Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Maiwen


For Maiwen Skrautibroka upon being placed on vigil for the Order of the Laurel
By Maister Colyne Stewart, March AS 53 (2018)

Lo, praise we power / of people-kings
Of spear-armed Danes / in days long sped
Yet power shows / in strength of word
And bone-led cord / and battened cloth
Oft Maiwen worked / as Welanduz
Her anvil lace / her ‘ammer thread
Each stitch a blow / each bolt an ingot
Her smithy adorned / with swords of horn
With rippers of cloth / and coveted
Pins, spools and bob/bins, scissors, shears
Of Frijjō fond / her fashion fierce
As Skrautibrok/a she’s known
 Her trews a treas/ure telling much
Now Kyng and Cwene / she comes before
So hailed as Hlaef/dige her now call
Of famed Maiwen / far flies her boast
A scion of Val / in Scadian lands

This poem is written in the Old English style to match Maiwen’s original 7th century Anglo-Saxon persona. Anglo-Saxon versification were written in what are known as Siever’s Types, with different types of lines based on where the stressed and unstressed syllables lied. For this poem I used what is called the B-line, which contains four syllables, with the stress on the second and fourth syllables. Each line in the poem is divided by a caesura (a pause, denoted by a slash). The poems were alliterative, with the third stress alliterating with the first and/or second stresses. (All vowels and dipthongs alliterated.) These poems made common use of synonyms, compound words, variation (referring to the same thing by different names) and, to a lesser degree, kennings. Sometimes Anglo-Saxon poets would “borrow” word patterns or even whole lines from other poets, so I have quoted and paraphrased Beowulf in the opening and closing lines.

A foot-noted version of the poem is below with the alliteration marked in bold.

Lo, praise we power / of people-kings
Of spear-armed Danes / in days long sped[1]
Yet power shows / in strength of word
And bone-led[2] cord / and battened cloth
Oft Maiwen worked / as Welanduz[3]
Her anvil lace / her ‘ammer thread
Each stitch a blow / each bolt an ingot
Her smithy adorned / with swords of horn[4]
With rippers of cloth / and coveted
Pins, spools and bob/bins, scissors, shears
Of Frijjō[5] fond / her fashion fierce
As Skrautibrok/a she’s known
 Her trews a treas/ure[6] telling much
Now Kyng and Cwene / she comes before[7]
So hailed as Hlaef/dige[8] her now call
Of famed Maiwen / far flies her boast
A scion of Val[9] / in Scadian lands[10]



[1] These two lines are translations of lines 1 and 2 of Beowolf.
[2] A needle.
[3] A mythical smith.
[4] More needles.
[5] Goddess of love who was also associated with weaving.
[6] Maiwen’s byname of Skrautibroka literally means “fancy pants”
[7] Maiwen is to elevated to the Order of the Laurel at Kingdom A&S AS 53 (March 2018).
[8] An Anglo-Saxon title used in the SCA to refer to (among other things) a Mistress of the Order of the Laurel.
[9] Maiwen is a protégé of Master Valizan.
[10] The last two lines are edited translations of lines 18 and 19 of Beowolf: “Famed was this Beowulf: far flew the boast of him / son of Scyld, in the Scandian lands.”

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