His contributions to the kingdom have been GREAT. SWORD in hand, he'll GRILL his opponents. STICK to his goals to improve his game. Continuing to HARNESS the energy and experience of each GRIEVEous fight.
We wish to LAY ON the praise and not SHIELD him from this aMACEing recognition any longer.
FLANKING the opinion of Their Majesties, the Order, now MARSHALED together, will HOLD back no longer and THRUST Volmar Sollensto to the Tyger’s Combatant.
Granted with these unique and specific ARMORY, GAUNTLETed thus: Azure, in pale three domestic sea-cats naiant guardant between flaunches Or.
WRAPped up today, October 01, AS LVII.
At First Court of Coronation of Mohammad and Corotica
In the Barony of Havre des Glaces
Word Count 145
Abort, Retry, BLOG
Fiona handed me a Tyger’s Combatant to write for her. This was just after the crazy amount of work I had for summer, culminating at Barleycorn. The recipient had a very specific persona, listed as being from the Duchy of Swabia, early 12th century. Wiki search netted me the information that it was in Germany, right in the beginning of the troubadours and minnesang. I have used this form in several scrolls.
I even looked up appropriate terms for TRM for 12th C. Germany and even found a pic from the codex manesse where I first embarked learning about the Minesang verse form.
Their Majesties' prefered title is "Sultan" for Mohammad and "Brenhines" for Corotica, but they are fine with regional alternates for scrolls specific to a recipient's persona.
In Germany at this time the title would be King or Holy Roman Emperor or Kaiser. Some of these titles are fairly problematic in terms of modern history and religious connotations in the SCA. So I chose King and Queen as the best compromise possible.
Minnesang is a complex form that I enjoy. I had written about 75% of the scroll when I needed more input than I had. The award had been discussed in person at Pennsic. As such there was no written write up for me to refer to for the descriptive area of the scroll.
Sir Zhigmun' Czypsser was listed as the recipient’s contact (I learned later, his knight). I reached out to him on the Book of Faces. We had a lovely discussion about the recipient and was told that the recipient would LOVE a pun-tastic scroll!
SCREECH! CRASH!
I was almost finished writing the scroll!
Yet, there I was, starting from scratch!
On top of it, the minutiae of fighting is not my wheelhouse and one has to revel in minutiae to write a pun-filled scroll. I reached out to friends who happen to be both fighters and heralds. Thank you to both Kieran MacRae and Ryan Mac Whyte for their help with fighting puns! I could not have written this scroll without your help!
DUEL Majesties Sultan Mohammad and Brenhines Corotica are at the HELM of the Kingdom. Standing on the SPAULDERS of the giants of the East, watching Volmar Solens.
I started the ball rolling on the scroll with 2 different kinds of puns! DUEL is a Homophonic Pun playing on the phonics of duel/dual. Whereas HELM is a Homographic Pun based on its different definitions.
Spaulders was a new term to me! It's another name for a shoulder piece, and it incorporated into the phrase, “Standing on the shoulders of giants.” A phrase that, much to my delight, was not only well within the timeframe we re-create, but can be attributed to the same century as the recipient’s persona, if not their country.
His contributions to the kingdom have been GREAT. SWORD in hand, he'll GRILL his opponents.
STICK to his goals to improve his game.
Slipping in the word Great Sword here is another pun technique, essentially a Compound Pun. Where the sound of two words blended together to make the joke. This one was unusual in that the pun words are used in contexts of their sentences and not related together. Yet when read out, the word Great Sword, a popular weapon, is heard.
The other two puns in these sentences are Homographic puns.
Continuing to HARNESS the energy and experience of each GRIEVE-ous fight.
We wish to LAY ON the praise and not SHIELD him from this aMACEing recognition any longer.
With the inclusion of Harness, I learned something new. It is used synonymously with kit in regards to a fighter’s clothing and equipment.
GRIEVEous and aMACEing are Homophonic Puns, but are a bit of a stretch. The pun is caused by essentially mispronouncing, and emphasizing a syllable in part of the word.
LAY ON is a Homographic Pun, but very unique to the SCA. In our fighting context it is a phrase used to indicate the beginning of a bout. Here I am using it in its different definition of adding to something. Shield is pretty straightforward and being used in the abstract instead of referencing the concrete form of a shield.
FLANKING the opinion of Their Majesties, the Order, now MARSHALED together, will HOLD back no longer and THRUST Volmar Sollensto to the Tyger’s Combatant.
I am impressed that I managed to put 4 puns into one sentence.
Granted with these unique and specific ARMORY, GAUNTLETed thus: Azure, in pale three domestic sea-cats naiant guardant between flaunches Or.
The Tygers Combattant comes with a Grant of Arms and I was glad to put in 2 more puns into the sentence leading up to the inclusion of the recipient’s arms.
WRAPped up today, October 01, AS LVII.
At First Court of Coronation of Mohammad and Corotica
In the Barony of Havre des Glaces
I wrapped up the scroll (yes, yes I am using the same pun I used in the scroll) with a final Homographic Pun. With an added suffix for correct grammar. Writing this Blog was fun. I looked up different kinds of puns.
Research always helps one learn more of the nuances of their craft!
