I picked up scribal in the fall of 2017, and although I was unable to attend the following Twelfth Night, I desperately wanted to enter the New Scribe Contest. Based on Her Majesty’s whims (Viking persona and a love of horses and the color red), I decided to do an Urnes-Style Horse and Grasping Beast Scroll. I was honored that my scroll was selected as the winner!

Because I wanted a challenging design (and I could not find any digitized exemplars of period illuminations that fit my concept, as Nordic manuscripts are rare before 1100), I decided to base my design on Urnes-style knotwork (c. 1050-1132). I used three artifacts as inspiration: 

• Uppland Runic Inscription 871, 12th century, Sweden
• A brooch from Lindholm Høje, 11th century, Denmark
• Urnes Stave Church, c. 1132, Norway

I decided to adapt one of the Urnes-style grasping beasts into a horse, based on Her Majesty’s whims. The color choices were also influenced by an Urnes-style scroll found online dated 2007; I could not find the name of the original artist.  I used gouache and pencil on pergamenata.

As my third scroll ever, this scroll had many firsts for me: 

• first entirely original composition for a scroll, 
• first completed illustration of knotwork of any kind 
• first attempt at freeform knotwork, and 
• first scroll on pergamenata.