Looks over the East Her eyes not hazy
Of the many shoots in Our meadow
Children of the East, Like flowers bud; grow
To them We have naught, but great affection,
Today one is subject to much inspection
An Eastern bloom with thorns and soft petal
Grown strong with wit, thorn and stubborn mettle
Isabel de Kerbriant, Our subject true
We have watched over the years as they grew
Here in red and green; an ember aglow
We are happily moved now to bestow
Upon them arms to be worn by them alone
**********SPACE FOR ARMS*********
An adult now, in Our eyes, we do condone
Isabel begins this adult adventure
At Yule XLI and Baronial Investiture
December 14, AS fifty four
With fine folk and fine feast found ever more
Word Count 144
I was thrilled that Magdalena Lantfarerin tapped me to word this scroll. I have known Isabel since they were a baby and as such I was very comfortable asking their mother Sabine de Kerbiant for her input on Isabel’s AoA. Sabine gave me a wealth of information, including some of Isabel's favorite poems and books. As it happens, I ended up using none of that information whatsoever. That’s the way of it sometimes.
Instead I turned to Chaucer himself. I was focusing on the Queen’s name of Margarita. It has always amused me that of the myriad nicknames for Margarita, such as Maggie, Marge, Margot, Maya, and Rita, the list also includes Daisy - which sounds completely out of place, until you realize that Marguerite is simply Spanish for Daisy.
On a whim I googled, “Chaucer Daisy.”
The poem “The Daisy,” From The “Legend of the Good Woman” came up, and in one of the first few verses is the phrase: “Soch that men callen daisies.” This gave me the direction of the scroll.
In a modern English translation of the poem, the line translates to, "Such that men called daisies." But since Isabel had requested gender-neutral, they/them pronouns, I changed the line to, “Such that some called daisies.” I also tried to use a lot of gender neutral words in the scroll as a whole, even words that did not refer to the recipient. In the end, the only gendered words in the scroll ended up being those referring to Her Majesty.
Another Chaucer quote I used was, “To hem I have so great affection,” which became, “To them We have naught, but great affection.” This fit best within the context and syllable count I had chosen to use.
The last line directly influenced by Chaucer was, “these floures white and rede," which inspired me to include the Baronial colors. In the scroll, the line became, “Here in red and green.” The last part of the line, “an ember aglow “ was an oblique reference to the Barony of Bkhail’s salamander arms.
All in all, I was very happy with how the words came out, though the scroll veered far from where I started.
The Daisy
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340–1400)
OF all the floures in the mede,
Than love I most these floures white and rede,
Soch that men callen daisies in our town;
To hem I have so great affection
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