History of the Griffin Stone

By Elashava Bas Riva

The Griffon Stone. A gift from the Kingdom of the Outlands to the Principality of Northshield during the reigns of Bela I & Elizabeth I and Kitadate-tenno & Elashava bas Riva. It once held the new crowns of Northshield along with all of the Territorial Coronets, knights' chains and officers' medallions during the time of the giving up of fealty to the Middle Kingdom until the creation of the new Kingdom of NS and the fealty transferred to that Crown. All fealties and pledges of service that day were on the The Griffon Stone. It was created by an artisan, HL Killinin, currently not playing, from the Barony of Unser Hafen and brought to Northshield by TE Deotrich & Leonora. The portcullis in the upper left corner represents both the Barony of Unser Hafen and the Shire of Schattentor as it was gifted from Unser Hafen to Schattentor. TRM Wulfgar and Devon both suggested that we should stop calling it the BDR (as it was referred to from almost the beginning) and start calling it the Griffon Stone. So, let us move to a new era and new traditions and do thusly.

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The carved rock is made of Colorado sandstone from a quarry near Loveland Colorado which is a very hard sandstone unlike the kind we have here in the Black Hills.  It's roughly the size of a coffee table and about half as tall, and weighs a few hundred pounds.  It has been hauled on a trailer, occasionally hundreds of miles including to the event where Northshield became a kingdom and to the SCA 50th anniversary celebration, and has been lifted off and on with hoists and once a forklift because of its weight. This latter has resulted in it being called the "big damn rock" or BDR for short. It is known as such in at least one Northshield song, and local usage has been this name for so long I'm not sure it will easily be replaced, the wishes of various royalty notwithstanding.

It was delivered to Northshield from the Outlands in 2002 in return for our kingdom's generosity in supplying the Outlands with a huge number of scroll blanks when they were in need of award scrolls, their scribal guild having fallen behind and being overwhelmed, and because of its size and weight it was purposely not accepted into kingdom regalia, but rather given over to Schattentor as keepers of the stone.  Our royalty had presented theirs with 369 scroll blanks at Quest a year before; approximately 150 of these had come from Schattentor, and with additional ones that were sent in late the final count was over 400.

The original plan was to leave the stone in perpetuity at the campground where Quest was held each year -- but the best-laid schemes of mice, shires and kingdoms gang aft agley, and Schattentor retrieved the stone when said campground became no longer an option.  It has been stored at various member's homes (often, but not always, the seneschal's) ever since.  It used to be hauled regularly to Quest, though it's been some time since that was done.  It traveled to Minnesota when Northshield changed from being a principality under the Midrealm to being an independent kingdom in its own right; there is a picture by an unknown photographer in this album, and it's well worth reading the comments on that for a part of Northshield history.  It will be part of the display for Northshield at the 50th year celebration in Indiana.

The stone was presented at a very short early morning court at Quest for Camelot. It had been completely covered ever since the event started with a tarp and box that were labeled "Danger, Electrical Hazard" and people assumed it was just a piece of campground hardware that the owners were keeping dry.  But about 9 am, maybe earlier, the Oyez went out while people were just beginning to get moving -- I think I was walking across hunting coffee at the time -- and while there was a general consensus of "why court this early?" a few people wandered over to see what was happening.  Court opened, they pulled back the tarp, the Outlands royalty presented the stone to ours, everyone gaped in wonder at it, and I think court then closed, there being no other business.  I know it was the shortest court I've ever attended.

I spent the rest of the day dragging people over to see the stone and tell them about it.