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
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
The bright lights, the BLOG
And the moon and all
-Sting
(more or less)
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.
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.
Scribe’s Blog - The Volatile
