Greetings lords and ladies of Harplestane and any other gentiles of the known world that this missive comes upon.

Lord Wolfgang, who many of you will know, being shire Seneschal, Defender of Caer Caledon, Chronicler and many other positions to numerous to mention, has finally decided that he must either  take leave of his sanity or get some other keen and willing individual to become Chronicler.

Being the newest member to the Shire of Harplestane, with a limited knowledge of the medieval period and an even more limited knowledge of the SCA it may seem strange that I have been chosen by my peers to take on this role. However the truth is stranger than fiction but no where near as amusing.

There we were sitting in our local hostlery for the last shire meeting when Lord Wolfgang requested volunteers to take on the task of Chronicler. My first mistake was to not understand the mad rush to the toilets as the cunning subterfuge that it really was, my second was to lose three consecutive rounds of spin the flagon and third but probably most decisive was asking that one fatal question,

"What does it involve ?"

After being lulled in to a false sense of security by the kind (but potentially misleading) answers provided, a volunteer was apprehended.

I was under the misconception that the newsletter was primarily read by the good and not so good members of Harplestane who already know what they were letting themselves in for. I now realise that the majority of people who receive this are outwith the shire and will have but the vaguest idea of who I am. For all you lucky people who don't know who I am yet I hope that this short description may help.

If you have been at the War of the Roses, Spring Tourney (Insula Draconis) or the Champion of the Isles tournament (Egaill) I was the fighter in green, a colour scheme cunningly picked to hide the fact I spend most of the time in these events picking myself up from the tourney field. Despite being killed a lot I have been mentioned in dispatches several times:

"I don't know what his name is !"              (Unattributed)
"That guy from Scotland in Green"            (Unattributed),
"That's a nice helmet"                                (Paul de Gorey)*.
"You look a bit like Edmund Blackadder"  (Sir Garrick von Kopke)**

For all of those who are still none the wiser I hope that through the  duties as Chronicler and the future events in the Isles that I will eventually meet you all. In fact there is a stunning event being held in Harplestane on the 19th August if you want to meet me and the rest of the shire. We are a nice bunch, honest! Full details of which you will find on the following pages. (The event, not the Shire).

I am still not sure how this whole thing works but here goes. If any of you budding scribes, chroniclers or artists out there would like to provide me with articles to publish, comments, letters, pictures etc. then feel free. My intention is to keep my commentary to a minimum (after this one ), keep everything as fun and as light as possible, put in anything that is witty or interesting, events information, articles on general medieval subjects, i.e. cooking, flowers, crafts, fighting. Idle gossip, witty comment or general libellous banter are all completely acceptable.

Enjoy !!

* a man of impeccable taste.
** a man with obviously failing eyesight (Allegedly).