be required to address a few more-recently-created ones that are not yet mentioned there. I filled in the gaps by referring to my earlier writeup of the heraldic registrations for Østgarđr’s orders and awards.

The end result of that noodling around is attached as a 2-page, 162KB PDF file.

Caveat: this is a draft work in progress, and most assuredly contains some errors. Corrections and other feedback would be welcome.

[Update October 5:] I should note that there are a number of historical awards which have been discontinued and orders which have been closed. While these are still recognized, they are no longer granted to new recipients, and they are not included on this chart.

[Update October 10:] Thanks to some feedback on the Østgarđr Facebook group, I’ve learned more about a few of the awards and put together an updated version of this chart, now available as a 3-page PDF, or click the images below to zoom in.

Orders & Awards of the Crown Province of Østgarđr

Non-Martial Orders & Awards of the Society and East Kingdom

Martial Orders & Awards of the Society and East Kingdom

As noted above, this is a work in progress — let me know if you spot any errors or have suggestions for better ways to present this information!

 

In addition to the primary branch armory, Østgarðr has also registered badges corresponding to several orders and awards of honor.

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A natural sea-horse proper.

This badge was registered in June 1975. (View submitted image.)

The blazon was initially approved as “a sea­horse (hippocampus) proper”; the phrasing was changed to “a natural sea-horse proper” at a later date.

This registration has been the subject of some discussion because the only record of the submission is monochrome and lacks tricking marks that would tell us which colors were to be used, and nobody knows for sure what color a “proper” natural seahorse is meant to be — real seahorses come in a variety of colors including brown, yellow, red, blue, green, and purple, as well as striped and multicolor patterns.

(There may have been a color copy of this submission that has since been lost, but I suspect it was actually submitted only in black and white, as were the other registrations from Østgarðr during the 1970s, and was registered despite the policy issued in June 1972 that submissions “MUST be accompanied by an emblazon in full colour.”)

The online armory lists this is being for “an award of honor: purple ribbon for arts, gold for outstanding service”. This is the only such listing I could find in the armory; all other badges with designations include the name of an order or award or guild or the like.

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Order of the Seahorse

This order was registered in April 1981 [actually, in 1975 — see note below] and does not have an associated badge in the Society’s armory. (Although the Armory lists it as registered in April 1981, it does not appear on that month’s LOAR.)

Update, March 2017: Thanks to the Laurel Archivist, Baroness Shauna of Carrick Point, for filling in some background here — it turns out that the cover letter for the April ’81 LoAR describes the procedures for registering the name of orders and awards, and mentions a list of all previously-reported awards, titles, and orders which were grandfathered at that time. Therefore the dating of the Order of the Seahorse to April 1981 merely indicates that it was instituted some time before this; most likely around the same time as the badge above was registered. The Order of Precedence shows the first members of the Order received that honor in June 1975.

The Bylaws describe it thusly: “The Order of the Seahorse is granted by the Viceregency to those citizens of the Province who have distinguished themselves in the arts or to those persons who have served Østgarðr whether resident or not.”

The description of the Order of the Seahorse matches the “arts or service” intent of the “natural sea-horse proper” award listed above, but it is not formally linked to it in the armory records. In recent years it has been said that there is no fixed appearance of the award for the Order of the Seahorse, and instead each recipient is allowed to choose its form for themselves, which may result from an attempt to interpret the vague blazon of the above badge.

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Order of the Sea Dog of Østgarðr
A sea-dog rampant azure, finned Or.

This order was registered in April 2008, and the badge was registered in August 2008. (View submitted image. See OSCAR for discussion of name and badge.)

The Bylaws describe it thusly: “The Order of the Seadog is granted by the Viceregency to citizens for service at the Canton level.”

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Order of the Silver Sea-Lion
Vert, in pale three sea-lions passant argent.

This order was registered in October 2012, and the badge was registered in January 2012. (View submitted image. See OSCAR for discussion of name and badge. The order name was submitted at the same time as the badge, but returned for conflict; following passage of the new SENA rules, the original name was re-submitted and accepted.)

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Order of the Silver Lantern
On a mullet vert a lantern argent.

This order was registered in July 2012, and the badge was registered in December 2013.  (View submitted image. See OSCAR for discussion of name and badge. The badge was originally submitted in 2012 as a lantern argent, but returned at Kingdom for conflict; the version shown here was submitted the following year.)

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Award of the Sea Star of Østgarðr
An estoile of five rays argent.

This award and badge were registered in April 2014, but their use dates back to at least a decade earlier, as they were given during the reign of Ian and Katherine. (View submitted image. See OSCAR for discussion of name and badge.)

The Bylaws describe it as “The Honor of the Sea Star: Bestowed by the Viceregency upon individuals who have, on a particular occasion, served the Province well and ‘made things happen.’”