This scroll is one where I collaborated with another scribe; I wrote the text, and Konstantia Kaloethina created the physical document.
Gavin, the recipient, is a giant nerd about Welsh bardic traditions, and specifically the Mabinogion. I happened to know that he had been hoping that his eventual Maunche scroll would include the little decorative faces on the ascenders of the top line of the text in the Red Book of Hergest, and in talking with Konstantia, they decided that they’d try to make a scroll that matched the dimensions and style of the Red Book as closely as possible. I offered to write text for them, both because that’s a skillset I have more practice in than they do and because I wanted to be involved in this particular scroll.
I’m not very accustomed to collaboration on scrolls, so this was a newer experience for me. I did know enough to check with Konstantia about how many words they wanted, and since the Red Book is a calligraphy-primary source, they said “go nuts for text.”
Bet.
The first bit of research I needed to do, since I wasn’t going to tip my hand by asking Gavin directly which translation of the Mabinogion he prefers, was to figure out which translation to work from. The internet was helpful on this topic, and I ended up tracking down a copy of the Sioned Davies translation as my source.
I wasn’t sure which story I wanted to primarily pull from, so I spent a bit of time skimming through just looking for sections that seemed likely to lend themselves to the type of praise scroll I’m most comfortable with; this landed me squarely in the tale of How Culhwch Won Olwen, which has a very long section of impossible tasks and a regular call-and-response between each of them. That seemed perfect, and the call-and-response is distinctive enough that I figured Gavin would recognize it, even if I was too subtle about the rest of it.
So now, knowing I was using the framing of “impossible tasks” for this, I had to decide what my impossible tasks would be. What are the things I want to praise Gavin for, that he’s done and that are part of why he’s receiving this recognition? He’s a bard whose works are often about underrecognized individuals or communities in the SCA; he’s been the Kingdom Bard of Aethelmearc twice; he won A&S Champs his first time out; and the most common refrain of those who listen to him is that he makes them like bardic.
Here’s the primary excerpt from the Davies translation of Culhwch and Olwen that I was using as my touchstone to work from:
‘I will. Do you see the large thicket over there?’
‘I do.’
‘I want it uprooted from the earth and burned along the ground
so that the cinders and ashes fertilize it; and I want it ploughed
and sown so that it’s ripe in the morning by the time the dew disappears, so that it can be made into food and drink for the wedding
guests of my daughter and yourself. And all that I want done in
one day.’
‘It is easy for me to get that, though you may think it’s not easy.’*
‘Though you may get that, there is something you will not get.
There is no ploughman to till that land or to prepare it apart from
Amaethon son of Dôn. He will not come with you willingly, nor
can you force him.’
‘It is easy for me to get that, though you may think it’s not easy.’
‘Though you may get that, there is something you will not get.
Gofannon son of Dôn* to come to the edge of the land to set the
plough. He will not undertake work willingly save for a rightful
king, nor can you force him.’
‘It is easy for me to get that, though you may think it’s not easy.’
‘Though you may get that, there is something you will not get. The
two oxen of Gwlwlydd Winau, yoked together, to plough well the
rough ground over there. He will not give them willingly, nor can
you force him.’
‘It is easy for me to get that, though you may think it’s not easy.’
‘Though you may get that, there is something you will not get. I want
the Melyn Gwanwyn and the Ych Brych* yoked together.’
‘It is easy for me to get that, though you may think it’s not easy.’
An additional important element of this (and the 40-odd additional impossible tasks in the text) is that while some of the tasks are standalone, several of them build on each other: clear the land for plowing, go get a plowman, yoke some oxen to plow it, etc. I wanted to try and reflect that in this scroll, as well.
Once I had a first draft of the impossible tasks section, which would be the meat of the scroll, I needed to set up my standard bracketing elements to introduce the recipient and bestow the award. For a scroll with this level of specific reference (rather than just “hey this guy is cool”), the intro becomes a little more important to get right so that it flows well. I also like to pull as much of the text as possible from my source, rather than trying to create my own phrases that sound right, so for this I pulled from earlier in the same story, where Culhwch arrives at the court of Arthur:
Culhwch said, ‘Hail, chief of the kings of this island. May it be
no worse to the lower end of the house than to the upper. May this
greeting apply equally to your nobles and your retinue and your
battle-chiefs. May no one be without a share of it. As my greeting
to you is all-encompassing, may your grace and your word and your
honour in this island be all-encompassing.’
‘God’s truth on that, chieftain. Greetings to you, too. Sit between
two of the warriors, with songs to entertain you and the privileges of
a prince, heir-apparent to the kingdom,* for as long as you are here.
And when I divide my bounty between guests and travellers from
afar, it shall be with you that I begin in this court.’
So I pulled a few elements from that and tucked it at the front of the impossible tasks section, and then got stuck. See, in the original, Culhwch is on a quest to marry Olwen, so he’s got a specific thing he wants and that’s the reason he’s being assigned these tasks. But I can’t very well say “Gavin wants a Maunche, and if he wants that, he should do all these things, and then he’ll get it,” because first of all it’s not accurate, and second of all that’s not really the vibe we go for in court. So where was I going to go instead?
After a couple of days of wrestling with it, I settled on the idea that I could say he was seeking non-specific “renown,” since that’s a pretty safe bet for bards (and Scadians in general!). This got me closer to the flow between sections that I was looking for, but wasn’t quite there yet - the draft at this point still felt like three separate sections, rather than one cohesive narrative. I finally decided to pull a couple phrases about “what wonders can he perform?” from another section of the Mabinogion, and one from Peredur about how “he does more with his fair words than we by force of arms” that I just really loved and wanted to work in here anywhere I could, rearranged it a little bit, and called it good.
On a side note, my scrolls tend to end up around 175 words. I don’t like to go over 200, because (as I’ve mentioned previously) being a court herald means I’m very aware of how much time scrolls take to read in court, and I like to balance consideration of time constraints against the wordiness of period documents. This piece clocks in at 391 words, more than double my usual and nearly double my preferred max. I don’t think I could have pared it down much and kept the feel of what I was going for, though, and given that Konstantia was all for the wordiness of it, I didn’t stress about it too much.
(I was the one who read it in court, though, at the end of a long day of live commentary on the Crown livestream, and my voice sure did give out by the end of it.)
The final text!
Hail, East, and be this greeting equally to Our guests and Our retinue and Our battle-chiefs. May no one be without a share of it. Hear the words of Ryouko'jin, King of the East, and Indrakshi his Queen, and when We divide Our bounty between nobles and travellers from afar, it shall be Gavin Kent that we honor in this court.
What wonders can he perform? If he seeks renown, let him perform these tasks.
We desire that a bard should write poems and songs of praise and wit for those who are overlooked. Words do not come willingly, nor can you force them.
It is easy for Gavin to do that, though you may think it’s not easy.
Though he may do that, there is something he will not do. We desire that a bard should win regard and honor from Our Sylvan cousins, once and twice a Kingdom Bard.
It is easy for Gavin to do that, though you may think it’s not easy.
Though he may do that, there is something he will not do. Though he be thus honored, yet the East is mightier than our neighbors, and our tournaments are fierce. We desire a bard who researches, and toils, and argues until he returns victorious as Our champion.
It is easy for Gavin to do that, though you may think it’s not easy.
Though he may do that, there is something he will not do. Accomplished as he is, there is no bard in the world who can make a jaded Laurel love performance. Appreciation does not come willingly, nor can you force it.
It is easy for Gavin to do that, though you may think it’s not easy.
Though he may do that, sleeplessness with no rest at night will be his seeking those things, and when he does them, then shall he have renown.
Indeed, he has performed all of these wonders, and he does more with his fair words than we by force of arms. And for these reasons do We enter him into the Order of the Maunche and grant him arms: Per pale argent and azure, a fret couped within a bordure counterchanged, and he shall be worthy of it and acclaim it.
Done by Our hand on the occasion of Our Crown Tournament, in the year of Our Society 60.
My one regret about reading this in court is that because of the angles involved, Ryou was between me and Gavin, so I couldn’t see his face to know that he got what I had been going for. I sure did hear the penny drop at the first “it is easy for Gavin to do that,” though! I also heard from someone else later that this was an engaging text to listen to, which was validating - my primary intent was that Gavin recognize it as being thoroughly based in the text he studies, but knowing that it was still an accessible text to people who weren’t in on it makes me feel good.
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