Elegy for Gilchrist, Lord of Dogs

Maister Colyne Stewart, October AS 52 (2017)

Oh, lean of leg, the gallant canine stands

His hazel eyes regard ducal estate

The grand demesne of sky, and lake, and land,

Belov’d by all, and yet life cannot wait,

A call to pass beyond mere mortal gate,

He gentle licks soft hands with kindly sigh,

Lo, unafraid he goes to meet his fate,

And now the stars fair twinkle, like his eye.

The Partimen of Rhodri ap Hywel and Colyne Stewart

By Master Rhodri ap Hywel of Calontir and THLaird Colyne Stewart of Ealdormere, March AS 50 (2016)

Introduction

As part of my goal (this is Colyne speaking) of writing fifty poems during Anno Societatis 50, I decided I wanted to write a partimen. The partimen was a genre of Occitan and Old French lyric poetry composed between two troubadours. It is a subgenre of the tenso or cobla (a poetic debate). I reached out to see if anyone else was interested in taking part in the partimen and Master Rhodri of Calontir eagerly accepted.

The first speaker in the partimen presents a problem with two solutions and leaves his opponent to choose which solution to defend and then takes up the second option themselves. Therefore the debate is not based on conviction but simply for the sake of discussion. However, this distinction does not appear to have been seen in period, with troubadours and trouvères using both interchangeably. One of the most common themes in partimen was courtly love. Each speaker (sometimes the same poet, sometimes two different poets) contribute three stanzas and an envoi in which he appeals to someone to be his judge. In some poems the two participants appeal to the same person, but more often each participant chose their own judge.

Since Rhodri is from Calontir, and I am from Ealdormere, and both of our kingdoms share strong bonds of friendship, I decided to pose a dilemma in which I felt sure we’d both have opinions. Namely,which animal is more noble, the falcon or the wolf? (The falcon being the totemic beast of Calontir, while the wolf serves Ealdormere as the same).

The form of the poem was set as tercets (groups of three lines rhyming aab) written in trochaic trimeter (lines of three metrical feet switching between stressed and unstressed syllables). I chose this form as I do not usually write in trochaic meter so felt it would be more of a challenge.

The Partimen

Colyne

There the strong beasts abound

Round the woods they fierce found

But which most noble be?

Wolf of fang and claw red

From whom all foes have fled

King of forest’s great tree?

Or be it the bold bird

Falcon feathery furred

God of blue sky made free?

This our dilemma be

Answer this is our plea

So ask I friend Rhodri.

Rhodri

Like days of winter’s end

Come words from Colyne friend.

Wisdom he seeks from me.

Joyfully I reply

My answer not denied

So this I now decree:

The wolf is strong indeed

Shall none say I mislead,

But in this he lesser be.

He watches falcons fly

Above his howling cry;

His wish to be so free.

But, like all falcon’s prey

Must watch until the day

When suffers falcon’s glee,

And the storm-cleaver strikes

With claws like soldier’s pikes

Then even wolf must flee.

So this claim I is true

But to friend Bryce I sue

Judge these words I do plea

Colyne

Reply I must and will

Through paper ink and quill

To words by friend Rhodri.

Falcon lord, Wolfen king,

Which is best, Which takes ring?

Answer is lupine, thee

Must if are honest men

Take his side, only then

Will all of us agree:

For soaring bird on wing

Target is, for bow string,

Plummets down into tree,

While the grey wolf will stalk

Those who slew purple hawk

And with teeth sharp and free

Tear out the hunter’s throat

Rend his maille and surcoat

Pay no heed to his plea.

I claim this to be true

Frederick, master, you

Judge our words, blessed be.

The Judgment

As our judges Rhodri chose Master Bryce de Byram of Atlantia and I choose Master Fridrikr Tomassen of AEthlemearc (though he is referred to by an Anglicization of his name in the poem). Both judges elected to render their verdicts in verse. Master Fridrikr was the first to reply:

You call on me to stand and speaking true

an answer to your pleadings give to you

And now I say, good fellows never fear

for Rhodri stands and calls forth bravest hawk

Whilst Colyne enters with lupine friend to talk

and neither makes the answer sky-blue clear

Come gentle foes, who friends at end must be

and hear this Master, for whom the words direct

are hard, who speaks in kennings using their effect

to form the verse to make the hearer see.

My love for Ealdor Crown must hold and sway

And thus I claim that Colyne takes the day.

We still await Master Bryce’s verdict, and I will post it once it is received.

The Muses

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, April AS 50 (2016)

Urania is to me a mystery,

As is Terpsichore her sister fair,

Polyhymenia does not to me

Deign speak, but Clio has me in her snare.

Both Calliope and Thalia share

My love, as does Erato and her harp,

In Euterpe’s embrace I find some care,

While Melpomene’s teeth are long and sharp.

Written as a  huitain (pronounced wit-tain) which ws a 15^th century 8-line strophe with 8-syllable lines (French) or 10-syllable lines (English), using three rhymes with one of these appearing four times and with the same rhyme for the fourth and fifth lines. The rhyme scheme was usually ababbcbc, and sometimes abbaacac. The huitain could be a stand alone poem, or used as a unit in longer poems. Sometimes multiple poets would each supply hutains to make a longer piece. It was most popular in the 15^th – 16^th centuries; in the 18^th it was used for epigrams. There are those who think this French form is based on an older Spanish one[1].

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[1] Travis Lyons: 219.

A poem is more than words on page

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, March AS 50 (2016)

A poem is more than words on page—

They are our souls laid bare to see

A glimpse of joy, of pain, of rage,

A poem is more than words on page—

They teach us words of knowing sage

And ask us all to better be;

A poem is more than words on page—

They are our souls laid bare to see.

Written as a triolet which was a stanza poem of 8-lines, written in iambic tetrameter and rhyming ABaAabAB. The first, fourth and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines (thus making the initial and final couplets identical as well). The triolet is related to the rondeau.

“I try to write”

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, March AS 50 (2016)

I try to write, put pen to page—

The cat will not be silent, no,

The world outside won’t quell its rage,

And neither will it let words flow.

To make the verses brightly grow

I drown the noise in quiet thought,

And work despite the to and fro,

To find the peace in words I sought.

Written as a huitain (pronounced wit-tain), a 15^th century 8-line strophe with 8-syllable lines (French) or 10-syllable lines (English). It used three rhymes with one of these appearing four times and with the same rhyme for the fourth and fifth lines. The huitain could be a stand-alone poem, or used as a unit in longer poems. Sometimes multiple poets would each supply hutains to make a longer piece.

My love is always by my side

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, March AS 50 (2016)

My love is always by my side,

And keeps me safe from grev’ous harm.

Her dress displays my mark of pride,

Her stately shape shows off her charm,

Forever is she on my arm.

All who see her know she’s mine:

My mark, my love, the outward sign.

Her strength ensures I never yield

And never have to bend my spine.

I love you so, my glor’ous shield.

Written as a dizain, a French poetic form from the 15^th and 16^th century, employing a stanza of 10-lines, using eight or ten syllables to the line, and having a specific rhyming pattern.

My lady love a warrior be

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, AS 50 (2016)

For Þorfinna.

My lady love a warrior be

With mighty arm of tempered steel;

No dainty rose that withers she—

She is Athena and I kneel

To gaze in wonder at her face,

Held close in awe by beau’tous grace.

Like iron are her hard-set legs

Where she blocks the bridge’s span,

Before her beaten foeman begs

While cheers are bellowed from her clan;

Beside her I am lost in space

Held close in awe by beau’tous grace.

Her fingers deft as dancing light

They throw a blade ‘cross open field,

Strong hit within the red so bright

And I, I find that I must yield,

For I am in the greatest place,

Held close in awe by beau’tous grace.

Written as a blazon. The blazon is an ordered poem of praise, or blame, usually directed towards a woman and praised her physical features using metaphors. The genre takes its name from the heraldic term “blazon” which forms the root of the word “emblazon” which means to celebrate or adorn (with heraldic markings). Though the term is from 16^th century France, similar poems were being written by at least the 13^th century.

I’ve written “My lady love a warrior be” in the same format as the famous blason “There Is a Garden in Her Face” by Thomas Campion (1567-1620). Like Campion I wrote three stanzas with a rhyme scheme of ababcC (where the C is the same line in each stanza). While blasons usually use metaphors to describe features such as hair, eyes, lips, teeth and breasts, I chose to praise my lady’s strength and compare her limbs to metals. The second stanza refers to an incident at a Pikeman’s Pleasure where, during a bridge battle, she single-handed pushed back a charge.

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.

For Percival de la Rocque upon His Elevation to the Order of the Pelican

By THLaird Colyne Stwart, July AS 50 (2015)

Exordium:

I must now praise a man of worth

Quite tall of form with argent hair

Well known for love of drink and mirth

An archer with a herald’s flare

Who well can fire bow in clout

And once stood as a bear-lord stout.

With fingers nimble on the bow

And keen mind bent on ancient lore

Face bordered by white hair like snow

Eyes purpled by the hint of war

The bee-loved man stands proper, proud,

Is brought before a Royal crowd

And all achievements he has earned

Are loud proclaimed for all to hear

As from him heralds all have learned

And archers could cock bow to ear

For of his time he freely gives

And through him Ealdormere bright lives

Glad from his arms he gives his strength

His mettle shown with all he does

For service he will go to length

And ever this is how it was

This man of worth, this man so true,

Who shows great merit through and through.

Envoi:

And so the Royals name him Peer,

A Pelican of Ealdormere.

A blason written as a grand chant. A blason was a 16^th century French ordered poem of praise, or blame, usually directed towards a woman which praised her physical features using metaphors. I decided to write a blazon as it takes its name from the heraldic term “blazon” which forms the root of the word “emblazon” which means to celebrate or adorn (with heraldic markings). This seemed appropriate given Percival’s love of heraldry. I also tried to use a few heraldic terms sprinkled throughout the verse.

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 explored courtly love, but it could also be used to expound on many other topics or themes.

Typically, a canso had three parts: the exordium (the first stanza where the composer explained 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 had the same sequence of verses (each verse had 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 had the same internal rhyme scheme (so if the first line rhymed with the third line in the first stanza, it will do so in each successive one).

Heart and Soul

Dedicated to Duchess Adrielle Kerrec

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, AS 49 (2015)

So bright the deeds of northern maid,

The duchess bold her works well done,

Who with the cups has often played,

And ‘gainst her foes has always won,

Well known her mirth, her sense of fun,

Who with the folk can oft endear,

And cares about most everyone,

The heart, the soul, of Ealdormere.

On noble ground her feet have laid,

Her realm the lands Septentrian,

Protected by her lance and blade,

In battle fought in rain and sun,

In which she made the foemen run,

Or catch them up upon her spear,

As trophies of the melees won,

The heart, the soul, of Ealdormere.

Well many are the things she’s made,

The tunics sewn, the thread she’s spun,

And taught her students in the glade,

And yet her work is just begun,

As Laurel and as Pelican;

Her words on scrolls are sweet to hear;

Her skills so vast, second to none,

The heart, the soul, of Ealdormere.

So princes listen to your son,

And turn to me your gracious ear,

As praise I give to worthy one,

The heart, the soul, of Ealdormere.

Along with the rondeau and the virelai, the ballade is one of the formes fixes. Between the late 13^th and the 15^th centuries, ballades were often set to music.

The ballade is a verse form usually consisting of three 8-line stanzas, each with a consistent meter and a particular rhyme scheme. The last line in the stanza is a refrain. The stanzas are often followed by a 4-line envoi (concluding stanza), usually addressed to a prince. The rhyme scheme is usually ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC (the capital C being the refrain).

The Heir Alone

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, AS 49 (2015)

The heir alone with sword in hand

Awaits to fight with rapier bold

Contestants from across the land.

The heir alone with sword in hand

Will glad cross blades on field and sand

And in his heart bright valour hold.

The heir alone with sword in hand

Awaits to fight with rapier bold.

At Winter War in March AS 49, HRH Steinnar made known his wish to fence with as many of the kingdoms fencers as possible. This is to commemorate that moment.

This was written as a triolet, which was a 13^th century stanza poem of 8-lines, written in iambic tetrameter and rhyming ABaAabAB. The first, fourth and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines (thus making the initial and final couplets identical as well). The triolet is related to the rondeau.

MacFarlane

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, February AS 49 (2015)

A shield, a sword, an axe, a lance,

He takes with him to melee’s dance,

Upon his head his crest;

In tourney leads the folk of France,

In war he’s known for piercing glance,

And the star upon his chest;

In battle preaux, leaves naught to chance,

To brave protect the northern manse,

Love beats within his breast.

On virtue’s anvil he would test,

While in fine raimments he is dressed,

Dischivalry his hell;

From the jaw of lose he’ll wrest

Victory for the sorely pressed,

And yet more I could tell;

He clutches favour she has blessed,

Which drives him to his very best,

All for his Adrielle.

One of the formes fixes, the virelai was often used in poetry and music (it was, in fact, one of the most common verse forms set to music from the 13^th to the 15^th centuries). By the mid 15^th century the virelai was no longer usually set to music.

The virelai ancient had no refrain. It used an interlocking rhyme scheme between the stanzas. In the first stanza the rhyme scheme is aabaabaab (with the b lines being shorter in length). In the second stanza the b rhymes are shifted to the longer lines and a new c rhyme is introduced on the shorter ones (bbcbbcbbc).

The Kidnapping of Badrielle

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, January AS 49 (2015)

Badrielle was stolen at Septentria’s Twelfth Night;

Adrielle’s eyes were burning with a vengeful fire.

Badrielle was stolen at Septentria’s Twelfth Night,

Stolen from her husband, the ducal northern knight;

Her students knew the matter to be of utmost dire;

Across the land soon many knew of the puppet’s plight

And friends and OAFs and strangers picked up weapons for a fight;

The duke set out to searching, sending forth his squire,

Who searched the hall and field and keep, the basement and the spire;

And guilty parties felt compelled to put to pen and write,

For they had taken her to drinking around a hearty pyre,

They prayed her Grace’s anger would therefore be slight,

Adrielle’s eyes were burning with a vengeful fire.

A fatras simple, halfway between being a fatras possible and a fatras impossible. Based on an event that occurred at Septentrian 12^th Night 2015. A well meaning prankster “kidnapped” Adrielle’s puppet alter-ego Badrielle, but failed to return her before the event ended. To say this made Adrielle’s hair stand on end would be an understatement. Badrielle is so well loved in Ealdormere (and in lands beyond) that many people were beginning to be upset. Thankfully, the “kidnapper” contacted Adrielle, and all was again well with the world.