Sven Kaldvind - Silver Wheel

 Sven Kaldvind, in reverence before Us 
Verily does his work cause folk to rave 
Even to the far reaches of the East 
Now l his archery artifice is known
Keeping care of equipment, maintenance and marshaling ken 
Acclaim is his with silver wheel accrued 
Including rights and established ways therin 
Demon King Ryouko'jin, of the Three Heavens and 
Indrakshi, Our glorious Rani 
Note now on June 18 A.S. LVII
Done this day at Les Beltaines XXXIII 
 
Word count 77

BLOG - GOLB

Hua Meilan tapped me right before Roses with this last minute scroll for Les Beltaines. 

Knowing that this scroll was going to be translated into French, I agonized over what form to choose. I only took Spanish, but that was all the way back in junior high, so I don’t even have memories to help me.

I ran a gauntlet of styles to try.  Working with alliteration was out because I had no idea whether the translated words would work correctly. Anything with counted syllables was out for the same reason.

In the end I decided to go with an acrostic poem, a form in use since ancient Greece. In period, the national anthem of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is an acrostic which dates back to 1557. 

Like the long-ago King of the Netherlands I chose to write the recipient’s name down the left side, one letter beginning every sentence. I made the scroll a double acrostic - making sure the letter that began the sentence was repeated somewhere in the last word.

 

Sven Kaldvind, in reverence before Us 

Verily does his work cause folk to rave 

Even to the far reaches of the East 

Now l his archery artifice is known

Keeping care of equipment, maintenance and marshaling ken

Acclaim is his with silver wheel accrued 

Including rights and established ways therin 

Demon King Ryouko'jin, of the Three Heavens and 

Indrakshi, Our glorious Rani 

Note now on June 18 A.S. LVII

Done this day at Les Beltaines XXXIII 

My hope is that even if the acrostic nature of the poem is lost in translation, this will still read like a standard Charter/writ based scroll and the recipient will enjoy it.

Alessandra Serena Renda - Silver Wheel

Majesties Ryouko'jin & Indrakshi

Of a noble line of Eastern Queens and Kings 

Who rule both near and far, the land and the sea

Observe who steps forward affecting things

With enthusiasm and unfettered zeal

Alessandra Serena Renda’s work sings 

There’s an accolade that she has earned, We feel 

She’s done so much that we’ll no longer delay

Rights and acclaim that go with the Silver Wheel

********space for arms*********

June 4th AS 57, respects We pay 

At the Earl Horic Memorial Sovereign

And Consort’s Championship of Arms today 

With strength of hand at this fine bacchanal in 

Our Shire of Eisental with kith and kin

Word Count 102

COLOR KEY

ABA

BCB

CDC

DED

E

E

A Majesties Ryouko'jin & Indrakshi
B Of a noble line of Eastern Queens and Kings 
A Who rule both near and far, the land and the sea

B Observe who steps forward affecting things
C With enthusiasm and unfettered zeal
B Alessandra Serena Renda’s work sings 

C There’s an accolade that she has earned, We feel 
D She’s done so much that we’ll no longer delay
C Rights and acclaim that go with the Silver Wheel
********space for arms*********
D June 4th AS 57, respects We pay 12
E  At the Earl Horic Memorial Sovereign
D  And Consort’s Championship of Arms today 

E With strength of hand at this fine bacchanal in 
E Our Shire of Eisental with kith and kin

BLOGGING INFERNO!

Hua Meilan asked me to work on a late period Italian Silver wheel.  The search to find a verse form became an exercise in Google search terms. I knew the recipient had a later period Italian persona. In the end there wasn't one magic term that led me to what I needed:

I chose Dante Alighieri’s (1265-1321) Divine Comedy, written in Terza Rima.  I suspect the Divine Comedy is earlier than the persona of the recipient (as far as I could tell), but Dante set the mold and the poetic form was popular for centuries.

Terza Rima Is an interweaving rhyme structure in an open poetic form. As long as you stick to the rules, you can make the piece as long as you want - which makes it more flexible than other styles I have used, like the Chant Royal, where I chose to be "incorrect" by doing only one verse for the scroll. 

 

Each section of the Terza Rima has three lines in an ABA BCB CDC DED pattern.  Each line is Hendecasyllable or 11 syllables long. It ends with a couplet or a single line that rhymes with the second line of the second to last stanza: DED E or EE for example.

 

To further my understanding of this form, I looked at a different source than I usually do: YouTube. These two videos helped me understand the verse. I also found How to Write a Terza Rima (With Examples). This piece was a wonderful resource, with good examples and a detailed step by step method. It's very similar to how I write the structured poetry that I encounter in my wordsmithing.

In the course of my research I also discovered another Robert Frost Poem, Acquainted with the Night, in which he had used a rhyme scheme pertinent to the scroll I was working on. (Sadly, though, this was not the Frost poem from the Muppet Show skit.)

As far as the scroll composition, I worked the same way I do with any rhyme scheme - by writing one line, then coming up with several rhymes, and working in the pertinent information.

This scroll took me a few days longer than usual. To change one rhyme affected 3 lines of text each time. As hard as I tried to stick with the rhymes I had come up with, I still wound up ditching three sentences in a row to make a new word fit better.

I will say that I am proud of my work in this scroll.  I hope that when the recipient hears it read in court they will love the results.

East Kingdom Gazette: The Earl Horic Memorial Sovereign & Consort’s Championship of Arms Court Report

Photo by Sandy Casanova

Photo by Alessandra Serena Renda of Gibellina