Category: Music

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The Links of Virtue

The Links of Virtue

To listen to a learning version of this song, click here: http://www.mbouchard.com/misc/Links-of-Virtue.mp3

As the chain holds many links
So the Knight holds many virtues
Let them be strong as your arm
Let them be tempered as your love.
For it is not the chain you wear
Or the spurs or cloth of white
But the one beneath these things
Who all have seen,
and rightly called thee Knight.

Upon your arms wear loyalty
for you have sworn to king and country.
A helm of hope set on your brow
that all shall see it in the fight.
Guarding your knees, humility
for where you kneel, all will be watching.
About your waist wear honor proud
that all may see your values glow.

As the chain holds many links…

Wear your faith around your neck
for no gorget better protects you.
Mercy’s gauntlet upon each hand
that brighter shine with actions kind.
Bind your courage against your breast
that bravado find no purchase.
Nail to each sole, obedience
that you may walk where you are asked.

As the chain holds many links….

Endurance buckle to each leg
for there will be some marches long.
Wear prowess strapped across your back
to push you when the need is dire.
Your heart leave open, behind no shield –
It will be guarded by your brothers
For it is there that Chivalry
Is the chain about us all.

As the chain holds many links
So the Knight holds many virtues
Let them be strong as your arm
Let them be tempered as your love.
For it is not the chain you wear
Or the spurs or cloth of white
But the one beneath these things
Who all have seen,
and rightly called thee Knight.

For it is not the chain you wear
Or the spurs or cloth of white
But the one beneath these things
Who all have seen,
and rightly called thee Knight.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This song was inspired by those members of the Order of Chivalry who to me truly embody the graces that a Knight ought to have. I see such people armored with the many chivalric virtues not merely when they are “playing” in the SCA, but who never remove those virtues, regardless of event, circumstance, life in general – some of those people are close to me and I am honored to know them and be graced with their friendship.  This is a song for those men and women.

There are also many I know who hold these virtues but who have not been (yet) recognized as members of the Order of Chivalry, but who are, to me, certainly very worthy. I am confident that they know who they are.

And it is, finally, dedicated to Sir Ivar Volosatoi, who, before he was Sir Ivar, asked me during Pennsic XL if I could sing during his Knighting ceremony a song I had written for the Eastern Unbelted Champions team. I could not be at the event, John Barleycorn, but wished to send something in my stead. It was delivered by some of the most lovely voices in the East, who learned it from listening to a recording and sang it to him on September 10, AS 46.

 Enormous thanks to the lovely ladies Sabine de Kerbriant, Suba Al-Hadid, Marion Quyn, and Ysmay dle Lynn and Judith Fitzhenry for bearing this gift with their beautiful voices.  Their performance can be seen in this video of the first part of Sir Ivar’s Knighting ceremony.



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I Am Eastern

A song for the East. Conceived by Countess Svava, Count Thorson, Sir Antonio Patrasso (and me) around the breakfast table after spring Crown Tourney, AS46. Suitable for all fighters, and can even be sung in a round!

I am Eastern, I am Eastern

So are you, So are you

Let’s go beat the midrealm, Let’s go beat the midrealm

With a stick, With a stick

 

Sung to the honorable tune, Frere Jaques.

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The March Home

A challenge was given to write a on the topic of coming home from war. While we all know we mean Pennsic, I chose to take the perspective of a Roman legionary who is returning to his own lands, on the long march, seeming longer every day the closer he is to home, walking on the red roads home after brutal battles. The tune is inspired by an actual Roman melody, adapted for this use. The chords, played on harp, would have been appropriate.  The song from which my melody is culled is entitled XVIII and was preformed by Musica Romana.

This song is featured on the CD “I Am of the North” available for purchase online at:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/aneledafalconbridge/

Dum spiramus tuebimur (While we breathe, we shall defend.)
Long has the march on the red road gone.
When again, when shall I see my home?
Dum vivimus, vivamus. (While we live, let us live.)

I wear my tunica woven of wool
though blood and sweat
now stain it through
Filth, smoke and battle have colored its trim
Dulce bellum inexpertis (War is sweet for those who have not experienced it.)

Beneath my lorica, over my heart
is the palla that smelled
of my wife’s hair
I have carried her love with me over long roads
Hic habitat felicitas (Here lives happiness.)

Dum spiramus tuebimur
Long has the march on the red road gone.
When again, when shall I see my home?
Dum vivimus, vivamus.

I carry three fibulae on my best cloak
Bought from a place
I have long forgot
Two for my sons cast like lion’s claws
Natura, artis magistra (nature, the mistress of art)

My caligae ruined, my cingulum weighs
I desire my farm,
my bare feet in soil.
Soon I will leave my pilae for my plow
Nulla vit melior quan bona. (There is no life better than a good life.)

Dum spiramus tuebimur
Long has the march on the red road gone.
When again, when shall I see my home?
Dum vivimus, vivamus.

When shall I lay in my courtyard green?
I long to drink
my vinyard’s wine.
Wrest with my sons, make love to my wife
Et nos cedamus amori. (Let us too surrender to love.)

Dum spiramus tuebimur
Long has the march on the red road gone.
When again, when shall I see my home?
Dum vivimus, vivamus.

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The River Ran Red

Photo by Tannis Baldwin
Aneleda singing from the Pennsic Bridge #2, which was taken for the East in all three battles.

During the Valley Battle of Pennsic XKL, I stood with the banner atop my spear, watching the fight, not really ready to enter the fray. (By the end of the week, this was different!) I stood beside the bank where my good King Lucan told me to stand, and I watched the Chivalry in the “river” as the others were fighting on the “banks.” When it was done, King Lucan asked me what I had seen, and I told him I had seen brave men wading through swift waters filled with red. He responded that he would like to have a song about what I saw.

This is that song, which was first performed for Karl and Isme after EK Court. The second performance was a promise – if the Bridge Battle was won, I would sing it from one of the bridges. As it happened, it WAS won and I DID sing it. King Lucan finally got to hear it during a gathering at VDK’s encampment, late, late at night.

Here is a recording of it: http://www.mbouchard.com/misc/River-Ran-Red.mp3

The River Ran Red

Brave crossed the knights
through the river swift
that ran between the cut of the valley.
Hot was the sun and cold were the waves
where the river ran red through the valley.

I watched from the bank
as my brother did charge
my eyes were filled with his promise to me,
“I will fight them down, and tear them from our home
though the river run red though the valley”

He held aloft a spear
astride that muddy bank,
running beside the company of knights.
The king himself, in raiment shining bright,
pushed ever on through the valley.

Knight and peasant both
were bloodied as they fought
the pikes and swords of the brutal warring force.
The king stood strong, reddened waves about his boots,
and they held off the line in the valley

I had lost him for a time
as the tangled hoards engaged
but his blue and gold sleeve and spear at last I saw.
He was wading on his knees through the river deep
that ran like time through the valley.

At last the battle broke
as the red retreat was called
and the blood ran down to the sea so far away.
With victory in their hands came my brother and our king
and the river ran clear in the valley.

Brave crossed the knights
through the river swift
that ran between the cut of the valley.
Hot was the sun and cold were the waves
and the river ran clear in the valley.

Brave crossed the knights
through the river swift
that ran between the cut of the valley.
Hot was the sun and cold were the waves
and the river ran clear in the valley.

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The Favored One

I was thinking of favors this summer, as I made one for my husband, which he wore during Pennsic. This song is about the favor given a warrior off to war, made of a slip of the singer’s dress before he leaves to fight with the king’s men. It made me think of hopeful returns, and of what those favors would mean once the battles were over.

You can hear the song here: http://www.mbouchard.com/misc/The-Favored-One.mp3

My love he marched off with the King
So noble and commanding
To keep our lands Within our hands
He went away to war.

He carried only cloak and sword
And what he wore upon him
With but his code Upon the road
He went away to war.

I had no jewel or gift to send,
Nor woolen coat to give him
But of linen frayed A favor made
To take away to war.

I sewed my love on every hem
I gave it to his keeping
Brown cloth of mine With green leaves fine
To take away to war.

Hold my favor to your chest.
Feel my love through every trial.
Oh carry me beside your breast,
Oh carry me ‘cross every mile.

Months have gone past without a wordM
How should I know that he is well?
When story came Of a soldier’s fame
So far away at war.

“A man leapt in to save our king,
His head struck with a mighty blow
Without a sound He sank to ground
So far away at war.”

“About him all the battle raged;
Our king’s men conquered every one
He was taken in As he were kin
Here at the end of war.”

“All he possessed when he was raised
Was one favor of linen soft
It is his quest, He takes no rest,
Here at the end of war.”

Hold my favor to your chest.
Feel my love through every trial.
Oh carry me beside your breast,
Oh carry me ‘cross every mile.

“Like brothers now they have become
Though he recalls not where is home.
He swears love true Will bring him through
He seeks that lost to war.”

Oh, is it of the softest brown?
With greening leaves on every hem?
For if it be Then it is me
He seeks that’s lost to war.

The teller of the tale did cease
As with great joy he leapt away
To fetch the lord Who fell to sword
Brought far away from war.

My love he then brought to the hall
Where finally he met my eyes
Held in his hand, my linen band
Brought far away from war.

Hold my favor to your chest.
Feel my love through every trial.
Oh carry me beside your breast,
Oh carry me ‘cross every mile.

That tattered scrap of linen now
Lay in a box of finest gold
As has been writ Now here we sit
So long after the war.

My love he once marched with the King
So noble and commanding.
I hold his hands, my Lord of lands
So long after the war.

Hold my favor to your chest.
Feel my love through every trial.
Oh carry me beside your breast,
Oh carry me ‘cross every mile.