Maestro Hirsch von Henford, OL, OP,
Baron of the Court of the West
 Per pale Or and vert, two stag's heads erased respectant counterchanged. |
|
Per pale Or and vert, two stag's heads erased respectant counterchanged. |
Ken's SCA persona is a standard West Kingdom 'persona' - basically, there is no persona. He chose the name based on his germanic real-life background, but most of his garb tends to be English or Italian Renaissance (he like the styles). His 'persona' is what he does and is in the SCA ...
Hirsch:
Is a member of the Orders of the Laurel (SCA Arts/Sciences) and the Pelican (SCA Service);
Is a Court Baron (or Baron of the Court of the West);
Is one of the few people on the Western Roll of Honor;
Is a member of various other orders and holder of a variety of
SCA recognitions, including holding a Grant of Arms and an
Award of Arms, is a member of the
Orders of the Rose Leaf (West Kingdom Arts/Sciences mid-level)
and the Leaf of Merit (West Kingdom Service mid-level), the Queen's Order of Grace,
several awards from the Principalities of the Mists and Oertha (Diamond Willow
from Oertha, Corolla Vitea and Corolla Aulica, Princess' Order of
Grace from the Mists);
Is a herald (having served as the branch
herald for the College of St. Boniface, the Stellanordica Herald for the Principality
of Oertha, the Sea Wolf Herald for the Principality of the Mists, the Baldric
Pursuivant (education -- did the current West Kingdom Herald's Handbook)
the Banner Herald (unofficially) for the West Kingdom (did the current West
Kingdom Ceremony Book), Golem Herald (the job he currently is holding)
and the Vesper Principal Herald for the West Kingdom -- the heraldry is what
he got the Pelican for;
Is a jeweler (what he got the Laurel for);
Is a sometime minstrel;
Is producer and usually director of the
Golden Stag Players (an acting
troupe in the central part of the West Kingdom). The Players have been honored
as a Pillar of the West (the 15th to be so honored).
As "Golden
Stag Productions" has written some computer programs for the SCA
(mostly for offices like the Vesper Principal Herald, Seawolf and Sable Swan
Heralds, and the West Kingdom Chancellor of Scribes). These include a version
of the SCA Ordinary
and Armorial (the heraldric files -- names and armory) -- this is a Windows
(3.1 and Win 95, Win 98, Win ME, etc.) system, FREEWARE, that can be had for
the asking or downloaded from the web as noted below. The Golden Stag Productions
page (link above) has source code for some of these systems.
Has edited and compiled the History of the West Kingdom (original
work by Wilhelm von Schlussel). This is not
currently available in print at this time. This is largely a listing of court business
for the first 12 1/2 years of the SCA, but is useful if you want to have some
idea where the SCA got started ... It has the arms of the branches that are
discussed and the royalty during the times discussed in the book -- this was
done for me by the hands of Dame Teleri Tawel (in the first version),
and Nicholas Bawcock of Petersfield (in the second/annotated version).
This project has completed a transformation at this time to become the "Annotated History Project" -- This is now available from the West Kingdom History Website, specifically in the AHP section: Annotated History Project. Note that you can also obtain the original, non-annotated version from the same location.
This project led to the creation of the West Kingdom History website itself, and Hirsch maintains that site, accepting donations of photos, artwork, event descriptions and updating as often as possible.
Has completed a complete overhaul to the
Kingdom of the West's Ceremony Book. At this time, there is no publisher
for this ... However, you can now download the Ceremony book in parts
(i.e, just the parts you need ...) or in toto from here: West
Kingdom Ceremony Book
Has completed a complete overhaul to the
Kingdom of the West's Herald's Handbook. At this time, there is no publisher
for this ... However, you can download the book in parts (i.e, just the
parts you need ...) or in toto from here: West
Kingdom Herald's Handbook
Is working on the West Kingdom Awards
List (Order of Precedence, etc.) database (an ongoing task, as the Royalty insist
on continuing to give awards <grin>). The Award List and/or the Order
of Precedence can be obtained by dropping a message to Hirsch and making arrangements.
In addition, it is available from the West
Kingdom Award List and Order of Precedence. The West Kingdom site includes
an on-line version so you can check your own entry (please help us update the
data if there's anything wrong!).
Worked on a small project that Duchess
Emma FitzWilliam started, creating some pages that have information about Kingdom
Arms, Colors, Consort/Queen's Arms, and populace "use" badges; Officer's badges;
and badges registered to the 17 Kingdoms for various awards. This is now available
at: Kingdom Arms, Colors and
Badges.
Created a glossary of SCA
terminology, for people new to the SCA:
Unofficial SCA
Glossary.
All of this keeps a person busy, as you might imagine.