[Artemisia] Wormwood

[Jacquie Ziegler]

Greetings!

<snip>
> As for Artemisia: 
> I kept wondering, after I moved here, what the connection was 
> between the SCA Artemisia and the Classical Greek (Ionian) 
> Queen Artemisia who, with her army, was present on the losing
> side at Thermopolae.  Seriously!  It never crossed my mind that
> the connection was with sagebrush (Linnean name: Artemisia 
> tridentata). And as for Wormwood, I did think it was a bit odd 
> to be calling a titled heraldic position after the third trumpet
> tribulation out of the Apocolypse of St. John the Divine. I just
> couldn't see the connection between a flaming meteorite which
> poisoned the waters of the earth, turning them as bitter as
> wormwood, and the order of precedence. Wow. Talk about dense!
> ttfn
> Slow-on-the-Uptake (formerly Therasia)

I was the not first person to hold the Wormwood position, 
but when the idea of titles for various heraldic offices first
came up, we were still a Principality. Mistress Aislinn
Rowena MacKenzie was Golden Wing and wanted me
to be a Northern Regional Deputy Herald. She suggested
(first) that I be called Absinthe Herald - still going with
the sagebrush/latin idea - but thought that it sounded
too much like 'Absent', which is not what we were looking for.

Shortly after that, Brendan ap Morgan - who was Wormwood
Pursuivant then - was asked to take the position of Abacus
Herald, OP herald for Atenveldt. This opened up the post
and I was appointed. I held that post quite a while, until
we were Kingdom. I took over Submissions at the Second
Crown Tourney (where John I won), and held the position
without title for a while. Eventually, I thought of the title
'Sage' - dual meaning 'wise yet aromatic' :-) - and that
was registered to the Kingdom. Since then we have
registered heraldic titles based on our Kingdom awards
(Black Pillar, Golden Pillar) and on a heraldic charge
(Dance - ask your local herald to explain!) but there
are still several latin names available if we want to
return to that idea.

Just a bit of Artemisian history early in the morning.

Off to work now! :-)

Mistress Shauna of Carrick Point
Laurel Designate (and long-time Artemisian Herald!)