Anne De Basillon approached me to write for my dear friend Cassair Ni Deoraine’s daughter, Hannah bin Alberic. I have known Hannah since she was a baby. The opportunity to write her first award in the SCA is something I will treasure.
Anne was basing the scroll on the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry and didn’t mind that the words and illumination didn’t match. I took to the internet and just started looking for poems written about horses.
Hannah has been riding since they were wee, and had just competed in the Sovereign and Consorts Equestrian Championships. Horses were definitely the way to go!
The first search yielded Equitation Tips from Medieval Germany. While promising, this was not providing much inspiration.
Then I found gold.
Horses From Guto’s Wale’s - The life of a poet in 15th century Wales
In the poem to Dafydd ap Meurig Fychan and Elen daughter of Hywel of Nannau (poem 51), Guto'r Glyn expresses thanks for a horse which he received as a gift. This time the horse is red and its qualities include its careful trot and its speed while trotting:
Llawn o nerth, llyna ei nod,
Llew rhudd unlliw â’r hyddod.
Da rhed deubarc, draed diball,
Da iawn ei duth yn dwyn dall.
Nid arbed, er dalled wyf,
Ŵr neu wal, er na welwyf.
Full of strength, that is his characteristic,
a red lion of the same colour as stags.
He runs well over two parks, sure his footing,
very good is his trot carrying a blind man.
He won’t shy away from, even though I’m so blind,
a man or a wall, although I cannot see.
(poem 51.39-44)
Even though I had found this great source, I wanted to look into it a little more. I found Guto, The Poetry of Guto'r Glyn, and Great Works of Medieval Welsh Literature. All of which was confirming the time period and who the poet was in history as considered one of Wales’ most important historical poets.
Previously I had written a scroll in Welsh Poetry. I chose to write the scroll in the same Welsh: Cywydd poetry that I had used for that project.
KEY Welsh: Cywydd
6 syllables
Rhyme Scheme
A
A
B
C
C
CB - - - C - - - B
VERSE ONE
A Full of strength, that is her
A Astounding character
The translated first from Guto’s poem is: “Full of strength, that is his characteristic,”
With the aid of the thesaurus that line fit easily into the rhyme scheme I had chosen.
B Eastern Tyger is she
The original is, “a red lion of the same color as stags.”
The poem was talking about the author’s horse. Now In my re-working of the poem, I am using the position of the horse to mean the recipient. My inspiration for using the poem came from this second line where I turned the Red Lion into the Blue Tyger. Taking out the physical description of the horse and not taking that over into a physical description of the recipient.
C Constantly running well
C Her heart will never quell
CB Calm in peril, all agree 7
The next three lines of the scroll are not so much a line by line re-wording of the original, but where I take the gist of the last lines of the poem and adapt them into the last three lines of the verse.
“He runs well over two parks, sure his footing,
very good is his trot carrying a blind man.
He won’t shy away from, even though I’m so blind,
a man or a wall, although I cannot see.”
The last line has the interior rhyme that I am so fond of in working this poetry.
VERSE TWO
A from Equestrian reins
A To working Our reigns
I adore this poem. Using the homophone, while not exactly period, was the perfect touch. I happened to be at court when this was given out and could see Her Majesty's appreciative nod and smile at this point in the presentation of the scroll.
B Award of Arms given
C for passion and quick wit-
C Hannah bin Alberic
The challenge here was finding a rhyme for the three C words in this verse. I still needed to have the recipient’s name and the event in the scroll. I was very glad that Pennsic and Alberic worked. Especially since “Pennsic” was in the last line on the verse. While “wit” is not a full hit rhyme, the sound scans as one when it’s read in the scroll.
CB At Pennsic court therein
I adore these mid sentence rhymes. They are a part of what makes this poetry so fun to write.
VERSE THREE
A Mighty Majesties East
A Will see her rank increased
I am sure that I have used these rhymes before. It is the nature of rhyme words that are commonly used. It conveys the information needed and are solid full hit rhymes.
B We Brennan & Caoilfhionn
C In the Barony here
C Of Debatable Lands, We're
This entire section ended up being essentially a run on sentence, going through the line breaks. It still ended up sounding pleasant as the herald read it out.
CB Raising her position
In the grand tradition of, telling what you’re going to say, saying it , then telling them what you said, the last line reiterates what was said earlier.
Writing for those that you love, is the best part of this gig!
