FINAL DRAFT – German Verse by Ishmael Stedfast Reed in the style of Auch senliches leiden”, by Oswald von Wolkenstein, Alliterative Verse by Magistra Iselda de Narbonne in the style of HARBARTHSLJOTH “The Poem of Harbarth”
Hel, speak and I listen:
Christened, this in least then shall endure?
Ink my name, or otherwise ensure
Permanent glory, fame!
Exclaim acclaim – my name somehow secure!
Hel spake:
Though scribed upon such fine Atlantian scrolls
Soon never will your name be spoken.
All sounds do cease in crumbled cities.
Anon I’ll christen you only “anon.”
Please Goddess, my art then:
Hearken, darken hearts instead, not paint;
Portraits, landscapes never to grow faint.
Eyes then remember me!
Defer glee, mercy – cure decay, art’s constraint.
Hel spake:
All portraits molder into fine powder
The stoutest stave church cannot withstand me.
With glee I bury your etched brass and birch.
Radiant art will rot with the rest of you.
Then… acts done steadfastly…
I ask thee, last these past deeds if far-sown?
Stories carry heroes now unknown
Like gulls from an unseen coast.
Keening ghosts’ Queen-host, speak from thy throne!
Hel spake:
Bards die, and with them die all songs and deeds.
But every teacher tends something that lasts.
You have sown learning, tended it with love,
A seed grown in friends becomes a sunlit grove.
King Abran & Queen Anya speak:
Elated, we gift, a Laurel-wound crown –
To one wreathed by renown Kolfinna Valravn
Well-praised earns Patent as painting Maven.
A Broken chevron, changed in chalk and green bice
We make your device From Ymir, year LVII
Laurel Scroll for Kolfinna Valravn
C& I by Bran Midwynter, Co-written by Iselda de Narbonne
- Half the text is written in a German troubadour verse after "Auch senliches leiben" by Oswald von Wolkenstein, written by me.
- The other half is written in Northern European alliterative verse after the Harbarthsljoth, written by Iselda
This text was a very special collaboration between myself and two incredible artists: Hlaford Bran Midwynter, one of Kolfinna's most constant co-conspirators and a Scribal design wizard, and Magistra Iselda de Narbonne, one of the deepest wells of knowledge and most moving voices in the Kingdom in both music and prose.
To begin, we knew that Kolfinna wanted a "danse macabre" or "memento mori" theme for her scroll, and Iselda and I both stepped up to the writer's plate. Immediately, an idea came together for a text written to be performed by two voices; this not only suited our collaboration, but would give a unique presentation to her scroll. Knowing that Bran was working on a gothic "monstrance", we began to plan.
We had a few other "key goals" as we met to brainstorm... these come directly from our planning document:
dialogue poem (existed throughout period -- from "The Vafthruthnismol" dialogues of the Poetic Edda to Jacobean epistolary responses)
strong "macabre" or dark imagery
attempt to fit imagery from the cathedral's time and place, if possible
potential theme: "the only thing that outlives you is your legacy, so focus on the impact you have on other people, the memories you create, how you improve your community" <-- fits a "memento mori" while still being positive and aspirational for a Laurel
two voices: one has DEF gotta be the "voice of death, I think? Who could the other be? It can't be, like, Kolfinna's voice?
Background Research
We initially began by trying to nail down the potential options for verse forms historically designed for two voices. There are, in fact, a lot of different "dialogue poems" throughout history. Here are a few we found, although there are many more:
The Vafthruthnir, which is divided into stanzas with dialogue callouts at the beginning, which you can see in this excerpt from The Poetic Edda (translated, in this case by Henry Adams Bellows, 1936)
"Othin spake:
"Counsel me, Frigg, for I long to fare,
And Vafthruthnir fain would find;
fit wisdom old with the giant wise
Myself would I seek to match."
Frigg spake:
"Heerfather here at home would I keep,
Where the gods together dwell;
Amid all the giants an equal in might
To Vafthruthnir know I none."
Othin spake:
"Much have I fared, much have I found.
Much have I got from the gods;
And fain would I know how Vafthruthnir now
Lives in his lofty hall."
The "answer poem", thoroughly described in Tudor period by Christopher Boswell in his doctoral thesis: here is one key example Boswell reprints from Tottel's Miscellany, 1557:
"Strife, with a wife, without, your thrift full hard to see:
Yong brats, a trouble: none at a] I, a mayrn it seems to bee:
Youth, fond: age hath no hert, and pincheth all to nye.
Choose then the leefer of these twoo, no life, or soon to dye.
(no. 151, 'Mans Life after Possidonius, or Crates', 11.7-10)
[Answer]
A wyfe will trym thy house: no wife? then art thou free.
Brood is a louely thing: without, thy life is loose to thee.
Yong bloods be strong: old sires in double honour dwell.
Doo waye that choys, no life, or soon to dye: for all is well.
(no. 152, 'Metroclorus Minde to the Contrarie', 11.7-1 0)2
an "Egyptian Didactic Tale" (c. 1937 - 1759 B.C.E), as printed in "Ancient Near Eastern texts: relating to the Old Testament" by James B. Pritchard, Princeton University Press, 1969: (many thanks to the inimitable Talia de Morales for this tip!)
"I opened my mouth to my soul, that I might answer what it had said: “This is too much for me today, that my soul no (longer) talks with me. It is really too great to be exaggerated. It is like abandoning me. Let [not] my soul go away; it should wait for me because of. . . . There is no competent person who deserts on the day of misfortune.... Let Khonsu, the scribe in truth, defend me. ...
What my soul said to me: “Art thou not a man? Art thou. . .whilst thou livest? What is thy goal? Thou art concerned with [burial] like a possessor of wealth!”
Ultimately, we determined we would use two forms -- one for the "Aspirant" (who asks questions), and one for the "Goddess of Death" (Hel, who would answer each question); this, we thought, would best let us represent both of the time periods (the "old" and the "new") that Kolfinna embodies in her dual personae. Hel's form would be early Northern European, the Aspirant would be later-medieval German, to suit both the Gothic architecture and her late-period persona. This would also neatly let us use a dialogue poem to present the philosophical argument we thought suited Kolfinna's elevation themes.
The Aspirant's Verses
With an incredible recommendation from Iselda, I was pointed to the work of Oswald von Wolkenstein, a polymath German composer and poet who lived between 1376 and 1445, and something of a traveling bard in his time. (Yes, all of the period depictions of him have his right eye shut, he may have had a congenital defect with his eye socket). He wrote a lot of really vibrant music for the time, and his time and place in history fit pretty close to the Gothic architecture of the scroll, which Bran designed after late 15th-century engravings like this one from the National Gallery of Art. Now obviously 1480 is after 1445, but I supposed that some lenience could be given to the long history of Gothic architecture throughout the middle ages.
I ultimately loved the bounce and intricate rhyming pattern of "Auch senliches leiben", which I thought would be a strong technical indication of the "Aspirant"'s desire for their work to live on. I consulted with the ever-ready Lady Ayla von Dahauua, who helped me to confirm the stress patterns of the German text, the final breakdown is below:
reconstruction after an anonymous contemporary illustration - Website Uni Heidelberg, taken from: Baasch, Karen; Nürnberger, Helmuth (1995). Oswald von Wolkenstein. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1986, ISBN 3-499-50360-3.
"A Gothic Monstrance, c. 1480", National Gallery of Art
FINAL FORM:
Aspirant: (from “Auch senliches leiden”, by Oswald von Wolkenstein)
Ach senliches leiden
/ / u u / u
meiden neyden schaiden das tut we
/ u / u / u / u /
besser wer versunken jn dem see
/ u / u / u / u /
zart minnikliches weib
/ u u / u /
dem leib mich schreibt und treibt gen josophat
U / u / u / u / u /
(hertz mut syn gedanck ist worden mat
/ u / u / u / u /
es schaidt der tod)
u / u /
^^^^^the last two lines of the original form were not used to conserve space for our multiple verses. and the yellow end-rhyme was repeated once more to add more closure to the incomplete form. ^^^^^
Ultimately, I was really happy with the result! I certainly had to lean on near-rhymes and matching vowels with different consonants, like "hearken" and "hearts instead" in order to achieve the same feeling of the original German opening lines while not sacrificing too much clarity. In performance, the dense rhyming felt like spitting a line of modern rap, which often uses similar dense interlocking rhymes and sound motifs for effect!
The text also succesfully conveys out intended theme, as the Aspirant tries to suggest a few things that Hel might allow to evade Death -- first the Aspirant's name, and then their art, and finally their actions in life. Only one thing Hel allows to live on; the things they pass on to others.
Ishmael's Text for the "Aspirant":
(after many re-writes and attempts to find multi-syllable internal rhymes that would make sense)
Hel, speak and I listen:
Christened, this in least then shall endure?
Ink my name, or otherwise ensure
Permanent glory, fame!
Exclaim acclaim – my name somehow secure!
Please Goddess, my art then:
Hearken, darken hearts instead, not paint;
Portraits, landscapes never to grow faint.
Eyes then remember me!
Defer glee, mercy – cure decay, art’s constraint.
Then… acts done steadfastly…
I ask thee, last these past deeds if far-sown?
Stories carry heroes now unknown
Like gulls from an unseen coast.
Keening ghosts’ Queen-host, speak from thy throne!
Hel's Verses - by Iselda de Narbonne
Hel’s verses are written in málaháttr, a variant form of the fornyrðislag verse that features prominently in the Poetic Edda. As an exemplar, we used the dialogue poem Hárbarðsljóð, which is also where we took the “Hel spake” language. Málaháttr means “speech meter,” and is meant to sound more natural, and less stilted than other forms of Norse verse. It achieves this by being a bit looser with its form.
Málaháttr contains either two or three alliterating lifts (strong syllables) per line, at least one of which should be in the second hemistitch, or half-line - fewer than in many other Norse forms. Each hemistitch contains 5 syllables, although this is not absolutely strict, and hemistitches of 4 or 6 syllables do pop up. Málaháttr rarely employs enjambment, with most lines containing one complete sentence, phrase, or thought. This type of poetry does not have a regular number of lines per stanza or per section. We opted to shoot for “Hel spake:” followed by four lines to mirror the structure of the Aspirant’s stanzas, frankly in order to keep things relatively balanced and not too long.
It was an interesting experience writing about the mortality of a dear friend. I asked Ishmael to reel me in if I was getting too dark. Reader, he did not. And I think that was the right call. If you’re going to speak with the voice of Hel for a peerage scroll for Kolfina Valravn, you really shouldn’t do so shrinkingly. I do think that peerage scrolls should mention why the person is being honored, so I tried to bring in some glory for Kolfina’s actual accomplishments, even as I spoke of their eventual crumbling into dust. References to portraits, stave churches, and etched brass and bark are all allusions to actual (breathtaking) scrolls that she’s produced for others, and for which she richly deserves this honor.
Finally, I hope that someone out there will appreciate my pun on “anon!”
Hel spake:
Though scribed upon such fine Atlantian scrolls
Soon never will your name be spoken.
All sounds do cease in crumbled cities.
Anon I’ll christen you only “anon.”
Hel spake:
All portraits molder into fine powder
The stoutest stave church cannot withstand me.
With glee I bury your etched brass and birch.
Radiant art will rot with the rest of you.
Hel spake:
Bards die, and with them die all songs and deeds.
But every teacher tends something that lasts.
You have sown learning, tended it with love,
A seed grown in friends becomes a sunlit grove.
The Final, Combined Stanza
For this final stanza, we decided it should be performed simultaneously by both speakers as a culmination and "synthesis" of the two perspectives -- this also served very well as the portion that Their Majesties technically "say" together in a scroll. This section normally includes the heraldically necessary information: where the award was given, the nature of the award ("Patent of Arms" in this case), the recipient's blazon, should that be neccessary, etc. Iselda initially attempted to combine the alliterative and half-line requirements of her verse form with the repeating internal rhymes of mine, but needing to include Kolfinna's arms was an extra puzzle, so I took a shot at it and wound up here -- with extensive help from Iselda, who knew her meter much better than I did!
King Abran & Queen Anya speak:
Elated, we gift, a Laurel-wound crown –
To one wreathed by renown Kolfinna Valravn
Well-praised earns Patent as painting Maven.
A Broken chevron, changed in chalk and green bice
We make your device From Ymir, year LVII
Kolfinna's arms, technically blazoned "Per pale argent and vert, a chevron rompu inverted counterchanged "
I adapted this formal French blazon to suit the verse form, changing "rompu" to its literal form in English, "broken", and gave color names in period scribal pigments instead of heraldic colors.