Category: Scroll Texts

Because We know that you especially desire to hear
and learn the state of Our respect for good works, We
König Tindal und König Alberic, find it fitting to state Our
opinion on the matter of Otto Gotlieb. We have surveyed
Throughout the East from Endeweard’s lands and thence
beyond. Having proved the customs of Service in manners
of leading, of making, of mapping, and all well witnessed by
many, We provide in these days past Martinstag, that Otto
shall be called a companion of the Order of the Pelican
and be knowne by his deeds and countenance. Worthy
is he for whom service is home. The bells should ring, and
crowds come gathering round. Made by Our sovereign word A.S. LV.

König Tindal König Alberic

Text inspired by

• A public letter from Conrad II to the Abbot of Corvey on the Germans’ Crusade, original in Latin
• “Worthy Art Thou, Returning Home” and “I‘ve Got My Fief” by Walther von der Vogelweide
• The length and layout of the piece were dictated by the document upon which the scroll design was based, which has 11 lines of approximately 10 words each.

Laudate Cedricus.  A cuspide Pelicanus.¹

To Cedric of Thanet, knight, laurel, and worthy subject, do We send Our greetings and recognition. Long and well have you served our lands, guarding the northern marches at Our ward’s end with sword, and spear, and ax, and blade. Teaching all comers, you have encouraged Our ranks and protected Our borders with your great service to those of great and humble esteem alike. In honor of your reliability and wise governance, We render to you the gratitude deserved for your care of Our loyal subjects, and for the very great fidelity which you have shown to the East, by ordaining you a companion of the Order of the Pelican with the advice and consent of your fellow companions. By this sign, all will know Our respect for your devotion, and should you be called beyond Our borders, all willing, you shall return to us. Thus, three days past Martinmas, in the fifty-fifth year of the Society, with Our intention of worthily rewarding your services now complete, We, Magnus Tindal and Alberic von Rostock, Royal Majesties of the East, ask you to continue the same. 

Labor omnia improba vincit.²  

+ Ego Tindal rex Orientis consensi et subscripsi
+ Ego Alberic rex Orientis consensi et subscripsi

1. Pay tribute to Cedric. From the Spear a pelican.
2. Hard work conquers everything.

This text inspired by

• Text from a letter from Alexander IV to Margeurite of Provence, January 23, 1258
• Public letter from Conrad II to the Abbot of Corvey on the Germans’ Crusade, original in Latin (https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/1148conrad2.asp)
• Numerous charter deeds from the Anglo Saxon Charters of St. Augustines Abbey Canterbury and Minster-in-Thanet

There came a woman to the court of the East, and all should care to hear tell of her. A match for a hundred workers was this mead-woman, and yet she asked for no wages.

Medhbh was the woman’s name, well-attended and generous. She cared for many, first at the request of the Ard Rí, and after, she served many more, moved by fierce loyalty that welled from her as water from a spring.

For the space of a dozen years and more she labored. Stout of heart, she took the mantle of leader for her cóiceda, handling grievances and important matters, sharing knowledge of the law, and voicing the needs of her people to the land-chiefs.

Red-maned Medhbd traveled often to soldier’s fields, to places where the sea could not be seen in any direction. She helped prepare camps for the chieftains to meet with their people and gather with their warriors. Her bright hands served all with respect, from the roughest shovel-lifter to the gentlest lady, offering a thousand welcomes to each who entered her care.  For these things, and more, six pearls from the sea were given to her to wear, gifts from chieftains in her honor.

One day, when the winds of Feabhra had blown for twenty-three days, one pearl fell into Medhbd’s lap as she worked. She instinctively cradled the salt-treasure to her breast. When she brought down her hand, she found the pearl transformed to garnet, red as blood and clear as water. Suddenly she was surrounded by many white-winged birds who pulled her toward their flock by their beaks and pushed her with their wings.

Thus was Medhbh inghean ui Cheallaigh blessed for her service by the pelicans. Her wages were paid in joy and tears, and she was granted a patent of arms bearing her icons, argent, a triskelion of spirals purpure and on a chief embattled vert three towers argent. It was the fifty-third year, on the day in which Wilhelm Ri and Vienna Ban Ri named the filid who would serve them and placed the new Ruiri in Dragonship Haven.

Saerlaith ingen Chennetig wrote and collected it from Athlæða Fálkribrú.

This piece is supposed to sound like a Celtic story. I read a lot of early Celtic works to hopefully make it sound right.

The last bit IN IRISH (I think): Saerlaith ingen Chennetig ro scrib in leborso ra thinoil a  Athlæða Fálkribrú was provided so Saerlaith could enscribe if she wanted to, in Gaelic.

Sources:
https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T106500D/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Irish_kingdoms and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BAath
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_calendar
https://celt.ucc.ie//published/G106500D/index.html
https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T106500D/index.html
https://celt.ucc.ie//earlypoetry.html
https://www.vanhamel.nl/codecs/Flanagan_(M.-T.)_1998a
to
https://books.google.com/books?id=uPFjLITLW7YC&pg=PR7&lpg=PR7&dq=Flanagan,+Marie-Therese,+%E2%80%9CThe+context+and+uses+of+the+Latin+charter+in+twelfth-century+Ireland%E2%80%9D,&source=bl&ots=Fe0hpttfJH&sig=ACfU3U2-4HY34IK9L59AkqD33t5181USjw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj5gKjj1ajgAhUOT98KHXkRBegQ6AEwA3oECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=Flanagan%2C%20Marie-Therese%2C%20%E2%80%9CThe%20context%20and%20uses%20of%20the%20Latin%20charter%20in%20twelfth-century%20Ireland%E2%80%9D%2C&f=false
https://findwords.info/term/curran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kildare_Abbey
https://www.focloir.ie/en/dictionary/ei/north-east