WORDS, COLOR CODED:
Key
Kenning
Kenning meaning
Alliterative Pairs
Aðalhending or "full hit" rhyme
Blue wood-beasts [BLUE TYGER/SPARKY] of Eastern's
Benign Imperators
Ioannes and Honig
Ideal rulers favors
Realized readiness in
Ranka Otsdottir’s work
Skilled Word-Smith of poems [POET]
Scribe unsaid. We’ll not shirk!
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We now would have her near
With accolade she gains
Order of Silver Brooch
One with all that contains
At the Aisles of Marche
Advent with capstone arch [AN EVENT IN STONEMARCHE]
Brought about on March 5th
Barony of Stonemarche
Anno Societatis 56
PHENOMENAL COSMIC BLOG!
ITTY BITTY LIVING SPACE!
Cwen put out a request on the EK Scribes page looking for a wordsmith with experience in Norse. I was tagged in the post, immediately reached out, and got the assignment! She specifically needed a short scroll, quickly, with just enough words to fit into one or two columns, and she requested that I start with an A, B, or D. I chose to use the Dróttkvætt meter and If there is one thing that metre teaches you, it's to not fall in love with a particular phrase until the entire scroll is done. Most of the couplets, I wrote, rewrote … sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters (with apologies to Douglas Adams). I've never attempted a scroll with such a short word count in this metre before, because of the amount of information a scroll needs - and the ever-present problem of trying to squeeze English into Ancient Norse syllabic structure. Each stanza in the Dróttkvætt metre must be eight lines long, and each line six syllables long, with the odd lines of two consecutive couplets rhyming. These rhymes are aðalhending, or "full hit". The even lines are supposed to end in a skothending or "glancing hit" rhyme. However, due to the English/Norse challenges, I have chosen not to even attempt the skothending,"glancing hit" rhyme. The alliterative structure is: A-A--- A----- Blue wood-beasts [Blue Tyger/Sparky] of Eastern's Benign Imperators I think I ended up working on these opening two couplets the longest. I was delighted to start the scroll off with a Kenning. While I took inspiration in the extant kenning the end result became one of my own. I based it on an actual kenning from the Skaldic project: ‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls. ’ - CAT I changed bear to beast to be less animal specific. (I have used "Tyger Beast" in previous scrolls.) Blue wood-beast of old walls became a reference to our populace badge, "Sparky. " I shortened it to "blue wood-beast" to fit within the six syllable limit and alliteration Ioannes and Honig Ideal rulers favors Early on I tried to give a full couplet to both monarchs. I even came up with: Eastern Emperor Excellent Ioannes Humble Honig Empress Have heard of Our Ranks ... but then I decided that giving two verses to Their Majesties would take up too much space. The name Ioannes is a bit of a cheat with the rhyme scheme, but necessary and done by choice. Realized readiness in Ranka Otsdottir’s work Like every couplet in the scroll, this one went through many iterations - but the challenge of getting all the moving parts to work in a cohesive manner in English, while still adhering to the ancient metre, is the fun part! Skilled Word-Smith of poems [Poet/Author] Scribe unsaid. We’ll not shirk! This kenning is another adapted from an original: “skilled smith of poetry. ’ - POET.” The only changes I made were to fit into the alliteration and the syllable count. *************************************** After my entry for the 2019 A&S Champions, I discovered that in the Dróttkvætt metre, “there is usually a marked syntactic division at the end of line four to make the whole into two balancing halves.” In the past I've made this division a verbal break of a direct quote from a Norse piece, or used the recipient’s arms. For this piece, like the last time I worked in this meter, I chose to make the rhymes of the first two couplets different from the last two. We now would have her near With accolade she gains In this couplet I started with new rhymes, or “aðalhending.” In these first two we have gains/contains. Order of Silver Brooch One with all that contains This couplet names the award. I was glad that, “Order of '' fits the alliteration perfectly, although I had to drop “the” to fit the syllable count. The recipient did not have an Award of Arms, but will now have one within the accolades of the Silver Brooch. While I didn't say Award of Arms verbatim, I alluded to it in the second line of this couplet. At the Aisles of Marche Advent with capstone arch [An event in Stonemarche] Gotta love it when the name of the event fits so perfectly into the first line of the metre! Then I inadvertently created my own kenning for a Stonemarche event, by referencing the drawbridge's arch in the Baronial arms. Brought about on March 5th Barony of Stonemarche In these last two couplets I essentially used the sound “arch” four times! This would not have been my preference and I tried quite a few variations, but this ended up being the smoothest way to get all the necessary information in. Anno Societatis 56 The last line of the scroll includes the year. I could have created another couplet at this point, but I already had an even number of verses for both columns. I could have extended the scroll a bit and probably have ended up under a hundred words, but the C&I Artist had specifically requested a short scroll, so I decided to break the metre. Latin and ancient Norse really do not mix well. I really enjoyed working on this scroll. I had a short turnaround time and so put an intense amount of work into in a few days. Usually I save the Dróttkvætt metre for longer scrolls, like a Court Barony or an Award of High Merit. I challenged myself in keeping this a shorter piece and I feel I met that challenge quite well. I hope the recipient is happy with it too!
Originally written to go out at Aisles of Marche and Crown A&S Championship
Went out at Great Northeastern War XXXIV
East Kingdom Gazette: GNEW Court Report
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