Arrochar Strikes

Arrochar Strikes

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, July AS 50 (2015)

At Trillium War the sinners gathered

As clerics set the field with painted pins

To make the penitent repent their sins

The contrite pilgrim must then take a ball

And from safe distance roll it ‘cross the grass

Then in the outcome they must prove their class

And fight one knight per pin that did not fall.

So teams of three were sent to do the deed

And Arrochar took up the worthy call

And stood on field, waiting their turn with ball,

When Berend, gentle Master of the Laurel,

Awed all with glorious shoots of superb skill

As more than once he sent the ball to kill

And sent all pins to lie in repose floral.

Sir Nigel told him then to stand aside

And let his brothers take their turns to throw

So Kol and Colyne then their skill did show

And knocked pin after pin unto the ground

Though not as well as Berend did they tried

Rejoiced when many so thus truly died

Then went to face the knights upon the mound.

So well three battles then the squires fought

In singles first they faced a Master pink

Much blood was spilt for greedy grass to drink

Then three on three they faced a hardy group

Defeated two before the battle’s end

And finally beat a polearm’s deadly friend

To prove their worthy valour as a troupe.

With skill of arm at boules and with the blade

The house of Arrochar purged forth their sins

And the holy clerics tallied up their wins

In honour of their knight and of his love

The ermine and the star won well the day

By dropping pins and fighting in the fray

And in good brotherhood they won thereof.

And so to Nigel do we therefore praise

For teaching well his men the warrior’s ways

May much more honour come in future days.

At War of the Trillium 2015, there was a Bowling Knights tournament based on a period event where people would roll a ball at pins representing their skins. They were pardoned for each sin they knocked down, and then could pay to be forgiven for any remaining sins. In the Bowling Knights tourney, each of the pins was represented by a knight or master-of-arms. So, when a team took a turn to bowl, they had to fight any members of the chivalry whose pin was still standing. There were six pins, and five frames. Each pin knocked down, and each member of the Chivalry defeated, were worth one point.

Team Arrochar was one of six or seven teams to take part, and was represented by Baron Berend van der Eych, Baron Kolbjorn Skatkaupandi and THL Colyne Stewart. In the first frame, Berend bowled a strike. He repeated this in the second. At this point he was told by his knight, Sir Nigel, not to throw the third. Instead, Kol bowled the third frame and knocked down all the pins except for Duchess Kaylah’s. Arrochar offered her single combat and defeated her. In the fourth frame, Colyne knocked down three pins so it was a three on three fight. Arrochar managed to take out two of the knights before being defeated by the third. Berend was then allowed to bowl again for the last frame. He got another strike, but as it was the last frame he was allowed another ball. This time he knocked down five pins, and Arrochar faced Sir Tiberius. As Tiberius brought out a polearm, single combat was not offered. Arrochar swarmed Tiberius and won the field.

This meant that Arrochar missed out on only one point, and scored 35 out of a possible 36 to win the tourney (due largely to Berend’s skill at bowling).

This poem was written as a canzone, which was an Italian or Provençal song or ballad, or a type of lyric resembling a madrigal, originating during the 13^th century. Derived from the Provençal canso, the canzone consisted of five to seven stanzas with each stanza being between seven to twenty lines. It ends with a tornado, the Provençal version of the envoi (a shortened stanza used as a sort of epilogue).