Back in BLOGGING and ain't it grand?
Let the good times roll!
After I discovered my error in the Dróttkvætt metre at Queen and Crown A&S I went back to my sources to teach myself how to do it again and I discovered something new.
From Skaldic Project: “dróttkvætt, ‘court poetry’, the most common metre used in skaldic poetry, comprising stanzas of eight hexasyllabic lines, regular alliteration and hendingar (skothending) in odd lines and aðalhending in even ones)”
I found a new source that described it even better: Viking Archaeology Home Page
In other words: odd lines don't rhyme and even lines do.
From the Viking Answer Lady: “there is usually a marked syntactic division at the end of line four to make the whole into two balancing halves.”
In the scroll for Magnus Wolfhunte, I chose to show this in more than one way.
For the even lines, the "hendingar," I chose to rhyme the second and fourth, even lines of the couplets. The "hendingar" of the 6th and 8th lines would also rhyme together, but not rhyme with the first 2 couplets.
For this particular scroll, I also chose to separate them in an additional way. In the first verse I added a quote from an extant text, and the second I used the language of the recipient's arms as the stylistic break. This isn't quite in keeping with the metre, but it made sense stylistically since the arms had to be included.
East! Pure elk-sea’s expanse
Eyes those We should explore
In the first sentence I used a kenning of ‘of the pure elk-sea, ’ - which means land. I used elk again later in the scroll, meaning sea. I liked the synchronicity of using similar kennings for land and sea.
Mighty Margarita
Marveled Queen, glorious
This couplet is a good illustration of my process in creating the dróttkvættmetre. I originally wrote the introduction to Her Majesty as:
The Queen, This Margarita (7)
Thought and speech, wholly for us (7)
Not only was there an extra syllable in each line, I also wanted a descriptive word for the Queen, so I came up with “mighty'' which fit. Thus the stanza changed to:
Mighty Margarita
Marveled Queen, glorious
But I forgot that it had to rhyme with "explore." In the end I decided to go with it, but in retrospect, “heretofore'' would have worked reasonably well.
Hindsight is a pain in the tukas.
(Most men know this)
This quote, in the transition between the 4 line breaks, was taken directly from the Karlevi runestone in Oland, c. 1000 AD: “most men knew that.” I thought to change it to be gender neutral (“Fine folk know this”) but there was no request for the scroll to be gender neutral and I favor using direct quotes from period source material where I can.
Guard and great champion
Good advisor, trainer
This is about the only language that explains why the recipient was given the award. Norse metres make anything sound amazing, even when you have but few details to go on.
Magnate Magnus Wolfhunte
Metal weaponed waner
In this couplet I both introduced the name of the recipient and included the first Kenning: Metal weaponed waner. The Skaldic Project gives the translation as "diminisher of metal weapons." For the alliteration, I needed the sentence to start with an M. So I found "waned" as a synonym for diminished.
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Here his helmet-peg heightens
Higher rank, honor due
I changed this kenning around specifically to fit in the kenning format of A-A---/A-----
I don’t think that going from Peg-helm to Helmet-peg changed the meaning any. The couplet is still 7 syllables long. While I found other words that could have stayed within the syllable count I liked the added level of alliteration.
The second line introduces the award that is to be received.
Baron bequeathed today
Bright skies for his debut
This couplet names the award and I put in a bit about the weather. Usually mentioning the weather in a scroll is poetic license. In this case, Ethereal Court actually was held in beautiful, clear weather, as can be seen in the recording.
Counter-ermine, a fer-a-loup, three wolf's teeth issuant from dexter and three wolf's teeth issuant from sinister argent
In this, the second verse, I used the heraldry in the same place that I used the extant quote in the previous verse. Like the first verse, the language is different and not found in the dróttkvætt metre. Heraldic Latin is a requirement for scrolls, so I was glad I could add it in a manner that made sense with the poetry.
Worn by worthy Magnus
Where’er he may travel
This new thoughtful grant
Therefore: ne’er unravel
I used two full couplets to say the traditional, “To be worn by them and them alone.” And as it’s a Court Barony that comes with a grant of arms, I got to use “grant.” Sometimes the earliest of lessons stick the hardest in your brain!
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Here in hard-won 55th
Anno Societatis
This was my first scroll written in the time of COVID-19, so some of the scrolls' requirements were waived. I was given the option of omitting the event date and location, or just giving the year. I felt the year was important to identify this period of strife and distance the East Kingdom and the whole world is going through.
"Hard-won" conveyed the feeling of triumph through adversity that I was going for, even though the extra syllable breaks the metre.
The next line was "Anno Societas," the Latin phrase we use to convey the year of the Society. I had to abandon the careful alliteration and syllable count of the metre to include it, but it's not a phrase to play with.
I did however set up a rhyme for Societatis with “grant us” in the following couplet. Sometimes with scrolls you give up one aspect, but are able to keep another. In the rare times that I can fit rhyme, syllable and alliteration (or whatever combo the poetic structure calls for) I value it all the more!
We barely steer the wake-elk
Your poise we ask, grant us
Here in the last stanza I repeat “elk” in a similar kenning to the first stanza.
The second line of this couplet needs to rhyme with the second line of the next couplet, to complete the stylistic break between the 2 parts of the 8 line stanza. Unlike the other 2 stanzas there is not an extra sentence of any sort between the 2 sections.
Many modes of kith and clan
More found for love to stoke
I wanted to end the scroll with emphasis on our mutual love for our friends and family that bring us together in the Society. Although we are necessarily distant during this COVID time, we are still together in whatever form we can be.
This scroll felt like I was jumping back into the deep end. I was fixing past mistakes and learning new levels of nuance to the Dróttkvætt metre. Even as I wrote this blog I noticed new ways that I could improve. And as with the previous scroll that went out with an error in it, I certainly hope that the recipient will forgive me and enjoy what they have.
In the course of writing a scroll, the wordsmith has to make exceptions to the rules of the poetic form. A scroll has a certain amount of information that has to be given. Language evolves. I certainly hope that in composing this scroll I managed to replicate the Dróttkvætt metre more accurately than my previous efforts. I continue to add nuance and details as my understanding of Norse poetry grows.
