In the East Realm! O, Our East Realm!
For the East Lands We do Rule
King Ioannes and Queen Honig
Are so filled with gratitude
For Our Fine Robert d'Whitmont
They that call Harry the Squid
Who's years of service he'll not flaunt
Softly doing what needs bid
A presence at all assembly
Chainmail fixings by his side
Willing to teach folk, if they're free
Giving kith, kin, and gear a ride
At Barony of An Dubhaigeainn
AS 56, at St Andrew's
The date of November 13
Amongst praises most perfuse
We do grant the Silver Crescent
Unto Robert d'Whitmont
Witnessed today by all present
Accolades, now his to flaunt
******SPACE FOR ARMS******
The East Kingdom! O, the East Realm!
For the East will always shine
Robert's afore Us, full of whelm
As we laud him, all in rhyme
Word Count: 136
In a cavern, in a canyon
Da-da-da da-da-da-da ...
A BLOG with no recognizable merit whatsoever
(With thanks to Tom Lehrer for the BLOG title)
This turned out to be an absolute joy to write. The recipient is someone that I know, though not terribly well, but is a great friend of the calligrapher/illuminator Fiona the Volatile. He had a wonderfully detailed write up to work with and I had numerous personal stories as well.
One story I wanted to reference was a tale of woe. How they were "lost and dirty in NewJersey on the way to war.” At some point in the past the recipient’s friends immortalized the tail in a filk to the tune of Oh My Darling, Clementine - commonly credited to Percy Montrose (1884). Clementine follows a Trochee metre, but I followed the syllable count and verse structure more than the metric feet.
I started with a direct filk of the chorus from these lyrics:
Oh my darling, oh my darling
Oh my darling, Clementine
You were lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorrow, Clementine
This became:
In the East Realm! O, Our East Realm!
For the East Lands We do Rule
King Ioannes and Queen Honig
Are so filled with gratitude
Originally I had the line, “O, the East Realm” repeated 3 times. But since the scroll is shorter than the song and I did have to convey certain information, I chose to vary each line to make it more interesting.
I also had to abandon the rhyme scheme, though I did keep it to the required 8 syllables per line.
For Our Fine Robert d'Whitmont
They that call Harry the Squid
Who's years of service he'll not flaunt
Softly doing what needs bid
In this verse I introduced the recipient and summed up why he was getting the award. He was described as the sort of person who goes above and beyond, yet never thinks it was a big deal. I also wanted to emphasize that he does what needs doing without being told.
A presence at all assembly
Chainmail fixings by his side
Willing to teach folk, if they're free
Giving kith, kin, and gear a ride
The next verse filled out more details of his service: how he’s at every local demo and event, a dependable aide to the autocrat. How he brings chainmail projects to events and is always willing to teach anyone who shows interest. And an oblique reference to his overloaded vehicle on the way to Pennsic.
At Barony of An Duhaigeainn
AS 56, at St Andrew's
The date of November 13
Amongst praises most perfuse
This verse gave me the most trouble. The place, date and hosting event rarely fit into a rhyme scheme and this was no different. In the end, the first two lines of this verse with the barony, event and Anno Socieatatus year both have 9 syllables. Hopefully I made up for this by keeping up the rhyme scheme.
We do grant the Silver Crescent
Unto Robert d'Whitmont
Witnessed today by all present
Accolades, now his to flaunt
Here I name the award being given. Early in my wordsmithing career I mistakenly used the word "grant" in an AoA scroll, and unfortunately the scribe only noticed the mistake after the calligraphy was finished. Since then I've learned better, and this time as it’s a grant level award I got to use that word.
This is also where I chose to put in the Space for the recipient’s Arms. As far as I could find he has none registered.
The East Kingdom! O, the East Realm!!
For the East will always shine
Robert's afore Us, full of whelm
As we laud him, all in rhyme
In the concluding verse, as in the song, I repeated the "O, the East Realm" lines. I particularly liked the last two rhymes: realm/whelm and shine/rhyme.
While I didn't get much of the anecdotes, and details I had, which was lovely, I hope that the choice of metre and the song will do it for me, and that the recipient enjoys it.
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