Margarita’s pleased for this merry meet
Here in Eastern lands, that we hail as home
One Derrick Barker wearer of war-garb
Lifts glittering brow-stone that leans toward leather
Highest mind-board in art and arms he has
At this time attains the Award of Arms
*********SPACE FOR ARMS***********
Here To be held by him and he alone
Done on February 22nd,
Anno Societas Fifty four
At Queen and Crown Bardic Championships
COLOR CODED WORDS
KEY:
Red letters indicate alliteration
Kennings used
Kenning translation
A Linden of Linen (WOMAN), Our Lovely Queen
Margarita’s pleased for this merry meet
Here in Eastern lands, that we hail as home
One Derrick Barker wearer of war-garb (ARMOUR)
Lifts glittering brow-stone (EYE) that leans toward leather
Highest mind-board (COURAGE) in art and arms he has
At this time attains the Award of Arms
*********SPACE FOR ARMS***********
Here To be held by him and he alone
Done on February 22nd,
Anno Societas Fifty four
At Queen and Crown Bardic Championships
And Stringy, Scriby, Singy Thingy
In Our Hearth-Ship (HOUSE) Shire of Caer Adamant
BIBBIDI BLOG-IDY BOO!
Magdalena Lantfarerin tapped me to write the words for a Norse scroll. I was at the time in a crunch of preparation for the Queens and Crown Arts and Sciences Championships, and this scroll was to go out at Queen and Crown Bardic Championships AND Stringy, Scriby, Singy Thingy. Exactly one week before A&S Champs! Therefore I decided to use Old English Alliterative Verse rather than one of the more complicated Old Norse metres.
The scroll is done in 10 syllable alliterative text as found in Beowulf, with 5 kennings.
In choosing a syllable count for this piece I looked to the text of Beowulf directly, and found there is no set number of syllables per line. I found an analysis of the work Scansion and alliteration in Beowulf Chris Golston and Tomas Riad that stated, “Since over 90% of the lines in Beowulf have more than the 8 syllables Sievers wants us to find, with fully 60% at 10 or more syllables, pruning is industrial in the Sievers paradigm.”
I chose to make the lines 10 syllables long as a sort of average of the 2 statements and managed all but 3 lines.
Lifts glittering brow-stone that leans toward leather 11
This is one of the lines that included a kenning, and I had to work the alliterative text into the line. While I could be content with only 2 words of alliteration, I really prefer 3, so I chose to leave the extra syllable. Besides, it is very easy to slur the word “toward” when reading it.
This becomes the moment when the composer of the work wishes that they could consult the herald who would read the scroll out loud. I very often try to give notes to the herald, and if I do, I can only hope that the scribe sends them along with the scroll and that the herald has the time to read them. Court can be a desperately crazy time.
And Stringy, Scriby, Singy Thingy 9
This was a direct continuation of the line above it and the full name of the event as it appeared in the event announcement. I couldn’t figure out how to add an extra syllable and didn’t want to. The name itself was alliterative! I didn't have to change a thing.
In Our Hearth-Ship Shire of Caer Adamant 11
This was the final line of the scroll and continued the location information of the lines above it. In retrospect, I realize that I could have dropped the “In” and let the sentence start with “Our.”
I hate it when I revisit something and realize a simple solution to what had been a thorny problem, but alas, that's the way of such things - especially when you are creating art that you plan on giving away to someone else!
Lines that I particularly like are:
One Derrick Barker wearer of war-garb
Obviously “One” doesn’t start with a W but it does have the same sound. Alliteration is for sound, not for letters, so it worked just as well.
A Linden of Linen, Our Lovely Queen
I love the sound of this opening sentence; it’s veritably lilting. The majority of it is the Kenning: Linden of Linen. The Kenning is for simply a woman, not a Queen, but as discussed in some other scrolls, many things can be used as Queen and I mentioned her rank at the end of the line. To say that out loud is extremely difficult.
That phrase alone is what prompted me to include a warning for the scribe to give the herald: “This contains a few tongue twisters and the Kennings may have odd phrasing.”
I kept the word count of the scroll to 86 words! Under 90 words is rare for me and I have been working on my tendencies toward wordiness.
For this scroll I used the following web pages:
Skaldic Project, Scansion and alliteration in Beowulf Chris Golston and Tomas Riad,
Thesaurus.com, and Rhymezone
In choosing a syllable count for this piece I looked to the text of Beowulf directly, and found there is no set number of syllables per line. I found an analysis of the work Scansion and alliteration in Beowulf Chris Golston and Tomas Riad that stated, “Since over 90% of the lines in Beowulf have more than the 8 syllables Sievers wants us to find, with fully 60% at 10 or more syllables, pruning is industrial in the Sievers paradigm.”
I chose to make the lines 10 syllables long as a sort of average of the 2 statements and managed all but 3 lines.
Lifts glittering brow-stone that leans toward leather 11
This is one of the lines that included a kenning, and I had to work the alliterative text into the line. While I could be content with only 2 words of alliteration, I really prefer 3, so I chose to leave the extra syllable. Besides, it is very easy to slur the word “toward” when reading it.
This becomes the moment when the composer of the work wishes that they could consult the herald who would read the scroll out loud. I very often try to give notes to the herald, and if I do, I can only hope that the scribe sends them along with the scroll and that the herald has the time to read them. Court can be a desperately crazy time.
And Stringy, Scriby, Singy Thingy 9
This was a direct continuation of the line above it and the full name of the event as it appeared in the event announcement. I couldn’t figure out how to add an extra syllable and didn’t want to. The name itself was alliterative! I didn't have to change a thing.
In Our Hearth-Ship Shire of Caer Adamant 11
This was the final line of the scroll and continued the location information of the lines above it. In retrospect, I realize that I could have dropped the “In” and let the sentence start with “Our.”
I hate it when I revisit something and realize a simple solution to what had been a thorny problem, but alas, that's the way of such things - especially when you are creating art that you plan on giving away to someone else!
Lines that I particularly like are:
One Derrick Barker wearer of war-garb
Obviously “One” doesn’t start with a W but it does have the same sound. Alliteration is for sound, not for letters, so it worked just as well.
A Linden of Linen, Our Lovely Queen
I love the sound of this opening sentence; it’s veritably lilting. The majority of it is the Kenning: Linden of Linen. The Kenning is for simply a woman, not a Queen, but as discussed in some other scrolls, many things can be used as Queen and I mentioned her rank at the end of the line. To say that out loud is extremely difficult.
That phrase alone is what prompted me to include a warning for the scribe to give the herald: “This contains a few tongue twisters and the Kennings may have odd phrasing.”
I kept the word count of the scroll to 86 words! Under 90 words is rare for me and I have been working on my tendencies toward wordiness.
For this scroll I used the following web pages:
Skaldic Project, Scansion and alliteration in Beowulf Chris Golston and Tomas Riad,
Thesaurus.com, and Rhymezone
ETA: 3/1/2020: In retrospect, I am very glad that I chose to use the Alliterative Verse of Beowulf, rather than the Dróttkvætt metre. It was at Q&C A&S Championships the very next weekend that I discovered the error that I had been making in the metre!
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