Alexander Krause - Silver Tyger

Now the man before you
Is Our good Alexander Krause
A practiced hand at combat crew
Respect and kindness are his wheelhouse
He shines as an Eastern fighter   
He’s earned all rights that go with the Silver Tyger

Quarterly sable and purpure, a bear rampant contourny maintaining in its mouth a rose fesswise argent

We state so, with a roar

As Rulers of the Eastern Land 

Affirmed so at the Pennsic War 

We, Indraksh Rani and 

Ryouko'jin Demon King of the three heavens

In the Year of the Tyger, AS 57 

Wordcount 90

THERE AND BLOGGED AGAIN

I got this assignment with two recommendations! It's always lovely to have two perspectives to work with, and in this case they agreed: the recipient is an up and coming fighter and squire with a wonderful outlook toward the East Kingdom.
His Wiki also provided a wealth of information including his name and arms. Since this was to be his first award in the SCA, I wanted to double check that the name and arms were registered, and my usual sources weren't up to date with that information, so I reached out to the Mural Herald to confirm.    
The recipient's persona was 14th Century German, so I chose to write this scroll in the Middle High German Minnesang, which I had used before in the laurel scroll I wrote for Ellice de Valles. (A good reason I keep my blog current: all I had to do was re-read what I had written in 2019 and the poetic form was once again in my head, along with all the research. Amazing!)
I didn’t let it go at that, though. I wanted to find a translation of one of the poems. That sounds like a straightforward process, but because the translations are from Middle High German to Modern German and then to English, most researchers seem to believe too much is lost in translation. 
I did find research by Todd Mohr called, "What is the Manesse Codex?" This translation doesn’t seem to worry about the counted syllable structure I'm trying to adhere to, but I was still delighted to find any sort of translation, and it makes my interpretation all the richer.
I then started composing the text in this format:
6 A
8 B
8 A
8 B
8 C
12 C
6 A The gentle before you Now the man before you
8 B Is Our good Alexander Krause
8 A A practiced hand at combat crew
8 B Respect and kindness are his wheelhouse
8 C He shines as an Eastern fighter   
12 C He’s earned all rights that go with the Silver Tyger
Quarterly sable and purpure, a bear rampant contourny maintaining in its mouth a rose fesswise argent
6 A We state so, with a roar
8 B As Rulers of the Eastern Land 
8 A Affirmed so at the Pennsic War 
8 B We, Indraksh Rani and 
8 C Ryouko'jin Demon King of the three heavens
12 C in the Year of the Tyger, AS 57 

The write-ups for the recipient included extensively detailed information about what events, tournaments and competitions that they had fought in, and where they placed. This painted a very active fighting career - but it was too detailed for a scroll which needs to be read in court and hold the populace's attention. I actively try to avoid what I call a "resume scroll."  That sort of information is better suited to a Wiki.
 
I chose to put the heraldry between the two verses. Melodically it fit there and was a complement to the preceding couplet.
 
He shines as an Eastern fighter   
He’s earned all rights that go with the Silver Tyger
Quarterly sable and purpure, a bear rampant contourny maintaining in its mouth a rose fesswise argent
More often than not, when I am working with counted syllables, I will write the required information first - TRM names, event location and date. This scroll was no exception. As it would be read at Pennsic, the signet had put out a request that the date be left off, to give TRM more flexibility in when and where to bestow the award.
I also chose to place Her Majesty’s name before His Majesty's, which allowed me to list His Majesty's preferred titles and the newly requested, “In the year of the Tyger” within the form of the minnesang. 
I was excited to visit this verse form again! I enjoyed both the original research process and this new composition. And then, in a last minute twist, the Hua Meilan got it translated into High German! It all came together magnificently.