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.”

Poems for Marie l’Englois’ Elevation to the Order of the Laurel

By TH Laird Colyne Stewart, Mar AS 51 (2017)

Marie was apprenticed to Master Naon na Chruitire of beloved memory. As Naon could not be at Marie’s elevation, some items of import were chosen to represent him and honour his memory. As each item was brought into court and placed about Marie, the following poems were read. (Please note that the Cloak unfortunately did not make it to the event, so that poem was not read.)

The Harp (Golden Singer)

Well form’d with love by Naon’s hand,

Sings so grand, truth like a dove,

Twin it had, music taken,

Here, awaken, gold coat clad.

Spirit marked, the wood well worn,

Oh in morn, the sound so good,

Echoes still, with harper’s soul,

T’was his goal—strings play when will’d.

The Cloak

Harper’s cloak, weighted with worth,

Mantle, mirth, smudged with camp smoke,

In wolfen keep, hall of hare,

Camp of bear, let listeners weep.

To the learned Lucie left,

Rough heft, the mortal mien shed,

Light so sharp, to night sky fled,

Bright thread, cape for hallow’d  harp.

The Psaltery

String’d psaltery, sweet its sound,

Crowned with notes, fingers flurry,

For nobles played, for decree,

With much glee, it would be bade.

From entrusted Enid on,

To brother, baron, gusted

Sounds so pure, notes oh serene,

In mein and grace, soulful sure.

The Drum (painted bodhran)

Annoint’d skin, with flower seen,

In dark serene, drummer’s grin,

Call spirits wild—come and dance,

By bardist’s trance, beguil’d.

Friendship’s mark, from hand to hand,

Knotwork band, and history’s arc,

Kept in love, held in respect,

Souls affect, here and above.

Notes on the composition

Rannaighheacht mhor (pronounced ron-a’yach voor; great versification) consisted of quatrains made of 7-syllable lines. Two words in each line must alliterate; lines rhymed abab and so forth. The end words rhymed internally in opposite lines of each couplet. The end word of line three rhymes internally with line four. The last word of line four alliterates with the previous word. Rannaighheacht (pronounced ron-a’yach; “versification”) were a bruilingeacht version of dán direach (that is to say they used a simpler rhyme scheme than regular dán direach). All versions of rannaigheacht made use of dunadh. Dúnadh (conclusion) is when a poem began and ended on the same sound (the same letter, word or syllable).  It can also refer to chain rhyme where the last syllable of one line rhymes with the first syllable of the next.

Each poem is shown again below with alliteration marked in bold and rhymes in italic.

The Harp (Golden Singer)

Well form’d with love by Naon’s hand[1],

Sings so grand, truth like a dove,

Twin it had, music taken,[2]

Here, awaken, gold coat clad.[3]

Spirit marked, the wood well worn,[4]

Oh in morn, the sound so good,

Echoes still, with harper’s soul,

T’was his goal—strings play when will’d.[5]

The Cloak

Harper’s cloak, weighted with worth,

Mantle, mirth, smudged with camp smoke,

In wolfen keep[6], hall of hare[7],

Camp of bear[8], let listeners weep.

To the learned Lucie left[9],

Rough heft, the mortal mien shed,

Light so sharp, to night sky fled,

Bright thread, cape for hallow’d  harp.

The Psaltery

String’d psaltery[10], sweet its sound,

Crowned with notes, fingers flurry,

For nobles played, for decree,

With much glee, it would be bade.

From entrusted Enid[11] on,

To brother, baron[12], gusted

Sounds so pure, notes oh serene,

In mein and grace, soulful sure.

The Drum (painted bodhran)

Annoint’d skin, with flower seen[13],

In dark serene[14], drummer’s grin,

Call spirits wild—come and dance,

By bardist’s trance, beguil’d.

Friendship’s mark, from hand to hand[15],

Knotwork band, and history’s arc,

Kept in love, held in respect,

Souls affect, here and above.

---

[1] The harp, Golden Singer was made by Naon.

[2] At the end of each day that Naon worked on this harp, a friend of his at the time snuck into the shop and duplicated his work, thus building essentially a clone of Golden Singer. This “stolen” twin apparently does not have as good a sound as Naon’s work.

[3] Naon built the harp originally for another musician. When she could no longer play, she returned it into his keeping. He was surprised to find that she had spray painted it gold to emulate the golden harp of mythology. Contrary to his expectations, he found that the paint improved the instrument’s sound rather than detracting from it. Thus he dubbed it Golden Singer.

[4] Naon played this harp so often that his arms rubbed off the paint and you can see their marks on the wood.

[5] Sometimes this harp will sound for no apparent reason.

[6] Naon was once Bard of Ealdormere.

[7] Naon was also once Bard of Skraeling Althing.

[8] And he was once Bard of Septentria.

[9] The cloak was left to the keeping of Lady Lucie Pelletierre. Lucie was Naon’s friend and former PhD advisor.

[10] Like the harp, Naon made the psaltery (a stringed instrument similar to a dulcimer).

[11] The psaltery was, for many years, in the keeping of Dame Enid Aurelia, the first Baroness of Skraeling Althing.

[12] It was then passed on to Baron Duncan, Naon’s friend and one time roommate.

[13] The drum skin is painted with knotwork and a trillium.

[14] The paint apparently glows in the dark.

[15] The drum was given into the keeping of Dame TSivia bas Tamara v’Amberview.

Kalenda Martius

For THL Marie l’Englois upon her elevation to the Order of the Laurel

By TH Laird Colyne Stewart, February AS 51 (2017)

This month will see awe

When at Faire, all a draw,

This lady will kneel at feet of law,

Her voice without flaw.

Woven from rough straw

Music, like gold, flows forth from her jaw;

The iciest hearts her tunes can thaw,

Emotions, felt deeply, and so raw.

All in awe,

See no flaw,

Her place her foretold by ka.

Like owl claw,

I here draw,

Dame Marie, I have estampida.

Based on the 14^th century estampida “Kalenda Maya” by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. The original poem was six stanzas long (each with identical structure) but as estampida are mono-rhyme poems I only wrote one stanza. (Italian has a lot more words that rhyme than English, making recreating Italian poetic forms in English a challenge.) You may notice that I did repeat a few of my rhyming words, but even with the glut of possible Italian words to choose from Raimbaut sometimes repeated words himself. (So I don’t feel as bad about that.) I based the structure of my stanza on the structure of Raimbaut’s. The last line also directly reflects the last line of the original which states: “N'Engles, ai l'estampida.” [Dame Engles, I have the estampida.]

Below is a version of the poem with footnotes.

This month will see awe[1]

When at Faire[2], all a draw,

This lady will kneel at feet of law[3],

Her voice without flaw.

Woven from rough straw

Music, like gold, flows forth from her jaw[4];

The iciest hearts her tunes can thaw,

Emotions, felt deeply, and so raw.

All in awe,

See no flaw,

Her place her foretold by ka[5].

Like owl claw[6],

I here draw[7],

Dame Marie, I have estampida.

---

[1] The title refers to the first of March, as it is in March 2017 that. Marie will be elevated.

[2] The elevation will occur at Kingdom A&S.

[3] Referring to kneeling at the feet of Their Majesties.

[4] Marie is being made a Laurel for her knowledge of Medieval music. I here draw attention specifically to her singing, likening it to Rumpelstiltskin’s ability to weave gold from straw.

[5] Ka is an Egyptian term for part of the soul.

[6] The owl is the bird of wisdom, as Laurels are supposed to be wise as well as learned.

[7] As in I am drawing (or writing) the poem.