Chana Freidl - The Sable Compass

 We have heard there’s one known to tablet weave

Our Chana Freidl is set to receive

Iron Bog’s Arts and Sciences award

The Sable Compass, one that We perceive

Is the place for one who intertwines cord

let Chandra be noted, in Our record

Done at Iron Bog’s Grand Investiture 

And Equestrian Champs; all in accord

Baron Declan, Baroness Aibhilin,  sure 

That her art will thrive, they are so secure

and well-pleased of all that she will achieve 

Done AS LVIII Sure that all concur 

Word Count 85

Illumination and Calligraphy by Mairi Crawford 

Rubáiyát Quatrain

10-12 syllables per line

AABA
BBCB

CCAC

made cyclical by linking the unrhymed line of the final stanza back to the first stanza: ZZAZ

A We have heard there’s one known to tablet weave

A Our Chana Freidl is set to receive

B Iron Bog’s Arts and Sciences award

A The Sable Compass, one that We perceive

B Is the place for one who intertwines cord

B let Chandra be noted, in Our record

C Done at Iron Bog’s Grand Investiture 

B and Equestrian Champs; all in accord

C Baron Declan, Baroness Aibhilin, sure 

C That her art will thrive, they are so secure

A  and well-pleased of all that she will achieve 

C Done AS LVIII Sure that all concur 11

And miles to go before I BLOG,   
And miles to go before I BLOG.

The recipient’s persona is listed as “Vaguely Middle Eastern” on their East Kingdom Wiki. With that in mind I decided to pick the Rubáiyát Quatrain.  I haven’t had many opportunities to use this poetic form and I really enjoy composing in it.

The next thing I did was determine which Baron and Baroness are giving the award. Investitures are the switchover events and it was very important to determine who was presenting this award! 

A We have heard there’s one known to tablet weave

I started the ball rolling with, "weave." 

Tablet Weaving was mainly what they were written for, although her blog provided other examples of her crafts. 

In looking up various rhymes for the starter word, these tercets practically wrote themselves. 

VERSE ONE

A Our Chana Freidl is set to receive

In this case, I started from the rhyme and wrote the sentence around that.  Receive is very apropos toward the nature of the award scrolls and how they are presented.

B Iron Bog’s Arts and Sciences award

I had chosen the next A rhyme, perceive and wrote these two lines together.

A The Sable Compass, one that We perceive

A Baronial service award for Iron Bog. As far as the first section goes, I have listed the name of the recipient, the award they are to receive and some detail as for why they had been chosen to get it.

VERSE TWO
B Is the place for one who intertwines cord

This line was used to reiterate what their service was for. In retrospect, I would have liked to emphasize the service nature of making all the cord and donating it to the barony a bit more.   However it still gets the point across.

B let Chandra be noted, in Our record

This line came about purely from looking for another rhyme for “cord.”  I had already chosen “accord’ for the final line of the verse.  I liked the image that it evoked of the Baronial record now including the recipient.

C Done at Iron Bog’s Grand Investiture 

I was hesitant to use “Investiture” as a rhyming word, but to my delight it had many applicable words.  The next verse was pretty easy to compose with that rhyming word.

B and Equestrian Champs; all in accord

Having the sentence wrap through to rhyming lines for this verse form is not historically accurate.  However, the needs of the scroll out weighed the needs of the verse form in this case.

VERSE THREE

C Baron Declan, Baroness Aibhilin,  sure 

Here’s where the naming of the Baron and Baroness were so important!  At Investitures both sets of incoming and outgoing Barons give out awards!  I wanted to make very sure this was correct.  

C That her acts will thrive, They are so secure

Speaking as Their Excellencies, secure that the recipient’s service will continue to thrive in the Barony and beyond.

A  and well-pleased of all that she will achieve 

Again this is speaking of the recipient's future deeds and how they are certain she will continue on the path as they have set.

C Done AS LVIII Sure that all concur 11

At the end, I managed to fit all the required information into the Rubáiyát Quatrain format.  Even if this line was one syllable over.  

I was quite glad of the opportunity to write a scroll in this style.  As with the lasting longevity of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, it is a pleasing form to listen to. I look forward to more opportunities!

Photo by Mairi Crawford

Photo by Aislinn Chihabach

Naran Numuchi - Fountain (Atlantia)

Naran Numuchi's acclaimed and adored   

And shows preference toward arrows over sword

He’s been seen getting plaiting crafts begun

Threading string to a multitude of chord

Today His Majesty the King Cuán

With his Queen Signy under the bright sun 

That shines over Our Atlantian views. 

The Fountain is earned, and so it is done

At Coronation, AS 52 

In Border Vale Keep his esteem accrues 

We are pleased that he receives this award 

October 7th, We'll ever enthuse 

Wordcount 79

VERSE STRUCTURE COLOR KEY

AABA
BBCB

CCAC

A Naran Numuchi's acclaimed and adored   

A And shows preference toward arrows over sword

B He’s been seen getting plaiting crafts begun

A Threading string to a multitude of chord

B Today His Majesty the King Cuán

B With his Queen Signy under the bright sun 

C That shines over Our Atlantian views. 

B The Fountain is earned, and so it is done

C At Coronation, AS 52 

C In Border Vale Keep his esteem accrues 

A We are pleased that he receives this award 

C  October 7th, We'll ever enthuse 

INTERKINGDOM SHENANIGANS, BLOG-STYLE!!!

This is the second time I've gotten to sink my teeth into the Rubáiyát Quatrain. The scribe Hua Meilan put out a call for a wordsmith familiar with Persian writing in the 12th to 13th century. In 2020 I had written a Maunche scroll in the Rubáiyát Quatrain, by the poet Rūmī of 13th century Persia, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to work with this verse form again! 

This was my first scroll written for a different kingdom, as well as a backlog scroll.  Backlogs usually take a bit of research to find all the information required, but on the other hand, the deadline pressure is much less.  I had the award, the recipient and the event date. Thankfully, the recipient had a wonderfully full and detailed SCAdian Wiki entry. The Atlantia Kingdom Wiki and the Atlantian Order of Precedence page for awards were also an enormous help.   The Fountain is a non armerigious award, specifically for service to the kingdom.  The only note I had on why they received it was that they had, “made 100 kumii cords for kingdom awards.”

 

With that information at hand and my writing form chosen, I set to work.

I set up the page with my rhyme guide, and started filling in the blanks. I’d write one sentence, look up a number of rhymes, and start playing with the following sentences. It's like working on a jigsaw puzzle with words, and often I'd have to throw out completed sentences in favor of another rhyme.

I confirmed the pronunciation of the name of His Majesty Cuán ends in an “un” sound, which allowed me to use Sun/done/none as appropriate rhymes.

For the line where I named the award I originally used:

The Fountain is earned, above and bar none! 

However, something about “bar none” struck me as off. I decided that a side quest was in order to learn more about the phrase.

The wiktionary link didn’t give me the history of the phrase. Another source indicated the phrase was derived from stories of the American West of the 1800s, but had no citations to back that up. Writing Explained, and the Language Log indicated the first use of "bar none” was in a Victorian era novel.

 
Now, while I have used the occasional Victorian era words in scrolls, I try hard to avoid them, and so I chose the phrase, “and so it’s done.” That meant I had to go back and change two earlier lines. It takes a lot of juggling to get the rhymes and language choices to line up on the ephemeral paper.

A Naran Numuchi's acclaimed and adored   

A And shows preference toward arrows over sword

B He's been noticed getting plaiting crafts done 

He’s been seen getting plaiting crafts begun

A Threading string to a multitude of chord

B Today His Majesty the King Cuán

B With his Queen Signy under the bright sun 

C that shines over Our Atlantian views. 

B The Fountain is earned, above and bar none! 

And so it is done!

So my Second foray into the Rubáiyát Quatrain did not produce new research into the verse form itself - but I did get to compose a piece for a different Kingdom and examine and research the history of my own language. Totally a win, in my book!

Yasemin Bin Al-Hajjar - Maunche

We have mudh to say to the East this night 

Yasemin Bin Al-Hajjar puts stars to flight 

We Declare her skills earn augmentation 

She raises the East with her hand and light 

We directly seek to raise her station 

For calligraphy and illumination 

Her raiment, as well, elegant and sleek 

The Order of the Maunche meets this vocation 

Counsels, Tindel and Alberic bespeak 

Of this fine alchemist with paint and ink 

Granted at Ethereal Court with delight 

With copious speech that is not oblique

Word count: 84

VERSE STRUCTURE COLOR KEY AABA BBCB CCAC We have mudh to say to the East this night Yasemin Bin Al-Hajjar puts stars to flight We Declare her skills earn augmentation She raises the East with her hand and light We directly seek to raise her station For calligraphy and illumination Her raiment, as well, elegant and sleek The Order of the Maunche meets this vocation Counsels, Tindel and Alberic bespeak Of this fine alchemist with paint and ink Granted at Ethereal Court with delight With copious speech that is not oblique

Went out at The Third Ethereal Court of the Eastern Consules, Tindal & Alberic
At the 7:57 mark through 10:22

BLOG POST! WOO! OOO! Fiona presented me with doing a Maunche scroll and I jumped at the opportunity. I have known the recipient, Yasemin Bin Al-Hajjar for many years and we both live in the Shire of Midland Vale. In this time of COVID, it was specifically requested that we not give a particular time or place in the scroll and as such I left it as merely an Ephemeral Court. Fiona showed me the inspiration piece, "Bahman-Ardeshir swallowed by a dragon," 1580-85, and I quickly set to some internet searching to learn more about the rhymes and metres of Middle Eastern poetry. I found "A Thousand Years of the Persian Book Classical Persian Poetry" and particularly the authorJalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī - better known simply as Rumi - who was definitely within the recipient’s time period. So I looked into what forms the poet would have used and discovered the Ruba’i, which included one of the first western translations of this poetic form by Edward Fitzgerald in the mid 19th century. I decided to follow Fitzgerald's translation of “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam." While this is a later piece, it follows the same poetic form as Rumi, and seemed to be the best compromise between Yasemin’s time period and the time period of her scroll. Fitzgerald uses a particular verse structure known as the Rubáiyát Quatrain - the same form Robert Frost used in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." I broke down the verses of the scroll into the cyclical structure, linking the unrhymed line of the final stanza back to the first stanza. 

This was an exciting project and I enjoyed working with a new poetic form. The illumination and the calligraphy were incredibly gorgeous and all together we made an incredible piece that, I hope, reflects the incredibly talented recipient and her wonderful achievements in the East Kingdom.

Sparky photo from Matthias von Würzburg