[SCA-BMDL] Canterbury Tales Bardic Competition

[Edmund LoPresti]

Greetings, bards!  Some advance notice for the bardic competition at  
the Canterbury Tales event on March 31.

As March passes into April, all have been invited to the Chanticleer  
Tavern for a day of revelry on the theme of the Canterbury Tales.   
Could such a day be complete without a celebration of stories and  
verse?  To avoid such a lack, a bardic competition will be held.   
Tales, in prose, verse, or song, will be welcomed from all.  To  
paraphrase an earlier host to such a competition:
"The one of you who proves the best of all,
That is to say, that telleth in this hall
Tales of best sentence and most solace
Directly shall have supper at our cost" (Canterbury Tales, Prologue  
798-801)
That is, the tale most entertaining and with the most profitable  
moral shall be rewarded with two feast tokens.
"And whoever will my judgement gainsay
Shall pay all that we spend by the way." (Prologue 807-808)
That is, I make the rules and I choose the winner, unless someone  
wants to buy everyone's supper.  But, lest any complain that my whim  
be too whimsical, there will also be a populace's choice award, with  
tokens for voting provided to all who wish them.
The number of stories each can share will depend on the number of  
entrants; only one will be required, more will be welcome if time  
permits.  Further I recommend a virtue praised (though not always  
practiced) by Chaucer's storytellers: brevity.  Those telling a tale  
of greater than 10 minutes duration will risk my censure.  Finally,  
those recounting a tale of the ancients are encouraged to share this  
source; but tales of your own devising or your own adventures are  
also welcome.

Ciao,
Edmundo da Monreale