The Misleading Navigatrix - a story, and a Norse style wooden box

The Misleading Navigatrix

A Norse-style trapezoidal decorated box, and a story

Presented at Quest For Valhalla, October 2015

woodworking by Lady Madylyne Grey

story, box decoration and navigational research by Lady Simona della Luna

The completed box. Photo by Lady Madylyn Grey.

The story

There once was a great warrior, a leader of men and women, and he was called John the Beardless. For though he was a fearsome fighter and a cunning commander, he left his chin as hairless as a lad. Despite his lack of luxurious locks, his sign was known far and wide, and his foes knew to fear the sight of it. It was his custom to collect his fighters, and to travel with them to far-flung fights. He steered his ship with skill and speed, and never foundered upon rocks nor despaired in the face of a gale. However, even so talented a traveler may not know all things, and so this John relied upon the services of a slave navigatrix, who was simply know as the “beautiful woman who leads to victory.”

The Rest of the Gold Silk Outfit

This is what happens when I neglect my blog for months on end - I come back and find that an article had been left in draft form, never published. Oops.

This is another appendix from the documentation for my gold silk doublet, which competed at Kingdom A&S February 2015. I removed the picture that wasn't mine. The link to where I got it is in the text.

A Steganographic Poem (KA&S 2014)

I entered Kingdom A&S in 2014 with a cryptography project. Steganography is the art of making a code that, at first glance, appears to be ordinary writing, with no secret code.

A Steganographic Poem

A love poem, with hidden writing

Gently idle until east glows the dawn.

Thou art tart, and in thy mead given

Ruin; I save springtime in a vial drawn.

That loving nest is the haven, our glen.

Art thou a lover of these sorry men?

Envy not. Earn no leer of a wastrel.

Do countenance so faithful.

This project combines two separate sources of inspiration, both drawn from German writers who were active at the close of the 15th century: Sebastian Brant and Johannes Trithemius.

Commander's Crucible 2015

On Saturday I went to a local event for the Stronghold of Hellsgate, called "Commander's Crucible." The theme for A&S was "the heat of the crucible, or the cool of the quench." One of my long-term projects is to better understand the world view of my persona (upper middle class, 1500's Florence), so I decided that an indulgence would be appropriate, with the idea that people sought indulgences as a "Get out of Hell Free" card. As it turned out, I (and most people) completely misunderstood what an indulgence is. So it was less appropriate to the fire theme, but I learned a lot about something that would have been very important to someone living in late medieval Europe. I'm very much a beginner when it comes to calligraphy, so the finished product wasn't the most beautiful (one of the judges implied that she would have suspected the priest of having been a bit drunk), but I stepped completely out of my comfort zone, and I learned a lot about a new topic.

Surviving Tailor’s Manuals

This is another appendix from the documentation for my gold silk doublet, which competed at Kingdom A&S February 2015. After some consideration, I decided to simply pull all the pictures off. The links to where I got them are in the text.

Selected References - Paintings and Extant Garments

This is the first of 5 appendices from the documentation for my gold silk doublet, which competed at Kingdom A&S February 2015. After some consideration, I decided to simply pull all the pictures off. The links to where I got them are in the text.

Gold Silk Doublet - Documentation

Below is the text of the documentation I entered with my gold silk doublet. The photographic dress diary mentioned at the end is made up almost entirely of photos from my Flickr account. I'll post my appendices next, but I'll need to alter them. I'm comfortable that using most images in the printed documentation that sits on a table next to my entry should fall well within the boundaries of "fair use." I'm far less sure about re-distributing those images online, even as part of that same documentation, and I'll need to do some reading up on the matter to make sure I'm doing the right thing. No, I don't think anyone would send me a cease-and-desist letter or sue me if I included the images. But I know I would be frustrated if someone was using my pictures in a way I did not intend, so I'm trying to be considerate.