The Symbel (a slight detour)

By far the most interesting thing about The Mead-Hall, Feasting and Society in Anglo-Saxon England was the description of the Symbel, a feast related ritual that is described in Beowulf and other sources. I don't want to quote the whole chapter, but I am going to quote a bit from the chapter introduction:

... the Symbel was an event characterized by both festivity and seriousness, a structured affair where order, orderliness and participation, in a traditional joint activity was the whole point. It is perhaps worth stressing that for most ordinary people, living and working outdoors in the countryside, left to their own devices and under considerable pressure to produce enough food for the community, coming together indoors for an ordered, communal activity was a special occasion.

They Symbel is a formal sequence of events to start the feast. The book offers long descriptions of each of the formal steps, but I think the steps themselves tell us what we need to know for SCA purposes.

• A horn summons guests to the hall
• The guests enter and wash their hands
• The company stands ready, until the lord enters the hall
• The lord directs each person to his or her place
• The company is seated at the lord's signal
• The lady enters the hall with a special drinking vessel
• She greets the gathering and the warriors
• She offers the first drink to the lord, bidding him to enjoy it
  "Take this cup, my noble lord, sharer of treasure, gold-friend of men, be in good times, speak with kind words to the Geats as one ought to do, be cheerful towards the Geats, mindfuul of the gifts from near and far which you have now."
• The lord takes the first drink
• The blessing is said
• The lady greets the guests with welcoming words
• The guests reply with a beot and words of thanks
  A beot is an undertaking to perform some deed which will enhance the speakers own worth and that of the person (the lord) for whom it is undertaken.
•  The pyle challenges the guest's beot and the guest responds
  The pyle is a spokesman for the great lord, somewhat like a herald. His duty here is to challenge any claims made by the guest, which it would be ungracious for the lord to do.
• The lady moves in procession to the dugup and geogup, offering a drink to each man in turn
• The lady returns to her seat beside the lord
• The guests greet each other
• The horn circulates around the hall
  Clockwise, or sun-wise. It is refilled as necessary by cup-bearers, whose task it is to ensure that the proper rites of drinking and honoring are observed.
• The symbel closes

For those who want to read more, here's the Wikipedia entry, and here is another online source that more strongly emphasizes the religious aspects of the symbel.

While I'm a little cautious, due to the fact that this was thought to be a ritual of at least some religious significance, it's also clear from the book that this was as much a political ritual, binding the guests to the host and vice versa, as it was a religious one. I see a lot here that could, potentially, be adapted to SCA use.

I've always felt that SCA feasts were a little odd -- in period, of course, the act of being a host was an important one, and the feasters would not have paid for their seats. I wonder if there is material here we could adapt to this feast, to make it feel more formal and intentional, and less like all of us sitting down to a buffet.