Category: Words

An Introduction for Esa

Esa inghean Donnchaidh was one of the first people I met in the SCA and a dear friend, so I was thrilled when I heard that she was going to receive her Laurel. While I unfortunately was unable to attend the glorious event, I was able to contribute in a small way by writing an introduction to court for her. This was then translated into Scots Gaelic by Naran Noyon, who heralded her entry for her elevation.

English Text

The evening star rises, heralds
last light of the day.
Sun strikes wave-washed islands,
inflames sanguine
Brodgar, Stanness, and sleeping Maeshowe.
See striding forth from stones’ heart
broch-builder’s blood-borne kindred,
a sea-eyed advocate and true-tongued teacher,
scholar of Caithness
and the womb’s ways,
the esteemed and beloved
Esa inghean Donnchaidh. 

Scots Gaelic Translation

One of the faults in my education is my lack of Scots Gaelic, so this translation was wonderfully done by by Naran Noyon. The text below is not his final version, and any transcription errors are mine; I hope to update this post soon with the final version that also includes the correct diacritics. As a translator myself, it was exciting to have someone translate my words, and I hope to hear more about his translation choices.

Reul an Fheasgair ag eirigh, A gairm solas mu dheireadh dh’en latha, 
Buailidh grian eileanan air am fliuchadh le tonnan,
‘Cuir teine ri Brodgar fuilteach , Staness ‘s Maeshowe nan cadal,
Faic Ise, A tighinn gu dana a-mach a cridhe chlachach,
Fior nighean Bhroch-togalaiche. 
Bean-tagraidh le suilean-mhara, 
Tidsear na fior theanga, 
Ban-Eolaiche Ghallaibh ‘s Doighean machlaig, 
Gaolach, Urramaichte. 
Esa Ingean Donnchaidh. 

2022 National Poetry Month Posts

April is National Poetry Month, so I decided to post as often as possible with a little bit about poetry! Here are the posts:

1: Introduction & Shakespeare

Greetings, Atlantia! While many folks are celebrating at Coronation, I did not want to let today slip away without noting that April is National Poetry Month! As your Poeta for a little longer, I hope to post bits and pieces about poetry throughout this month, as time allows. But let’s not wait: today, I want to talk about Shakespeare!

Love him or hate him, Shakespeare’s works have had an immeasurable influence. While there is much to say about his poetry, I want to highlight Shakespeare’s use of verse in his plays. In these, he masterfully combines prose and verse; transitions between these forms (as well as between different kinds of verse) can give us clues about a character’s personality, status, or even changing thoughts.

This article from the British Library provides an excellent overview along with many interesting examples of how shifts between prose and poetry convey information to the audience. With his life straddling the end of our time period, Shakespeare makes a perfect start to National Poetry Month!

2: Aristotle’s Poetics

Greetings, Atlantia! On the second day of National Poetry Month, I’m thinking about the theory of poetry, specifically, De Poetica (Poetics) by Aristotle, one of the first known works on literary theory. Indeed, while there are a great many opinions about this ancient work (dating to around 335 BCE), it still has a strong influence on modern conceptions of narrative. While too complex to boil down in a short post (and I’m certainly no expert), its emphasis on tragedy and comedy still affects how we divide genres of stories. Indeed, as I was considering what to write about for this month, I found myself categorizing poems as comedy, tragedy, lyric, and epic, all categories that Aristotle identified (indeed, the points where I struggled to apply this Westernized conception of poetry was with forms that originated outside Europe — but let’s not get ahead of ourselves!). That said, I find it interesting that the parts of Aristotle’s Poetics that survive are primarily thanks to Ibn Rushd, a twelfth-century Andalusian scholar that some folks may known better via his Latinized name, Averroes. If you’d like to deep-dive into the text of De Poetica yourself, you can read it for free here. While it’s quite short, there is much to be gleaned and argued over!

3: Epic of Gilgamesh

What was intended: share with Atlantia a bit about the Epic of Gilgamesh, as the oldest surviving epic poem, for the third day of National Poetry Month! What actually happened: I ended up in a deep, deep rabbit hole discovering way more than I ever intended about Akkadian and Sumerian poetry and mythology. Oops.

While the Epic of Gilgamesh is billed as the oldest surviving epic poem, the best surviving copies date to 600s BCE; however, different versions have been dated to between 1200s-900s BCE (the Standard Babylonian version)  and even around 1700s BCE (the Old Babylonian version). This full epic, written in Akkadian, is in fact pre-dated by five earlier poems written in Sumerian (dating to ~2100 BCE); of these, the majority appear in some form in the longer, later epic, while the others are echoed thematically if not specifically.

Episodic in nature, the first half of the poem is centered around the friendship of Gilgamesh (a king) and Enkidu (a former wild man). Thousands-years-spoilers: Enkidu dies at the end of this part, triggering the second half, wherein Gilgamesh seeks both eternal life and youth. While he finds his immortal ancestor, Utnapishtim, who rescued mortal life during a Great Flood, he finds that immortality is beyond the reach of him and all humanity. This summary, however, does not do the epic justice; I recommend perusing the many summaries online or some of the links below.

For me, one of my most interesting discoveries was that scholars are still unsure how the poetic form of the Standard Babylonian version actually functioned, though they agree that parallelism is an important feature. This is divided into repetitive (repeating phrases), progressive (using different imagery to say the same thing), and incremental (adding additional detail to repetitive phrases). These all create slightly different meaning and texture in the verse while emphasizing important aspects.

Some links for more information:

4: Mahabharata

Continuing with epics on day four of National Poetry Month, let’s talk about the Mahābhārata! The Mahābhārata is the longest-ever epic poem, with the longest version reaching 200,000 lines! With a number of framing devices within the 18 sections or books, the larger poem contains other important shorter texts, including the Bhagavad Gita and a short version of the Rāmāyana. It is composed of shloka, 32-syllable couplets that can be divided into half-verses or quarter-verses. While some sections are as old as 400 BCE, the story itself is believed to be set between the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. It is a delightfully complex tale full of familial, political, and cosmic drama, with the purported author Vyasa also appearing as a character. Focusing on two specific branches of the ruling family of Hastinapura as they struggle for the throne, the story is an incredibly important piece of literature in Hinduism. Indeed, as a non-expert, there’s no way I can do this incredibly important epic justice, but this 60-second synopsis made me cackle in glee. For a longer version, this seems to be a good video. And, as with Gilgamesh, Wikipedia continues to have a really good synopsis. I hope you take a second to explore further about the Mahābhārata — it’s enriching!

5: Beowulf

Y’all should have placed bets on how long it would take me to get to Beowulf during National Poetry Month.

Anyway! While the manuscript for Beowulf (Cotton Vitellius A.xv — but I won’t get distracted by the Cotton Library right now) is dated to between 975 and 1010, it’s unclear when Beowulf was exactly written— and when, and by who. It references real historic individuals who lived in Scandinavia in the 5th and 6th centuries, but it has no known predecessors, and it seems to have been originally composed in Old English.

It is hard for me to pluck out important highlights for this poem, as I have far, far too much to say, and it has been far, far too misunderstood to begin easily. Superficially, it seems to glory in the life of the warrior, but this is a superficial reading. One of my favorite summaries of the content comes from the blurb of the Seamus Heaney translation: “The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath.” This is a strongly mournful, melancholic, nostalgic strain throughout the poem; It is more than aware that the world it speaks on is dead and gone, and indeed may have never existed. It gestures slightly at the complexity of this world, and the many factions that lead to the final, fatal ending: hubris, disregard of family, broken promises. The significant absence of women (except for several significant moments) only highlights that Beowulf’s line ends with his death; their absence is not an oversight but a dark hole around which the poem circles. It is complex, and hard to understand and come to grips with.

In recent years, this poem has been plagued by poor adaptations, but we don’t have time for the rants I have regarding that. So, to conclude, if you’re only going to watch one performance of Beowulf, please watch Benjamin Bagby’s version in Old English, as it is an expert rendition that lets you feel the story without necessarily understanding a word that is said. That said, if you choose to watch a second, I recommend the East Kingdom production from 2020, wherein Atlantia was represented by Magistra Iselda and myself: part 1 and part 2. And if you read only one scholarly work about it, read Tolkien’s “The Monsters and the Critics.” Let me know if you do.

6: The Shahnameh

Continuing this week of National Poetry Month on the theme of epics, let’s talk about the Shahnameh! Literally meaning “Book of Kings,” the Shahnameh was written over 33 years (from 977 to 1010 CE) by the poet Ferdowsi. Based on a prose version, the final poem by Ferdowsi reaches around 50,000 rhyming couplets (each line of each couplet between 22 syllables in the same meter), divided into 62 stories and 990 chapters. This poem is considered the national epic of Greater Iran (a historic area that stretches, modernly, from parts of Turkey to western China, and from Uzbekistan to the Arabian Sea), and thus has a significant connection to the many cultures of this wide region. Written in Early New Persian, it was beloved by many of the rulers, conquerors, and dynasties that existed across this area, and also continues to have a huge linguistic influence on modern Persian language and significance in Zoroastrianism.

Like other epics, the Shahnameh has an emphasis on a lost, better past, but its scope is much vaster. Ostensibly a mythic-historical past of the Persian Empire, the poem starts with the creation of the world, passes through the conquest of Alexander the Great and the Sassanid Empire to conclude with the Arab conquest of Persia. Indeed, while many later kingdoms and empires loved this poem, there was often discomfort with the recurring theme of regicide. The historic background of the Shahnameh, and its reception, is a fascinating topic in and of itself; this article is a nice starting point on the subject.

The Shahnameh became a popular text for illumination, and extant versions exist in a number of gorgeous manuscripts. Indeed, if you are a scribe and have done a scroll for anywhere in this region, it’s likely that you’ve looked up a copy of the Shahnameh at some point. Need a Mongol or Ilkhanid text? Timurid? Turkmen? Safavid? You’ve probably looked at the Shahnameh! And if you haven’t looked yet, go have a peek at some of the beautiful manuscripts of this poem.

Finally, if you’d like to read this epic for yourself, both a prose translation and a verse translation are available online.

7: La Chanson de Roland and El Cantar de Mio Cid

Today we’re shifting from epic to its sub-genre, the chanson de geste / cantar de gesta (song of deeds) with the double-header of La Chanson de Roland and El Cantar de Mio Cid, aka The Song of Roland and El Cid! One Old French, one Old Castilian (Spanish), both have many similarities:

  • both are considered the national epics of their respective countries
  • both were composed around roughly the same time (Roland between 1040 and 1115, El Cid between 1140 and 1207)
  • both focus more-or-less on a singular hero who was a real person (Roland, of course, and Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called El Cid)
  • both are roughly the same length (4000 lines for Roland, 3700 for El Cid)
  • both have poetic forms that focus on assonance end-rhymes, both are preoccupied with al-Andalus and the Reconquista
  • both are roughly intelligible with some work if you speak the modern language (I can understand both, sort of, and my French and Spanish are both abysmal!), and
  • both had a significant influence on literature and music that followed.

Wow! What a list!

La Chanson de Roland was the first chanson de geste. Set in the 8th century during Charlemagne’s reign, it is written in decasyllabic verse with irregular stanzas called “laisse.” In the poem, Roland, nephew of Charlemagne, is with Charlemagne’s army campaigning in Spain. On a final retreat into France, the army is ambushed in the pass of Roncesvalles, having been betrayed by Roland’s uncle, Ganelon, who had been tasked with bringing a message of peace to the Muslim court. Roland, in the rear guard, makes a final stand, but only blows his horn (an elephant horn, or oliphant) for aid from the advance guard when it is too late. The end of the poem concerns Charlemagne dealing with the fallout of his nephew’s death and his retreat from France. While based on real events, in actuality, the Battle of Roncesvalles was between the Franks and Basques, and Charlemagne was in Spain on invitation of Sulayman al-Arabi, governor of Barcelona and Girona. However, this requires nuance, and La Chanson is rather intent on villainizing Muslim Spain. To read the full poem, check out this public-domain verse translation or this online edition in Old French.

In contrast, El Cantar de Mio Cid comes along once the chanson de geste is an established genre. Written in lines of 14 to 16 syllables, it was definitely meant for public performance, and likely started in oral tradition. However, there’s a (slim) possibility that its hero, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, knew of La Chanson de Roland: he lived from around 1043 to 1099, well after Roland’s composition! The fictionalized version of his life begins when he is a tribute-collector in al-Andalus for Alfonso VI. Accused of stealing some of this tribute, he is exiled to al-Andalus, where he performs raids and conquers the city of Valencia, earning his way back into Alfonso’s good graces. The remainder of the poem is concerned with his daughters, who are supposedly auspiciously married, but their husbands (who we discover were El Cid’s false accusers) mistreat them. After these men are humiliated and defeated, the daughters are remarried to crown princes of Spain. While this last bit is fabrication, the real Cid worked for some time as a highly-competent military leader for Muslim rulers in al-Andalus during his (real) exile. When he died during a siege of Valencia, his very cool wife, Jimena, supposedly strapped his corpse to his horse to inspire their troops. While this poem is equally as preoccupied with the Reconquista as Roland, it has a bit more nuance; even the nickname, “Cid,” comes from the Arabic word for lord, “sidi” (dialectical) or “sayyid”. You can read a version in both English and Spanish here.

Now, one caveat: if you choose to read these poems, I suggest you read them scholarly and critically. Because of their preoccupation with al-Andalus and the Reconquista (which is especially one-sided in La Chanson de Roland), there is much to learn about the historic justification for the Crusades and the roots of modern Islamophobia from these poems. While they are beautiful pieces of verse, we must not read them in a vacuum, but approach them thoughtfully.

8: Hurrian Songs

Greetings, friends! It’s been a week, but I have forgotten neither you nor National Poetry Month! Today I want to switch gears from strictly what we conceive of as poetry to highlight the Hurrian Songs. I discovered the Hurrian Songs during last year’s Bardic War (thanks to a composition-process rabbit hole), and I instantly fell in love with them. Composed around 1400 BCE in what is now Syria, the language and language family of these songs is extinct. Recorded on clay tablets in cuneiform, they are some of the earliest (if not the earliest) examples of notated music, though the notation is far different from what the modern Western world conceives of as notation. While we have a collection of 36 hymns, only one is complete (no. 6); addressed to the goddess Nikkal, wife of the moon god, no. 6 is definitely religious in nature and concerned about fertility. You can read a translation here.

So why talk about music in regards to poetry – why does this matter? Well, for most of human history, the concept of music and poetry being separate and different didn’t exist (as with poem vs. story, but we’ll save that for later). Verse and song were and are inextricably linked, and exploring one helps us understand the other better. In addition, these songs are an excellent example of having to reconstruct ephemeral art from the past, as well as how we must mediate between multiple forms and sources in order to both understand and share the past and create our own works in the poetic and bardic community.  

Because of this, I recommend you spend some time exploring the following performances of Hurrian Song no. 6: 

Laurel Scroll Text for Valgard av Mors, 2022

Scroll by Kolfinna Valravn

I was extremely excited when Kolfinna Valravn asked me to write the text for Valgard av Mors’ Laurel scroll, and even more excited when I found out she was basing it on the Franks Casket (full details here!). I knew that Mors is an amazing smith (making the Franks Casket, with its depiction of Wayland the Smith, even more appropriate), but she had a few additional suggestions: skulls are good, and make it metal. In addition, the space we had was quite tiny, which I love – I love space constraints that require me to write something perfect for the individual in as few words as possible. Since we were in my happy home of Anglian artifacts, I of course had to write alliterative verse; since I had been reading more alliterative verse in the last few months, I had a much better sense of where I could bend the constraints of the form in the process. Once I latched on to an opening phrase and a few specific images, the poem sprung almost fully-formed, only needing some minor editing and adjusting to make sure the flow was as perfect as possible.

Read more

Opal Scroll Text and Calligraphy for Ilhuicacihuatl de Xochimilco

Illumination by Aurri le Borgne, calligraphy and wordsmithing by yours truly

When Aurri le Borgne asked if I wanted to collaborate on an Opal scroll for Ilhuicacihuatl de Xochimilco, I lept at the chance! Ilhuicacihuatl is an incredibly giving person in both time and energy, an amazing teacher (I’ve learned so much from her classes), and a force to be reckoned with in New World studies in the SCA. In short: she’s awesome, and I wanted to be part of creating a scroll for her!

And then Aurri clarified that she wanted me to do both wordsmithing and calligraphy, and I went… okay. I was still considering myself a baby calligrapher, and I knew that whatever was out there was going to be far outside my wheelhouse, but it was worth it! (Also I don’t think I can call myself a baby calligrapher after this piece anymore!).

After convincing myself I couldn’t learn Nahuatl in less than a month and therefore an original language composition was out of the question (for now), I dived into research, looking for both a calligraphic hand and appropriate text. I quickly discovered Bernardino de Sahagún, a sixteenth-century friar and Nahuatl nerd who recorded both cultural and literary information regarding the Aztec people in a Western alphabet (score!). In the time I had, I couldn’t find both a literary text in translation and digitized manuscript, but I found two related pieces: The Florentine Codex, digitized by the Library of Congress and in Bernardino’s own hand, and Ballads of the Lords of New Spain: The Codex Romances de los Señores de la Nueva España, which was probably recorded by Bernardino, exists in one 17th-century manuscript, but available transcribed and translated by John Bierhorst and available for free online. Aurri had found a similar manuscript from Bernardino for the illumination, so we were good to go!

First: wordsmithing. Nahuatl poetry is new to me, and so at this point the most historically accurate I could get would be by cobbling together bits of the translated Ballads and massaging them into something that works for an SCA scroll. I read through the entirety of the Ballads (which aren’t particularly long), and I was struck by both the beauty and cultural resonance of the pieces. Despite knowing very little about the culture, I could still see the significance of multiple items and images (such as gold, jade, and flowers — flowers abounded!); I was moved by how the poetry wedded joy in beauty and sadness at its transience. Because I’m a language nerd, I still had to do a little linguistic digging, so I used the online Nahuatl Dictionary to look up Ilhuicacihuatl de Xochimilco’s name. I giggled at how perfect the name was for her and decided to work it into the scroll text.

The final text uses lines from poems I, II, IX, X, XVIII, and XXXIII in the Ballads:

Friends, let us go sing in Marinus, in Atlantia, on the second Day of Love. Eckehard and Jane have come to string jewels, to adorn with flowers. They value as gold the good service of a heavenly woman from flower fields; her heart and works are jade. Let there be broad plumes and opals: let Ilhuicacihuatl de Xochimilco be inducted into the Order of the Opal. May all know her name, may her flowers not wither. Let’s drink—let’s eat—cacao flowers: our hearts are glad with flowers this February 26, A.S. LVI.

Because I knew Ilhuicacihuatl was making chocolates for the event where this would be received, I had to include “let’s drink—let’s eat—cacao flowers” directly from Poem IX. Also, since the translation by Bierhorst rendered the poetry in a visually prosaic form, I retained that for the scroll text.

Next, the calligraphy! I was really lucky that I had an exemplar from one person, right? Right? WRONG. Y’all, Bernardino couldn’t write an “a” the same way twice in The Florentine Codex. He also couldn’t write the same size twice. Or keep his slant consistent. That said, all of this was a boon to me: I struggle with slanting scripts, and this late-period hand was entirely new to me (and learned in less than a week), so any inconsistencies in my version actually make it more accurate! Ha! An additional benefit was that his handwriting was not too different from earlier batarde scripts, which I had practiced in the past, so all-in-all it was not too difficult a task to handle. My final version was still a little rounder than the original, but I’m still pleased with how it came out.

Ductus from Bernardino’s hand.

For the ductus, I tried to use mostly letter-forms from the Nahuatl part of the manuscript; however, I had to fill it out with letters from the Spanish part, as there are multiple letters used in English and Spanish that did not appear in the Nahuatl text. Even with that, there were some letters that are fairly common in English that I couldn’t find in the manuscript (especially K and W), so I had to hypothesize my own letter forms for that based on the original.

To make sure that I got the calligraphy right on the first try, I did a test piece on Bristol using the same nib and ink (I don’t remember the nib size, but the ink was Noodler’s Eel Black). This piece was fairly successful, with only a couple errors but good spacing, so I taped over the errors and simply traced it for the final product.

I think it came out all right!

Golden Dolphin Scroll Text for Esa inghean Donnchaidh

Esa inghean Donnchaidh was one of the first people I met in the SCA, and the memory of our meeting is engraved on my heart. We very quickly found out that we shared many interests (including dance, Scotland, the 14th century, and “early period” Britain). She’s also a fantastic researcher, doing masters-level (or higher!) research in her free time on women’s health and menstruation (you can check out her blog here and her website here). As a newcomer, she made me feel seen, welcome, and safe.

So when her Laurel, Beatriz Aluares de la Oya of the Spanish Seamstress, asked if I could find the time to write the words for Esa’s Golden Dolphin scroll in a tight turnaround, I thought I would rather gnaw off my own arm than say no.

Since the exemplar was from the Aurora Consurgens manuscript, specifically of “Bleeding Woman in Zodiac” / “Zodiac Menstrual Cycle,” I knew it was time for some iambic pentameter again! That said, the Aurora Consurgens manuscript is from the 15th century, slightly earlier than other recent scrolls I’ve written for, so I decided to use rhyme royal, a seven-line stanza in iambic pentameter with an ABABBCC rhyming scheme. Bonus: Geoffrey Chaucer first used this in the 14th century!

The poem itself has many nods and winks to Esa’s work, deeds, and path in the SCA. I am not going to explain them here, as they are for her pleasure to enjoy and discover.

The final scroll was calligraphed and illuminated by Baroness Ingegerd Kastanrazi.

The Poem

O Venus, shining morning star, your light
Cannot be curtly dimmed by sun or moon.
Your curving path inscribes a divine flight,
A warming sight, a wondrous heavenly boon,
That reddens, flickers, blazes. Your face festoons
The midnight sky with glowing mystery,
Luminous bleeding generosity.

This wand’ring star has brilliant earthly twin
Whose arduous work illuminates the shade.
With labors long in stony broch and glen,
Heavy tasks she welcomed, refined, and weighed,
Service, wisdom, and truth bound and displayed.
The wise women know worth in blood and bone:
Esa inghean Donnchaidh their beloved own.

For love of Esa are these words proclaimed,
From Stierbach’s gates throughout the kingdom decreed.
Justice done by gentle Eckehard and Jane
Who thus award, as sages have agreed,
A lady who aids in spirit, word, and deed.
Th’ Order of the Golden Dolphin awaits
Esa, newest member, to celebrate.

Done November 20th, A.S. LVI, at Holiday Faire.

A Memorial Poem for Duchess Denise Duvalier

I was touched when His Majesty Eckehard asked me to write a memorial poem upon the untimely passing of Duchess Denise Duvalier. While I had not had the honor of meeting her myself, her reputation proceeded her, and I wanted to write something that honored her and her legacy and gave comfort to those left behind. Because I also knew that the poem would be read before a tournament (originally the Rose Tournament at War of the Wings, then rescheduled to Crown Tournament), I also wanted to keep it short so that no-one was overcome before competing. I hope that I did her memory honor.

 

The Poem

To saddened hearts and aching souls we sing
Of sorrow slowly walking in our midst.
From loss and love does grief and mourning spring;
If tears should tender flow, do not resist.

We sing of tireless heart and thoughtful hand
That brightly bore the crown with grace in bloom
And planted joy and warmth across the land.
This royal Rose was plucked unkindly soon.

May mem’ry last forever and a day:
Cherish Countess Denise Duvalier.

Pelican Scroll Text for Aemelia Rosa

I was honored to be asked to write the scroll text for Aemelia Rosa’s Pelican! Kolfinna Valravn did a beautiful job with the scroll, and it was super fun discussing our collab and making sure it fit the recipient. We agreed that the scroll text should be written like prose in a block (which is fully period and also let me write more words, ha!), but it was in fact a Petrarchan sonnet with some prose for the end matter:

Attend, Atlantia, to thy Queen and King
To hear of duty and dedication true
Steadfast service in many colors and hues
From Aemilia Rosa eternal springs.
No scribe or poet can number everything:
Though uncountable hours and great works ensued,
Sweet sacrifice and struggles were not eschewed.
She does not recoil from sharp arrows and slings.

Now in this sweet Barony of Hills so Bright
Eckehard and Jane make known Our will as the Crown:
What now must she become but a vulning Peer?
A gentle Pelican with wide wings of white,
When Fiery Trials and Royal Archers abound.
May all rejoice from what is presented here!

Thus also do We award her the sole and exclusive right to bear arms, to wit: Vert, a domestic cat’s head cabossed ermine maintaining in its mouth an artist’s paintbrush fesswise argent, a bordure ermine. Done by Our hands this day, October 2, A.S. LVI. In witness thereof, I Triton Herald set my hand by these letters Patent.

The Apprentice’s Manuscript

So things kept happening to get in the way of my properly apprenticing to Ollam Lanea (rainstorms, commitments, a pandemic), so when we finally were able to set a firm date, I lost my mind a little and decided to make her a gift for The Occasion. I decided to make her a book. Not any book — a book that contained two of her pieces, two of mine, and some other important items. Since I chose poems that incorporated our languages, I decided they had to be properly glossed. This is literally my third piece of calligraphy ever, my second with a proper pen, and I learned to bookbind over the summer by half-watching a dozen random YouTube videos. And because I knew Lanea would get a kick out of it, instead of documentation, I wrote a library catalog entry. I told you I lost my mind.

The Book

The Catalog Entry

Teach Folcadáin Bó Caitlin MS Ripton A.i

Date Inconsistently dated to both ~800 and 2021 (?)
Title The Apprentice’s Manuscript
Content The present volume contains 4 poems and some additional back matter (a short verse and a single sentence). Two poems, On Kings (ff. 2r-8v) and Song of Amergin (ff. 24r-29v) have been glossed by the original scribe. The glossing of On Kings indicates that the scribe was familiar with the language and attempted to keep a poetic translation in the gloss. However, they also excluded words that were the same in both texts, making it difficult to reconstruct the gloss’s original form. Inaccuracies in the glossing of Song of Amergin indicate that the scribe was not familiar with the language; E. Meredith (2021) has suggested that the scribe was attempting to combine two texts with only the vaguest understanding of Celtic languages.

Contents:
ff. 2r-8v: On Kings
ff. 9r-15r: On Returning Home
ff. 18r-22v: You Call Yourselves Bards?
ff. 24r-29v: Song of Amergin
f. 31r: Gawain and the Green Knight (?) excerpt
f. 32v: Back matter

Decoration: 5 illuminations, of a horse between three lozenges (f. 1r), a bird (f. 16r), a raven on a pall between three Brigid’s crosses (f. 17r), a great black dog (f. 23r), and a golden winged shoe (f. 30r). There are additional small decorations throughout, most significantly a decorated O on f. 18v.

Languages English, Modern
English, Old
Irish, Old (?)
Physical Description Materials: Pergamenata, Noodler’s Eel Black, Koh-I-Noor watercolor, FineTec gold and silver.

Dimensions: approximately 90 x 70 mm. No indication of trimming.

Foliation: ff. 32. There is one modern foliation sequence in the manuscript in pencil.

Layout: written in one column of four or eight lines to a page. All four-line pages contain glosses in a different language.

Script: Half-uncial. While the hand has similarities to the Book of Kells, as do some of the illuminations, the number of errors and uneven lines indicate an inexperienced scribe deeply in over their head.

Binding: Rebound in the first quarter of the 21st century by an enthusiastic amateur using green silk thread, cardboard, linen, leather, and PVA glue.

Origin, provenance Unknown; bears indicators of both 8th/9th-century Hiberno-Saxon traditions (especially Northumbrian) and 21st-century Nacirema techniques from Piscataway Nation territory.

Progress Pictures

Calligraphy in progress: printed text above with a page drying, ductus and practice below, and perg placed on top of the lined practice sheet.
Finished pages kept in order, with other pages drying and the text I was working from to the right.
Punching holes for binding into the folios with a guide. This page also has one of my favorite corrections.
Finished binding, with the first folio visible.
Binding glamour shot.

The Atlantian History Poem

This poem is a treasure of Atlantia, begun by Duke Cariadoc of the Bow and expanded for Atlantia’s Thirtieth Year Anniversary, so I was honored when I was asked to update it for the Fourtieth Year Anniversary.

However, updating it was a bit of a challenge, as there was no information in the Poeta binder and several years were missing, so first I had to scour the internet for different versions. Then, I reached out to several helpful folks, including past Poetas. Several past Poetas were available to write the poems for reigns during their tenure, and I was kindly offered some verses by others. In addition, as I looked more closely at the poem, I realized that a few of Cariadoc’s original verses were repeated in the longer Thirtieth Anniversary verses, making it a little confusing to follow.

Therefore, I decided to add a new framing device that explained the poem’s origins and transitioned from Cariadoc’s verses to the fuller poem. Reflecting on the fourtieth anniversary, I also decided to honor the Crowns of the Principality before we were a kingdom by adding verses for them; this also created a smoother transition from Cariadoc’s original verses while also created distance between the verses that are repeated in both the original and the longer poem.

Because I also found it difficult to navigate the poem, I numbered the verses and reigns in the final text, which will be given to the next Poeta, and which I reproduced here as best as possible. Finally, because credit matters, I revised the credits to include both the verses and the reigns that each person wrote for, so it is easy to identify authorship in the future.

Now, without further ado, the Atlantian History Poem, updated for the Fourtieth Anniversary!

The Poem

In ancient times and distant lands
A challenge came to pen a rhyme
Cariadoc stretched out his hand
and captured Atlantia’s crowns sublime

The first twelve crowns he placed in fame
for posterity and pride of peers.
With glowing stanzas for each name,
the duke’s own words follow here:

Carissa, Queen of all the East,
With Michael gave our realm its throne–
And then, before their reign had ceased,
They won it back to be their own.

Now Anya is a queen most rare.
Bertrand full half his kingdom knows.
He can describe each lady fair–
But not the color of her clothes.

In floods of mead the benches drown                                         (verse 5)
And great the glee of thirsty men
When Gyrth, great-gutted, takes the crown
And Melisande is queen again.

Jahn and Tuiren have done more
Than ever lords of coast and sea-salt.
For they have ruled from shore to shore
Atlantia to Drachenwald.

Now Bedford’s blade in fury falls
And for his foes ’tis death to find it.
Duke Michael is a moving wall
Carissa wholly hid behind it.

It was Sir Olaf, when he fought,
For Aslinn with his heart and hand,
Who by his skill and fortune brought
Atlantia’s crown to southern land.

Now Richard Corwin for his Anne
Atlantia’s crown has bravely won
He’s just a good and faithful man
Who’s doing as his knight has done.

Sir Knarlic, with a dragon blade                                         (verse 10)
Atlantia’s knights has beaten down,
But conquered by Atlantian maid
He to Alexis brings the crown.

For Gyrth it is a gladsome day
To know he has such sturdy men;
Count Richard in the bloody fray
For Anne has won the crown again.

Sir Olaf, through the flood of foes,
His Aslinn spies above the fray,
And bold Tsuneo, dying, knows
The crown will not be his today.

Tsuneo keeps his Nyan Nyan near.
He has such skills as suit a knight,
Can fight with sword and bow and spear.
His concubine can read and write.

Some kings and queens for dress are known,
Others for how they plot and scheme
Since Klaus for Cyffaith won the crown
Our sovereigns are a Melee team.

Now let the words straight from the Bow                                         (verse 15)
Blend with Atlantian poets’ tongues.
To fly each word true as the crow,
Start the tale when we were young:

The first to rule our sea-lapped shores
Were Alaric and Yseult the good.
A principality in store,
They led us from the mirky wood.

Second upon Atlantia’s throne
A suitable and sterling pair:
The gracious Ysabeau Cameron
And son of Laverty, Laeghaire!

Quickly came the third successors,
Princess Carissa of Burgundy
Alongside Prince Michael of Bedford
To rule the principality.

In society’s thirteenth year
Atlantia firmly held her fortune
Gracious Khirsten and Bryetor
Rose to reign as their due portion.

Words we can no longer mince:                                         (verse 20)
Herald the fifth with flute and drum!
Kindly reigned the Princess and Prince
Deadra and Tojenareum!

Sixth in line came Thorwald’s son
Ragnarr bravely joins the fray!
To make a princess the gilded one
called Gwenllian de la Forêt.

Now see our principality’s
Penultimate princely guides:
Astarte full of regality
And Bertrand boldly by her side

Bryetor and Kathryn grin;
Behold Atlantia, safe to grow!
Another era now begins
As a kingdom they bestow.

Here now begins the line of kings,
Through strength of arm the throne did find.
Learn of the fame that ruling brings
When art and service prowess bind.

Carissa, Queen of all the East                                         (verse 25/reign 1)
With Michael gave our realm its throne —
And then, before their reign had ceased
They won it back to be their own.

In fire and flame came Count Bertrand
For Anya from Calais’ far shore
Reigned second in the sea-bound land
When they assumed the regal chore.

Sir Gyrth, the mighty Saxon thane
He swept the field at Sacred Stone
The third Atlantian King became
With Melisande he shared his throne.

Jahn’s chivalry all men have seen
And Queen Tuiren’s skillful hands
The fourth Atlantian King and Queen
Have honors earned in many lands.

Across the battlefield did ring
A parti-colored lion’s roar
So Michael came to be fifth King,
and to Carissa roses bore.

Sir Olaf at sixth crown he fought                                         (verse 30/reign 6)
For Aslinn with his heart and hand
And by his skill and fortune brought
Atlantia’s crown to Southern land.

Richard Corwin was seventh King
Fair Anne his lady graced his side.
Oldcastle’s second king did bring
The crown northwards awhile to bide.

King Knarlic came from Normandy.
Alexis Queen ruled at his hand.
“No more Eastrealm treaty,” said he.
They were the eighth to rule the land.

As summer’s king did Richard claim
His place lo lead the knights to war.
The ninth king of the realm became,
Queen Anne beside him as before.

The lords for Aislinn’s love would sin.
Olaf has charm and ready quip.
This pair the realm’s tenth crown did win
With flashing sword and shaking hip.

Tsuneo ruled as in Japan                                         (verse 35/reign 11)
With concubine of quickest wit
Nyan-Nyan hid not behind her fan
Eleventh reign with laughter lit.

Who was the twelfth on sea-hone throne?
Twas Klaus and Cyffaith, brave and best.
Fair and bright their swords both shone.
Two fighters reign — our kingdom’s blest.

Ten reigns and two the bards recite
‘Ere Judith reigned at Olaf’s side.
For service, craft, and battle-might
With open hands they did provide.

Then came Badouin to take our crown
And with his Caterina sit
The fourteenth on the sea-horse throne,
Their battles won with sword and wit.

As fighter, archer and artisan,
Sir Dafydd’s prowess all have seen,
Fifteenth King to rule the land,
Elizabeth his gracious Queen.

Barry and the fair Simone                                         (verse 40/reign 16)
Were sixteenth King and Queen to reign
He won the right to claim the throne
Before he earned his belt and chain.

Once again does Michael stand
Victorious upon the green,
With Seonaid rules our happy land.
Their reign was number seventeen.

Now Barry comes again to win
Atlantia’s crown for Queen Simone
With drums and bagpipes they begin
Eighteenth reign upon the throne.

Duke Michael once again returns
Atlantian army leads to war.
A ducal crown for Seonaid earns,
The nineteenth reign in kingdom lore.

Duke Olaf swore, “Just one more time!”
For Aislinn he would win again,
The twentieth of royal line
As Sultan and Sultana reign.

For Luned’s smile and honor bright                                         (verse 45/reign 21)
Sir Anton fought with might and will,
The twenty-first to reign by right,
First monarchs from Windmasters’ Hill.

Tall and strong stands Ingolf’s son
Galmr’s sword did bloodless slay
For Katharina fought and won
The twenty-second Crown that day.

King twenty-three, Michael returns,
Take up the Crown, re-seize the day!
To reign with Seonaid thrice he yearns,
The once and future king he’ll play.

A fresh light from Wulfshaven pours,
Steffan and Twila, twenty and four,
To new heights Atlantia soars!
Love and laughter forever more.

Cuán claims reign twenty and five,
Freshly minted, the three-dog knight,
Aria, the nimble-fingered,
Inspiring his winning fight.

Hidden Mountain’s favorite son,                                         (verse 50/reign 26)
Black Kane strides forth with Muirgen fair,
Tragic lives too quickly undone,
Atlantia’s twenty-sixth pair.

Windmasters’ Hill calls forth its King
To serve twenty-seventh, yet twice,
Snowden’s best daughter Anton brings,
Winning calm counsel and advice.

Mighty Crowns the kingdom protects,
As armor shields the knight in war,
Thorbrandr from his forge defects,
With Eórann, twenty-eighth to soar!

Hail poured down while Michael was crowned,
But king twenty-nine was no fool,
Ice may cover the April ground,
Still, Michael and Seonaid must rule!

Cuán another queen creates,
Elevating Brigit sublime,
Both bending heads low, brows await,
The Crowns rest a thirtieth time.

God bless Katharina, our Queen,                                         (verse 55/reign 31)
Galmr gifts her to us again!
Mercy flows forth from soul pristine,
Thirty-first, yet first, in hearts of men.

When Logan first did Rule our land
With Arielle, his chosen Queen.
Our Thirty-Second Monarch’s reign
Was all awash with Grace and Gleam.

Our mighty Cuán’s Dogs of war
Did claim the right for Bera true.
Atlantia’s Monarchs, Thirty-third
And all false paths they did eschew

So thirty-four was King Logan,
The black wolf besting sword and mace,
With Arielle always golden,
Beside him with her strength and grace.

The Stalwart Lion, Michael led
The graceful Seonaid to the throne
Pair thirty-five they were declared,
Because one cannot rule alone.

Not once, not twice, but thrice we’d seen                                         (verse 60/reign 36)
Anton and Luned take the thrones
now full three dozen reigns had been
since fair Atlantia had its own.

While Stephan, thirty-seventh king
Was called away to foreign lands
Queen Niobe sought to bring
Peace to hearts and hope to hands

When Amalric did join the fray
The Black Hart raged for Caia’s fate
The list was strong; he took the day
Their reign was number thirty-eight.

Kyneburh and Ragnarr came
And sought to lead Atlantian hearts
The thirty-ninth to lead our game
Of service, fighting and the arts.

Then did Anton take the field
His strong left arm would not be staid
He did not fall and would not yield
Our fortieth Queen was Emer made

Havordh and Mary Grace did thirst                                         (verse 65/reign 41)
To rule Atlantia’s mighty shores.
They served our kingdom forty-first
And at the thirtieth Pennsic war.

Galmr and Aryanna held
The burden of their sovereignty
From Lochmere’s lands in which they dwelled
Our forty-second monarchy.

Forty and three our queens and kings
Have ruled the lands in which we dwell
And now the praises all do sing
Of Logan and fair Isabel.

From Middle Kingdom came she hence
Pádraigín traveled to our shores
Stole Cuán’s heart and holds it since
Two score and four the reign they bore.

Fair Isabel, she is the sun
To balance Logan, dark wolf Knight.
The forty-fifth Atlantian Jewel,
Was a congenial sight quite right

The forty-sixth so then was seen,                                         (verse 70/reign 46)
Ragnarr to take again his sword,
And serve with Kyneburh as queen,
True to the lands, in heart and word.

With sword and song did rise Cuán,
As king and too forty-seventh
In heart, Pádraigín was his twin,
Did bring the land to a zenith.

János leads with sword and shield
Rachel’s fiercesome quarrels fly
Allies cheer and foeman yield
When Monarchs forty-eighth came nigh.

Robert de Rath took up his sword
And for Denise he fought in course
The forty-ninth lady and lord
To lead Atlantia’s fighting force.

Societatis’ fortieth year
As our fiftieth crown by right.
János and Rachel helped to steer
Our kingdom on to futures bright.

Twenty-five years we had attained                                         (verse 75/reign 51)
When Michael led us once again
With Seonaid, fifty-first did reign.
May we shine now as we did then.

With sword and wit as equal tools
Did Ragnarr on the list-field stride
The fifty-second king to rule
With Queen Anneke at his side.

Then Valharic, imperator
With Arielle, imperatrix
The fifty-third to lead in war
Sent all our foemen to the Styx.

As time does pass, and has before
So showed Logan as true and fit
To bear the crown as fifty-four
With Rowan’s grace and strong spirit.

The fifty-fifth was then Sinclair,
With Kari, he ruled with wisdom,
Their judgments were even and fair,
Keeping the peace in the kingdom.

For his Gerhild, Jason did slay                                         (verse 80/reign 56)
Kin and kindred on the Crown’s field
Fifty-sixth King and Queen were They
Viking strength makes all foeman yield.

In Jason’s Crown new love alight
Our Fifty-seventh Crown to bear
Esa made Queen by Logan’s might
Her bright spirit beyond compare.

Betrothed when they took the field
He’d wed his princess soon after
Vlad and Kalisa, fifty-eighth
Monarchs of love and of laughter.

For reign fifty-nine again did Kynslay
Place the Crown on Gerhild’s fair head,
She did join in rapier play.
On all fields our enemies bled.

Bryan wins the sixtieth crown,
Radiant Brianna at his side.
Journeying the land, up and down,
Atlantia’s glory they spread worldwide.

Michael strides forward on the field,                                         (verse 85/reign 61)
Seonaid cheering her lord ever on.
The sixty-first tourney’s fate was sealed
The thirtieth year was as year one.

Reign sixty and two brings Cuán,
A strong king both wise and gifted.
By his side rules fair Pádraigín,
By our sons and daughters beloved.

The Wolf, no fear will he allow;
He defeats Atlantia’s best.
Reign sixty-three is Bryan’s now–
For Brianna in steadfastness.

Valiant Vlad now fights once again
In chivalry, skill and fairness;
Stands tall for the sixty-fourth reign.
With Kalisa he brings blitheness.

Though pious and virtuous he may be
His strength came to be known to all
Sir Amos with his faith almighty
Ysabella matched him with siren’s call.

Ragnarr a master of hammer and sword                                         (verse 90/reign 66)
Came before the Atlantian throne
Fair Lynette inspiring her noble lord
The sixty-sixth rule rich with their tone

King William has a mighty sword
Queen Kara is a burning light
The sixty-seventh crown They wore
And were Atlantia’s delight.

Michael of Bedford is well known
With Seonaid his sweet-loving Queen
As sixty-eighth to sit the throne
Their will we do not contravene.

Logan, a black wolf, sly and strong,
Esa, inspiration, for noble souls
Together they right all that is wrong
Fulfilling strong the sixty-ninths’ roles

With German strength comes Sir Christoph
On his arm the glorious Lady Adelhait
The seventy reign with drama starts off
Enough to inspire many an acolyte

To celebrate the fiftieth of the world                                         (verse 95/reign 71)
Dietrich with Thora held most high
Atlantia’s seventy-first with banners unfurled
The glory of the kingdom none will decry.

For seventy-two the poet abstains
For pen will not falsely commend;
Dragons were slayed after this reign,
And no more words shall we spend.

Now Signy Heri by Cuán is Queen
Warriors fierce sitting to serve.
With kind words for the young and the green,
Justice and Truth come seventy-third.

Amos and Kara, as seventy-fourth,
Specious stifled the peahen’s cry
Hawking honors of great worth
As wint’ry months flew darkly by.

Yaşa was cried in Dietrich’s reign,
Alongside Una as Sultana.
His commanding bass boomed on campaign;
Th’ harmonious Una, vox humana.

Atlantia sang refrain once more,                                         (verse 100/reign 76)
As Ragnarr Fifth joined Lynette II.
The seventy-sixth to rule our shore
May future rulers ring as true!

Jolly Christoph, beer in hand,
With sweet Adelhait they lead the way
As seventy-seventh holding the land
Mid laughter bright, they bade us play.

Cuán and Signy were called again
To guide our kingdom for half a year.
Seventy-eight, they did not wane
When the plague spread o’er the sphere.

Accompanied by hounds of white
Anton and Luned strong did reign
Seventy-ninth, through all plague’s blight
By light of their devotion’s flame.

And at the end of that dire hour,
Came the glorious eightieth reign!
As bright and blooming as sunflowers
Were Eckehard Thurn and sweetest Jane.

Of Kings and Queens our story told                                         (verse 105)
Their might to rule these happy lands
Argent-azure the flag flies bold
The past lives on in future’s hands.

 

Credits

Original twelve verses by Cariadoc of the Bow
Original introduction (now verse 24) and final verse by Johanna von den Glocken
Principalities and new introduction (verses 1-2 and 15) by Ealawynn Mæru (alias Ela) upon the 40th Year Anniversary of Atlantia
Starred (*) poets have served as Poeta Atlantiae.

Authorship by verse:

3-14, 25, 30: Cariadoc of the Bow
24, 26-29, 31-46, 105: Johanna von den Glocken
47-55: Bran Trefonnen *
60-68, 72-77: Dunstan LeHeryngmongere *
58, 70-71, 78-79: Maaline Reynard *
56-57, 59, 69: James of Middle Aston *
80-83: Ceridwen ferch Owain *
84-85, 89-90, 93-95: Etienne le Mons d’Anjou *
86-88: Katarzyna Witkowska *
91-92: Deirdre O’Bardon *
99-100: Ishmael Stedfast Reed *
101: Evelyn Merrymet
103: Talia de Morales *
1-2, 15-23, 96-98, 102, 104: Ealawynn Mæru, alias Ela *

Authorship by reign:

1 and 6 repeat Duke Cariadoc’s original poem
2-5, 7-22: Johanna von den Glocken
23-31: Bran Trefonnen *
36-44, 48-53: Dunstan LeHeryngmongere *
34, 46, 47, 54, 55: Maaline Reynard *
32, 33, 35, 45: James of Middle Aston *
56-59: Ceridwen ferch Owain *
60-61, 65, 66, 69-71: Etienne le Mons d’Anjou *
62-64: Katarzyna Witkowska *
67-68: Deirdre O’Bardon *
75-76: Ishmael Stedfast Reed *
77: Evelyn Merrymet
79: Talia de Morales *
72-74, 78, 80: Ealawynn Mæru, alias Ela *

Poeta Atlantiae 2021

I was once again tempted by a prompt for the Poeta Atlantiae Competition: to write two poems in different forms that existed before 1600, one each responding to these prompts:

  • A poem celebrating the journey : One poem must meditate on the experiences and/or lessons learned of a long voyage or time away.
  • A poem for coming home: One poem must evoke the emotional experience of coming home at last after a long journey.

This spoke deeply to my soul, and so I submitted the posts below, containing text, videos, and documentation, to the competition. It was an illustrious field with many beautiful pieces submitted by outstanding poets, so I was deeply touched to be named the Poeta Atlantiae for this entry.