The recipient was described as the “Camp Engineer.” So the first google search I did was for “Medieval engineer.” It didn’t garner much, but there was a Reddit thread under a search for
Medieval Architects: Did they have blueprints?
While the discussion thread focuses mainly on blueprints, it did yielded a link to the article The Working Space of the Medieval Master Mason: the Tracing Houses of York Minster and Wells Cathedral
Which was a very interesting read about the “The tracing house at York, known as the masons’ loft,” even if all I took from it was the medieval terms in regards to building construction.
The architect terminology became the inspiration for the scroll
I chose to write it on Octosyllabic rhyming couplets to match the recipient's Scottish persona. Then I turned to The Earliest Scottish Literature § 2. John Barbour; The Bruce. I found a copy of it, in the original on Project guttenberg:
“A! fredome is a noble thing!225
Fredome mays man to haiff liking;
Fredome all solace to man giffis:
He levys at es that frely levys.
A noble hart may haiff nane es,
Na ellys nocht that may him ples,230
Gyff fredome failyhe: for fre liking
Is yharnyt our all othir thing.
Na he, that ay has levyt fre,
May nocht knaw weill the propyrte,
The angyr, na the wrechyt dome,235
That is cowplyt to foule thyrldome.
Bot gyff he had assayit it,
Than all perquer he suld it wyt;
And suld think fredome mar to prys,
Than all the gold in warld that is.240
Thus contrar thingis evir-mar,
Discoveryngis off the tothir ar.[Pg 8]
And he that thryll is has nocht his;
All that he has enbandownyt is
Till hys lord, quhat-evir he be.245
Yheyt has he nocht sa mekill fre
As fre liking to leyve, or do[†]
That at hys hart hym drawis to.
Than mays clerkis questioun,
Quhen thai fall in disputacioun,250
That gyff man bad his thryll owcht do,
And in the samyn tym come him to
His wyff, and askyt hym hyr det,
Quhethir he his lordis neid suld let,
And pay fryst that he awcht, and syne255
Do furth his lordis commandyne;
Or leve onpayit his wyff, and do
It that commaundyt is him to?[†]
I leve all the solucioun
Till thaim that ar off mar renoun.260
Bot sen thai mek sic comperyng
Betwix the dettis off wedding,
And lordis bidding till his threll,
Yhe may weile se, thoucht nane yhow tell,
How hard a thing that threldome is.265
For men may weile se, that ar wys,
That wedding is the hardest band,
That ony man may tak on hand:
And thryldome is weill wer than deid;
For quhill a thryll his lyff may leid,270
It merrys him, body and banys;
And dede anoyis him bot anys.
Schortly to say, is nane can tell
The halle condicioun off a threll.”
And a translation of that section:
The Brus, Book One, Lines 225-274
“Ah! Freedom is a noble thing
Freedom gives a man pleasur
e Freedom gives a man all comfort
He who lives free lives at ease
A noble heart cannot have ease
Or anything else that pleases him
If freedom fails, for free decision
Is longed for above all other things
No, he that has always lived free
Cannot well know the properties
The anger, no, the wretched fate
That is coupled with enslavement
Unless he had experienced it
Then he would know it perfectly
And would think freedom is more prized
Than all the gold in the world
And so opposites always are
Revealing things about the other
He who is enslaved has nothing
And all that he has
Actually belongs to his lord, whoever that is
And he does not even have as much
As free will to leave or go and do
That which his hart inclines him to
Clarks might question this
As they do in academic debates:
If a man orders his bondman to do a thing
And the bondman’s wife then comes to him
And asks for her due
Should he set aside his lord’s work
And first pay his wife
And then carry out his lord’s work
Or neglect his duty to his wife
And do what his lord commanded?
I leave the answer to those
Who are more distinguished than me
But since they make such comparison
Between the duties of marriage
And the lord’s command to his bondman
You can easily see, without being told
How hard a thing enslavement can be For men who are wise can see
That marriage is the hardest bond
That a man can take on himself
And enslavement is worse than death
For while a bondman lives his life
It afflicts him, body and bones
But death afflicts him only once
So, in summary, no one can appreciate
The condition of a bondman”
The translation does not keep to the original rhyme scheme. But having both the original and the translation in front of me, I was able to suss out rhymes that otherwise were incomprehensible. In the end I didn’t use a lot of the language directly from the poem, but I was glad to have it in my head to get a better understanding of the phrasing and cadences.
Today, Rex et Rex Consorte
Tindal & Emerson both say
There was no way to get TRM’s preferred titles and their names into one line of an 8 syllable couplet. As such I dedicated the first couplet to Them and it worked well as the introduction to the piece.
There is a worthy gentle here
Who’s tasked to be Camp engineer
The focus of the recommendation was the recipients work as the camp planner for their large group at Pennsic. This is a very large job as there are levels of different jobs and responsibilities that it includes. It was implied that the camp was fairly large and had a complex infrastructure which the recipient was responsible for.
Alaxander’s motivation
Became years of dedication
The recipient was listed as performing these duties for over a decade. This couplet reflects that.
A path his heart inclines him to
Organize and build as skills grew
The first line of the couplet is the only live I used from the source material.
“That which his hart inclines him to”
It seemed to fit the recipient well.
The architect who plans the way
His goal the chaos to defray
Continuing the building and organizing theme with, “architect” and “plan.”
I particularly liked the second line of the couplet as the imagery it invokes for a camp planner, especially at Pennsic where space is so regimented.
This Opening of the Inne we deal
Alaxander Maclochloinn his Silver Wheel
In the penultimate couplet the name of the award is listed along with the recipient’s name and the event it is given at. Yes this is a lot of information put into one couplet, but the choice was to give three full couplets to the recipient’s attributes. A fair distribution, I would say!
At Shire of Coldwood: Our hosts
With flourish from start to endmost
The conclusory couplet names the host Shire of the event, and a sentence to wrap the whole scroll up.
I learned a bit about how the amazing structures of the middle ages were created. While it may not seem that the research is reflected in the scroll at first glance, the terminology used in those articles definitely influenced mine.
Also giving the Brus a more in depth look gave the opportunity to use a period quote in the scroll. While aware that this is someone else's translation of the original, it still gives nuance to the entire scroll.
All in all this was very satisfying to write.
