Good Baron of Our hearth
Served the souls Carillion
Causing all growth and joy
Speaking songs with Our voice
Of Precious mouth content
Bear shirt bourne far from home
Finds the way back to Us
Duties done his home calls
His uncut thread be cut
Sailroad Shores do call out
Craving raven feeder
Our eyes overran tears
Through a Draught of giants
The mind's worth he’s displayed
Drives him into Our arms
Baron Bestowed upon
Upright Hrafn’s hat-support
Granted, going forth from
First today then the rest
Anointed arms for him
Per fess argent and sable, two ravens volant to chief and a Thor's hammer counterchanged within a bordure gules
Forthwith and ever more
Done this Day June the 8th
That which won’t be undone
Our will, Our joy set at
Southern Region War Camp in AS 54
Word count 175
Words with Color Coding
Color Key:
The syllabic structure, as exampled below:
(a) – (a) – A –
A – – – – –
The meaning of any kennings usedHrafn Breiðskeggr arms, Which are deliberately not attempted to put into the rhyme metre used.
Rex Ozurr, Ring Bringer (king)
Bright Regina Fortune
Kind and Kindred Rulers
Reaching those near and far
Guards of Great Tyger Lands
Lo, ever vigilant
Caretakers of the whole
Tempest children of men (mankind)
Bold Hrafn Breiðskeggr
Good Baron of Our hearth
Served the souls Carillion
Causing all growth and joy
Speaking songs with Our voice
Of Precious mouth content (speech)
Bear shirt (Norse warrior) bourne far from home
Finds the way back to Us
Duties done his home calls
His uncut thread (destiny to be fulfilled) be cut
Sailroad (sea) Shores do call out
Craving raven feeder (warrior)
Our eyes overran tears
Through a Draught of giants (sudden realization)
The mind's worth (honor) he’s displayed
Drives him into Our arms
Baron Bestowed upon
Upright Hrafn’s hat-support (head)
Granted, going forth from
First today then the rest
Anointed arms for him
Per fess argent and sable, two ravens volant to chief and a Thor's hammer counterchanged within a bordure gules
Forthwith and ever more
Done this Day June the 8th
That which won’t be undone
Our will, Our joy set at
Southern Region War Camp in AS 54
Blog-Blog, Bo-Blog, Banana Fanna Fo-Flog…
Jonathan Blaecstan put out a call for a wordsmith to help with a Court Barony scroll. Specifically, he needed help for someone with a Norse persona. I answered the call and then set to work on the words for Hrafn Breiðskeggr’s Court Barony Scroll as he stepped down from his position as Baron of Carillion.
Hrafn had requested that his stepping-down scroll use his new name and persona, a 10th century Norse Varangian Guard. The Varangian Guards were Norse warriors who would travel to Byzantium and serve as elite guards to the Byzantine emperors.
I chose to use the Dróttkvætt "noble warrior's meter," the same meter that was used on standing stones and memorials of Norse warriors, some of which were found in the 10th century. I felt this was a good match for his persona.
I wanted to include two distinguishing characteristics of Norse poetry. The first is kennings. A kenning is a reference to an item or concept which does not name it directly, but rather suggests in an elliptical way. A modern example of a kenning would be "First Lady" to indicate the wife of the president. Kennings can also be found in names like "Trash Panda" for a raccoon, or "Danger Noodle" for a venomous snake - although while these modern kennings aim to make their objects sound more "cute," the kennings of Norse poetry were used to make their objects sound more grand. In Norse kennings, the ocean becomes "sail-road" or "seagull track" and an axe becomes "blood-ember" or "precious troll-woman of the prow-sun."
The other distinguishing characteristic of Norse poetry is alliteration. In the Dróttkvætt metre, the lines are linked in pairs by alliteration, two initial sounds in the first line matched by the start of the first stressed syllable in the second line.
Each stanza must be 8 lines long and each line 6 syllables long.
I like to have many kennings at hand, to have a pool to choose from, so I went to my various sources and gathered several on the page.
In this scroll I expanded my use of kennings from a simple word replacement and used a few that represented concepts. As expected, here are several kennings available for "king" or "chieftain," but few for "queen." While I could certainly use the name of a goddess, this time I chose to use "Regina" - not necessarily appropriate to the time period, but it conveyed the information I needed in the correct number of syllables.
I wanted to convey that Hrafn Breiðskeggr’s service to the crown as a landed Baron was finished, and as a member of the Varangian Guard he could return home and have his praises sung or rather, carved in stone.
I was particularly proud of several couplets:
“Speaking songs with Our voice
Of Precious mouth content”
I had wanted to emphasize that one of his many jobs as a Baron was to speak the words of Their Royal Majesties. I used the kenning of “mouth content” for speech.
“Duties done his home calls
His uncut thread be cut
In this couplet, “uncut thread” is a kenning for a destiny to be fulfilled. I used “be cut” after that to imply that his destiny or time as a Landed Baron was completed with full honors and accolades.
I felt these lines conveyed the gravitas of being a Landed Baron and the celebratory occasion of his stepping down and receiving his Court Barony.
I enjoyed wordsmithing this scroll very much. The rigid syllable structure and alliterative verse made for an interesting challenge. I was striving to convey all the relevant information as concisely as possible - although since it was for a Baron stepping down, I felt comfortable exceeding my 100 word limit to nearly 200
This was a backlog scroll from Southern Region War Camp IX and Baronial Investiture Now hosting K&Q Thrown Weapons Champions
Entered the wordsmithing of this scroll St. Eligius Arts and Science Competition, November 16th, 2019. It was entered in the new category of Non Tangible Research category. To my shock and honor I won this category.
Entered the wordsmithing in Queen & Crown's Arts & Sciences Championship feb 21 2020
I did not advance to the next round, nor did I expect to.
Court Report: Southern Region War Camp
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