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

Naran Numuchi - Fountain (Atlantia)

Naran Numuchi's acclaimed and adored   

And shows preference toward arrows over sword

He’s been seen getting plaiting crafts begun

Threading string to a multitude of chord

Today His Majesty the King Cuán

With his Queen Signy under the bright sun 

That shines over Our Atlantian views. 

The Fountain is earned, and so it is done

At Coronation, AS 52 

In Border Vale Keep his esteem accrues 

We are pleased that he receives this award 

October 7th, We'll ever enthuse 

Wordcount 79

VERSE STRUCTURE COLOR KEY

AABA
BBCB

CCAC

A Naran Numuchi's acclaimed and adored   

A And shows preference toward arrows over sword

B He’s been seen getting plaiting crafts begun

A Threading string to a multitude of chord

B Today His Majesty the King Cuán

B With his Queen Signy under the bright sun 

C That shines over Our Atlantian views. 

B The Fountain is earned, and so it is done

C At Coronation, AS 52 

C In Border Vale Keep his esteem accrues 

A We are pleased that he receives this award 

C  October 7th, We'll ever enthuse 

INTERKINGDOM SHENANIGANS, BLOG-STYLE!!!

This is the second time I've gotten to sink my teeth into the Rubáiyát Quatrain. The scribe Hua Meilan put out a call for a wordsmith familiar with Persian writing in the 12th to 13th century. In 2020 I had written a Maunche scroll in the Rubáiyát Quatrain, by the poet Rūmī of 13th century Persia, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to work with this verse form again! 

This was my first scroll written for a different kingdom, as well as a backlog scroll.  Backlogs usually take a bit of research to find all the information required, but on the other hand, the deadline pressure is much less.  I had the award, the recipient and the event date. Thankfully, the recipient had a wonderfully full and detailed SCAdian Wiki entry. The Atlantia Kingdom Wiki and the Atlantian Order of Precedence page for awards were also an enormous help.   The Fountain is a non armerigious award, specifically for service to the kingdom.  The only note I had on why they received it was that they had, “made 100 kumii cords for kingdom awards.”

 

With that information at hand and my writing form chosen, I set to work.

I set up the page with my rhyme guide, and started filling in the blanks. I’d write one sentence, look up a number of rhymes, and start playing with the following sentences. It's like working on a jigsaw puzzle with words, and often I'd have to throw out completed sentences in favor of another rhyme.

I confirmed the pronunciation of the name of His Majesty Cuán ends in an “un” sound, which allowed me to use Sun/done/none as appropriate rhymes.

For the line where I named the award I originally used:

The Fountain is earned, above and bar none! 

However, something about “bar none” struck me as off. I decided that a side quest was in order to learn more about the phrase.

The wiktionary link didn’t give me the history of the phrase. Another source indicated the phrase was derived from stories of the American West of the 1800s, but had no citations to back that up. Writing Explained, and the Language Log indicated the first use of "bar none” was in a Victorian era novel.

 
Now, while I have used the occasional Victorian era words in scrolls, I try hard to avoid them, and so I chose the phrase, “and so it’s done.” That meant I had to go back and change two earlier lines. It takes a lot of juggling to get the rhymes and language choices to line up on the ephemeral paper.

A Naran Numuchi's acclaimed and adored   

A And shows preference toward arrows over sword

B He's been noticed getting plaiting crafts done 

He’s been seen getting plaiting crafts begun

A Threading string to a multitude of chord

B Today His Majesty the King Cuán

B With his Queen Signy under the bright sun 

C that shines over Our Atlantian views. 

B The Fountain is earned, above and bar none! 

And so it is done!

So my Second foray into the Rubáiyát Quatrain did not produce new research into the verse form itself - but I did get to compose a piece for a different Kingdom and examine and research the history of my own language. Totally a win, in my book!

Combat Scrolls - Tourney of the Daffodils

 At EK Youth Champion at the Tournament of the Daffodils V I was royalty liaison and spent the majority of the day in the royal room. It was up two flights of stairs, and due to medical issues, I wasn't moving far, so I struck up a conversation with the Eastern Crown Herald, Grim the Skald. He was the first Laurel in skaldic arts I had reached out to about Norse writing.

Two of the scrolls for the day's court had not arrived and he wasn't sure how he was going to present them as "Zen heralding” isn't his preference. 

I pointed out he had a wordsmith right in front of him, and he asked me to write two scrolls.

The first was a Silver Wheel for Budang Altajin, a fellow shire member of Midland Vale. 

I had the herald's notes for TRM and I decided to go with Chaucerian rhyming couplets. These words came easily to me. I concentrated on getting the appropriate pieces of information.  I didn't even have to re-write this one - it came out well the first time!

Today Budang Altajin receives the Silver Wheel

He keeps Midland Vale on an even keel

Working for Our fighters during the plague

Today his service is praised and no longer vague 

Demon King Ryou and Indrakshi Rani

Rulers of the East from land to sea.

Declare it so in Midland Vale

On April 30th AS 56, Beyond the Pale

Wordcount 59

The second scroll was an Apollo's Arrow for Tysha z Kieva. Archery scrolls seem to lend themselves to puns for me, and this one was no different - I even roped in some folk who were in the Royal Room to help! This scroll needed a rewrite, as I had crossed out and mentally rearranged a bunch of it. It definitely made me appreciate the ease of working on a computer - and wonder, yet again, how the great poets of old did this, at the very least, without erasers!!!

Tysha z Kieva

A decade and more, her work has been on TARGET.

SHARP and to the POINT, her arm is true and her BOW strong

HITTING her MARK in 3 different baronies as Champion!

Ryuo Demon King of the 3 Heavens and Rani Indrakshi aim

Tysha toward the Apollo's Arrow

With absolute trust she will hit the BULLSEYE

Forever more will KNOCK her skills as a part

Of a long STRING of ARCHERS worth their CLOUT

SHOT today at Midland Vale

Tourney of the Daffodils April 30th AS 56

Wordcount 90

This was a first for me, writing a scroll that would go out later that day.  It ate up a good chunk of time and I was glad for it.  It gave me something to do in the main part of the day, which kept my brain occupied.  So I can list Combat Scribing (as originally coined by Faolán an Sccreccain)  as something I have done.  But I am very glad to be doing composition at home, with access to my research, on my computer!

Court Report: Tournament of Daffodils

Photo by Sit al-Gharb ha niqret Khazariyya

 

Photo by Sit al-Gharb ha niqret Khazariyya

Photo by Sit al-Gharb ha niqret Khazariyya

Angelique de Conte - Silver Wheel

 Angelique de Conte’s path has been long

Doing service-deeds and work with horses

We’ve heard dazzling praise from Our kingdom’s throng

Washing dishes through multiple courses

Helping for hours: Set up through break down 

Her Equine works been observed by the Crown 

King Ryouko'jin declares majestically

Queen Indrakshi states with sincerity

That Angelique’s to have her Rank increased

Silver wheel is hers with all transparency 

These honors proclaimed in the Mighty East 

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

At Balfar’s Challenge with fine rarity

AS LVI, April Twenty Three

A joyous day with never a brow creased

In Dragonship Haven’s fine Barony

These honors proclaimed in the Mighty East 

Word Count 103

My little blog, Friendship is Magic! 

While the recommendation had many wonderful details about the recipient's fine qualities, it lacked personal details. Their wiki entry proved just as basic, saying only that their persona was "late 1400s France."

That was what I decided to focus on.
I looked up Medieval French Literature and found a list of Poetic forms used during that time, which included the Chant Royal. I was drawn to that because of my experience with Chaucer's Rhyme Royal which I have used in many scrolls. 
The "References" section of the Wikipedia page gave some marvelous opinions but few details:
“... the most complicated measure of Northern France.”
-Esenwein, Joseph Berg et. Joseph Berg Esenwein, Mary Eleanor Roberts Roberts. The Art of VersificationHome Correspondence School (1920) pg 205
“... a ballade of five stanzas iif eleb lines, with an envoy of 5 lines.  It is not, however, a practical form of verse, and is difficult of construction.”
-Elements and Science of English Versification
By William Caswell Jones · 1897 (pg 118)
I wanted to dig deeper, so I looked up another modern source and found Chant Royal: Poetic Forms which broke things down nicely:

• Five 11-line stanzas followed by a five-line envoy
• The 11-line stanzas have this rhyme scheme: ababccddedE
• The envoy has this rhyme scheme: ddedE
• The final line of every stanza is a refrain
• Lines can be any length as long as it's consistent within the poem, but most commonly eight or ten syllables

But I wanted more! So I enlisted my tech savvy husband who was able to log into JSTOR using a New York Public Library account he had just created. He downloaded a pdf of a journal article from 1975: Stewart, Lorna. “THE CHANT ROYAL, A STUDY OF THE EVOLUTION OF A GENRE.” Romania, vol. 96, no. 384 (4), 1975, pp. 481–96, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45040459  Accessed 22 Apr. 2022.
The article added a wealth of nuance to my understanding of the history, and how the Chant Royal was used over time. I am so happy to have found that source!
On to Composing.  I could tell this had the potential to be a very long scroll. I contacted the scribe, Alienor Salton, to ask how wordy I could get. My rough estimate was 10 words per line, 16 lines total, for approximately 160 words. (Yes, I was estimating one syllable per word, but better to over- than underestimate.) Alienor told me to go for it, so I set to it!
I planned on only doing one 11 line stanza and the envoy, so I started by placing the rhyme scheme down on the paper, and color coding it to help me remember the scheme. 
The Chant Royal:
ababccddedE
ddedE
Stanza
a 
b 
a 
b 
c 
c  
d 
d 
e 
d 
E 
Envoy
d 
d 
e 
d
E
a Angelique de Conte’s path has been long
b Doing service-deeds and work with horses
a We’ve heard dazzling praise from Our kingdom’s throng
b Washing dishes through multiple courses
c Helping for hours: Set up through break down 
c Her Equine works been observed by the Crown 
d King Ryouko'jin declares majestically
d Queen Indrakshi states with sincerity
e That Angelique’s to have her Rank increased
d Silver wheel is hers with all transparency 11
E These honors proclaimed in the Mighty East 
Space for atms
d  At Balfar’s Challenge with fine rarity
d AS LVI, April Twenty Three
e A joyous day with never a brow creased
d In Dragonship Haven’s fine Barony
E These honors proclaimed in the Mighty East 
I worked on the abc rhymes in the main refrain, and chose the refrain, the repeated line, E.  Then I jumped to the envoy, and built that up.
If I choose this poetic form in the future, I need to remember that d is the word with the most rhymes. In this scroll, I started with the word “Barony” and wrote my way back up. Thankfully I had a lot to choose from. 
I left a place for the arms of the recipient's in between the verse and the envoy.  l wanted to emphasize the difference between the two and it also made sense in the composition of the scroll.
I attempted a new poetic form with this scroll and learned a lot in the process.  I am particularly happy with the research I did before I started.
I am tucking this verse form away for future use. If I ever get the chance to write a peerage scroll again, a full Chant Royal would be an excellent choice. To be able to break down all 5 essential elements of a scroll with their own 11 line stanza would be epic!

In the envoy, I put the line: “AS LVI, April Twenty Three” - not a full hit rhyme with "Barony," but good enough and conveyed some necessary information.  I also worked in a very subtle My Little Pony reference - - “Rarity” is the name of one of the characters.

I left a place for the arms of the recipient's in between the verse and the envoy.  l wanted to emphasize the difference between the two and it also made sense in the composition of the scroll.

I attempted a new poetic form with this scroll and learned a lot in the process.  I am particularly happy with the research I did before I started the composition.

I am tucking this verse form away for future use. If I ever get the chance to write a peerage scroll again, a full Chant Royal would be an excellent choice. To be able to break down all 5 essential elements of a scroll with their own 11 line stanza would be epic!

East Kingdom Gazette: Balfar’s Challenge Court Report

Photo by Sitt al-Gharb ha-nigret Khazariyya

Photo by Sitt al-Gharb ha-nigret Khazariyya