It has been a couple of months now, since we launched this blog. There has been an on-line survey prior to the first article. The return rate for this survey was very good and we got a clear idea about the interest of possible readers.

The one thing that really attracts your interest is research and advice. Somebody in the crowd said it this way: "Original essays from St. George's members... More or less like an on-line Dragon!!!" But there was also interest in information about the Company itself, upcoming events etc. In the end, there is supposed to be a mix of topics with a strong emphasise on dragon-like articles.

Naturally, every blog post is written by a medieval scribe (Photo by Jacques Maréchal)

I hope we were able to bring you exactly this. If you have been following this blog, did you get what you expected so far? Please let us know via email or a facebook comment.

The Company website always received a lot of visitors. This number is slowly on the rise since we started the blog. But we almost doubled the number of returning visitors.

What would be helpful is people promoting our articles elsewhere. Did you read the article on new books of interest? I am sure your friends will find one or two of these books very helpful for the hobby. You should tell them about it! You can send the link via email or post it to an on-line forum. At the bottom of every article, there is a facebook button. Click this and you can post a link to your facebook profile (in case you have one). If there is interest, we can also add buttons for other social networks.

There is no on-line comment section enabled so far. People ask about this feature from time to time. But I doubt the interest is big enough already. Do you think you would write comments and participate in on-line discussions here on the blog? If you think you would, then please vote by clicking here and we'll count the votes/clicks. If it's enough, we'll enable the comment functionality.

Finally, let me tell you about a few articles in the queue that we plan to release in the coming weeks or months:
- Experiences of a Lieutenant in Liebegg
- A junior research paper on the historical accuracy or reenactment shoes
- A report on how to reproduce a book of hours
- A primer on lace and point making
- Possibly an article describing the forging of a sword
- Noble Serving according to the writings of Olivier de la Marche
- First hand reports from the medieval kitchen in Nykobing
- The making of a small medieval altar
- An introductory article about an upcoming book on English Armour
 - A book review or two

This should take us to the end of the year. Afterwards it depends on a new editorial team within the Company. We have somebody interested in the job, but we need two or three additional people to form a team around the blog. (Company members: Would not this be a job for you? It's very interesting work and it gets you in contact with a lot of people within and outside
of the group. Just send me a message!)

I hope you stay committed. If you want to make sure you do not miss an article, then I suggest you subscribe to the rss-feed. This is the link.

By Christian Folini, Veteran Company member.

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The book by Arnold Esch, which was listed in the previous reenactment bookshelf blog post, quotes Simon Buchel, an Augustine monk from Constance, explaining a game (page 140). He names the game "caprenare", translated as "Hit the Goat" or "Goat Game".

Simon had been playing this game when a terrible accident happened: He threw his stick against the goat. The stick bounced back from the ground and hit a boy between the shoulders. The boy was seriously wounded and died shortly afterwards. Simon, involved in the killing, had to clear himself even if it was an accident. Otherwise his clerical career would be over. So in 1466, he went to Rome to explain his story and to be cleared from all charges.

The goatherd places the goat and prepares to come after me (Photo by Andrea Schläfli)

In order to grant him the desired paper - or parchment, we can assume - the papal chancellery wanted to know all the details of the accident. 

The source is in Latin, Esch brings a German translation, this is my English translation of the German text. The original explanation in Latin can be found in the Repetitorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum V, nr. 2000, year 1466.  

All entries in the registry are cases that ended with positive results. This means Simon was cleared and we can assume he returned to Constance as a monk. His case gives us the chance to play this game. The explanations above make some sense, but I was not really sure. So I talked to Doris Fischer, a German archaeologist who is about to write a book about games in the Middle Ages.

She did not know the source, but she knew the game. According to her it has been played from Scandinavia down to the Balkans. But I had pointed her to the first medieval source describing it.

Everybody tries to get hold of a stick pushing and shouting wildly (Photo by Andrea Schläfli).

So this is her explanation and our adoption for Company of St. George games:

There is a goat. A piece of wood resembling a goat.
There is a goatherd. If the goat is knocked over, he has to run and place it upright again.
There are the ordinary participants. Each of them has a stick. They use the stick to throw it against the goat and to try and knock it over. One participant after the other.
Now comes the fun part: When the goat falls, all the participants who have thrown their stick already run to get a new stick from the ground. It does not matter which stick. At the same moment, the goatherd places the goat anew and as soon as he is done, he can try and get hold of the other participants.
If he manages to hit one of them before they returned to the initial position, he is released and the said person becomes the goatherd.
The person knocking the goat over with its stick scores a point. The person with the biggest score wins the game.

Additional rules: It is not okay to push the goatherd and it is not allowed to kick the goat away. Everything else seems to add to the fun of the game.

It's a game with a fast-changing pace. Everybody waits for somebody to knock over the goat. Then you run and grab a stick without the goatherd hitting you. Then you try to calm down to take good aim at the goat. It is very entertaining to watch the chaos, which evolves when everybody tries to reach the closest stick. Also for bystanders.

By Christian Folini, Veteran Company member.

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