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 7^th 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]

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[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.”