Where history, creativity, and everyday life all insist on sharing the same table.
Welcome to An Itinerant Scribe. This is a space where medieval manuscripts, modern Qigong, coffee-shop conversations, and SCA adventures come together.
I study history because I love it. My blog is where I explore past lives, cultures, and ideas with care, curiosity, and respect. Even the occasional technological disaster shares the table. Somehow, it works. I think.
I’m Mistress Jehanne Bening, OL—known as Susan Gordon in mundane life. I am a long-time member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and a Laurel. I call the Barony of the Lonely Tower home. The people there are delightful.
My curiosity has never had the decency to stay in one place, and my projects multiply on their own. My friends tolerate my ongoing love affair with pigment, parchment, and historical rabbit holes. For many years, I was deeply involved in calligraphy and illumination. I spent time mixing pigments, trimming quills, and painting award scrolls. I took great pleasure in offering other pieces of my work.
Time and life have changed what I can physically do, but not what inspires me. Instead of sitting for hours over a manuscript, I now explore the world behind it. This includes the artists, apprentices, guilds, rivalries, friendships, and daily rhythms that shaped 15th- and 16th-century Bruges. Out of that curiosity, my persona, Jehanne Bening, developed.
Modern life has added its own unexpected chapter. It includes Qigong and Tai Chi, which are gentle practices that help me stay balanced and steady. These practices also enable me to keep enjoying all the creative chaos around me. Their practices and philosophy fall in the early years of the SCA period. I like to think I’m simply honoring the ancestors.
Because of Qigong and Tai Chi, I decided to take the Chinese persona, Li Zhenyan. She is an older, widowed Ming-era healer.
But the heart of my creative life isn’t just the historical Bening workshop or the pages of Li Zhenyan’s medical texts. It’s also my modern Bening family. The people who learn, laugh, create, and drink far too much coffee with me.
My new apprentice, Lady Tanneke Groenlaken, brings curiosity, dedication, and just enough mischief to keep things interesting. Watching her grow in her costuming craft is similar to observing a manuscript take shape, each stroke contributing to the process,
Then there’s Mistress Astrid Esbjornsdottir. She was once my apprentice and is now a Laurel. Her success makes me smile. And I’m absolutely taking credit for that, even though I shouldn’t. Astrid’s skill, kindness, and persistence have been among the great rewards of my years as a Laurel.
Together, Tanneke and Astrid form my modern-day workshop circle. They enrich my world the same way Jehanne’s guildmates enriched hers. They fill it with laughter, craft, and companionship. They also keep me informed of what’s happening outside of my line of sight.
People who find this blog tend to be kindred souls. They are creative spirits who have stitched, carved, inked, researched, taught, repaired, or reinvented themselves countless times. Many are SCA travelers who love history but also appreciate a good chuckle or naughty pun. Others are lifelong learners who enjoy reflections on creativity, aging, movement, and the delightful messiness of staying curious.
An Itinerant Scribe exists because curiosity wanders, and because I’ve learned to wander with it. Some days I write about Jehanne’s world. Some days it’s about Qigong, movement, or teaching. Some days it’s what I’ve learned at the mall. Other days, it’s about what my website tried to do to me without my permission. All of it is part of the same story.
I’m glad you’re here. So pour something warm. Pull up a chair. And spend time exploring with An Itinerant Scribe. May you find something that makes you smile. May it spark your imagination. Let it remind you that creativity is a lifelong journey—not a destination.