Writ from the Incipient Shire of Midland Vale

By our steadfast heart, skills of hand, and strength of arm we, þe incipient shire of Midland Vale, pledge our service, our artistry, and our prowess to þe Known Worlde, to the Kingdom of the East and to þe Throne þat shines upon us all.
To þe sovereign Omega and glorious Etheldreda do we, your subjects, humbly bid you welcome to our inaugural Tourney of þe Daffodils.  We ask þat you receive þese gifts, representing our clout, vigor, and fealty.
Done þis day, April 25th. Anno Societatis XLIX

Wordcount 88

Words and Illumination by me

Calligraphy by Æsa Sturludottr

Spring is here A-suh-puh-ring is here Life is skittles and life is BLOG

This was the first scroll I had attempted since my health crisis and time in the hospital.  The Seneschal of Midland Vale was preparing a gift for the King and Queen to be presented at our first event and I thought that a writ would be a nice accompaniment.  

Since the stroke and heart transplant, I have found that writing and drawing became exponentially difficult.  As such this was a large undertaking for myself on many different levels.
The first thing I did was to enlist the help of Æsa Sturludottr.  I knew that calligraphy was beyond the current skills of my hands.  Calligraphy has always been difficult for me.  I don’t write so much as I draw my letters.  So I can make beautiful letters and any size as needed, but to sit there with a quill in hand and make letters come out seems beyond my skill.
After the stroke, writing in general became extremely difficult.  Calligraphy was impossible.   I wasn’t even going to attempt it.  Æsa kindly agreed to do the calligraphy for the scroll for me.

Based on Les Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne  by Jean Bourdichon between 1503 and 1508 As my inspiration piece.

Horae ad usum Romanum, dites Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne Bourdichon, Jean (1457 ?-1521)

We were doing the Tourney of the Daffodils, after all.

I feel that I captured the feel of the piece if not the clean lines that it had.  I also omitted the animals.  I wanted to focus on the daffodils.

During the creating process I remembered about a dozen helpful hints and tricks that many artists use, of course after I could have used the tricks.  For example a good way to get a straight edge when working in such a manner is to lay down masking tape directly onto the paper, paint over it and then pull up the tape.  This, hypothetically, should leave one with a clean, crisp line.  And I was about halfway done before I remembered the trick.

I handed it to Æsa,  who not only did a magnificent job on the calligraphy, she cleaned up some of the edges that I could not.  I had given her permission to actually change the images and I am very glad that she did.  She ended up cleaning up some of the spots that most upset me when I was working on it.

This is not my best piece by far, but for what it represents it will always be important to me.  It was about getting myself back into the game of illuminating. I was also glad to be presenting it to Omega and Etheldreida.  These rulers in particular are special to me for a variety of reasons, first and foremost being that they gave me my Award of Arms.

Presented to TRM at the First Tourney of the Daffodils East Kingdom Gazette: Unofficial Court Report The Tourney of Daffodils

(Does not appear in the Gazette)

Charles ap Brochfael Tyger's Cub

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

We've heard of Charles ap Brochfael

His ready wit and charming laugh.

We've heard of his kindness and courage great,

That he'd take on the Frumious Bandersnatch!

 

In uffish thought We stood
King Edward stalwart  and Queen Thyra  good

When Charles, the Beamish Boy, came into sight
Playing in Our Rusted Woods, with great delight.

We take Our vorpal sword in hand

And moved are We by the Tumtum tree to make of thee

A member of the Tyger's Cub.

And as thou, Charles do receive this award

O, frabjous day! Callough! Callay!

We chortle with our joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Done this day November the 22, AS 49 in our Shire of Rusted Woodlands at the 100 Minutes War.

Words by Aislinn Chiabach

Illumination by Rennewief Von Grunewald

Calligraphy by Colin MacLaren

"We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."

"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t BLOG here.”

-Lewis Carroll, with all the love.

I was writing for my own child and I wanted it to be special! Inspiration finally came.  I have called Charlie “My Beamish Boy” since he was an infant.  When he was a toddler he had Jabberwocky memorized.  My choice to filk was clear was clear.  At first I was trepidatious;  Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll is centuries out of period and a well-known poem at that.

But in the end,  it was for a Tyger’s Cub and it was a poem that he loved.  Once I made the decision, I went with it.
I kept the first verse (and the last verse) verbatim to the original poem:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

 Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

 And the mome raths outgrabe.”

 

I tried to keep to the cadence and wordcount of the original poem and incorporate the poem and the information needed in the scroll.  Altogether I thought it came out very well! 
Charlie certainly appreciated it.

Unofficial Court Report for 100 Minutes War

Photo by Bróccín MacIvyr

Hugoline the Delicate of House Three Skulls Award of Arms

House 3 skulls stands on a solid frame.

Those who fight with skill and vigor. Those who play with dance and song.

Those that serve with guidance and care. When We hear of one who gives up her time and skills without thought of worldly benefit. One who toils in the hottest sun for the benefit of those much smaller than herself. We are moved and with great alacrity announce to all: That we, King Kennric and Queen Avelina in our most quoggy of lands, reveal to all that Hugoline for her service of years and most specially this common thread, the care and nurture of that we hold most dear, the young of our tremendous Kingdom of the East. Unto Hugoline the Delicate we endow Arms that she may wear with joy from this juncture forth. Done this Mudthaw, in the Barony of Settmour Swamp on March 22, AS XLVIII Word count 151

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift... that's why they call it BLOG” ― Master Oogway (More or Less)

This scroll went through 3 iterations with  the calligrapher/illuminator encouraging me to keep adding more!  Knowing  that the scroll was going to be embroidered, I initially  aimed very low on the words. With Eleanor’s encouragement I worked on through three iterations until I was at 151 words!.
The style I worked with is a traditional scroll format. Loosely based on treatises and charters in the SCA time period. As such I don’t particularly have a source or writing style that I was basing it on.  An excellent source for this style is On Writing an Award Scroll.

House 3 skulls stands on a solid frame. Those who fight with skill and vigor. Those who play with dance and song. Those that serve with guidance and care. 

The number 3 is a part of the house’s name, and so I reflected that in 3 sentences that represented them.The last sentence represented the recipient and why they were receiving the award.

When We hear of one who gives up her time and skills without thought of worldly benefit. One who toils in the hottest sun for the benefit of those much smaller than herself.

This includes a personal reference to the many times I had worked with Hugoline at Pennsic Children’s Activities.

We are moved and with great alacrity announce to all:

That we, King Kennric and Queen Avelina in our most quoggy of lands, 

I absolutely adore being able to use quoggy or whatever iteration of the word in reference to an event held in Settmour Swamp, especially Mudthaw.

Reveal to all that Hugoline for her service of  years and most specially this common thread,
“Common thread” was my reference in the words to the embroidered nature of the scroll. I managed to stitch it into the piece, while not dégradé-ing the meaning.
I’m punny.

The care and nurture that we hold most dear, the young of our tremendous Kingdom of the East.
Since I am writing this blog 8 years in the future, as it were, it is a treat to see that  the recipient received her Order of the Pelican in 2021 in part for her work as Chancellor Minor of the East Kingdom.

Unto Hugoline the Delicate we endow Arms that she may wear with joy from this juncture forth.

Done this Mudthaw, in the Barony of Settmour Swamp on March 22, AS XLVIII

I didn't get as many personalized details in the words,as I would have liked.  However, because I was the one feeding the artist information about the recipient, there are quite a lot of personal touches in the embroidered illumination. Hugoline loves pandas, the color green and loves board games!  All of this is represented in the beautiful scroll.
Having the opportunity to put so many personal references into a scroll is something I treasure.  It’s part of why I got interested in writing scrolls to begin with.

Embroidery, Illumination and Calligraphy by Eleanor Lebrun

Photo by Caitlin la Broaderese

Arthur le Taverner - Award of Arms

Word has come to those on high

Of a musician, a drinker, an excellent man by and by

Amongst the sounds of dum tekka tekka, dum tek tek

He entertains with voice and guitar on the annual trek

We King Kennric and Queen Avalina of the great and powerful East

Do make a presentation on this the Twelfth Night of frolic and feast

For Arthur le Tavener’s many great charms

We hereby award him the right of these arms

Done this day, on the first Saturday of January, the fourth

In the Shire of Anglespur, and the Barony of Concordia of the Snows, in the north.

Photo by Bróccín MacIvyr

Photo by Cateline La Broderesse

Caleb the Woodpecker - Grant of Arms

 To all present and all those beyond these ears, We, Andreas, indomitable King of the East and Gabriella, his inspiring Queen, wish to vociferate the service of Our newly ennobled Caleb the Woodpecker. He has toiled for Us faithfully these past four and ten years. Much impressed with this diligent service, fortitude and longevity do We bestow upon him this Grant of Arms.
Done this day at the Northern Region War Camp in the Shire of Glenn Linn, July Fourth, AS XLIV.

Wordcount 82

Illumination and wordsmithing by Aislinn Chiabach

″Heh-heh-heh-HEHHHH-heh, BLOG!"

I chose this backlog scroll to do because I was there when Caleb the Woodpecker received it. King Andreas was stunned to learn that the recipient of the AoA had been in the SCA for over 14 years and on the spot gave him the Grant of Arms in addition to his AoA.

I even wrote about it in my Livejournal (!)  “Caleb the Woodpecker received his AoA after being in the sca for 14 years. On the spot King Andreas decided he needed more than that because of his years of unrecognized service and bestowed upon him a Grant of Arms which made him the Right Honorable Lord, rather than just Lord.”

It’s done with gouache and Black India ink. Unfortunately my notes were lost over time and I do not know the inspiration piece I used for the illumination.  Though I will hazard a guess that it is from an early Celtic origin. I  specifically remember adding a woodpecker; making sure to look at European and not American ones.

Like the Troubadour that I created, I sent this to the signet at the same time and after that I have no knowledge if it reached the recipient or not.

While the event the scroll is for is from July 2010, I am dating it Aug 26, 2010 for when I sent in the backlog.

Renatta of Concordia - Order of the Troubadour

 All green life starts as a seed and grows, but it is few that turn into the most beautiful of flowers. We have listened, delighted, as Lady Renatta blossomed on the stage. Her joyous sound has risen to Our ears as a rose rises to the sun. Such is Our delight that We Darius, Euphonious King and Alethea, Melodious Queen are moved to honor her as one of Our Kingdom's Troubadours.

Done this day, January 24th. Anno Societatis XLIII at the King & Queen Bardic Champions in Our Barony of Concordia of the Snows.

Wordcount 94

IF I COULD TURN BACK BLOG!!!

This was one of my first forays into the C&I world. 
When it came to doing the work on Renta’s backlog scroll, I chose it because she was in the Barony I lived in at the time and a good friend.  I was particularly pleased with the musical terms that I used to describe the King and the Queen.  All very in keeping with the Troubadour award.

I based the illumination on the Hours of the Holy Spirit from the Netherlands

Black India ink, guache, and a commercial gold ink. 

This was one of the pair of backlog scrolls that were sent to the signet to have the calligraphy added and then sent to the recipient.  I have spoken with the recipient and she had not received the scroll.  I suspect it got lost in the ether as it were.
While the event the scroll is for is from 2009, I am dating it Aug 26, 2010 for when I sent in the backlog.

Hours of the Holy Spirit from the Netherlands

Erasmus Urswyc - Grand Master Bowman

The archers of the East have nocked upon Our doors and We have drawn upon their wisdom. Thus aimed in the correct direction do We, Konrad, Sharpest King and Brenwen, Cresting Queen, with feathered words do speak the name of Lord Erasmus Urswyc!

To the Point, he hit his mark on this past September 4th. We verily quiver with delight to acknowledge his wondrous accomplishment of Grand Master Bowman. Let fly all our praise on this day October 24th, Anno Societatis XLIV at Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins in our Barony of Carillion.

Word Count 92

Illumination and Calligraphy by Khatife of Domus Variana

Photo by Khatife of Domus Variana

A shot in the BLOG

Blog posting from the future. This was from back in 2009 and one of my first forays into wordsmithing. I was still unsure of myself and the reception my words would receive.

My mentor Khatife gave me the assignment. The Grand Master Bowmen is achieved by having a Royal Round Average of 100 or more in archery. It is not a prize for a competition, but personal achievement.

My first instinct was to go for the puns and for archery as there are a lot of them. I became a little trepidatious and began questioning myself. Wondering if the recipient would like or want the pun storm I was about to launch upon them. 

So I made up 2 versions, one pun-full, and one more serious. I called upon my Pelican, Master Liam St. Liam (William O Donovan of Monmouth), for his opinion. He told me to go for broke and embrace the puns.

Still nervous,  I wrote a non punny version:

"These skills of Our Archers are paramount in the Knowne World. We, Konrad, Sharpest King and Brenwen, Cresting Queen laud those that Bend their bows to the Glory of the East.

There comes a time when the talent of one archer soar above and they climb the ranks and earn the exalted rank of Grand Master Bowman. One Erasmus Urswyc has become known to us as worthy of this status. It is to our honor We recognize him so. Done this day, October 24th, Anno Societatis XLIV at Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins in our Barony of Carillion."

I was told that the herald reading the scroll in court had the entire hall in stitches, laughing at the puns. Very glad I went with the puns!