Monarchs, Ring-Bearers East
Hearing howls of happy
Headed from the flame-hearth
Seems to suggest
Success can be found in
Terror Tooth loving cook
Traversing the kitchens
Snarfi Snorrison’s one
So earned their Silver Wheel
Land of Lyndhaven is
Local shire’s event
Just Breathe January
14th, AS LVII
Word Count 49
KEY
Kennings
Kenning Meaning
* Correct Dróttkvætt alliteration
*Hearing howls of happy
Headed from the flame-hearth HOME/HALL
Seems to suggest to Us
Success can be be found in
Terror Tooth loving cook BOAR/PIG
Traversing the kitchens
*Snarfi Snorrison’s one
So earned their Silver Wheel
And all Accord that goes
Along with the award
Land of Lyndhaven is
Local shire’s event
Just Breathe January
14, AS LVII 7
Børk! Børk! Bløg!
I considered several poetic types for this scroll. The recommendation prominently mentioned the recipient’s love of all things pig, so my first thought was to write a punny scroll to be filled to the jowls with porcine puns.
However, the recipient has a Norse name and I decided to look at Beowulf to see if I found inspiration there. In researching the elements of the poem, I found:
Beowulf - “has alliteration, compounding, kennings and formulas”
“Formulas: Like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Beowulf makes use of stock phrases, known
as formulas. Formulas are believed to be ready-made phrases which fulfill the metrical
needs of a line or half-line, and are believed to be a standard tool of an oral poet. While
some scholars argue that the existence of formulas in a poem must mean the poem has its
origins as oral poetry, not everyone agrees with this belief. Extensive use of formulas
tends to give a poem a lofty and highly traditional character.”
There’s an argument to be made that the information required by a scroll (Royalty names, recipient’s name, award, date and location) constitutes the formulas as would have been used in Beowulf and other poetic forms. It was truly fascinating to be able to put a name to a central component of wordsmithing - so much so that I am going to alter the wording of my class, Wordsmithing 101, to reflect it.
With Beowulf in mind, the search for pig Kennings began.
I couldn't find any.
I put the question to the internets and friends came through with information that yes, the Norse kept pigs: N. Atlantic Settlement-Period domesticates.
In light of the lack of Kennings, I thought to create some of my own. First I looked to other farm animal kennings from the Skaldic Project:
the horse of fruitfulness-Gefn = Freyja - OX
The dung-reindeer - OX
the whale of the Vár (goddess) of the bowstring - OX
the yoke-bear - OX
As the Ox was described by what they did, I immediately thought about truffle hunting pigs - remembering the truffle hunting scene in Ever After: A Cinderella Story, which is set in the late 1400s/early 1500s France.
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This led me down a delightful rabbit-hole of trying to figure out if Vikings would hunt for Truffles.
Truffles: everything you need to know and the Rich History of the Truffle say that essentially truffle hunting in period needed a more temperate climate than just shy of the Arctic circle. As such, truffle hunting was not done by the Norse peoples. It was a fun tangent to go on though and I definitely learned from it.
With Truffles a no-go, I turned to descriptions and images of medieval pigs, not just Norse images. Ubiquitous Medieval Pigs provided many images and I noticed that invariably, in whatever medium, the curly tail of the pig was shown. I then started just putting pig terms on paper -Tushy curl tail fanny tush bum and then: curly tailed caudal [appendage]
I had just made a Dróttkvætt kenning. Guess the scroll was going to be in Dróttkvætt now. In a way, this piece chose its own poetry.
By this point I had been going on so much about the lack of pig references in my Norse sources, my husband, Bróccín MacIvyr, did his own searching and found:
Gullinbursti A tale involving pigskin and a boar, plus the usual machinations of the old gods.
Which yielded the tidbits that “Gold Mane" or "Golden Bristles" is a boar in Norse mythology.
Another story: Ægir held a feast for the Æsir
The boar is also known as Slíðrugtanni meaning "Sharp Tooth" or "Fearsome Tooth"
I put them all down in the same spot - Golden Bristles, Sharp Tooth, Fearsome Tooth - and came up with “Terror Tooth."
Mohammad,Corotica 7
Monarchs, Ring-Bearers East MONARCHS
First sentence off the bat and it is a syllable too long. This is an adjustment I often need to make.
I did get the ball rolling with Kennings, by taking a kenning for the singular king and simply making it plural. I did appreciate that His Majesty's name alone fit the alliteration.
*Hearing howls of happy
Headed from the flame-hearth HOME/HALL
This couplet makes me happy. I managed to do the correct Dróttkvætt alliteration, which is fairly difficult to accomplish in modern English. An early mistake that I made in the meter was believing that in the first line, the 5th syllable was different from the first and third. For now I am not attempting to add a full hit or a glancing hit rhyme. Before I do that I need further research.
By using the kenning for hearth/hall, I am referencing the feast hall of an event
Seems to suggest to Us
Success can be be found in
This couplet is essentially a transition from Their Majesties to the Recipient. The sentence doesn’t end and bleeds into the next couplet, as happens.
Terror Tooth loving cook BOAR/PIG
Traversing the kitchens
My pig kenning! I am pleased with the amount of research and the paths I took to get here. I would have liked to take another couplet to expound on the recipient. The recommendation was lovely and detailed. The C&I artist Emma Makilmone was planning a complex design with runic characters and a smaller word count was much preferred from her side of the scroll. I am most satisfied with the resultant collaboration!
*Snarfi Snorrison’s one
So earned their Silver Wheel
I managed two verses in the complete alliterative meter! Extra points (as it were) that the third alliterative is in the recipient’s name.
And all Accord that goes
Along with the award
As far as I could find, the recipient did not have registered names or arms. There is plenty of room on the scroll for the arms to be included later.
Land of Lyndhaven is
Local shire’s event
The phrasing references the Shire of Lyndhaven, where the event took place.
Just Breathe, January
14, AS LVII 8
I managed to include the place and date into the meter! I feel as if I manage that about 50% of the time. Each time I do I get a little thrill! It’s the little things that go into these scrolls that add to the overall goal - of giving the recipient the best possible award.
This scroll ended up being a joy to work on. I learned a number of new things about the Norse culture and furthered my understanding of the meters I work with.
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