That big stack of Tournaments Illuminated I have been hanging onto from my SCA days has finally come in handy (And yes, I also have several issues of The Compleat Anachronist. Shuttup!). Who’s a geek now, mister?*
Captain Science is working on his big history project to wrap up the year, the “Persona Project,” as I have dubbed it. His job is to pick a time period and come up with a solid persona for who he would have been in that time period. His only limitations are that he must choose from a time period between 1100 and 1600, that he must be his same age (10), and his same sex (male). The first rule is because that’s the time period we’ve focused on this year. The other two rules are not because we lack imagination or want to confine him to rigid gender constructs, but because I want him to get a better understanding of what life would have been like for him — not just a child, but Captain Science his own self — during his time period.
Child of my heart, he chose 1389, which puts him in the same period that I my old SCA person was in, back when I was a SCAdian. He’s going with 1938 England (“London, England!”) and while his original plan was to be a page, now he’s considering some appropriate trades in which he could apprentice. This afternoon, he’s been reading and highlighting the “Growing Up in 12th-16th Century Europe” article from TI. I pulled a few other Tournaments Illuminated issue for him, including one with an article on observing Lent in the middle ages and one on recreating a medieval village.
Before this is done, he’ll have a well developed persona with a thorough past, he’ll have clothes to wear, and he’ll really be able to get a feel for what it might have been like for him in the middle ages.
*Still me
