Alexander Krause - Silver Tyger

Now the man before you
Is Our good Alexander Krause
A practiced hand at combat crew
Respect and kindness are his wheelhouse
He shines as an Eastern fighter   
He’s earned all rights that go with the Silver Tyger

Quarterly sable and purpure, a bear rampant contourny maintaining in its mouth a rose fesswise argent

We state so, with a roar

As Rulers of the Eastern Land 

Affirmed so at the Pennsic War 

We, Indraksh Rani and 

Ryouko'jin Demon King of the three heavens

In the Year of the Tyger, AS 57 

Wordcount 90

THERE AND BLOGGED AGAIN

I got this assignment with two recommendations! It's always lovely to have two perspectives to work with, and in this case they agreed: the recipient is an up and coming fighter and squire with a wonderful outlook toward the East Kingdom.
His Wiki also provided a wealth of information including his name and arms. Since this was to be his first award in the SCA, I wanted to double check that the name and arms were registered, and my usual sources weren't up to date with that information, so I reached out to the Mural Herald to confirm.    
The recipient's persona was 14th Century German, so I chose to write this scroll in the Middle High German Minnesang, which I had used before in the laurel scroll I wrote for Ellice de Valles. (A good reason I keep my blog current: all I had to do was re-read what I had written in 2019 and the poetic form was once again in my head, along with all the research. Amazing!)
I didn’t let it go at that, though. I wanted to find a translation of one of the poems. That sounds like a straightforward process, but because the translations are from Middle High German to Modern German and then to English, most researchers seem to believe too much is lost in translation. 
I did find research by Todd Mohr called, "What is the Manesse Codex?" This translation doesn’t seem to worry about the counted syllable structure I'm trying to adhere to, but I was still delighted to find any sort of translation, and it makes my interpretation all the richer.
I then started composing the text in this format:
6 A
8 B
8 A
8 B
8 C
12 C
6 A The gentle before you Now the man before you
8 B Is Our good Alexander Krause
8 A A practiced hand at combat crew
8 B Respect and kindness are his wheelhouse
8 C He shines as an Eastern fighter   
12 C He’s earned all rights that go with the Silver Tyger
Quarterly sable and purpure, a bear rampant contourny maintaining in its mouth a rose fesswise argent
6 A We state so, with a roar
8 B As Rulers of the Eastern Land 
8 A Affirmed so at the Pennsic War 
8 B We, Indraksh Rani and 
8 C Ryouko'jin Demon King of the three heavens
12 C in the Year of the Tyger, AS 57 

The write-ups for the recipient included extensively detailed information about what events, tournaments and competitions that they had fought in, and where they placed. This painted a very active fighting career - but it was too detailed for a scroll which needs to be read in court and hold the populace's attention. I actively try to avoid what I call a "resume scroll."  That sort of information is better suited to a Wiki.
 
I chose to put the heraldry between the two verses. Melodically it fit there and was a complement to the preceding couplet.
 
He shines as an Eastern fighter   
He’s earned all rights that go with the Silver Tyger
Quarterly sable and purpure, a bear rampant contourny maintaining in its mouth a rose fesswise argent
More often than not, when I am working with counted syllables, I will write the required information first - TRM names, event location and date. This scroll was no exception. As it would be read at Pennsic, the signet had put out a request that the date be left off, to give TRM more flexibility in when and where to bestow the award.
I also chose to place Her Majesty’s name before His Majesty's, which allowed me to list His Majesty's preferred titles and the newly requested, “In the year of the Tyger” within the form of the minnesang. 
I was excited to visit this verse form again! I enjoyed both the original research process and this new composition. And then, in a last minute twist, the Hua Meilan got it translated into High German! It all came together magnificently.

Sven Kaldvind - Silver Wheel

 Sven Kaldvind, in reverence before Us 
Verily does his work cause folk to rave 
Even to the far reaches of the East 
Now l his archery artifice is known
Keeping care of equipment, maintenance and marshaling ken 
Acclaim is his with silver wheel accrued 
Including rights and established ways therin 
Demon King Ryouko'jin, of the Three Heavens and 
Indrakshi, Our glorious Rani 
Note now on June 18 A.S. LVII
Done this day at Les Beltaines XXXIII 
 
Word count 77

BLOG - GOLB

Hua Meilan tapped me right before Roses with this last minute scroll for Les Beltaines. 

Knowing that this scroll was going to be translated into French, I agonized over what form to choose. I only took Spanish, but that was all the way back in junior high, so I don’t even have memories to help me.

I ran a gauntlet of styles to try.  Working with alliteration was out because I had no idea whether the translated words would work correctly. Anything with counted syllables was out for the same reason.

In the end I decided to go with an acrostic poem, a form in use since ancient Greece. In period, the national anthem of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is an acrostic which dates back to 1557. 

Like the long-ago King of the Netherlands I chose to write the recipient’s name down the left side, one letter beginning every sentence. I made the scroll a double acrostic - making sure the letter that began the sentence was repeated somewhere in the last word.

 

Sven Kaldvind, in reverence before Us 

Verily does his work cause folk to rave 

Even to the far reaches of the East 

Now l his archery artifice is known

Keeping care of equipment, maintenance and marshaling ken

Acclaim is his with silver wheel accrued 

Including rights and established ways therin 

Demon King Ryouko'jin, of the Three Heavens and 

Indrakshi, Our glorious Rani 

Note now on June 18 A.S. LVII

Done this day at Les Beltaines XXXIII 

My hope is that even if the acrostic nature of the poem is lost in translation, this will still read like a standard Charter/writ based scroll and the recipient will enjoy it.

Alessandra Serena Renda - Silver Wheel

Majesties Ryouko'jin & Indrakshi

Of a noble line of Eastern Queens and Kings 

Who rule both near and far, the land and the sea

Observe who steps forward affecting things

With enthusiasm and unfettered zeal

Alessandra Serena Renda’s work sings 

There’s an accolade that she has earned, We feel 

She’s done so much that we’ll no longer delay

Rights and acclaim that go with the Silver Wheel

********space for arms*********

June 4th AS 57, respects We pay 

At the Earl Horic Memorial Sovereign

And Consort’s Championship of Arms today 

With strength of hand at this fine bacchanal in 

Our Shire of Eisental with kith and kin

Word Count 102

COLOR KEY

ABA

BCB

CDC

DED

E

E

A Majesties Ryouko'jin & Indrakshi
B Of a noble line of Eastern Queens and Kings 
A Who rule both near and far, the land and the sea

B Observe who steps forward affecting things
C With enthusiasm and unfettered zeal
B Alessandra Serena Renda’s work sings 

C There’s an accolade that she has earned, We feel 
D She’s done so much that we’ll no longer delay
C Rights and acclaim that go with the Silver Wheel
********space for arms*********
D June 4th AS 57, respects We pay 12
E  At the Earl Horic Memorial Sovereign
D  And Consort’s Championship of Arms today 

E With strength of hand at this fine bacchanal in 
E Our Shire of Eisental with kith and kin

BLOGGING INFERNO!

Hua Meilan asked me to work on a late period Italian Silver wheel.  The search to find a verse form became an exercise in Google search terms. I knew the recipient had a later period Italian persona. In the end there wasn't one magic term that led me to what I needed:

I chose Dante Alighieri’s (1265-1321) Divine Comedy, written in Terza Rima.  I suspect the Divine Comedy is earlier than the persona of the recipient (as far as I could tell), but Dante set the mold and the poetic form was popular for centuries.

Terza Rima Is an interweaving rhyme structure in an open poetic form. As long as you stick to the rules, you can make the piece as long as you want - which makes it more flexible than other styles I have used, like the Chant Royal, where I chose to be "incorrect" by doing only one verse for the scroll. 

 

Each section of the Terza Rima has three lines in an ABA BCB CDC DED pattern.  Each line is Hendecasyllable or 11 syllables long. It ends with a couplet or a single line that rhymes with the second line of the second to last stanza: DED E or EE for example.

 

To further my understanding of this form, I looked at a different source than I usually do: YouTube. These two videos helped me understand the verse. I also found How to Write a Terza Rima (With Examples). This piece was a wonderful resource, with good examples and a detailed step by step method. It's very similar to how I write the structured poetry that I encounter in my wordsmithing.

In the course of my research I also discovered another Robert Frost Poem, Acquainted with the Night, in which he had used a rhyme scheme pertinent to the scroll I was working on. (Sadly, though, this was not the Frost poem from the Muppet Show skit.)

As far as the scroll composition, I worked the same way I do with any rhyme scheme - by writing one line, then coming up with several rhymes, and working in the pertinent information.

This scroll took me a few days longer than usual. To change one rhyme affected 3 lines of text each time. As hard as I tried to stick with the rhymes I had come up with, I still wound up ditching three sentences in a row to make a new word fit better.

I will say that I am proud of my work in this scroll.  I hope that when the recipient hears it read in court they will love the results.

East Kingdom Gazette: The Earl Horic Memorial Sovereign & Consort’s Championship of Arms Court Report

Photo by Sandy Casanova

Photo by Alessandra Serena Renda of Gibellina

Marian Kirkpatrick - Silver Brooch

Today, the heralds will belt Our words out

Let awl and sundry of the East Kingdom know 
That We, Ryouko'jin, Demon King of the 
Three Heavens and Rani Indrakshi
Have heard of Marian Kirkpatrick,
Who punches out circlets and medallions
Leat-her be known for her creations 
And stand forth to receive the Silver Brooch
For she her skills burnish bright and 
Alinine with Our appreciation
We will not be suede from this decision!
Done in the strapping weather of May 28th
At the Wars of the Roses, AS 57
Barony of Concordia of the Snows

Wordcount 95

If BLOG isn't forever

And it's not the weather

Hand me my leather

The recipient had been written in for their leatherwork.  I went to their wiki to get some inspiration, and found that she liked to jump around in regards to her persona and garb of choice.  I reached out to their contact to see if I could glean some inspiration from their scroll.  The calligrapher and illuminator, Fiona, also requested I find out if they had anything that they’d like on their scroll, like a pet or a favorite color.  After much discussion and a photo of the recipient’s pup, I decided on leather puns - although I was very careful to keep it "safe for work," as it were. 

When writing a punny scroll I first go to the internet and google “subject puns.”  That led to 50 Hilarious Leather Puns (though fifty was a bit of a stretch, as they started repeating themselves very quickly).  

I then looked up the Leather Craft Tools List – An Overview and Leather Types. These provided me with a wealth of puns and words to play on.

When writing a pun scroll I will either start with the pun word and write the sentence around it, or write a regular sentence and try to change a word to fit a pun. In the end I wound up "hide"-ing nine puns in the scroll!

These definitions are largely for me and the words that I used that I wasn’t familiar with:

Belt - a band of flexible material, such as leather or cord, for encircling the waist.

Awl - Tool with a sharp metal point used for marking or piercing leather.

Herd - a number of animals kept, feeding, or traveling together

Punches - Used to make holes in leather.

Leath-er - the skin of an animal, processed.  Used as, “Let her”

Burnish - to polish leather 

Alinine - A type of leather,is dyed only with soluble dyes. Used for, “Align''

Suede - a leather made with a slight nap of short protein fibers.

Strop - Piece of leather, sometimes mounted to a board or solid surface, that is used to sharpen knife blades

This scroll was just a whole lotta fun to write.  A fun pun filled scroll is almost like a palate cleanser for me - especially when I am working on new and different verse forms, as I did with some of the scrolls going out just before and after Wars of the Roses.

Marian Kirkpatrick - Order of the Silver Brooch

Video by Arlyana van Wyck

 EK Gazette: War of the Roses Court Report