The Climb

Beloved knight, like you I have received
Gifts from our sojourn in the Dragon’s realm
And yearning to repay the good, conceived
A hope that, girded in armour and helm,
You might attain the acme of renown
And we two share the burden of the Crown
For benefit of all who dwell upon this ground.

So now we stand together as above
Our heads a mountain low’rs, as it would dare
Us to ascend; and fearless in our love
We set forth down below; in upper air
What mysteries await, we must surmise–
The summit wreathed in mist evades our eyes
Yet from its top, we shall wonder at azure skies.

The knightly code that shapes your high ideals
Has shaped me too; your strength has strengthened me.
So tempered now, as fire the blade anneals,
We true companions, champions each to each,
Strive onward to achieve the final climb
With honor that makes victory sublime,
And carve our names in deeds that shall not fade with time.

Process notes

The working title of this poem was “Eleanor’s Reply.” I wrote it as part of the Crown Tourney Praise Poetry project a year after “The Gift,” about the same couple. It brought some additional challenges.

To begin with, I was effectively repeating a project. Once again I had Jaime fighting in Crown Tourney as Eleanor’s champion. Yet I had to find something new to say. On top of that, I was writing a sequel to a very successful poem, both in terms of its effect on its audience and of my own satisfaction with the work. I did not want to do less well the second time. I felt that pressure, and it took a few false starts to get my head out of perfectionism and into creation.

As with “The Gift,” I chose to use a relatively complex form, and one that is not particularly well known. I had recently completed another poem in rhyme royal and had the seven-line stanza on my mind. I started to write this poem in the same form, with the conventional pentameter. But then I created a hexameter line that I couldn’t find a way to rephrase into pentameter, but liked too much to give up. So I decided my seven-line stanza would keep its rhyme royal roots, but have variations in the rhyme scheme and line length. (A hexameter line at the end of a pentameter stanza occurs, for example, in Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene.)

Like “The Gift,” this poem is based on private thoughts expressed by its speaker, with poetic license taken by me. The central metaphor was my own construction, and I selected the final title to highlight it, as well as to parallel “The Gift.”

Count Nikolai Addresses his Countess

Queen of my heart, and consort of my arm,
Whose beauty makes my senses reel and spin,
With silken curls of captivating charm
Crowned with a sparkling diadem—within
That circlet lies thy greater part: a mind
Of force and wit a champion to mold.
I praise the road that brought you here to find
My love, that prizes yours higher than gold.
In all a knight should be, you stand above
Many a man who bears the golden chain.
Your never-failing courage most I love,
That virtue in your fair face written plain.
Thy beauty made a lover’s heart to sing;
Thy wisdom made this man into a king.

Notes

This sonnet was written for the Crown Tourney Praise Poetry Project in the spring of 2022. I had a chance to talk with Countess Serena about her champion before writing, and that interview led me to using the champion’s voice as the speaker of the poem, as I had done in “The Gift” the previous fall. But while “The Gift” was written to honor the champion, this poem was intended to honor the consort. Details of the text relate to the couple’s history as recounted to me by Serena. I wrote so that the text would provide them reminders of their story while appearing to onlookers to be a conventional love poem.

The form is a straightforward English sonnet, aka Shakespearean sonnet.

Una poesía del Don Roberto, el caballero fuertísima y verdadísima

Cancion en el estilo de Juan del Encina

I wrote this song for the knighting of Don Roberto Jose Alfonso Cayetano de San Fernando Ruiz y Escalante. My friend Don Roberto had recently stepped up as seneschal of the Barony of the Flame, and I had worked with him in that position. We were also champions together in the reign of Ullr III and Annelyse III, and I felt that I knew his knightly qualities. Yet I struggled to write this poem.

It occurred to me early that I would like part of the poem to be in Spanish to honor both Roberto’s real-world origins and his persona. I am a beginner in the language, so it could only be a small part of the poem. A Spanish refrain was perfect for my needs, and I quickly came up with the lines used here. The translation:
His honor is his treasure,
His love is the truth.

Roberto had requested that Flamma Chorum, the baronial choir, sing a processional and recessional for his knighting. I decided to use the meter and rhyme scheme of that song, Una Sañosa Porfia (1486), for my verses. I wrote the extravagant title praising the subject. But I still did not know what the poem was about!

The days crept by. I had to break off trying to write to travel to the event. After hours of driving, I was too tired to even attempt to finish the poem. I gave up.

Roebrto’s knighting was early in morning court, an outdoor court on a perfect, sunny, crisp September morning. Banners flew—musicians sang and played—nobles spoke feelingly of Roberto’s character—and suddenly, I had my story. I faded away from the musicians’ corner and wrote the verses above. To my joy, I was able to attend Roberto’s post-ceremony vigil and give him my gift.

Muse, have mercy!

Matildis II: The Scroll

Gentle Matildis la Libraire we know
To be a master of the limner’s art
In skill and dedication set apart–
For years uncounted we have watched her grow.

Proclaim, declare and by this missive show
And to all of the Middle Realm impart
Gentle Matildis la Libraire we know
To be a master of the limner’s art,

Untiring with the Kingdom’s good at heart,
Of spirit generous, her hand ne’er slow,
Therefore Runa and Arch this day bestow
On her the Laurel wreath—it must be so.
Gentle Matildis la Libraire we know
To be a master of the limner’s art.

[Done by our hand at Middle Kingdom Academy of Defense in our Shire of Caer Gwyn,
3 September A.S. LVII]

As I posted earlier, I had the privilege to be on the small team to surprise Matildis la Libraire with her vigil and elevation to the Laurel. A good friend from another kingdom was creating her scroll, but it would not be available in time. Yet some words had to be ready or else a blank place would be left in the ceremony.

Not knowing how Matildis thought about receiving the Laurel, and unable to ask her, I thought about what her elevation meant to the Crown, the Kingdom and the Order. I also considered her persona and her character, and I settled on a rondel an an appropriate form.

I knew the Crown held Matildis’s artistic prowess in very high esteem. As I had collaborated with her several times and been thrilled at how the visual beauty of her art elevated my words, I strongly agreed. My admiration found its voice in the repeated lines of the rondel, declaring Matildis’s mastery again and again. On the day of her elevation, I had the opportunity to read the scroll as herald, and I very much enjoyed being able to speak that assertion on behalf of the Crown.

After the elevation, I let Matildis know that if she wanted another wordsmith for her scroll, I would completely understand. But she chose to keep my words. Her friend Kit (Wellner) used a phoenix theme in creating this spectacular scroll.

The Mockingbird: a vigil song for Matildis

Unseen she sings upon the bough
The notes she gathers far and wide
The while her music fills the wood
Her plumage she’s content to hide
Her throat
Each note
In secret keeps inside

She imitates the sparrow’s call
And shapes the jay’s scream into song
Both lark and nightingale her book
Well conned o’er and remembered long
Their tune
‘Neath moon
She shall deliver soon

An alchemist of music she
Transmuting every sound she’s heard
Into her own true melody–
The paean of the mockingbird
Her days
In praise
She spends to our amaze

Process Notes

Matildis la Libraire was surprised with an offer of entry to the Order of the Laurel at Middle Kingdom Academy of Defense in September, 2022, and elevated at evening court that same day. I had a small part in the affectionate conspiracy to prepare for her vigil, and somehow that kept me so busy, I didn’t get her poem written until after morning court.

In her “In case of peerage” file, Matildis had expressed a wish that at her vigil, there should be art materials and paper sized to be bound later into a book. She wanted everyone who visited to create a piece of visual art, however unfamiliar an activity that might be for them. Her husband carried out this wish. And so I have hand-lettered and illuminated her poem, my sole such effort to date.

The verse form is closely modeled on John Donne’s “Goe and catch a falling star” from his Songs and Sonnets. The first stanza encapsulates the central image I had of Matildis as an illuminator of award scrolls, catching the words and deeds of others and transforming them into her own art, which appeared publicly while she remained out of sight. I like to think my verse has a little of the poignant quality of Donne’s original, though not its cynicism.

Ducal drottkvæt for Runa and Arch

So reads the scroll appointing Runa Duchess and Arch Duke:

All ye honor-eager¹,
Odin’s wine² now offer
forest dweller’s³ daughter,
Daring war-dís⁴ Runa.
Name her highest noble,
Nourisher of wisdom⁵,
She who bears on brow-front⁶
Band of brightest sea-flame⁷.

Arch who wears arm-gravel⁸,
Arrow-god⁹ his father–
Black battle-swan¹⁰ bearer,
Breaker of soul-boxes¹¹.
Call him and acclaim him
Commander of wave-steed¹²,
Blood-taster¹³ his blazon,
of blade-lovers¹⁴ ruler.

Young kin are their escort,
Admirable children.
The rare rope-limbed¹⁵ Kraken
Rises from her sea-bed
And Leif the long-running¹⁶
Lopes doughtily onward.
They stint not, these selfless,
Service freely giving.

Now from this day forward
Famed as Duke and Duchess
Chalice-holders¹⁷ cherish
Charter in your honour.
To tree-wyrm¹⁸ be trothful–
Tribe-loyalty treasure.
So the sea-light sleeper¹⁹
Signs by seal and sigil.

Dag and Anne Marie ordered these words set down at their Coronation on the 24th September A.S. LXVI in honor of Duke Arch and Duchess Runa;

Process Notes

(Kennings are footnoted at bottom.)

When Matildis la Libraire asked me to collaborate again, I said yes right away. Then I learned that the project was a ducal scroll for the then reigning Crown, Runa and Arch. We discussed various ways to adapt the text and art to their personae, a discussion that ranged over a period of weeks as Matildis determined what she wanted to do. She settled on a design in the Mammen style and based upon the Cammin casket. You can read about Matildis’s artistic process here.

Because of the choice of design and because Arch’s persona was a Jorvik Northman, I decided to use the highest-end of the skaldic poetic forms, the drottkvæt. I had only learned to write in this form a few months previously in the reign of Ullr and AnneLyse. Drottkvæt is a demanding form with stringent requirements of accent, alliteration, and syllabic count. In Old Norse, most drottkvæt also use an internal rhyme scheme, but that is almost impossible to accomplish in English because of the differing characteristics of the two languages. So my drottkvæt are unrhymed or “formless,” a recognized period option.

Drottkvæt come in eight-line stanzas. Based on my earlier discussions with Matildis, I planned to write two stanzas. However, when she had her page laid out, she asked me if I could make the text longer. I ended up writing four stanzas: one about Runa, one about Arch, one about their children, and one referring to the process of the Crown conferring the duchy.

The shiny bit of the skaldic art, the way a skald shows off to other skalds, is the kenning–a metaphorical phrase, often very obscure, used to replace a simple word such as “woman” or “gold.” The simpler, more obvious kennings, such as “honor-eager” for “warriors” or “Odin’s son” for Thor, are referred to as heiti (pl). In my previous works, I had managed only a few kennings. In this piece, I wanted to achieve an Old Norse density of figurative language in the verse.

The central imagery was based around the animals associated with each person named on the scroll: the bear for Runa, the raven for Arch, the kraken for Kraken, and the wolf for Leif. In the final stanza, I used kennings to refer to the Crown and, as a figure for the Crown, the Midrealm Dragon. All but those noted are period kennings (see below).

The prose portion of the text is modeled on the Jelling stone raised by Harald Bluetooth.

My thanks to Master Grim the Skald for his teaching and book-sharing. Sine qua non.

¹ An original heiti: those eager for honor, i.e., Midrealm populace.
² poetry
³ the bear’s daughter
⁴ woman warrior
⁵ woman
⁶ woman
⁷ gold

⁸ gems
⁹ Ullr
¹⁰ the raven
¹¹ an original compound kenning meaning warrior, “soul-boxes” referring to the skull or ribcage which enclose the mortal soul
¹² ship captain
¹³ raven again
¹⁴ warriors

15 “the rope-limbed” is the Kraken; I included the name both for metrical reasons and so the young lady would be sure to know she was acknowledged.
¹⁶ wolf
¹⁷ a variant on “cup-keeper,” i.e. dragon, and therefore a reference to the new King and Queen
¹⁸ dragon again
¹⁹ dragon; “sea-light” is gold, and the one who sleeps on a bed of gold is the dragon. “Sea-light” is period; the compound is original.

A Norse Farewell to a Royal Couple

From Ullssaga, Fragment 6

All the people of that district gathered to see them off. They stood on the shore by the longship. Ullr called the retainers close about them. He said, “It is hard to leave you. Your service has been good, yet your friendship is of greater worth.” AnneLyse stood with him. She gave her hand to each of the retainers in turn and thanked them.

Then they boarded the longship. Birna Bragadottir said,

To our Ask and Embla
Ygg’s ale offers tribute.
Depart now, though dearly
Dragonkin stand grieving.
Radiant ring givers,
Ride in peace the sea-steed.
Renown and names noble
None will forget ever.

The people stood on the shore and watched their ship until it passed the horizon.

Photo credit Lord Tarmach ben Yehuda al-Khazari APF, CDB, CW (Richard Mandel)

Collaborating with the Crown: Angus Gordon’s scroll text

Angus champion at arms     now accept
from Annelyse Drottning     your deeds’ due
and hear her words     from the heart spoken
Finest of friends     I never can forget you
or the service of your sword     selflessly given
Proudly you protected me      proving ever loyal
close as a kinsman     you kept my counsel.
All hear and do honor     to Angus Gordon
Deliver to him     this day the Doe’s Grace

process notes

In my final weeks as Royal Poet, I was delighted to receive a request from Queen AnneLyse. She was creating a scroll for her champion with her own hands, but couldn’t find the right words, and she asked me to create them. She explained the service that Angus had given, and we talked about his persona and the style of the scroll.

The text is in alliterative verse patterned after the Anglo-Saxon style of narrative poetry. As the giving of the award was so personal to the Queen, I made her a first-person speaker.

A Laurel Scroll for Lote Winterborn

Four months after being elevated to the Order of the Laurel, I got to be part of a benevolent conspiracy to elevate Lote Winterborn. Lote (pronounced “Lottie”) had requested that if she ever be raised to the peerage, it was done on the spot and as a surprise. Ullr Konungr and AnneLyse Drottning decided to elevate Lote and were eager to surprise her, so her team, led by Dame Eleanor von Atzinger, worked hard to arrange all the details while still keeping Lote in the dark.

Mistress Bianca offered to create Lote’s scroll and recruited me to compose the text. I had recently completed the Cleftlands baronial lineage in the rime royal stanza, and I decided that form would be fitting for Lote’s scroll as well. The scroll art features miniature paintings of Lote executing the skills described in the text.

We succeeded in pulling off the surprise and a fine time was had by all present.

Here stand three Graces worthy of renown:
A needlewoman whose embroidery
May fitly ornament a Royal gown--
A cook whose dishes rich in piquancy
She serves forth in warm hospitality--
A teacher eager to impart her skill
Whose joyful heart bestows on all goodwill.

Behold, in one fair lady all these gifts
We find, that three nymphs might be proud to claim,
One whose good deeds our Kingdom’s fame uplift
And Lote Winterborn her honoured name.
Thus from Our Throne we gladly do proclaim
For craft and character exemplary
Companion of the Laurel she must be.

So by our hands and seal be it disposed, 
Ullr Konungr and Annelyse Drottning 

Photo and art by Mistress Bianca Rosamund di Firenze (Marlene Broderick)

A Royal Gift: Qasida for the Outlands Crown

So spoke Ullr Konungr to his cousins upon their meeting at Gulf Wars XXX:

We rode from Dragon lands to southern fight
Meeting the armies panoplied in might
Here now with joy the noble stag befriending
In bonds of faith that shall be neverending.

Behold the Sultan Barekr in his glory!
He shall be praised in poetry and story.
His strength surpasses all as his fell blade
Defends the good and leaves the foe dismayed.
Behold the valorous Beatrice! fair Queen
Whose fame commands the Dragon’s high esteem.
She yields to none in beauty or prowess
Or any virtue proper to noblesse.
Two knights united on the Outlands throne
Now doubly guard the realm. Yet little known
To any but their cousins are the cares
Of sovereign and consort. We who share
The burden of the crown may understand
The weight of duty to Your well lov’d land.
Accept of us this word of thanks and praise,
And long and joyous be Your ruling days.

This verse the bear-dame wrote at Our behest
To honor cousins traveled from the west.
Long be the Stag a brother in renown
Of Dragon proud, and Crown at peace with Crown.

Process notes

This qasida was written at Ullr Konungs behest, to be given as a gift to the Outlands Crown. Mistress Bianca then gave of her art to inscribe them upon a scroll which she ornamented with gold. The king honored our combined arts by presenting them himself, and it is my lasting regret that I was not present to hear.

Art by Mistress Bianca Rosamund di Firenze (Marlene Broderick)

I found myself returning to two habitual practices I teach in my classes: suiting the poetic form to the persona of the subject, and researching the subject’s SCA history. Lesson learned: It is surprisingly hard to collect details about someone you don’t know in a kingdom where you also don’t know anyone that is thousands of miles away. Next time, start hunting earlier!