Where can you go to drink away the pain from weeks worth of school work, discuss the journalism department with inebriated grad students, have your teacher hold the last class of the semester and still run into a fling from last year, with all of the aforementioned being common incidents?
If light bulbs are not gleaming atop your crown, stop whatever you are doing, grab your license and student ID and run to the basement of the Castle, where students, faculty and alumni congregate between a rat hole and the Charles River at the magnificent jewel of our Boston University campus: the BU Pub.
The Pub has fostered a huge sense of unity on campus. Why? The Pub has a challenge called the “Quest,” which draws the of-age crowd to the low-key beverage room every night of the week. The Quest creates a forum for the BU community to relax and celebrate after a day of hard work in the classroom.
The Quest is an 11-year-old program whereby drinking 52 different beers, you achieve knighthood from the illustrious Order of Gunnungagap. Knights are awarded a personalized mug, stored at the bar for permanent drinking convenience.
The term “Gunnungagap” derives from the Norse term “Ginnungagap,” which from the Völuspá section of the Norse-Icelandic Poetic Edda, is defined as the abysmal gap of origin which separates and joins the northern ice and the southern fire.
“It is out of this gap through the action of the giants and gods that the world is born – middle earth,” says Gigatomachia.com, a website that explores the warfare between giants and gods. A Quest at BU aspires for no less.
The 52 beer choices are designated on signs throughout the bar. The ever-knowledgeable bartenders, Nick and Ellis, are permanent friendly fixtures behind the bar who memorize the entire list and make sure each Quest candidate is appreciating each step along the way.
Each Quest candidate receives a card on which the bartenders sign off on your beers as you drink them. Yes, it would be really easy to cheat and sign off on them yourself, but what honor is there in that? The bartenders notice how often you come in. In fact, they probably notice more about people at BU than anyone else, as the pub garners a steady, large, inebriated following.
Nick usually performs the knighting ceremony, but any knight can knight another, given they do it at the Pub. The knighter reads from a plaque on the wall about the Quest to the new knight, who kneels down upon one knee. Knighters also read each candidate’s most embarrassing nicknames, which are included on the knight’s Quest mug.
“By then, they’ll hopefully be crying,” said one bartender.
The knight is then saluted and drinks a beer from his or her new mug.
The first person to be knighted was the pub manager and founder of the order, Sir Rhosis of Liver. Most knight names used to have versions of the word “seriously” or “certainly,” but nowadays, any embarrassing title suffices. The shortest Quest ever took three days to complete by a former Pub employee, and at least two people have done the Quest in five days. Even people from other schools have obtained a mug at the Pub. Some people have done Quest twice. The bartenders said the 1,000th knighting will take place by the end of the month.
When the Quest is complete, the knights are invited to try the one-year-old Lord’s Quest, where imbibing 52 mixed drinks affords you a piece of a Lord’s Quest Plaque, shown proudly at the bar.
While it is fully possible to enjoy BU without being under the influence, a little cheers with your classmates proves the dictum of alcohol being a social lubricant. Through the Quest, you celebrate more than a knighting. You celebrate the fact that you all spent the same amount of time and money and shared the same hangovers as everyone else with the famed nickname glass in his or her hands.
The Quest is ever fun for those who do not drink. It’s great for control freaks who like to mock their slaughtered companions. By watching the drunkards achieve knighthood, they have enough fodder for making fun of the drunk for years to come. And watching the Quest from the sidelines also aides your romantic life. Who knows? They may never have given you that phone number if it weren’t for the Quest-colored beer goggles.
There is only one week of classes left, and three weeks before graduation. It’s not too late to let your alma matter nourish you. Perhaps you’re leaving BU with no honors or merits, but don’t feel like you can’t leave your mark on campus. For a diet of four drinks a visit – 13 visits total – your name can go down in Pub history (juniors, heed my warning and begin early to avoid similar cramming!). The Quest represents a chance to be remembered by BU and congregate while sampling dozens of new beers. In the long run, you create good memories while only hurting your liver. Bartender, I’ll have a Sam Adams seasonal. BU, cheers to a great four years.
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