University of St. Hildegard
As Royal Patrons, Barak Ravensfuri and Lao Yu chartered the University of St. Hildegard in A.S. XXVIII, with the desire in part to recreate the land-grant Universities of the Middle Ages. The Festival of St. Hildegard, an annual ten-day medieval festival held at Windward Shire during the month of June, gave attendees the opportunity to take hands-on classes in a variety of disciplines, including blacksmithing, pottery, papermaking, lace weaving, wool spinning and felt-making, cheesemaking and archery. Some classes such as the pottery class, stretched out over the course of several days, allowing students the chance to pursue a more time-consuming project from beginning to end.
"Raven and the Tibetan go to the river to gather grasses. They return with many armloads of yarrow, St. John's Wort, and mullein, which soon cover the floor of her ger. One of her more delicious finds is mock orange. I accept a branch and hang it from my candle chandelier, where it lends a soft fragrance for the next two days. I hope to gather yarrow on the morrow to strew in similar fashion. Malcom and Gwydian have also gone to the river, to gather fish for dinner."
-An excerpt from Lao's A Boke of Dayes, written as a record of the Festival.
"...Late in the Festival, those of us on the Varangian Loop pooled our resources to hold a Middle Eastern feast. In my yurt at dusk we covered the carpets with food and filled the tent with people. We had bread baked that day in a stone oven, river-caught trout cooking on the fire, fresh goat-cheese flavored with flowers from the fields. Later, to the music of drum and harp and pipe and zills, Valeria danced for us, round and round the fire. I felt as though I had slipped into a manuscript page, glimmering with gold and firelight. Through the work of many hands we had stepped inside the picture, brought it alive, made it our own. There can be no finer work."
from the first Festival of St. Hildegard, as recorded by Raven Qara ton.