Saturday, June 3, 2023

Ragnarr Blaskegg - Silver Crescent

Gate-keep, Guard of Grounds, he 
Gets groups to run gathers 
Formed and founded Foundry 
Forge Guild for Our Kingdom 
Renowned Ring friend rightful 
Respected King Brennan 
Goddess Gefjun's gifter 
Great Queen Caoilfhionn, both now 
Set the Silver Crescent 
So round his neck, and see
Rank raised in Carillion
Ragnarr Blaskegg with arms:
Per pale sable and gules, a sword inverted bendwise argent interlaced with an annulet fracted in dexter chief Or
Done at SRWC in East Kingdom, AS 58 

Wordcount 79
Illumination & Calligraphy by 

DRÓTTKVŒTT KEY
Alliteration
Kennings
Kenning Meaning

Heraldic Latin


Gate-keep, Guard of Grounds, he SENESCHAL/EVENT STEWARD

Gets groups to run gathers

Formed and founded Foundry 

Forge Guild for Our Kingdom 


Renowned Ring friend rightful KING

Respected King Brennan 

Goddess Gefjun's gifter QUEEN
Great Queen Caoilfhionn, both now 


Set the Silver Crescent 

So round his neck, and see

Rank raised in Carillion

Ragnarr Blaskegg with arms:


Per pale sable and gules, a sword inverted bendwise argent interlaced with an annulet fracted in dexter chief Or


Done at SRWC in East Kingdom, AS 58


Flash!
Ah-ah!
He'll BLOG every one of us!
These words had a very short turn around, due to the Nataliia Sviatoslavina’s schedule. They also requested that the scroll be under 100 words. Definitely not my preferred Word Count for a Grant bearing award, so I tried to put, "Phenomenal cosmic Powers! Itty bitty living space" or something like that. 

The recipient’s persona was that of a 10th century viking, so I felt that the Dróttkvœtt meter would be a good choice. 

Instead of diving into the deep end of composition I took a moment to read and take inspiration from Viking-age Skaldic Poetry and the story of Egill Skallagrímsson, although very little of the story can be found in the scroll. 



Gate-keep, Guard of Grounds, he SENESCHAL/EVENT STEWARD

Gets groups to run gathers

Right off the bat, I started with a kenning. "The guardian of the land" [RULER], "who defended himself against men" 

Ruler was synonymous with chieftain, king, leader, lord, prince, ruler

Seneschal is leader of the mundane side of Our groups and the Event Steward is the leader of an individual event. Therefore this kenning will work for both an event steward and a seneschal. Which, at multiple times, the recipient has been both.

I started from Guardian of the Grounds, meaning ground/land, and then I flipped it to better fit into the meter: Gate-Keep, Guard of Grounds, meaning seneschal.

Guard has its own meaning in the SCA, as in those on the Queen’s Guard, or those who Guard the Kingdom Gate/Royal Room. As such I was a little hesitant to include the shortened form of guardian. Hopefully, in context the meaning that is meant will be conveyed.

Formed and founded Foundry 

Forge Guild for Our Kingdom 

Technically “for” doesn’t count as alliteration because it is a small word. As far as it goes in Dróttkvœtt the second line does not require alliteration beyond the first word of the line.


Renowned Ring friend rightful KING

Respected King Brennan 

The kennings for Chieftain or king have many variations of friend and ring. I just tweaked the words until they all worked with the alliteration that was needed for the meter.


Goddess Gefjun's gifter QUEEN
Great Queen Caoilfhionn, both now 

Since I ended up giving her majesty an entire verse, I went directly to a list of Norse Goddesses from 30 Most Famous Norse Goddesses from Mythology. I chose Gefjun (Norse Goddess of Agriculture, Fertility, and Abundance). It started with a G and her name meant “Her name is derived from the Old Norse verb “gefa,” meaning “to give,” and her name can be translated as “Giver” or “Generous One.” Which I felt matched the ring reference with His Majesty's name.


Set the Silver Crescent 

So round his neck, and see

In this verse the alliterative fifth syllable is really in the 6th syllable and is in the middle of the word. Which can be acceptable, but became a bit of a mishmash of squeezing in the appropriate information into the ancient verse form of another language. It also leaves the couplet open ended into the next one, which is not particularly correct.


Rank raised in Carillion

Ragnarr Blaskegg with arms:

This is another verse that I kind of squished the Dróttkvœtt meter for the required information. It should have been Rank is Raised in, but with fitting the Baronial name into the verse. Carilion, unlike Crescent, fit more into the meter, but the syllables of the name prompted the incorrect beginning.


Per pale sable and gules, a sword inverted bendwise argent interlaced with an annulet fracted in dexter chief Or

In a scroll that requested that I keep the word count down, the recipient had 19 words in their arms!


Done at SRWC in East Kingdom, AS 58 

And at the end some of the pertinent pieces of information are tacked on to the end of the scroll.

In the end my word count for this scroll was 79. Well under Nataliia request of 100 words or less. I looked at it as an exercise to give the award it’s due in language while still staying within the requirements of the scribe.


Photo by Ragnarr Blaskegg


Photo by Brenden Crane

Photo by Brenden Crane

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