Ryan Mac Whyte - Silver Brooch

Ryou and Indrakshi, Rulers together 

Of Our beloved East, and We treasure 

The giving of awards; it’s Our pleasure 

We've heard of one who's very clever 

Ryan Mac Whyte meets this measure 

A single form will not be his tether 

Dabbles in the carving of leather 

Is read on diverse rites, yon and hither 

Performance acts that time won’t wither 

Wears many caps, but they’re missing a feather 

Now the Silver Brooch is his forever 

Done at Barleycorn, not in the aether 

Under the skies of capricious weather 

September 3rd, We've heard this Endeavor 

In As Fifty Seven, we gether  

With no regrets, whatsoever 

Wordcount 104

Illumination by by Fiona The Volatile 

Calligraphy by Violet Hughes

Photo by Fiona The Volatile 

Ryou and Indrakshi, Rulers together 

Of Our beloved East, and We treasure 

The giving of awards; it’s Our pleasure 

We've heard of one who's very clever 

Ryan Mac Whyte meets this measure 

A single form will not be his tether 

Dabbles in the carving of leather 

Is read on diverse rites, yon and hither 

Performance acts that time won’t wither 

Wears many caps, but they’re missing a feather 

Now the Silver Brooch is his forever 

Done at Barleycorn, not in the aether 

Under the skies of capricious weather 

September 3rd, We've heard this Endeavor 

In As Fifty Seven, we gether  

With no regrets, whatsoever 

THAT'S OKAY. I BLOG YOU IN LEATHER ANYWAY

~Anna 

Our Scroll Trifecta jumped on this award. The recipient is near and dear to all of us. 

For a while, I have been toying with the idea of using the same rhyme word throughout an entire scroll. It's definitely not a period practice, but the aim is to not leave the recipient and the rest of the court laughing. 

As leatherwork is one of the artistic talents the recipient was written in for, I chose "leather" as my rhyme word. It has a decent list of rhymes and near rhymes. I'll give pronunciation notes on the write-up, and I'll be able to approach the herald myself at the event.

 

Ryou and Indrakshi, Rulers together 

Of Our beloved East, and We treasure 

The giving of awards; it’s Our pleasure 

The first 3 lines run together and end up making one long introductory sentence. This holds a lot of the required scroll information, and leads into the next section. 

We've heard of one who's very clever 

Ryan Mac Whyte meets this measure 

A single form will not be his tether 

For this introduction, it helped that the recipient's EK Wiki was lovely and detailed. The first note in the "in case of court" section is: "Ryan has enough Serious scrolls and wants more funny scrolls." 

Dabbles in the carving of leather 

Is read on diverse rites, yon and hither 

Performance acts that time won’t wither 

This section describes how the recipient was written in for leather carving, and also for research into ceremonies in many times and cultures, which has been used to create coronation ceremonies in the East Kingdom.  But the last reference is a personal favorite: the recipient once read a scroll as the Swedish Chef (for a gentle with a Swedish persona who was a chef). The YouTube clip is a thing of beauty, and sure to put a smile on the faces of those who were there. 

Wears many caps, but they’re missing a feather 

Now the Silver Brooch is his forever 

The recipient is beloved of this kingdom and has many awards and accolades. I was happy to work in "feather," one of the full hit rhymes for "leather." 

Done at Barleycorn, not in the aether 

Under the skies of capricious weather 

"Aether" is one of the least full hit rhymes on the scroll, and will require some coaching for the voice herald.

Most of the words rhyme well enough, so this near rhyme shouldn't detract from the whole.  

September 3rd, We've heard this Endeavor 

In As Fifty Seven, we gether  

With no regrets, whatsoever 

The concluding sentences of the scroll.  

"Gether" is a dialectic or regional form of "gather." I chose it for the full hit rhyme, even thought I can't document its usage before the late 1800s.LINK 

Its origins, however, are in old English and proto Germanic. Etymology is fascinating!

The final line, "With no regrets whatsoever." is a bit of a whimsical addition to drive home the silliness of the scroll and to put a smile on the face of its recipient!

East Kingdom Gazette: Court Report for John Barleycorn – Ostgardr Investiture & Fight for a Cause Tournament

Photo by Bróccín MacIvyr

Photo by Kay Leigh Mac Whyte
This is the moment where Baron Ryan realized that I authored the words

Caterina Lombardi Award of Arms

Our gentle, Caterina Lombardi

Known for her diligent works, most hardy 

She helps with marvelous demonstrations

As officer, exceeds expectations 

Caterina’s leading in many ways 

Learning the ropes, steering Us through the quays 

She stands before the mighty tyger beast

Tindal and Alberic, Counsels East  

Today an Award of Arms We bestow

For her alone, all the days to show 

And done with no presence material
Singing praise in our Court Ethereal

Word count 71

Calligraphy Violet Hughes and Illumination by  Fionnghuala the Volatile

Rhyming Couplets in colors

Our gentle, Caterina Lombardi
Known for her diligent works, most hardy

She helps with marvelous demonstrations
As officer, exceeds expectations

Caterina’s leading in many ways
Learning the ropes, steering Us through the quays

She stands before the mighty Tyger beast
Tindal and Alberic, Counsels East

Today an Award of Arms We bestow
For her alone, all the days to show

And done with no presence material
Singing praise in our Court Ethereal 

I’m going slightly mad. I finally blo-ogged.. 
 
Knowing that the recipient of this scroll is a “major nerd,” I first tried to work in a rhyming couplet that ended with "Who." After several tries I gave up on that - nothing was seeming to work out.

Today with no presence material
Singing praise in our Court Ethereal
This was the first couplet I completed, and the last in the scroll. Sometimes when I'm searching for a theme or a direction, I go to the last line of the scroll to help me find it. I began to contemplate the phrase, "ethereal court." I took a lesson from working with Norse kennings and how mixing up individual words won't change the meaning - but might help with some alliterative patterns.

This couplet written, I went to the recipient's name:

Our gentle, Caterina Lombardi
Known for her diligent works, most hardy
That set the order of the rest of the scroll, and I was tickled to use their name in a rhyme.

Then I set a rhyming couplet each for her works in attending/working demos, as an autocrat, a chatelaine and a deputy seneschal.

She helps with marvelous demonstrations
As officer, exceeds expectations
This was the only couplet in which I mentioned one of the items she was written in for.
I then moved on to referencing her work as chatelaine and deputy seneschal:

Caterina’s leading in many ways
Learning the ropes, steering Us through the quays
As I have learned, nothing rhymes with "seneschal." As this was a deputy position I ended the couplet with, "learning the ropes," which became a nautical reference with the word, "quays."
I felt this encompassed both positions and exemplified all of Caterina's hard work.

She stands before the mighty Tyger Beast
Tindal and Alberic, Counsels East
This was one of my problem couplets and I worked and reworked it many times. I tried rhyming Alberic with esoteric, and consuls with ... well, nothing rhymes with consuls. I ended up with Beast/East. It's nice to give Sparky a little mention now and then.

Today an Award of Arms We besow
For her alone, all the days to show
This was another difficult verse. No matter what I did, one line would end up with 12 or 11 syllables or 6 or 8 syllables. The one time I had the proper 10 syllable count the sentence was horribly awkward to read outloud.

For this couplet and the preceding one, the second lines are just 9 syllables long, but as I finally had the rhythm sounding correct, I let it go. 

(Of course, I'm sure I'll think of the perfect wording after the scroll goes out in Court.)

Just after I'd sent the words out for calligraphy, I discovered I had started the last two verses with the word “Today." Thankfully I caught it early enough to correct it.

Changes to the final verse:
Today with no presence material/Singing praise in our Court Ethereal
To
And done with no presence material/Singing praise in our Court Ethereal

This was my first scroll after the holiday season, which was a particularly bad one this year. It helped me get back into the swing of things and hopefully I'll jump head first into a new year of writing.

This went out at TRM Sixth Ethereal Court at the 55;41 mark.

Sparky photo from Matthias von Würzburg

EK Court Report: February 21, 2021

Rhiannon the Innocent - Award of Arms

Ozurr! Fortune! Great Monarchs of the East!
Observe and see their people’s ranks increased
We’ve heard of Rhiannon the Innocent
Her guile is bioluminescent
Standing there, Like a beacon in the night
Persuades many with her loquacious light
Aiding this fine Barony all around
Working with children and their raucous sound
A fine Deputy to the Seneschal
Aiding in Our events, traditional
In light of this, we give Rhiannon Arms
******** SPACE FOR ARMS ********
An act, we trust, that will raise no alarms
Done at St. Andrew Crosses the Alps, today
In the Barony of An Dubhaigeains’ offray

Word count 92

Ozurr! Fortune! Great Monarchs of the East!

Observe and see their people’s ranks increased

We’ve heard of Rhiannon the Innocent

Her guile is bioluminescent 

Standing there, Like a beacon in the night

Persuades many with her loquacious light

Aiding this fine  Barony all around 

Working with children and their raucous sound

A fine Deputy to the Seneschal 

Aiding in Our events, traditional 

In light of this, we give  Rhiannon Arms 

******** SPACE FOR ARMS ********

An act, we trust, that will raise no alarms

Done at St. Andrew Crosses the Alps, today

In the Barony of An Dubhaigeains’ offray

Good feeling BLOGGED!

I chose the 10 syllable rhyming couplets in the style of Chaucerian English.  This proved to be a good frame for us to put in the story of Rhiannon and an anglerfish! When we first discussed the scroll, I was told the tale of a time Rhiannon “impersonated an anglerfish to get into a party.”

Fiona was planning on making the main imagery of the illuminated anglerfish.  With that in mind, I planned  to include several references in the words.

We’ve heard of Rhiannon the Innocent

Her guile is bioluminescent

I quickly found that "Innocent" with "bioluminescent" rhymed, mostly.  The endings of the words are the same; “cent.” While essentially rhyming the word with itself, I hoped the different body of the words would suffice.  Besides, “bioluminescent” fit the story we were referencing too well to not include it.

Side note on “bioluminescent” - The first conjunction of bio and luminescent dates to around 1915-1920.

 

Standing there, Like a beacon in the night

Persuades many with her loquacious light

This is a direct reference to the tale.  I was particularly pleased with  the night/loquacious light rhyme.

The rest of the scroll came together fairly easily.  Although it is only now that I realize I did not include the date or the year that the scroll was handed out.
Argh!
I hate mistakes like that! For the record, this scroll went out September 28th, 2019 at Climb Every Mountain - St. Andrew Crosses the Alps in the Barony of An Dubhaigeainn.
I used Rhymezone and Thesaurus for this scroll.

Fiona. The Volatile Illumination
Volatile Scribiling
Violet Hughes - Calligraphy 

Seamus mac Neachtain - Silver Wheel

Hear the boom! crack! clap! of the cannonade,
the wallop of weapons ‘neath the white-hot sun.
Hundreds of hearts hammering in concert
As they man the meadow en masse to glory
Strength of mind significant to stratagem
Amid the anarchy of the general assault
Seamus mac Neachtain
The competent, courageous commander
Vanguard to view Kingdom to victory,
We, Wilhelm König with Vienna Königin,
Solemnly Swear him into the Order of the Silver Wheel
Reflective of the Southern Region Army repute,
Seen successful for Sovereign .
Done this day and  dutifully recorded at
Shire Wars VIII, the Battle of Hastings
On the 20th of October, A.S. LIII.

Color Coded Version
The first letter of the alliterated words are highlighted red.

Hear the boom! crack! clap! of the cannonade,
the wallop of weapons ‘neath the white-hot sun.
Hundreds of hearts hammering in concert
As they man the meadow en masse to glory
Strength of mind significant to stratagem
Amid the anarchy of the general assault
Seamus mac Neachtain
The competent, courageous commander
Vanguard to view Kingdom to victory,
We, Wilhelm König with Vienna Königin,
Solemnly Swear him into the Order of the Silver Wheel
Reflective of the Southern Region Army repute,
Seen successful for Sovereign .
Done this day and  dutifully recorded at
Shire Wars VIII, the Battle of Hastings
On the 20th of October, A.S. LIII.

Blather for Bloggy Goodness
At Baronial Investiture & King’s and Queen’s Bardic Championships  Lady Violet Hughes and I got to talking about Calligraphy, Illumination and Wordsmithing.  One thing led to another and she sent me the words for a Backlog Silver Wheel that she had been having a hard time with. After I finished the words, she sent the scroll to Lady Fiona the Volatile for the Illuminatioin.This was a fun collaboration with two of my favorite people in the world.

The words Violet sent me:
Hear the thunderous boom of the canon, the clash of weapons under a blazing hot sun. The excited shouts of hundreds of people with their hearts pumping and their minds full of glory. It takes a man strong of mind to apply the strategy and tactics amid the chaos of battle to lead the Kingdom to victory, and a strong voice to command the troops onward. Seamus mac Neachtain is this man, commander of the Southern Region Army. We, Wilhelm König and Vienna Königin, have decided to induct him into the Order of the Silver Wheel to reflect on the good work he displays during the Pennsic Battles. Done at Shire Wars VIII, the Battle of Hastings on the 20th of October, A.S. LIII.

Now my first thought was  to turn it into some sort of Hamilton Filk Scroll.  “Hear the thunderous boom of the canon” in particular inspired that thought of a Hamilton filk.  My mind turned to the
Lyrics from  Right Hand Man:
[HAMILTON]
Yo, let’s steal their cannons—
[MULLIGAN]                                      [COMPANY]
Shh-boom!                                      Boom!   
[WASHINGTON]
Goes the cannon, watch the blood and the shit spray and…
[COMPANY]
Boom!
[WASHINGTON]
Goes the cannon, we’re abandonin’ Kips Bay and…
[COMPANY]
Boom!

Now I could imagine an amazing scroll full of Hamilton references or a filk.  But that is the sort of thing that you write out for someone that you are absolutely certain will appreciate it. I wouldn’t write one for a stranger.  So although inspired, I set that idea aside and moved on to a new one.
I tend to favor poetic scrolls those that use the strict poetic forms.  The East Kingdom wiki page for Seamus mac Neachtain was largely a stub with nothing but a photo, that I can only assume is him, wearing a Norse hood. As such, I turned to Anglo Saxon poetry or Old English poetry.  The poetry of Beowulf, the infamous Norse Saga.
The poetic form follows the pattern of each line being 10 syllables with at least 3 words starting with the same consonant.  As with any poetic form, there are more subtleties in the structure, but that covers the basics.
My second challenge was to keep the word count down.  I have a tendency to go on and could easily make a 500 word count scroll. Violet’s original word count was 125 and my goal was to keep to that as much as possible.  I am proud that I kept it to 106 words. Following the strict syllabic structure aided in that.
Essentially I broke down each sentence that Violet originally wrote and rewrote it with the 10 syllable count and the matching consents.
Dictionary/Thesaurus.com and Rhyme Zone are my best tools for these kinds of projects.It does make me wonder how the ancients did this kind of poetry without such tools!  I would be forever trying to think of an appropriate rhyme.
I did not keep it strictly to the 10 syllable line.  Many of them go to 11 syllables long and a couple a bit more than that.  When it came to his name, I was unsure how to pronounce it correctly and therefore couldn’t correctly count syllables.  Therefore, his name became its own line.
The last line of the scroll, the date and location of the event I also dropped the cadence entirely.  Sometimes that’s necessary when conforming the poetic form of old and the information needed for the East Kingdom Scroll.
Shire Wars VIII, the Battle of Hastings
On the 20th of October, A.S. LIII.
Of course there are things I would do differently had I seen them then.
Hundreds of hearts hammering in concert
I should have done:
Hundreds of hearts hammer in harmony
It stays within the 10 syllable limit and throws in another alliterative word.
I sent it off to Violet who calligraphed it beautifully and she  sent it to Fiona for the illumination.  Making it truly a trifecta of collaboration.

ETA:
It is with a heavy heart I report that Seamus mac Neachtain suddenly passed away this past June, 2019.  While I did not know him many of my friends did and I grieve with them.  It is my understanding that he had received the backlog scroll and loved it.  That he loved it, however briefly, is why we pour our hearts and souls into each piece of art we produce.

Hrothgar of An Dubhaigeainn Silver Mantle

During this day dawned with dusk of morning
With heads to be embellished: a host hoarded

Ozurr, Breaker of Rings, the Eastern Jarl
Fortune, Ides Precious Oak of the Jarldom!

We have here Our Hrothgar of An Dubhaigeainn
Working the Thrown Weapons range as watcher
Longsome and latest folk learning from him

We guard against a gap in today’s glee
In Our royal ring-hall, We receive thee

Hrothgar bold bearer of the blood-ember
Deed-valiant, not adorned with distinction
Shifts season’s day, now with Silver Mantle

Accomplished this day, April 27th,
In Anno Societas LIII
At Balfar's Challenge in the Barony of Dragonship Haven

Word Count 103
Calligraphy by Violet Hughes
Illumination by Fiona the Volatile

*****************************************

Red font indicates a kenning

The parentheses are the meaning of the kenning

During this day dawned with dusk of morning 

With heads to be embellished: a host hoarded

Ozurr, Breaker of Rings, (King) the Eastern Jarl

Fortune, Ides Precious Oak of the Jarldom! (Noble woman, in this case Queen)

We have here Our Hrothgar of An Dubhaigeainn

Working the Thrown Weapons range as watcher

Longsome and latest folk learning from him

We guard against a gap in today’s glee

In Our royal ring-hall, (place for feasting) We receive thee 

Hrothgar bold bearer of the blood-ember (axe)

Deed-valiant, not adorned with distinction 

Shifts season’s day, now with Silver Mantle

Accomplished this day, April 27th, 

In Anno Societas LIII 

At Balfar's Challenge in the Barony of Dragonship Haven

It's Blo-og, It's Blog, it's big, it's happy, it's blog

I got the description for Hrothgar of An Dubhaigeainn and turned toward Norse writing styles.  At first I toyed with the idea of using one of the different meters in Norse Poetry.  Then I found out that Hrothgar had chosen his name directly from Beowulf.  With that in mind, I decided that the scroll should be in the alliterative verse of Beowulf.  

I use the basic I pattern of  10 syllable sentences with at least 2, preferably 3 words, or more starting with the same letter.

For this scroll I tried to make use of kennings for the first time.   A Kenning is an ambiguous or roundabout figure of speech.  In modern language a kenning would be “The first Lady” used to refer to the wife of the President of the United States.   

I had never used these before and was excited to add this nuance to the scroll.  I used Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages  and  Wiki entry (because it’s just so easy and right there!) as my main sources.  I found a kenning for axe right off the bat.  I am actually amused that in the description I got to work with axes were mentioned several times as his primary interest, and I didn’t use the word axe once in his scroll; I used the kenning Blood-Ember.

As with many scrolls I find that I need to abandon whatever poetic form I am using in the final paragraph.  Fitting in the information on the date, the event and location usually exceeds to syllable count and sometimes location names are difficult to fit into a rhyme scheme.The times that I can work them into the rhyme scheme I am very proud of that accomplishment.  This, alas, was not one of those times.

For the lines where I named Their Majesties, this time, I abandoned the alliterative verse in favor of adapting the kennings for the King and Queen with the information needed for and East Kingdom scroll.

The one Kenning that was causing an issue was that of Queen.  King/war chief was relatively easy to find, but queen proved elusive.

Apparently mentioning women or rather, having women play major roles in Norse Poetry was considered rather vulgar. Any Norse god could be used as an allusion to the Queen, and I found a couple of references to the wife of the king or mistress (depending on the translation) and I chose to use that.

Many thanks to  Grim the Skald for his help on this scroll.

Balfar's Challenge Court Report

Katryne Morgant Telardottier - Award of Arms

By all the graces, Wilhelm, King of the East, and Vienna, Queen of the East, rulers of the lands and seas, to all those present, shall hear and see Our will this day.
For so much as the diverse people of Our realm have given us varied and diverse service and dedication, before-time toward Our wars, Our events, Our offices, of their own good-will, so likewise these positions taken throughout the realm for Our name; We have acknowledged, for Us and Our heirs, that We shall recognize these services and good works heretofore and hence for the common profit of all the realm. 

 We call upon one such Katryne Morgant Telardottier, which were made by common assent of all the realm, shall be Awarded Arms in every point without breach, now henceforth to be known to keep these arms

************SPACE FOR ARMS*****************

To be worn by her and her alone.

Moreover We have deemed for Us and Our Heirs, as well to Dukes, Counts, Barons, and to all the community of the land, that from henceforth that nothing will cause this to be undone.

Given at Kings and Queens Bardic and Dragonship Haven Investiture February 23rd Anno Societas Fifty three.

Wordcount 197

Unofficial Court Report: Kings and Queens Bardic and Dragonship Haven Investiture

Baronial Investiture & King's and Queen's Bardic Championships

The Volatile Handed in January 4th, 2020 THIS BLOG UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Patrick Michael - Silver wheel

 Willhelm the king  and Vienna the queen
Garbed resplendent in gold and aubergine
Magnificent Crowns of this Mighty East
Sense one of Our Orders to be increased
One who’s been here since a very young age
Fighting and working On a martial stage
Patrick Michael is before us today
For his service, past his sense of fair play
Volunteering, key for the Silver wheel,
The reason today that for us, you kneel
Done at Baronial Investiture
And kings and queens bardic champions with alure
A grey day, this February 23rd
Anno Societas the fifty third

Word count 97

Wilhelm the king  and Vienna the queen

Garbed resplendent in gold and aubergine

Magnificent Crowns of this Mighty East
Sense one of Our Orders to be increased

One who’s been here since a very young age
Fighting and working On a martial stage

Patrick Michael is before us today
For his service, past his sense of fair play

Volunteering, key for the Silver wheel,
The reason today that for us, you kneel

Done at Baronial Investiture
And kings and queens bardic champions with alure

A grey day, this February 23rd
Anno Societas the fifty third

Unofficial Court Report: Kings and Queens Bardic and Dragonship Haven Investiture

Baronial Investiture & King's and Queen's Bardic Championships

The Volatile

Handed in January 4, 2020

THIS BLOG IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION