Amalie Reinhardt of Æthelmearc paged me to write a scroll for her.
When writing for a different kingdom the first thing to do is research the award itself. Under AEthelmearc Awards I found: “Order of the Scarlet Guard: given to recognize accomplishments of the archers of Æthelmearc. The order's badge is: (Fieldless) A tassel per pale gules and argent.”
An equivalent to The East Kingdom Award the Order of the Saggitarius.
The scrub had a definite source in mind, but matching the words to the time period of the scroll was not necessary in this case.
The style of the scroll combines elements from the standard practice of emulating legal texts with the question and answer format that was popular for centuries and found in the 14th century Pearl or the 12th century Owl and the Nightingale. Which was but a loose resemblance and just a way to pack in as many puns as possible.
I debated whether or not to write a punny scroll. Directly preceding this scroll there were a couple of baronial scrolls going out that were terribly punny. They seem to be my default for archery words, going all the way back to one of the first scrolls on the blog!
Fearing an oversaturation of puns (even as I pondered if that were possible) I debated using them. In the end, I came to the conclusion that although I have used puns , perhaps too much, Æthelmearc has not heard any of them!
So to share the pain, er, share the puns, I proceeded forth and crammed as many puns into the scroll as I could.
I used Archery Terms Glossary and Glossary of Archery Terms and formed a list of useful words. Looking especially for Homographic puns, since they work so beautifully when read out loud in court.
As SHOT this day, September 21, AS LIX at the Shire of Steltonwald at the first court of Their Coronation.
Funnily enough the first pun of the scroll is not even found in the archery terms glossary, and instead is just the definition, as in the act of shooting. In this context the award is shot or given to the recipient this day.
As it was being given out in Æ Coronation, I had to hunt down which court and which set of Royals would be distributing the award. This is a particular issue with any awards being handed out at any Coronation event.
All BOW to the CROWN of the Sylvan Kingdom Bjarki Rikarðarson and Gabrielle de Winter.
Bow, a Homographic pun but with a different pronunciation. I like to give warnings to the heralds to watch out for such things in advance. Working for a different kingdom, and not having much contact with their heralds I hope they read it ahead of time, or at least make a joke about it!
I was delighted to find Crown in my archery glossary. The desire to use this particular pun definitely shaped how I phrased the introduction of TRM Æthelmearc.
We DRAW forth Our TARGET: Elska a Fjarfel.
Draw and Target are delightful archery words that in context move the scroll along beautifully. Target itself is such a ubiquitous word that in either of the glossaries I worked with it was, in part, defined by itself!
What is within our SIGHT?
Here is where the format changes from legal text style to a question and answer style. More reasons as to that further down with the inspiration word.
While Sight in archery tends to refer to modern hunting apparatus that can be used to help the aim of the archer, here it is used in the definition of the target being seen or spotted.
We find a distinguished contestant
Though I did not manage to fit in any other pun words, this line was to reference that the recipient had competed in the Kingdoms Archery Championship and she has been on the Pennsic Archery Champs team. A particular feat for all of the extreme competition to be on the team this past Pennsic!
An ARCHER With FEATHERs in her cap
Continuing the previous line, this was to continue the praising of the recipient for their past accomplishments in the archery realm.
Archer is the catchall term we use in the SCA for all those who shoot with bows or crossbows at a target.
Feather can have more nuanced meanings, but for the pun I was referencing the feathers that make up the fletching of the arrow, while at the same time referencing the phrase, “a feather in one’s cap” as an achievement that someone can and should be proud of.
A team player with a CORE of individual CLOUT
Although alluded to in the previous lines, here it was outright stated that the recipient was a team player, that is was on the Archery Team this past Pennsic.
Core is used here in essentially the same manner as the other meaning of the word. But in context, the core of the arrow is the center part of the wood that forms the majority of the arrow. It is central to the weapon.
Clout is used in the context of strong influence; especially political power, but is also a type of long distance archery shoot.
How do we rectify this PARADOX, of such an archer BARE of accolade?
Here we are at the word, the one that inspired the rest of the scroll: The Archer’s Paradox. In researching for this scroll, I came across it and was intrigued to work in “paradox” into a scroll. It also became the reason the perspective skewed to a question and answer form. It was the only way I could seem to fit paradox into the words.
Bare references the earliest forms of bows.
We FLEX Our GLOVEs to solve this conundrum and
While I will not be at this court, I can only hope that one of Their Majesties will be wearing gloves at the time and can flex gloves with this cue. Flex refers to the degree to which an arrow will bend or flex when shot. Akin to the image of TRM bending their fingers to express emotion, that I wanted to evoke. This could even be considered a compound pun. With the resolution of the pun being in understanding the different definitions, rather than a resolution of a joke.
Gloves, is not so much of a homophonic pun so much as understanding the difference between a glove that the royalty may be wearing and in the type of glove that an archer would wear.
find Ourselves HOLDING YEW, Elska a place Our Order of the Scarlet Guard today!
Holding has more than one possible interpretation of pun here. Here it is used mostly in the context to maintain the bow and arrow constantly during full draw just before the release. As opposed to the context of the scroll, where TRM are in the act of holding the privilege or position of responsibility inviting the recipient into the order.
Yew is also a homophonic pun for you. Yew, the heavy fine-grained wood of the English was particularly favored by archers.
As much as I feel they might be overdone, I do love the punny scrolls. The time periods of the SCA delighted in puns and jokes. As always, it's fun to write for different kingdoms. I always learn a bit about the places around the known world and in this case, our direct neighbors!
And finally it is with this scroll that I say Gey gezunterheyt to thesaurus.com
I have used this for wordsmithing since 2009. They have apparently started using AI and the quality and accuracy has noticeably decreased to the point of inaccuracy. I will primarily use Thesaurus by Merriam-Webster and WordHippo as my primary wordsmith tools. I am very upset by this change, to say the least.
