Rowenna de Manning

• Joined the SCA in the Kingdom of the West in AS X.
• Chancellor of Madrone Campus of the University of Ithra 6 years
• Regent of the University of Ithra 19 years
• Founding member of the Madrone Culinary Guild in AS XI
• Order of the Laurel AS XIV for culinary arts, study and practice of Middle Eastern dance and costume
• Order of the Pelican AS XVII for service to education, banquet stewarding, and administration
• Court Baroness of An Tir AS XVIII
• Became a Lion of An Tir at Twelfth Night Coronation XXXVI/2002
• Red Tree Pursuivant (Madrone Herald)somewhere around AS XIII 3 years
• Deputy Kingdom Seneschal AS XVI 3 years
• Guild Head of the Madrone Culinary Guild XL/2005-2006
• Keeper of the Culinary Guild banquet equipment 20+ years
• Webminister for the Madrone Culinary Guild - AS L (2016 - ongoing)
• Webminister of the Barony of Madrone - AS LIII / 2019 - ongoing)
• Kingdom Webminister Roster Deputy - AS LIV / 2019 - ongoing)
• In September AS LIV / 2019 quietly celebrating 40 years as a Peer of the SCA

Rowenna de Manning, born in the polyglot society of Normano-Arab Sicily of the 12th century, is the daughter of a Norman scholar and a Sicilian Arab merchant's daughter. Upon the death of her parents, her Norman father's relatives claimed her and took her to Christian lands. With a growing dislike for the curious customs of the Norman French, such as seldom taking a bath, Rowenna fled back to her relatives in Sicily,and subsequently travelled the merchant routes to the heart of the Ummah (Arab lands). Her Norman French relatives continue to try to retrieve her to live in the West, and Rowenna keeps well out of reach. She has been travelling on the Silk Road and lives in Bukhara when not visiting An Tir.

M'allima Rowenna is married to Master Edward the Stuffy, Pelican and Lion of An Tir. Rowenna and Edward were the autocrats of the May Coronet Tourney in the Barony of Madrone that took place on May 17-18, 1980, and on the second day Mt. St. Helens erupted. She served on the committee that helped make An Tir a Kingdom, which Edward served as the Chair. In that work to create Antirian structure, Mistress Rowenna and Viscountess Maelen of Catcott created the names of the grant level Kingdom Awards, the Goutte de Sang and the Jambe de Leon. Rowenna was co-head cook with Mistress Arias the Innkeeper's Daughter of the banquet for 250 served at the first An Tir Kingdom Twelfth Night in January 1982, held in the Barony of Madrone.

Rowenna attended the 10th anniversary of the SCA at Kingdom of the West Big Trees site (her second event), the 20th anniversary of the SCA in Ansteorra, the 30th anniversary of the SCA in An Tir, and the 50th anniversary of the SCA in the Middle Kingdom. She participated in the meeting in the Barony of Madrone in May AS XI that founded the Madrone Culinary Guild and she has been an active member ever since, in the first 20 years serving as kitchen head for many early banquets, and in the recent 20 years as general kitchen helper and equipment packer.

Six months before the SCA 50th Anniversary, Mistress Rowenna collaborated with Duchess Angharad Banadaspus Drakenhefd and Dame Hrefna of the 50th Anniversary History Project to research and edit the History of An Tir that was published and distributed in conjunction with that event.

Since AS XII Rowenna has been researching clothing, culture and dance of women in the Middle East. She performs traditional-style dance of upper Egypt, lower Egypt, the Maghreb, and Central Asian Silk Road. She helped disseminate the research that was being done across the SCA in the years AS X to the present, information about period and appropriate garb and dance for Middle Eastern women personas, teaching classes, sharing her research, participating in online discussion groups (before the internet), networking, and Facebook groups. She seeks to always provide an example, appearing at events attired as a properly-dressed woman of the 13th century Silk Road. She is a member of the Facebook communities SCA Persian Clothiers, SCA Ottoman Clothing and Culture, the Atlantian Madrasa, SCA Middle Eastern and Mediterranean, and SCA Middle Eastern Musicians. As a Peer of the SCA for more than 40 years, a dancer and researcher for more than 45 years, she began to use the title Mu'allima, "teacher" in Arabic.