The first in a series of posts introducing our members, their medieval personas and the activities they enjoy in the society.
Q: Name/Persona:
A: Sarah Brider/ Shirin Duxt Feroz
Q: How long have you been a member of SCA/Thamesreach?
A: I started coming to events in March 2015 and formally joined the SCA a year later.
Q: What made you join the SCA/Thamesreach?
A: History, the more ancient the better, has been a hobby for years so the chance to meet people equally interested in the same time periods and to get involved in recreating the various aspects of life by experimenting with doing not just sitting around theorising was too good to pass up on.
I live on the wild (and dangerous) frontier of the shire and given the peculiar road network out here it’s actually easier for me to get to Thamesreach events than it is to get to the slightly closer Flintheath.
Q: Tell us about your Persona:
A: Shirin is from Sassanid Persia in around 550AD. Her family are reasonably prosperous merchants who are taking advantage of the dominance over Rome that the Shāhān Shāh has established to wander around outside of the empire to see who they can do a deal with for whatever rare goods can be found. Over excitable Romans keep going on about how rich this island at the edge of the world is so it seemed like a good destination.
Q: What’s your favourite part of the SCA/Thamesreach?
A: Seeing how things might actually have been done/made, and of course have a go at doing it myself. You get a much better apperception of the skill and work that goes into an illumination or an item of clothing when you’ve spent ages trying to do the same thing. Plus there’s a large amount of satisfaction when a project comes off well.
Q: Tell us about something cool you’ve learnt or made as a result of being involved in Thamesreach/SCA:
A: I’m still learning how to do Arabic Calligraphy, I did a piece for an Arts and Sciences competition, looked up some basic instructions on how to form the letters and got hooked.
Q: Favourite food at a feast?
A: All of it! Which probably explains why I don’t need to eat much the day after 🙂
Q: Tell us something we don’t know about you:
A: I’m avoiding taking up armoured combat in the SCA (mostly due to lack of space to store the kit) but I am learning a martial art in real life, just in case I have to fend off any bored camels or Roman legionaries.