House de Taahe was formed by Duke Sir Finnvarr de Taahe and his brother Barinn de Taahe in A.S. VI at a melee tournament in North Woods (Middle Kingdom), to give a name to the brothers' team. Like all long-lived households it has been through many transformations since. It has been part of Ealdormere from the very beginning. It is still primarily Finnvarr's household, though it has and has had many other distinguished members: warriors, cooks, riders, artists and even a few heralds and monarchs. Camping together in style at Pennsic is one of the household's chief group activities. House de Taahe and other allied households are sometimes referred to as "Greater House de Taahe," which is either a joke or a conspiracy aimed at world supremacy, depending on who you ask.
The Household of Sir Menken Brechen and Dame Eleanor Cadfan (currently the Baron and Baroness of the Barony of Skraeling Althing). Though based in another barony, Menken and Eleanor have members of their house who live and/or play in Septentria, and so consider their house to be active in Septentria.
Intent on joining the SCA as a group (after some individual members had found it difficult enter into the society on their own), House Galbraith formed over the winter of AS 26 (with the help of a 1976 copy of the Known World Handbook) under the original name of Harpwood Hall. We attended our first event ‘en masse’ (13 of us - go figure) as a group on June 13, AS 27 (Lord Mayor’s Market Day in Eoforwic) and barely looked back.
Our personas tend to be Irish, Scottish, Anglo-Saxon and Viking within the time period 1050 to 1150. ‘Galbraith’ is translatable as “strange Briton”.
In persona, the Galbraith are a familial merchant household from the Isle of Gigha, a tiny island in the south western Scottish Hebredies, known for its purple dyes, warm waters from the gulf stream, and tactical interest to those wishing to invade Scotland or Ireland. Gigha translates as ‘gods island’.
Legend has it that after the great flood, Odin did send a raven out to search for land, and it was the Chreag Bhan (the tallest hill on Gigha—meaning ‘White Rock’) that it found. There is a similar myth about Noah sending out a raven and a dove. The dove came back; the raven stayed in Gigha. It was also been recorded that the ruling household of Gigha in the 12th century vanished suddenly. Their name was Galbraith...
Although formed after a tremendous amount of careful research (no, really), the household mostly abandoned this and was originally best known for interests that included drinking, cooking, drinking, camping and the fine art of ‘drinking’. It was once noted that the fiercest creatures and most stalwart drinkers in Ealdormere were ‘Galbraith Women’. Very little has changed, save that we now feed alcohol to other people and drink less of it ourselves. Age does that.
We are associated through long friendship (and marriage) with the ‘Hrogn fra Osis’ (or House Hrogn) with whom we have shared more than an occasional cup, and more recently with the House Fenrir.
In
more recent years, all the house members have been involved in the brewing
of meads which we share with our friends (i.e.: You) during our yearly
anniversary party at the Ealdormere War Practice. Many of the
current members are known artisans, fighters, cooks and peers (of various
forms) within the SCA. The main contact and figurehead of the Household is
Olagh Garraed Galbraith who can be contacted at tim@roseneath.ca
The
Household is actually called The Hrogn fra Osis, which in Icelandic means
'The Spawn of Osis'. However, most people use simply use House Hrogn, or
(less often) Spawn. The household was formed almost nine years ago at
Pennsic [approx. 1992] by then Viscount
Thorbjorn Osis Brandson (the
third Prince of Ealdormere) and his lady, Countess Caitlin Stuart. Osis
won the Midrealm Crown twice afterwards and he and Caitlin became a Duke
and Duchess of the Middle Kingdom, thus making the Hrogn a Ducal
household, the first by a couple to reign entirely from Ealdormere.
After Ealdormere was given Kingdom status, Osis
became what would have been the first War King of Ealdormere, but while
returning from Baron Wars in the Middle Kingdom, he was killed in a car
accident. He was buried about a month into his reign. Caitlin chose to
continue the reign as a testament to the man who won it for her.
Members of the House wear the Household badge, which displays both the Wolf's Head cabossed of Osis, and the Rose of Caitlin.
The Household of Syr Evander MacLachlan, his consort, his squires and their consorts. Many of Evander's squires come from Septentria, as Evander once did himself.
