Markus Farmað - Order of the Tygers Combattant

Here in the Swamps of Settemour, King Culann and Queen Honig, 

Abide beneath the harvest moon.

And think of the days that have been, and dreams of those coming. 

But in the now, call to the thrones one Markus Farmað. 

Mind the words We speak so must the matter be,

And call, Come forward all Combattants!

For his wise hands in battle We see  

Holding swords heartfelt

Gripping spear steadfast

Careful in fashion 

to finish foes on the field

As We pass the summer season, to this harvest time of the year, 

We now see Markus Farmað granted Tygers Combattant

At this Ducal Challenge, Anno Societatis LXI 

Long and lovely has been this day. 

Hours high-filled with wisdom, 

We’re glad for gentle take away, 

in this most pleasant outcome

Word Count 129

Illumination and Calligraphy by Fiona the Volatile

Photo by Fiona the Volatile

Key - Alliterative Text

Prose Style Text
Alliteration

Additional  Alliteration

Here in the Swamps of Settemour, King Culann and Queen Honig, 

Abide beneath the harvest moon.

And think of the days that have been, and dreams of those coming. 

But in the now, call to the thrones one Markus Farmað. 

Mind the words We speak so must the matter be,

And call, Come forward all Combattants!

For his wise hands in battle We see  

Holding swords heartfelt

Gripping spear steadfast

Careful in fashion 

to finish foes on the field

As We pass the summer season, to this harvest time of the year, 

We now see Markus Farmað granted Tygers Combattant

At this Ducal Challenge, Anno Societitas LXI 

Long and lovely has been this day. 

Hours high-filled with wisdom, 

We’re glad for gentle take away, 

in this most pleasant outcome

Word Count 129

I've no choice but to follow that call
The bright lights, the BLOG
And the moon and all
-Sting
(more or less)

When starting to work on this scroll, I started to gather kennings in an attempt to recreate the Dróttkvætt verse form. I made several kennings particularly created to represent weapons that the recommendation had mentioned.
I went to the Scaldic Project and started to create Kennings to the weapons forms that his recommendation listed and attempted to adapt them into the Dróttkvætt verse:
SWORD
smooth battle-serpent [SWORD >
Smooth battle serpent
Smooth war serpent
Wielding War’s smooth serpent worm-steel
Warrior faces the field 7
SHIELD
gleam of the tents of battle [(lit. ‘gleam-wielder of the tents of battle’) SHIELDS > SWORD > WARRIOR
Tents of tête-à-tête
Can one use a French phrase writing ancient Norse in modern day English?
Pavilion of Pitched canvas
Meh, come back to this
SPEAR
reeds of red wounds [SPEARS]
Reed of red wounds rained down
Rending a path through foes
Then I went to The Royal Nordic Society of Old Scripts to see if they had anything that would get my brain moving in the right direction.
I found this quoted piece:
"The elves of the mountains were ill
Greetings, please.
to Sweden then
seimir viking home;
That's their only life.
they had more troops
good luck here
The dog is gone."
Then attempted to create new versions steeped with the required information of the East Kingdom..
Gentles of this Great East
Greetings today to all
East!
Enter ensconced eye-caught
Entrances glorious
Swamps of Settemour set so
Successful a day, thus
Ducal disputes did run
Directly as was planned
The more I worked on the Dróttkvætt the more frustrated I got. So I turned to translations of sagas for a different perspective.
Eventually I found a piece to work on as my inspiration piece. 
I thought I had been working off of this: Völsunga Saga: the story of the Volsungs [and] Niblungs, with certain songs from the Elder Edda; by Eiríkr Magnússon, 1833-1913; Morris, William, 1834-1896
I was, however, using this as my resource: The story of Sigurd the Volsung and the fall of the Niblungs by Morris, William, 1834-1896
Also found here: The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the
Fall of the Niblungs, by William Morris
It's an original story by William Morris created based on their research of Ancient Norse works. So instead of working from a direct translation, this is more based on a created art form. Not my preferred source, but the end result was successful.

Here in the Swamps of Settemour, King Culann and Queen Honig, 

Abide beneath the harvest moon.

The opening sentence has the most alliteration. Essentially 3 alliterative word clusters in one sentence. This was not intentional. Their Majesties names and titles are naturally alliterative and the last B rhyme isn’t exact, as it depends on the second syllable in “abide.” However when read it court the alliteration will punch.

And think of the days that have been, and dreams of those coming, 

But in the now, call to the thrones one Markus Farmað. 

At this point the alliteration becomes more consistent, per one or twoi lines.

Mind the words We speak so must the matter be,

And call, Come forward all Combattants!

As in the Silver Tyger that went out in this same event, there is a description of what is actively happening in court. In this case the other members of the same Order of High Merit are invited to gather and pay respects at the thrones.

For his wise hands in battle We see 

Holding swords heartfelt

Gripping spear steadfast

Careful in fashion 

to finish foes on the field

Earlier in the process for the scroll I described searching for Kennings for certain weapons forms. Since the recipient's prowess was particularly lauded in the recommendation for these forms they were included. Here with alliteration instead of kennings.

As We pass the summer season, to this harvest time of the year, 

This sentence, used verbatim from the original text, was the inspiration. It so perfectly evoked an event held in September. 

We now see Markus Farmað granted Tygers Combattant

At this Ducal Challenge, Anno Societatis LXI 

The last bits of required information are added to the penultimate section of the scroll.

Long and lovely has been this day. 
Hours high-filled with wisdom, 
We’re glad for gentle take away, 
in this most pleasant outcome

The conclusion references the end of the event and the award as the most pleasant outcome of the day. Becoming a rather sweet way to end the scroll.

This scroll was a fight. The assignment came late and inspiration was difficult to find. In the end though, it came together and became something eminently worthy of the award and recipient.

Photo by Sofi of Eisental

Scribe’s Blog - The Volatile

Helena von Halsstern - Court Barony

Behold here, O the East! 

Helena von Halsstern here before Us. 

The great task of being Royalty is comprehending the nature of Our people through a direct 

sensory experience. The focus of concrete things, which can at any time, be clearly known and proved by experience, thus reminds Us to understand that Our eyes function with such certainty as to see Helena and what they have done for Us.

Further We wish to express this gratitude in a concrete form that can be arranged and announced before the whole expanse of the East and beyond.

All knowledge has its origins in perception and thus King Culann and Queen Honig in such  space found in The Barony of Settmour Swamp during this Sixty First Year of Our Society at Ducal Challenge, would see Their opportunity to present unto the aforesaid Helena von Halsstern the title of Baroness of Our Court, with these arms: Sable semy of roses Or, a fox passant reguardant contourny argent. As witnessed by Our eyes. 

Word Count 168
Illumination and Calligraphy by Hugoline the Delicate

Photo by Hugoline the Delicate

I'm looking through you, and now you're BLOG

-The Beatles

(more or less)

This scroll came about between the scribe and myself and led to a discovery! In our initial discussion they mentioned a previous work that featured the backwards writing of Leonardo Da Vinci. My first impression of Da Vinci was that of a painter,an architect, and an innovator. The idea of investigating his own writing had never occurred to me.
After the machinations of online searching, I found: The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete, by da Vinci Leonardo 

I selected several of his notes regarding the eye and his ponderings on sight in comparison to other animals and humans.Given that the award is a court barony, they developed a theme of vision and seeing what the recipient had done for Their Majesties.

About 3/4 of the way into the composition, the scribe discovered that the recipient adored foxes. Further searching led to Leonardo da Vinci’s Animal Anatomy: Bear and Horse Drawings Revisited and Leonardo’s Animals. Which did not focus on foxes, but its influence was still felt in the composition.

Behold here, O the East! 

Leonardo starts his Introduction to Perspective: That is of the function of the eye by addressing the reader of his diary. “Behold here O reader!”
This perspective actually made using his words as inspiration straightforward to adapt. They were already written directed outward to an unseen audience.

Helena von Halsstern here before Us. 

Since the original source did not feature an individual, this seemed the appropriate place to introduce the recipient.

The great task of being Royalty is comprehending the nature of Our people through a direct 

sensory experience. 

Initial focus was set towards The sentence “forefathers, the ancients, who tried to define what the Soul and Life are” as inspiration. After many iterations, including some internal debate between using soul vs spirit, the reference was omitted entirely. Or in the words of Arthur Quiller-Couch, and often ascribed to William Faulkner, “Murder your darlings.”

Instead it became an amalgamation of the notes concerning the eye from Leonardo’s Anomals “the great task of being human is comprehending nature through direct sensory experience, but human senses are poor.”

The focus of concrete things, which can at any time, be clearly known and proved by experience, thus reminds Us to understand that Our eyes function with such certainty as to see Helena and what they have done for Us.

And here goes directly back to the Notebooks where the original language is tweaked to suit the Royalty and the recipient.

Further We wish to express this gratitude in a concrete form that can be arranged and announced before the whole expanse of the East and beyond.

At this point having dealt with his turn of phrase for quite a while this sentence was created while simply letting Da Vinci ‘s influence come through when creating the SCA specific turns of phrase.

All knowledge has its origins in perception and thus King Culann and Queen Honig in such space found in The Barony of Settmour Swamp during this Sixty First Year of Our Society at Ducal Challenge, would see Their opportunity to present unto the aforesaid Helena von Halsstern the title of Baroness of Our Court, with these arms: Sable semy of roses Or, a fox passant reguardant contourny argent. As witnessed by Our eyes. 

The bulk of the required information is put in this ending section. Even so the vision and sight theme continues throughout the last paragraph with the cumulation in the final line of, “As seen by Our eyes."

The final work was not a direct one to one rearranging of a single text; these words are based on several of Da Vinci’s diary entries. This was a patchwork of phrases and words that were coalesced into a viable theme with progressive steps that described the recipient and their award.