Under banner of blue Tyger beast
With Caoilfhionn, the queen,
Together have seen
Fit one gentle’s honor to increase.
There once was an Auron MacInstalker
His Dream: to invoke peals of laughter
By the fire he’d watch
Til Someone offered scotch
And soon he’d become quite the talker.
The hot summer’s night would go on
Some would say good taste was forgone
He’d sit by the fire,
And shout: “KILT-ENTIRE!”
(The bard barely got through that song)
But fireside tales aside,
When work’s to be done, he’ll abide.
He’ll slave in the kitchen
At the Gate he’ll pitch in
Taking care to finish tasks with pride
The Award of Arms, Auron has earned
For the service to Crown he has learned
Not to work himself to death
Drinking with his last breath
Till the last fire ember has burned.
On this day of AS fifty third
At Pennsic through heat that’s absurd
The Wednesday of court
Will not be cut short
So that Auron’s award shall be incurred
Words by Aislinn Chiabach (Ace-Lin Key-uh-Bok)
And Arthur le Taverner
Word Count 175
On this day of AS fifty third
At Pennsic through heat that’s absurd
The Wednesday of court
Will not be cut short
So that Auron’s award shall be incurred
Color coded Key
AABBA
A-9 syllable
B-6 syllable
King Brennan, who reigns in the East
Under banner of blue Tyger beast
With Caoilfhionn, the queen,
Together have seen
Fit one gentle’s honor to increase.
There once was an Auron MacInstalker
His Dream: to invoke peals of laughter
By the fire he’d watch
Til Someone offered scotch
By the fire he’d watch
Til Someone offered scotch
And soon he’d become quite the talker.
The hot summer’s night would go on
Some would say good taste was forgone
He’d sit by the fire,
Some would say good taste was forgone
He’d sit by the fire,
And shout: “KILT-ENTIRE!”
(The bard barely got through that song)
But fireside tales aside,
When work’s to be done, he’ll abide.
He’ll slave in the kitchen
At the Gate he’ll pitch in
Taking care to finish tasks with pride
The Award of Arms, Auron has earned
For the service to Crown he has learned
When work’s to be done, he’ll abide.
He’ll slave in the kitchen
At the Gate he’ll pitch in
Taking care to finish tasks with pride
The Award of Arms, Auron has earned
For the service to Crown he has learned
Not to work himself to death
Drinking with his last breath
Drinking with his last breath
Till the last fire ember has burned.
On this day of AS fifty third
At Pennsic through heat that’s absurd
The Wednesday of court
Will not be cut short
So that Auron’s award shall be incurred
There once was a BLOGger from Kent...
At an event Faolán an Sccreccain and Lorita deSiena approached me to wordsmith Auron MacInstalker's AoA scroll. They know that he is in my extended clan and that I jump at any opportunity to do words.
I agreed and the 3 of us sat around brainstorming. I came up with, "There once was a lad MacInstalker!" in the typical cadence of the limerick. Faolan and Lorita loved it and I had my inspiration. I went home to do some research.
It appears that the classic limerick is from England and was popularized in the 18th century - clearly out of the SCA time period. I dug deeper into Irish poetry in the medieval era. There is a style of poetry called the Dán Díreach which was used from the 12th to the 17th centuries. This formal poetry had many forms of syllable counts, rhymes and emphasis. One of the variants was very close to the rhyme scheme of the 19th century limerick. This was good enough for me! (Though as far as it goes, the limerick AoA had such an appeal of humour to it that I probably would have used it even had I not found a period poetic version that was similar. The patter was too good and I know that Auron would have appreciated it.)
From there I built the Award of Arms in an AABBA rhyme scheme with A-9 syllables and B-6 syllables. In many cases when following an ancient poetic form I find that I have to cheat and end up adding or lessening the poetic forms by one syllable or so. I am in constant amazement that the poets of yesteryear could keep everything within the rhyme scheme and syllable count.
I built the first and last parts of the scroll first. Those were the names of their majesties and the location and date of the event. I particularly like fitting these into the rhyme scheme - although there have been times that I will skip that if the location has a particularly long name.
Then I turned to the body. This is where I bogged down and couldn’t find inspiration. So I turned to Lord Arthur le Taverner to be my co-writer.
Arthur has also known Auron for many years and was able to draw on that knowledge for the scroll. It was his idea to include a memorable night around the campfire where Auron had mangled the words of the song “Old Dun Cow.” A popular campfire song, if not in the SCA time periods. Instead of shouting “McIntyre” at the appropriate moment, he shouted “KILT-EN-TIRE!” Arthur - who was the bard that night, was barely able to finish the song.
Faolán told me he found the calligraphy a challenge - because writing funny scrolls makes him giggle too much! He wrote about his process here. When he was done he sent it to Lorita who added the illumination. It was a delightful collaboration and we all had fun doing it!
The scroll was written and completed long before even the Prd-Pennsic announcements had gone out. Imagine what we felt when it was announced that EK court was to be on the Tuesday of War Week!
Now only would this mean that the scroll was inaccurate, but Auran! had a conflict. There was a wedding specifically scheduled not to conflict with EK court that now, of course, conflicted.
I reached out to their Majesties who were marvelously accommodating. During their hours, sitting in state they were able to present the award to Auron and several others. It was a small thing on their part, but enormously appreciated on outs.
Unofficial Court Report – Pennsic War 47
