The Shire of Coldedernhale is a shire within the Kingdom of Northshield. If you live in Pierre, Ft. Pierre, or anywhere else in Central South Dakota, we are the shire you likely play with most. Our shire page on the kingdom website has a list of cities and zip codes, as well as current shire members, past events, and awards we’ve received from the kingdom. The map below also shows the full territory of Coldedernhale.
View our officers here. Any officer can be contacted with questions at the email addresses listed or through the Shire of Coldedernhale Facebook group.
History and Identity
Coldedernhale was founded in Anno Societatis XXXIV, modernly 1999 to 2000, before Northshield was its own kingdom. Our name was registered in April of 2000 through the Kingdom of the Middle. Coldedernhale, pronounced “cold-urn-hail”, is a compound name based on 13th century English towns and roughly means “a cold lowland by the river”. Lady Moraig and Master Talon provided documentation for the construction of the name.
Our coat of arms, seen in the banner above, was registered in 2001 after a few revisions. The blazon, or legally-binding description of the shield, is Purpure, on a pile wavy argent a seawolf purpure, overall a laurel wreath Or. Upon the helmet is a crest, a Canada goose enraged bearing a rapier proper. If you would like to learn more about heraldry in the SCA and what that blazon means, please visit this primer on Heraldry for Non-Heralds in the SCA.
Coldedernhale boasts a home for rapier fencing in the western reaches of Northshield, known as the Provost Challenge. It’s an event for newer fencers to test their metal (pun fully intended) against seasoned fencers and Masters of Defense. More can be learned on the History of Provost page, and information about this year’s Provost Challenge is found here.
What is the SCA like?
Want to get some other views of the SCA? Here are some great articles that will give you a glimpse into the best of what the SCA can offer.
Check out this article at Medievalists.net written by an SCA member. It will help you get the proverbial “big picture”.
Northern Realms War is an event hosted by Northshield and our neighboring kingdom, the Outlands. This article written in 2019 interviews the armored combat marshal from our sister shire Schattentor, Freydis Jensdottr, as well as Duke Konrad, who was King at the time.
Here is a wonderful and long article about Pennsic – the largest of all SCA events. Pennsic is the Superbowl, Lollapalooza, Burning Man, and State Fair of the SCA all rolled into one glorious two week package. This is another 5 minute article from NBC about Pennsic from 2012.