Brochmail de Anglespur - Silver Crescent

Eastrealm!  

Hear the words of our illustrious King Kenric and our brilliant Queen Avelina:

Take our love, take our land, and take those whose service benefits all around them.

Though the lands may burn, though the seas may boil, though their efforts go unnoticed  through decades, those gentles that  provide a Shining light to us all shall go unrecognized no longer.

We have cast about unto the black skies above for all  those who might be worthy of our Order of the Silver Crescent, and have found an exemplar in Brochmail de Anglespur.

Hammer in hand, Broch has given his sweat and blood to ensure that every Shindig runs smoothly, from the closest to the farthest-flung. His agile mind has solved problems, resolved arguments, and been instrumental in building his young Shire into a home for all. Today it is his stalwart heart for which we commend him: a true Heart of Gold which leads him to place the welfare of his family, his Shire, his Kingdom and the Society above himself, time after time.

The sages of old have said: those who cannot run, may crawl; and those who cannot crawl, may find someone to carry them. Brochmail de Anglespur is a gentle who will go out of his way to carry others to success.

With this in mind, We, King Kenric æt Essex and Queen Avelina Keyes, find a profound Serenity in inducting Brochmail de Anglespur into Our Order of the Silver Crescent and further do award him the exclusive right to bear these arms Per chevron inverted counter-ermine and vert, a lymphad and an acorn slipped and leaved Or.

Done this 10th day of September, A.S. 51, at the Feast of John Barleycorn and Viceregal Investiture in the Crown Principality of Ostgardr.
***On the back***Illumination and Calligraphy by Aesa Sturludorrie, and Words by Aislinn Chiabach because they are pretty

Word count 297

Silver Crescent award for my mundane husband, Brochmail de Anlespur.

My partner in Crime in this endeavour was Lady Aesa Sturuldottir.  She did the calligraphy and illumination.  Our inspiration was twofold as she describes our shennanigansin her blog: https://byswordandpen.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/barleycorn-mischief-managed/

My inspiration was Broch's mundane love for the unfortunately short lived sci fi series, Firefly.  Back when it was first cancelled he was in the thick of the protests, going to NYC to try and garner support for the show on the Today Show.  I chose to make the modern references instead of a more period and serious text  because I knew he would enjoy that kind of scroll.  I also knew that the Herald reading the scroll, Baron Ryan MacWhite,  would enjoy reading it greatly.  He has been known to go by the nickname of Baron Jayne.

With that in mind, I and my beta, Lord Arthur le Taverner worked with the standard SCAdian award text trying to create a scroll that included examples of the many wondrous attributes of Broch, as many Firefly references as humanly possible and still be an eloquently written scroll that stands alone if someone was not familiar with the ill dated Joss Whedon television show.

And as far as that goes, there is only one truly anachronistic word in the entire piece.  The etymology of "Shindig" lists it as starting between 1855-1860.  Due to the close reference it contains in Firefly, I chose to include it in the scroll.

I hope these words accomplished that.
Beta'd by Lord Arthur le Taverner

Ban of Wintermoor - Award of Arms

We look for those that act
We look for those that learn
We look for those that teach

For architects of change
For explorers of the realm
For emissaries of assemblage

Students of the arts of rattan and steel

We Brennan Augustus and Caoilfhionn Augusta
Heads of the Mighty East
Give Ban of Wintermoor Arms

We do on this Market Day at Birka
Barony of Stonemarche
January 30, A.S. L

Word Count 77

Calligraphy: Faolán an Sccreccain

Words & Illumination: Aislinn Chiabach

This was my first officially assigned scroll from the Tyger Signet.  It took a bit before I was ready to attempt it, but once I started it all came together.   The recipient didn’t have any persona or registered arms, but the gentle who wrote him in provided a sketch of his ideas.   The sketch included a barren tree and visible root systems surrounded by a bright green.
I searched through a variety of images of trees and found inspiration in The tree of vices, in "Liber Floridus", creation: 1120, author: Lambert of Saint Omer, edition: 1460, folio 185v, Koninklijke Bibliotheek”

What caught my eye about this image was that the tree appears to be going one way with roots vertically on the page, and the calligraphy going horizontally across the page.  This dichotomy of the illumination to the calligraphy appealed to me.
I chose not to include the axes embedded in the tree trunk. I didn’t think they particularly fit in with any symbolism that I was representing in the award.  Instead the spot they would have taken became the spot I left for Their Majesties to sign the scroll.
Color wise I kept the green that was used in the original image, as the recipient seemed to favor the color.  I did change the color of the border to a deeper, more magenta color.
My hands are not completely recovered from my time in the hospital.  They tend to shake when under such stresses as drawing and painting. That was another reason the inspiration image appealed to me.  I felt that any shakiness in my hands would fit the style of the inkwork that I saw in the original.  I did request some aid in finishing this piece. Lord Brochmail, my husband, assisted me in the creation of the circles that sat in the tree for the calligraphy to go in.
As for the calligraphy I tried, I really did try to do it myself. I played around with formatting and the spacing of the words on the computer:

Even before the stroke I had difficulty in drawing calligraphy.  I could enlarge individual letters and make them poster-sized, in any style, but writing the words with a quill was beyond me.  Alas, I came to the conclusion that this calligraphy was beyond my skills.  I had to ask for help.
I then called upon Faolán to see if he had any time to calligraph the piece for me.  He had just enough time to do so, finishing it the night before it was due.  Faolán believes he used a Leonardt #6 Roundhand nib or a .5mm Tape Nib.   Which is very small indeed.  He made me promise on a stack of bibles that I would never leave him such small spaces for calligraphy again!  I really made the spaces incredibly small.  I will try my hardest not to put such a torture on the calligraphers again!
Faolán wrote about it in his blog.

There is one error that I missed, as did Faolán. Originally it said Grant instead of Give.  Which is essentially giving the recipient a different award.  We changed it on the Herald's cheat-sheet and it was read into court with the corrected "give."
I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I learned a lot of where my levels of time management are and what I can do and who I can count on for help.  I am still adjusting to what I can do now as opposed to what I could do before my health issues.  It is an ongoing process and I am glad I could provide something like this to someone while I am going through it.

Eikaterine of Angelspur - Silver Crescent

 Eikaterine is a phoenix and synchronous with humility;
The peacock cannot equal her in beauty or in stature.
In benevolence she outshines the gold; the world in wonder yieldeth;
Her nest she fixeth in the trees, and all of spices buildeth.
And when he dies, a little worm, from out her body twining,
Doth generate her back again whene'er the sun is shining.
She lives in Anglespur, and she travels throughout the East, 
Coach to our youth in battle, insuring their prowess increased.
Many a time there has been those fresh to Our lands that arrived bare,     
Eikaterine, with the garments off her back would make sure they had what to wear.
She so giveth her time at the stove, as winged teachers,
In lessons of cookery, to all wingless creatures.
King Brennan, who shines like Zeus, and Caoilfhionn like Hera agleam,
Hath entered on these institutes, all centre Their esteem.
Of inducting this Phoenix, Our Catherine of Anglespur, resplendent,
Into our immeasurable Order of the Silver Crescent.
Anno Societas Fifty at our 12th Night celebration, this phoenix of the story
Expireth from the fair incipient shire of Midland Vale whereby she had this glory.

Word Count 195

Illumination and Calligraphy by Vettorio Antonello

Unfortunately any notes I had on the composition of this work are lost.  I do remember that I based it on an actual letter written in the Byzantine era which is the persona of the recipient.

Loosely based on a Byzantine piece

Eikaterine tin Elliniki (also known as Eikaterine of Anglespur)

Kingdom Twelfth Night, AS L

EK Gazette -12 Night Unofficial Court Report

Photo by by Vettorio Antonello

Photo by Eye of the Beholder Studios