Mairi Crawford - Silver Rapier

 And so Mohammad Sultan
Brenhines Corotica
Sovereigns of this Eastern span
Love to homage and hurrah 

Mairi Crawford’s time’s today
Accept praise for clout she shows 
Skilled repertoire of swordplay 
Has fame against far flung foes

A joy to face on the field
And now The Silver Rapier
Awards for Mairi to wield 
Honor to add to her here 

At  Rusted Woodlands shire 
On the 19th November 
AS LVII We are 
Pleased to praise this fine Fencer 

Word Count 77

KEY

ABAB Rhyme scheme

Internal rhymes in line 3 & 4

Alliteration

Alliteration together in line 4

A And so Mohammad Sultan

B Brenhines Corotica

A Sovereigns of this Eastern span

B Love to homage and hurrah 

A Mairi Crawford’s time’s today

B Accept praise for clout she shows 

A Skilled repertoire of swordplay 

B  Has fame against far flung foes

A A joy to face on the field

B Right now The Silver Rapier

A award's for Mairi to wield 

B honor to add to her here 

A At  Rusted Woodlands shire 

B  On the 19th November 

A AS LVII We are 

B Pleased to praise this fine Fencer

"Come in!" exclaimed the Ghost. "Come in, and BLOG me better, man."

Half an hour after beginning to research this scroll, I posted this to Facebook:

“Working on poetry that ostensibly is in my own persona. Man it's complex.  But wait, I'm complex!  Maybe I picked a good persona after all!”
Old Irish Poetry is as complex as Norse Poetry and so much fun!
The recipient of this scroll was of a later period than the Old Irish Pelican I had written for this past Barleycorn in September, so I needed a bit more research.  Thankfully most of the sources I had used for that scroll -  Irish Syllabic Poetry  and Three Most Common Bardic Meters - included information on their later period counterparts.  I also checked The Poetry Collective and Brian Ó Ruairc, mo rogha leannán.

With all of that I settled on this structure:
7 syllables
ABAB Rhyme scheme
Internal rhymes in line 3&4
Alliteration
Alliteration together in line 4
I broke down the recommendation into some key subjects, and set to work. A complex poetic form is so much fun to write - even if on occasion it can involve cursing long ago authors in a different language.  Fitting English into these other languages is a challenge I love.

A And so Mohammad Sultan
B Brenhines Corotica
I could fit no alliteration into this line as Her Majesty's name and preferred title fit the syllable count exactly.  This is a case of the requirements of a scroll superseding the requirements of the poetry.

A Sovereigns of this Eastern span
B Love to homage and hurrah 
The 4th line final two words of the sentence are supposed to be alliterative. I tried several times to write this without the use of the conjunction but could not figure out a way.  So I employed a literary device of ignoring that it’s there and treating homage and hurrah as the final alliterations on the line. There could even be an argument made that all three words do alliterate depending on how one prononces the H.  Either way it made for a nice transition into the next verse.

A Mairi Crawford’s time’s today
B Accept praise for clout she shows  
Had I an  extra syllable to play with here, I would have written “To accept praise” or “Accepting praise” just to keep the flow of the line.  A good herald should be able to read it correctly.

A Skilled repertoire of swordplay 
B  Has fame against far flung foes
Repertoire/far is a bit of a stretch and the rhyme will depend on the herald's reading.  It is an interior rhyme though and if it isn’t stressed, I don’t think the reading will be lessened.
The last line of this verse especially pleases me.  I managed 4 alliterative words in a 6 word sentence. The write up emphasized how proud they were to perceive the recipient as a threat on the fencing field.  I was glad to work that into the body of the scroll.

A A joy to face on the field
B Right now The Silver Rapier
A Award's for Mairi to wield 
B Honor to add to her here 

This verse is one that most solidly fits the rhyme and meter of the Deibhidhe Quatrain. The end rhymes are all full hit rhymes and the interior rhyme is solid. The alliteration of the 4th line is a little rough as I am counting Award and Wield as the alliteration.

A At Rusted Woodlands shire 
B  On the 19th November 
A AS LVII We are 
B Pleased to praise this fine Fencer 
I am proud that I managed to fit all the final bits of information into the rhyme and meter.The alliteration for the first two lines is missing, alas, but I managed to allierate with two letters in the last line!

Of the three scrolls that I have going out at 100 Minutes War, I think that this one was my favorite to write, and I had good experiences with all three! While this one was a new verse form, it was so similar to Norse and Old Irish poetry and I had done so much of the research just a few months prior that it was all in the, shall we say, current storage in my brain.

Oissíne mac Bróccín, known as Oz - Tyger's Cub

Where are We? 
100 Minutes War
In Rusted Woodlands
In the East Kingdom 
What is the date?  
November 19th, AS LVII
Who is before Us, Monarchs Mohammad and Corotica? 
Oissíne mac Bróccín, known as Oz. 
Yes.
Take care. 
He has reached an achievement 
We like this young Tyger. He plays well and does not give up.
What is this Tyger’s Dream? 
This Tyger dreams of friends and crafts. 
Dreams of tents and summer. 
Dreams he creates and destroys. 
Dreams he fought, triumphed, and was defeated (dramatically). 
Sometimes this young Tyger dreams he was in the game.
We, the East say Oz has played Our game well
Oz is stronger than he knows
Oz is not alone
Oz is not separate from every other thing
We, the East, see Oz, Our young Tyger. 
Oz is the East 
Stand up. 
Turn around  
Join your Order. 
The Order of the Tyger’s Cub. 

Word Count 149

"Expect the first BLOG tomorrow, when the bell tolls one!"

This scroll was a lesson taking out words.

My son was written in for his Tyger’s Cub and I jumped at the chance to write it - so much so that I started researching it and putting it together long before I got the assignment.

Right now, his absolute favorite activity is to play Minecraft.  He loves it above all other things.  Watching him have internet parties with 3 different SCAdian friends across the East Kingdom playing one game is a joy to behold.  At events, the friends are inseparable. This made the choice of my inspiration piece clear.

The credits for Minecraft are an 8ish minute poem called "The End." When I was looking for inspiration for this scroll a friend looked at the words and exclaimed, “This is the scroll right here!  It’s practically written for you!”

As the wiki says, “The poem takes the form of a scrolling dialogue between two speakers who are discussing the player's accomplishments, dreams, and relation to the rest of the universe.”

The poem has 1,545 words.  So this was clearly going to be an inspiration and not a straight filk of the piece.

My first draft of the scroll was 228 words - not bad, but not short enough. The final draft ended up at 149 words, which is more than the standard 100 for these sorts of awards - but I had a very understanding Calligrapher and Illuminator.   

The end poem is set up as a dialogue, either in a computer or another world, and much of the terminology had to be changed. I changed “Player” to “Young Tyger,” feeling that "young" was important to emphasize. The East Kingdom has several awards with Tyger in the name. 

I changed “And the Universe” to “We, the East."

Whenever the poem addressed the player as, “you”  I changed that to “Oz” - his nickname since he was a baby. He chose his (fully registered) SCAdian name, Oissíne mac Bróccín, after it.

My goal was to write the scroll as if the conversation was happening between the Royals about the recipient. I'd like to say that this was a nod to the debate poems, in an effort to be more period, but no - it's a filk scroll through and through.

I put in references to Oz going to Pennsic, the Youth activities he plays in and even a reference to Youth Combat, and how he once won for “best dramatic death,” and was called up to court to receive a prize.

I love writing scrolls for my family and this was a joy to write.

The Calligraphy and Illumination by the amazing Cwenthryth wine The inspiration for the design comes from Oz's reputation for collecting the Tyger Kitties Camille des Jardins makes for the toy box. He has loved them for years and has amassed a Tyger Kitty Army!

Dancing Fox 20200208 Photo by Bróccín MacIvyr

Photo by Cwenthryth Wine

Photo by Cwenthryth Wine

Volmar Sollens - Tygers Combattant

DUEL Majesties Sultan Mohammad and Brenhines Corotica are at the HELM of the Kingdom. Standing on the SPAULDERS of the giants of the East, watching Volmar Solens. 

His contributions to the kingdom have been GREAT. SWORD in hand, he'll GRILL his opponents.  STICK to his goals to improve his game. Continuing to HARNESS  the energy and experience of each GRIEVEous fight.

 We wish to LAY ON  the praise and not SHIELD him from this aMACEing recognition any longer.

FLANKING the opinion of Their Majesties, the Order, now MARSHALED together, will HOLD back no longer and THRUST Volmar Sollensto to the Tyger’s Combatant. 

Granted with these unique and specific ARMORY, GAUNTLETed  thus: Azure, in pale three domestic sea-cats naiant guardant between flaunches Or.

WRAPped up today, October 01, AS LVII. 

At First Court of Coronation of Mohammad and Corotica

In the Barony of Havre des Glaces

Word Count 145

Abort, Retry, BLOG

Fiona handed me a Tyger’s Combatant to write for her.  This was just after the crazy amount of work I had for summer, culminating at Barleycorn.  The recipient had a very specific persona, listed as being from the Duchy of Swabia, early 12th century. Wiki search netted me the information that it was in Germany,  right in the beginning of the troubadours and minnesang. I have used this form in several scrolls.

I even looked up appropriate terms for TRM for 12th C. Germany and even found a pic from the codex manesse where I first embarked learning about the Minesang verse form.

Their Majesties' prefered title is "Sultan" for Mohammad and "Brenhines" for Corotica, but they are fine with regional alternates for scrolls specific to a recipient's persona.

In Germany at this time the title would be King or Holy Roman Emperor or Kaiser. Some of these titles are fairly problematic in terms of modern history and religious connotations in the SCA. So I chose King and Queen as the best compromise possible.
Minnesang is a complex form that I enjoy.  I had written about 75% of the scroll when I needed more input than I had.  The award had been discussed in person at Pennsic.  As such there was no written write up for me to refer to for the descriptive area of the scroll.
Sir Zhigmun' Czypsser was listed as the recipient’s contact (I learned later, his knight). I reached out to him on the Book of Faces.  We had a lovely discussion about the recipient and was told that the recipient would LOVE a pun-tastic scroll!
SCREECH! CRASH!
I was almost finished writing the scroll! 

Yet, there I was, starting from scratch! 
On top of it, the minutiae of fighting is not my wheelhouse and one has to revel in minutiae to write a pun-filled scroll. I reached out to friends who happen to be both fighters and heralds. Thank you to both Kieran MacRae and Ryan Mac Whyte for their help with fighting puns!  I could not have written this scroll without your help!

DUEL Majesties Sultan Mohammad and Brenhines Corotica are at the HELM of the Kingdom. Standing on the SPAULDERS of the giants of the East, watching Volmar Solens. 

I started the ball rolling on the scroll with 2 different kinds of puns! DUEL is a Homophonic Pun playing on the phonics of duel/dual.  Whereas HELM is a Homographic Pun based on its different definitions. 

Spaulders was a new term  to me!  It's another name for a shoulder piece, and it incorporated into the phrase, “Standing on the shoulders of giants.” A phrase that, much to my delight, was not only well within the timeframe we re-create, but can be attributed to the same century as the recipient’s persona, if not their country.

His contributions to the kingdom have been GREAT. SWORD in hand, he'll GRILL his opponents. 

STICK to his goals to improve his game. 

Slipping in the word Great Sword here is another pun technique, essentially a Compound Pun. Where the sound of two words blended together to make the joke.  This one was unusual in that the pun words are used in contexts of their sentences and not related together.  Yet when read out, the word Great Sword, a popular weapon, is heard. 
The other two puns in these sentences are Homographic puns.

Continuing to HARNESS  the energy and experience of each GRIEVE-ous fight.

We wish to LAY ON  the praise and not SHIELD him from this aMACEing recognition any longer.

With the inclusion of Harness, I learned something new.  It is used synonymously with kit in regards to a fighter’s clothing and equipment. 

GRIEVEous and aMACEing are Homophonic Puns, but are a bit of a stretch.  The pun is caused by essentially mispronouncing, and emphasizing a syllable in part of the word.
LAY ON is a Homographic Pun, but very unique to the SCA.  In our fighting context it is a phrase used to indicate the beginning of a bout.  Here I am using it in its different definition of adding to something.  Shield is pretty straightforward and being used in the abstract instead of referencing the concrete form of a shield.

FLANKING the opinion of Their Majesties, the Order, now MARSHALED together, will HOLD back no longer and THRUST Volmar Sollensto to the Tyger’s Combatant. 

I am impressed that I managed to put 4 puns into one sentence.

Granted with these unique and specific ARMORY, GAUNTLETed  thus: Azure, in pale three domestic sea-cats naiant guardant between flaunches Or.

The Tygers Combattant comes with a Grant of Arms and I was glad to put in 2 more puns into the sentence leading up to the inclusion of the recipient’s arms.

WRAPped up today, October 01, AS LVII. 

At First Court of Coronation of Mohammad and Corotica

In the Barony of Havre des Glaces

I wrapped up the scroll (yes, yes I am using the same pun I used in the scroll) with a final Homographic Pun. With an added suffix for correct grammar.  Writing this Blog was fun.  I looked up different kinds of puns. 
Research always helps one learn more of the nuances of their craft!

East Kingdom Gazette - Court Report: Coronation

Coronation - Mohammad and Corotica

East Kingdom Gazette: Court Report: Coronation