Donnchadh Lochlain - Silver Wheel

Margarita, Queen of the East Kingdom 

Delighted with what her realm has become

A veritable haven for service

those who work in all ways earnest 

One such as Donnchadh Lochlain We’ve heard

An efficient sort, not bent toward absurd 

Has formed a brute squad and demonstrations 

Running about, aiding celebrations 

To Donnchadh, the Silver Wheel do We give

Knowing none will deny this Our missive 

Our Deed’s been done today, October 5th

With joy and revelry all found forthwith

At Coronation, where we’ve told Our tale 

In Our delightful Shire of Mountvale

Word Count 65

Rhyming Couplets in Color:

Margarita, Queen of the East Kingdom
Delighted with what her realm has become

A veritable haven for service
those who work in all ways earnest

One such as Donnchadh Lochlain We’ve heard
An efficient sort, not bent toward absurd 

Has formed a brute squad and demonstrations
Running about, aiding celebrations

To Donnchadh, the Silver Wheel do We give
Knowing none will deny this Our missive

Our Deed’s been done today, October 5th
With joy and revelry all found forthwith

At Coronation, where we’ve told Our tale
In Our delightful Shire of Mountvale

BACKLOG BLOG TRAVELOG

This Silver Wheel was another that I had very little information on.  I had a vague idea of the type of service they were being recognized for. It was enough to begin writing the scroll.

Margarita, Queen of the East Kingdom
Delighted with what her realm has become
The first line was dictated by the needs of the scroll with Her majesty’s name and the kingdom name.  The second line I built backwards, based on the rhyme I had found: become.

A veritable haven for service
those who work in all ways earnest
This was a filler couplet where I pontificated about the nature of the award being given.  In the event that the scroll started to get long, I could have easily deleted this.

One such as Donnchadh Lochlain We’ve heard
An efficient sort, not bent toward absurd 

The introduction of the recipient.  The emphasis on what they had accomplished was fund in the meat of the couplet rather in the rhymes.

Has formed a brute squad and demonstrations
Running about, aiding celebrations
The brute squad had been particularly mentioned by the reporting herald.  I, like many SCAdians, have a deep and abiding love for the Princess Bride and as such I worked hard to include it in the scroll. 

To Donnchadh, the Silver Wheel do We give
Knowing none will deny this Our missive
I feel that in the couplet that names the award to be given out  should also make it clear that the scroll is speaking in the perspective of the Crown.

Our Deed’s been done today, October 5th
With joy and revelry all found forthwith

At Coronation, where we’ve told Our tale
In Our delightful Shire of Mountvale

I tend to finish a Chauserian scroll with the final 2 couplets  indicating the event, date and group. I find joy in rhyming the recipient’s or the Royals’ names in the couplets. Likewise it is a treat to do so for the Shire of Barony as well.

This was given at Margarita De' Siena's Coronation. October 5th, 2019
Writing Backlogs can be a challenge.  Usually there is very little description available as to why they are to receive the award. However, they become an excellent way to hone my skills , while still giving the recipient a representation of the skills for which they are being awarded. It is a priceless opportunity, and my privilege to get to work on them.

Unofficial Court Report: First Court at the Coronation of Queen Margarita

Siobhan ingen ui Ghadhra - Silver Wheel

 Margarita De' Siena, Queen

Looking throughout This Mighty East, has seen 

One good Siobhan ingen ui Ghadhra

Standing out, exemplar of Our era

Owlsherst’s Officer, an event cryer, 

And all around comprehensive tryer 

Siobhan today has earned their Silver Wheel

A service award that suits with appeal

Done today on October 5th with grace

At Our Coronation, at a good pace 

The Shire of Montvale these deeds were done 

In a glorious day under the sun

Word count 76

Rhyming Couplets in colors:

Margarita De' Siena, Queen

Looking throughout This Mighty East, has seen

One good Siobhan ingen ui Ghadhra

Standing out, exemplar of Our era

Owlsherst’s Officer, an event cryer 

And all around comprehensive tryer

Siobhan today has earned their Silver Wheel
A service award that suits with appeal

Done today on October 5th with grace
At Our Coronation, at a good pace 

The Shire of Montvale these deeds were done 

In a glorious day under the sun

And I Just Can’t Wait to be BLOGGED

This award went out originally at Margarita De' Siena's Coronation. October 5th, 2019.
I had very little information about the recipient.  The East Kingdom Gazette had an Unofficial Court Report for the 10/5/2019 event that had simply listed the recipient’s name and the award they received. I reached out to the Reporting Herald, Malcolm Bowman.  He was able to give me his notes which were wonderful, and I could now write up the scroll.  I am forever grateful to the ease of communication that the internet affords.

I chose Chaucerian Rhyming couplets.  I like a rigid  poetic structure for scrolls when I don’t have much information on the recipient. It challenges my creativity while still making poetry for the newly awarded gentle.

Margarita De' Siena, Queen

Looking throughout This Mighty East, has seen
I am often amused by how one line of the couplet seems so short as compared to the next yet they have the same syllable count.

One good Siobhan ingen ui Ghadhra

Standing out, exemplar of Our era

I do get a kick out of using the recipient’s name as the rhyme!

Owlsherst’s Officer, an event cryer, 

And all around comprehensive tryer
As I had very little to go on, a great technique is to make full use of the thesaurus and find different words or phrases for what little information that you have.

Siobhan today has earned their Silver Wheel
A service award that suits with appeal

The rhyme Wheel/appeal came easily. I ended up in a when in doubt, defining the award to the audience sort of scenario.

Done today on October 5th with grace
At Our Coronation, at a good pace 

The Shire of Montvale these deeds were done 

In a glorious day under the sun

These concluding couplets offer up the information of the time, location and event that the gentle received their award.  I had 2 full couplets to explore the information.

I enjoy fitting a lot of information into a single couplet, as well as using a whole couplet.  

I can expand on information and wax philosophic at the same time.

Unofficial Court Report: First Court at the Coronation of Queen Margarita

Queen & Crown's Arts & Sciences Championship Reaction Post

Reaction Post to A&S Championships, 2-29-2020

The day didn't have the most auspicious beginning. It's a very large site with a working, stubbornly gated vintage elevator. I make use of it extensively any time I am at that site and I am grateful for it. 

I was on my way up to the A&S display space when another gentle joined us in the elevator. 

He was encumbered with his belongings and bent over to adjust something. This unfortunately caused me to be bashed in the center of my chest with an inkle loom. It was just above my breasts and below the hollow of my throat. Right along my transplant scar. Needless to say I completely lost it. 

I think I screamed, "Don't touch me," when, in all concern, he reached out to help me. 

I'm sorry that I freaked out whoever it was. Unfortunately I was not in a place that I could curb my reactions in regards to anyone else. I continued to sob in the elevator for a while. 

Thank goodness Broch was there to both explain to the gentleman that the accident was worse for me for a wealth of reasons, explain what was going on and be able to hold me through the worst of my reactions. Honestly he expected me to want to go home after that.  But a sense of obligation and an adrenaline rush will do wonders for getting through the day.

He had calmed me down enough that I could go to morning court. Many thanks to Wentlyanna Bengrek for sitting with me through said morning court and providing me some needed stability/hugs until I stopped shaking. I somehow managed the rest of the day. 

The long and the short of it is that I did not win. I did not even advance to the next round. I was not disappointed, I hadn’t even expected to. 

What I did get was fantastic discussions. I had 2 judges and 2 shadow judges.

-Magnús hvalmagi

-Brunissende Dragonette

-Grim the Skald      

 -Xavier the Sinister

I got to describe the scroll in detail, pointing out the parts that I loved, the parts I had, shall we say, fudged a bit, my general concept and inspiration for the scroll and my new and all abiding love for kennings. 

After the initial judging, Grim Mangus came back for further discussion. Whereupon (to my horror) I learned that I had made a very basic error in my interpretation of the Dróttkvætt metre. 

The basic metre I used was:

Only to find out that it should have been doing this: 

A - A B - - - 

 B - - - - -

 

Only to find out that it should have been doing this:

A - A - - - 

A - - - - -

I went back to my source of the metre and no, the incorrect interpretation is entirely on my head. Somehow I read it very differently (damn my eyes). I'm not even sure what or how I did to come to that conclusion. At that point I was pretty much horribly embarrassed that I had made such an error. This is for a scroll that has gone out! I can't go back and change it. Argh. EMBARRASSED. But Ever Forward. The 3 of us then went on to have a great discussion with lots of books and authors to look up later. After they left I had a bit of time left in the A&S room. I then remembered that I had brought a handful of my bat tokens! I had some great fun handing them out to a few folk. The only reason I didn't hand them out to everyone was that the A&S floor had accumulated a lot of people by that time and I couldn't get to everyone to give them a bat! Then I had the absolute best part of my day. Dutchess Caoilfhionn and her daughter were touring the A&S floor. Her daughter was putting out little tokens, on the pieces that caught her eye. Her Grace looked at my display and said, "Wait, this is for wordsmithing? This changes everything! I put so much research into the words… I could enter my words!" THIS. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I DID THIS. I stated entering competitions to highlight an often overlooked aspect of the C&I world. There are folk out there who are putting in great amounts of research, artistry and heart into words, but because of their ephemeral nature (they are only read in court the one time), they can easily be overlooked. I really want to promote wordsmithing. Make it so other folk can show their work, so we can celebrate what we do! After that they announced the next round. I was, as expected (even more expected once I'd learned about my error) not one of the finalists. Then, because the elevator was full, I foolishly walked down 3 full flights of stairs to the basement level and food area. It was at that point I realized that I had been so busy all day that I hadn't gone to the vigils! And I had particularly wanted to go to Chiaretta Di Fiore’s! I was so happy for her. We sat through a long court with 2 rounds of Silver Crescent and 3 peerages. It was very long, but had a lot of happiness in it. I got to see many folk get well deserved awards, including the most wonderful Cassair Ni Deoraine receiving a Court Barony. I am so incredibly happy for her. As soon as court was done we changed and left. We were both starving and I was on the verge of collapse. I was having serious decision making disorder and Jeff wisely made the command decision to look for an Italian restaurant. As much as I love all the flavors of Eastern cuisine, for me, comfort food is Italian. We ate at an excellent little restaurant called Goodfellas. It had the Godfather and Goodfellas playing on screens in the restaurant. The food was delicious. I was very glad we didn't try to drive all the way home before eating. We made it home around midnight and I crashed hard. That was such an amazing time. I am so glad I did it. I already have an Idea of what piece I'm going to put into competition next. Not Norse though, I need to do some work on that! 

Erin Barker - Award of Arms

Freya, Fair goddess of the fruits of love

Like Margarita, Monarch of the East

From Forests of the Farmstead of the Brain

To the sole path Our Erin Barker is a treat

She quietly cares for Caer Adamant 

Moulding her stone of the mind-meadow 

Toward every task or mischief she takes on

We present a pursuer of renown 

A noble with Armed now and for always

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

Today! February Twenty Second

In Anno Societas Fifty Four

At Queen and Crown Bardic Championships 

And  Stringy, Scriby, Singy Thingy 

In Our kind Shire of Caer Adamant

COLOR CODED WORDS
KEY:
Red letters indicate alliteration 

Kennings used
Kenning translation 

Freya, Fair goddess of the fruits of love
Like Margarita, Monarch of the East
From Forests of the Farmstead of the Brain (HAIR)
To the sole path (FOOT) Our Erin Barker is a treat
She quietly cares for Caer Adamant 

Moulding her stone of the mind-meadow (HEART)

Toward every task or mischief she takes on
We present a pursuer of renown (NOBLEMAN)

A noble with Armed now and for always
*************SPACE FOR ARMS*************
Today! February Twenty Second
In Anno Societas Fifty Four

At Queen and Crown Bardic Championships
And  Stringy, Scriby, Singy Thingy 

In Our kind Shire of Caer Adamant

Word count 96

BOGGLE the 3 minute word game that keeps on going…

Wait, I mean BLOGGLE!
Nope, just BLOG

Magdalena Lantfarerin had done the calligraphy and Illumination with my words for Derrick Barker’s scroll. She approached me with the idea of doing matching words for his wife, Erin Barker’s, scroll. They were both set to receive them at Queen and Crown Bardic Championships AND Stringy, Scriby .... I happily agreed and we consulted with the other scribe. They also agreed to use my words and I set out to compose them.

In doing matching scrolls I use the same poetic form in both. In this case Not only did I use the Alliterative Verse and Kennings. I also try to keep the structure the same between the 2 scrolls.
I composed the other one with this structure:
Monarch
Kingdom
Name of the recipient
Blather about the recipient
Date and AS Year
Event
Hosting location
I followed the same order with the matching text. While this is the same basic information found in every scroll, in roughly the same order I did take pains to keep them absolutely the same in the matching scroll.

From Forests of the Farmstead of the Brain
To the sole path Our Erin Barker is a treat

With the Kennings for both hair and feet in the first 2 lines, I am essentially saying that From head to toe, Erin Barker is awesome. I felt this follows the Doc Brown school of thought; never use one word when 10 will do.

Pursuer of Renown 

This is a bit of a literary license. I particularly wanted to find a phrase to indicate the new nobility of the scroll’s recipient. I took the kenning for a nobleman and then redefined it in the sentence afterward so as to apply for lady. I was given no indication that this was someone who desired gender neutral pronouns, so I felt comfortable in making the adaptation.

Freya, Fair goddess of the fruits of love

I made up this kenning for the Queen. I chose to go with a goddess and defined this in the next sentence naming Margarita as Queen of the East. With the Fruits of love I am referencing both an aspect of Freya in the Norse Pantheon and it is an oblique reference to the event’s relative closeness to February 14th, Valentine’s Day.

Moulding her stone of the mind-meadow
Toward every task or mischief she takes on

This was a veiled reference to a mischievous tale involving embroidery and overalls. How she was learning new skills for the sake of fun joke with her husband,

She quietly cares for Caer Adamant

I love alliteration that doesn’t start with the same letter!

My word count for this scroll was 96, 10 above the matching scroll of 86 words. While I was matching the style of the scrolls, I was not particularly concerned with matching the word count. I still managed under a hundred words though!

Both these scrolls were a joy to work on, even as close as it was to my own preparations for A&S Champs. I liked the challenge of writing a scroll to match another one while still making unique and beautiful poetry.

For this scroll I used the following web pages:

Skaldic Project Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, Thesaurus.com, and Rhymezone.com

East Kingdom  Gazette: Court Report: Queen & Crown Bardic Champions AND Stringy, Scriby, Singy Thing

ETA: As of 9/29/2020 I have learned the original scribe I had been working with, had a Terrible Scribal Accident, and their work was most unfortunately destroyed. The scroll was passed back to the Tyger Clerk of the Signet without the words I had written. They had undoubtedly gotten lost in the shuffle. As of right now, The Tyger Clerk has attached the words to the scroll and it is going through the backlog scroll process.