He arrived at Cooper's Lake with a care
In hopes that the Gate would be open there
Helped set up the camp, the tents and the beds
Visions of the Children's fete danced in his head
Nikolaus in his garb, complete to his cap
Came to court dressed up, but expected to nap
When from the thrones there arose such a clatter,
The tumultuous shouts were what was the matter
Nikolaus Claus was afore the thrones in a flash
Where of all his merits were about to be hashed
Their Majesties, Brennan and Caoilfhionn know
Those good gentles who need their rank to grow
The Award of Arms Did We make appear
In this the 58th AS year
Per bend gules and sable, on a bend between two stags courant Or three holly leaves palewise vert fructed gules
He came down from the dias, so lively and quick
Highly entertained by all the court schtick
Towards Low Road ‘twixt High Rd and Brewers!
Out Royal Gate from East Kingdom's viewers
We heard him exclaim as he walked out of sight—
Happy Pennsic to All, and to all a good night!
Word Count 205
Never before have two souls joined so freely
And so fast
For me, this is the first time
And the BLOG
~Miss Piggy, NOT the poem!
Since the first Pennsic I attended, I have been low key filking A Visit from St. Nicholas
By Clement Clarke Moore. Written in Anapestic Tetrameter, originally a Greek verse but used modernly with this famous poem and many of Dr Suess’ works. The original is over 500 words long, so I knew I wasn’t going to do a straight 1:1 filk of the entire poem. As it is, Fiona indulged me with the 200 odd words I ended up composing.
Since I very much wanted to keep the cadence and feel of the original poem, my goal was to keep as much of the phrases complete as I could and at least one of the rhymes in each couplet the same.
'Twas the night before Pennsic, when all through the house
Every creature was packing, or thereabouts
This is almost verbatim, what I sent Fiona in our original discussion. I decided to change the last four syllables from, “even the mouse” to, “or thereabout.” In the context of the scroll, I felt it left the question of who was the mouse and why was it packing for Pennsic? I wanted to make this more tailored to the scroll milieu, rather than the freeform filk in my head for all these years.
He arrived at Cooper's Lake with a care
In hopes that the Gate would be open there
“The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;”
Here I managed to keep the end rhyme true to the original poem. It continues the story I was evoking of preparing, traveling and being at Pennsic.
Also of note is that I completely abandoned the original punctuation. In the context of the scroll it wasn’t really needed at all.
Helped set up the camp, the tents and the beds
Visions of the Children's fete danced in his head
In the recommendation it was particularly mentioned that the recipient dressed up as Santa Claus for the Children’s Fete, held annually on the Wednesday of War Week at Pennsic. I was also able to use more of the original poem in this couplet. The more phrases and words that can be used, the better the filk is.
Nikolaus in his garb, complete to his cap
Came to court dressed up, but expected to nap
While I had hoped that the recipient would show up in court in his full Santa regalia, I didn’t really expect that to happen. He wasn’t even wearing a hat! Alas.
But the image I was evoking still grounded us in the poem. It describes everything the Papa is doing, as I am describing what the recipient is doing.
When from the thrones there arose such a clatter,
The tumultuous shouts were what was the matter
“When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.”
I maintained the rhymes and the last 3 words of the second line of the couplet. I did take a little liberty with the calling of the recipient into court with clatter and tumultuous shouts.
Nikolaus Claus was afore the thrones in a flash
Where of all his merits were about to be hashed
“Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.”
After this point, the required information needed for the scroll took a definite departure from the original poem.
Their Majesties, Brennan and Caoilfhionn know
Those good gentles who need their rank to grow
I desperately tried to keep snow or below in this couplet, and just couldn’t. So I compensated by keeping the same rhyme sounds. Thankfully they were words that had many options for me to use.
The Award of Arms Did We make appear
In this the 58th AS year
Appear is the original rhyming word, but nothing else is the same as the original.
This couplet falls victim to a classic blunder, not going in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, but the scroll being read by someone else besides the scribe. I had chosen AS over Anno Societatis on purpose. AS, because it led to 9 syllables in the line, and Anno Societatis would have been 13 syllables. I felt the one less syllable would scan better.
However the herald, who was doing a magnificent job with this scroll, automatically changed AS to the non abbreviated version.
On average such a change doesn’t matter in the long run and I am sure no one noticed but me.
I also want to emphasize how fabulous the herald was, reading this scroll! I am very impressed that they didn’t crack up laughing while reading it!
Per bend gules and sable, on a bend between two stags courant Or three holly leaves palewise vert fructed gules
Since the recipient had registered arms, I chose to put them in this point of the scroll. It served as a good break point in the poem. Up until this point, more or less successfully I had been doing a straight 1:1 filk of the poem.
He came down from the dias, so lively and quick
Highly entertained by all the court schtick
“With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.”
Any scroll that I can continue the narrative and work in the word schtick, is a scroll well crafted in my world! As I recall this line elicited a lot of giggles from the populus.
Towards Low Road ‘twixt High Rd and Brewers!
Out Royal Gate from East Kingdom's viewers
This went through a few iterations. I thought at one point of including the Royals names here:
“With Brennan! With Caoilfhionn! And Matthias and Feilinn!”
There were a few other versions but nothing was sounding right. About this time Facebook was being flooded with people putting up where they were camping at Pennsic. That struck a chord in my brain. I found the Pennsic road map quick enough, but had a question about phrasing. So I posted the question to FB, with no particulars and got the answer I needed easily enough.
At this point I skip the next 300 odd words of the poem to the next and final couplet.
We heard him exclaim as he walked out of sight—
Happy Pennsic to All, and to all a good night!
Considering what all I had written so far, how could I not end it this way?
This scroll was so amazingly fun to write.
The concept and execution of the words came easily.
Even with all this I was still a little trepidatious. I was doing a mundane filk for their AoA? Would they like it? But I looked at their REGISTERED name and Arms. There were holly and reindeer on the arms! It was 100% Christmas references. This scroll was going to be perfect for them!
After court I received a message from a friend and another scribe that I work with. The recipient was their father!!! He absolutely loved the scroll. Plus, and this was the best part: He dressed up as St. Nicholas, and was a professional Santa! He did it not just for the Children’s Fete!!!
I was so relieved and glad that I had gone with my instincts and written the filk scroll.
Sometimes the leaps we take land exactly where they are supposed to!
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