Winter Solstice

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, December AS 50 (2015)

House bound hearth-herds[1]    huddled by Surt[2]-breath

To Jólner[3] turn they                 julblotet[4] offer

Asking for favour                   for Fenris[5] still captive

And Vetr[6] fallen                     Vanquished by Sumarr[7]

Written in málaháttr, an Eddic measure closely related to fornyrðislag. Each line of the 4-line stanza was divided into two half-lines by a caesura. The half-lines had two accented and three or four unaccented syllables. The two half-lines are linked together by alliteration, which in case of the first line could fall on one or the other of the stressed syllables, but in the second half-line had to fall on the first stressed syllables.

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[1] Referring to the people and animals crowded together inside to share their warmth.

[2] Surt (or Surtr) is a Norse fire giant, thus this is a kenning for a fire.

[3] The god of Jul and one of the guises of Odin.

[4] A sacrifice.

[5] When the great wolf was freed, it was though he would bring about Ragnarok—the end of the world.

[6] Personification of Winter.

[7] Personification of Summer.

Of the Worthies[1], She is One

For Magistra Nicolaa de Bracton.

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, December AS 50 (2015)

A mission have I set out on, to speak for Sangus[2] doth my pen,

And once writ down my mind you’ll ken, as praise I give like light at dawn.

A student of Egeria[3], who studies well the books and scrolls,

And tends to intellectual souls, in her garden of Miverva[4],

The magistra, by candle light, is held in awe by ancient words,

Her thoughts on wing like Clio’s[5] birds, and now inspired so she writes.

For many years she toiled hard, and many tomes made by her hand,

And freely shared across the land, and so inspired I the bard,

To sing of her and all her deeds, of she who wears a laurel wreath[6],

And yet who studies still beneath the statue of the nymph and seeds[7].

Of Nic’laa have I spoken of, mentor and friend and peer well famed,

And like Apollo[8] be she named, and may the Wolf keep her in love[9].

As Magistra Nicolaa is a twelfth century Anglo-Norman, I decided to write a poem about her as a grand chant. The gran(d) chan(t), also known as the courtois, was an Old French genre of lyric poetry devised by the trouvères in the 12^th to 13^th centuries. It was adapted from the Occitan canso of the troubadours. Like the canso it often explored courtly love, but it could also be used to expound on many other topics or themes.

Typically, a canso (and thus a grand chant) had three parts: the exordium (the first stanza where the composer explains his purpose), the main body of the text and then one to three envois (which were not always present). Except for the envois, the stanzas all have the same sequence of verses (each verse has the same number of metrical syllables). The envois took the form of a shortened stanza, containing only a last part of the standard stanza used up to that point.

Each stanza has the same internal rhyme scheme (so if the first line rhymes with the third line in the first stanza, it will do so in each successive one). I choose to do two quatrains for my verses, each using cross-rhyme where the last word in a line rhymes with the middle word in the adjacent line. For instance, in my exordium the word ‘on’ in the middle of the first line rhymes with ‘dawn’ (the last word in the second line), while the last word in the first line (‘pen’) rhymes with the middle word of the second line (‘ken’).

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[1] A reference to the Nine Worthies. In the late medieval and early Renaissance periods, there were nine individuals that were thought to represent the ideals of chivalry (as it was then understood). These worthies would be depicted in art and invoked in literature. Three of the worthies were pagans (Hector, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar), three were Jews (Joshua, David and Judas Maccabeus), and three were Christians (King Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouilon).

[2] Roman god of honesty.

[3] A Roman nymph who was a goddess of wisdom and prophecy.

[4] Roman goddess of wisdom.

[5] Clio is the muse of history.

[6] Magistra Nicolaa is a member of the Order of the Laurel.

[7] A reference to Egeria, who lives in a garden.

[8] Greco-Roman god of knowledge and intellect.

[9] A request that Ealdormere keep Nicolaa in its heart.

Journeying Song

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, AS 50 (2015)

Row the oars or spur the horse,

Hey-de-hi-oh!

Maps or stars to chart the course,

Hey-de-hi-yah!

Across the land we pilgrims go

Along the laneways to and fro

Our progress made we stop to eat

To feast on grain and wine and meat

To distant kingdoms sally forth

So boldly wolf-folk of the north

To deeds take part in other lands

And show the strength of northern hands

Row the oars or spur the horse,

Hey-de-hi-oh!

Maps or stars to chart the course,

Hey-de-hi-yah!

Oh, knights and squires, artisans,

Go travel to expand your clans

For there is more to see and do

Than only what is close to you

Row the oars or spur the horse,

Hey-de-hi-oh!

Maps or stars to chart the course,

Hey-de-hi-yah!

The Stag and Lion, Tiger bright,

The Griffon, Falcon taking flight,

Our Dragon-mother, wolf you know,

So make more friends where e’er you go

Row the oars or spur the horse,

Hey-de-hi-oh!

Maps or stars to chart the course,

Hey-de-hi-yah!

Row the oars or spur the horse,

Hey-de-hi-oh!

Maps or stars to chart the course,

Hey-de-hi-yah!

Written as a videra—a lyric genre of the Catalan and Occitan troubadours. They were dance songs designed to lighten the mood during a long voyage or journey. They were not often written by cultivated poets as the genre was considered low-brow. Also known as  viadeyra and viandla.

Ealdormere’s First Master of Defense

For Baron Giovanni de Enzinas

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, December AS 50 (2015)

In northern lands the swords were drawn

And scholars faced epee and foil

‘Til one impressed the sitting royal

Was told to face the coming dawn

In northern lands the swords were drawn

About his neck white collar’s clasped

To mark him as entitled peer

The first, like him, of Ealdormere

While in his hand a sword is grasped

About his neck white collar’s clasped

A man of metal and of art

Who studies words of written worth

And teaches with both joy and mirth

He who has a generous heart

A man of metal and of art

In northern lands the swords were drawn

And scholars faced epee and foil

‘Til one impressed the sitting royal

Was told to face the coming dawn

In northern lands the swords were drawn

A ballata. This poetic and musical form was in use from the late 13th to the 15th century in Italy. It was one of the most prominent secular musical forms at the time.

Its rhyme scheme is usually AbbaA, with the first and last stanzas having the same text. It is similar to the French virelai (not the ballade, as the name would suggest). The first and last A are called aripresa, the b lines are piedi (feet), and the fourth line is a volta. Longer ballate (the plural of ballata) may be found with different rhyme schemes such as AbbaAbbaA. The two b lines usually have exactly the same music, though eventually they would have an open and close ending.