Category: Miscellany

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Rise Up My King

This was written for Brennan (and Caiolfhionn) just before their first reign, a Pennsic reign, and meant that it would be all kinds of frantic craziness.  That was in 2014.  This was originally posted in June of that year. 

It was finally recorded for Brennan’s birthday in September 2022.

Oh Rise up my King
Rise up it’s the morning
Rise up my King
The day hath begun!
There is so much to do here,
There are people to meet now,
And there aren’t enough hours
before the setting sun.

Your steward has scheduled
the first of your meetings –
Three Barons disputing
four acres of land.
The King of our rivals
then wishes to fight you,
your armor’s been carried
at our Queen’s command.

Here is your breakfast,
Come, eat it, we’re walking,
Here is a towel,
the hot water is on
I’ll speak the agenda
as you’re in there bathing
then I’ll wait by the restroom
but don’t take too long.

Oh Rise up my King
Rise up it’s the morning
Rise up my King
The day hath begun!
There is so much to do here,
There are people to meet now,
And there aren’t enough hours
before the setting sun.

Here come five retainers
to hold your belongings
Now put on the crown
and let’s hit the road.
Limit conversation
to under three minutes
and have some more water,
I don’t mean to goad.

Now that fight went well,
it’s time to try fencing,
I know it feels strange
to have such a light sword.
Now off to the range
to shoot with the yeomen,
then to the encampment
of the great Mongol horde.

Oh Rise up my King
Rise up it’s the morning
Rise up my King
The day hath begun!
There is so much to do here,
There are people to meet now,
And there aren’t enough hours
before the setting sun.

Dinner tonight’s
at an important dutchy.
Their cooks are preparing
Pre-Colombian food.
Poc chuc and tamales
with goat and cassava.
We’ll bring no beer
for to drink would be rude.

There goes your Queen,
with her ladies in waiting.
Not that there’s waiting
when there’s so much to do.
It would be nice to see her,
and yes she looks lovely
but she has a schedule
that mirrors yours too…

Oh Rise up my King
Rise up it’s the morning
Rise up my King
The day hath begun!
There is so much to do here,
There are people to meet now,
And there aren’t enough hours
before the setting sun.

It’s quarter-past two
and at last you’ve arrived home.
The kids are in bed,
and your Queen is alone.
There are truffles and wine
that you were just given,
but you’re too damn tired
to give her a…

…O Rise up my King
Rise up it’s the morning
Rise up my King
The day hath begun!
There is so much to do here,
There are people to meet now,
And there aren’t enough hours
before the setting sun.

There is so much to do here,
There are people to meet now,
But stick to the schedule and
We’ll get the job done! 

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Pelican, Applique for Syr Cedric

Cedric of Thanet already had a coat that represented his recognitions as knight and laurel, and this cloak would also represent the pelican. I was given the opportunity to create the medallion to recognize his inclusion in the order. (It represents a true labor of love since string is not my thing and my lack of love for sewing is broadly known.)

Pelican medallion for Cedric of Thanet designed and sewn by Aneleda Falconbridge / M.Bouchard.

The materials are wool, linen, cotton and metallic thread, and the ever-helpful wonder-under. The completed size is roughly four inches across. (In the photo, my leg is a good reference for size.)

The size was dictated by the existing white belt applique and embroidery. Sylvia du Vey provided size information and the green base that would be sewn to the cloak. The roundel uses a remnant of wool from the first dress I completed by hand (and which netted me the baronial A&S championship!) The green linen cloth is a remnant of my laurel elevation dress. The yellow beak and red blood drop were scavenged linen from one of the trilliums we had to remove from the cloak before we could add this. The chain stitch uses metallic threads (which are terrible to work with!) which bind it to the green base.

Sylvia du Vey sewed the finished piece to the cloak and took this picture.

The design of the piece is inspired by English roof bosses, particularly one from Devon. I fell in love with the oak leaf motif for multiple reasons – it’s unique, our region has many oaks, and, especially, because Cedric has a leather oak leaf on his key chain — it was a site token for the first event for which I was the autocrat, I believe, an early Endewerade Hunt.

I wanted the piece to fall “outside” the roundel, and so included an extra oak and lengthened the tail of the pelican (which is longer in other roof boss examples.)

This is the inspiration work.

If one is seeking unique pelicans, looking at architectural detail provides some truly lovely examples that are not often seen in the SCA. I was delighted to find a few that I’ll consider should the need arise again for a similar project!

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The Media and You

We seem to have a complex relationship with the media. We appreciate the stories and attention, but we’re also frequently nervous that something will be misunderstood and that communication and expectations won’t be clear.

This is the paperwork for the class at Marketplace at Birka. This will be conducted at other events as well as online. This document is best used in concert with information from the workshop.

https://goo.gl/oaeRqm

— Aneleda

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Icelandic Snail Cross

It’s typical for a consort to give their fighter a token with their arms on it to wear into battle. Often, this is done with a belt favor embroidered by the consort. I’m getting more and more into Viking garb and study, and Culann is a northern Celt, so a belt favor didn’t make sense to me. So I pondered, “what might a Norse woman give a northern Celt?”

I consulted with Master Freidrikr about what would be an appropriate gift and he suggested that an amulet, like a Thor’s Hammer, would have been a noble gift. My inspiration piece was an Icelandic 10th-century artifact known as the “Wolf Cross” or “vargkors”  found in Foss.*

This is the final result:

bronze-cast winged snail version of Icelandic wolf-head cross

 

Wolf cross from Foss, Iceland, 10th-century
Wolf cross from Foss, Iceland, 10th-century

Out of beeswax I created a Thor’s Hammer as a gift for Sir Culann MacCiannon, my favor, for him to wear when he fought for me in the East Kingdom Spring Crown Tournament AS52.  It was cast in bronze by Mark Frasier (Izzo) and let’s be clear that Izzo did the lion’s share of the work!

My original one was really huge and would have been totally inappropriate for the work, I discovered, even if it had been successful. (And way, way too heavy.) The original was very tiny, mine is much bigger but still reasonable.**

Here’s a shot of the wax which was cast. A mold was poured around it and then when dry the mold (plaster and/or sand) is put in a kiln to harden, and the wax melts, leaving the empty cavity. (The first such mold exploded in the kiln because it still had moisture in it, losing the mold and the first wax item.) Then hot metal is poured into the mold and when cooled the mold is broken. Every piece is as unique as the wax because of this process.

Winged snail sculpted in beeswax

 

Winged snail sculpted in beeswax, top view

 

Here’s a whole photo process document, if you’re interested: https://goo.gl/photos/xqCgddwX9axxaR5D9

Footnotes:

* (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Archaeological_record_of_Mjöllnir#/media/File:Vargkors_kopia.jpg)

**https://angloscandinavianchronicle.com/2011/09/20/the-size-of-artifacts/