Scroll Text for the Laurelling of Catalina de Arazuri

Text by Rhodri ap Hywel. Reposted with permission of the author.


Catalina – Laurel Text

A squall came over the river
When the moon was but a sliver
As if Andalusia weeping
Sent her tears to river sleeping
Each bead of shimmering water
The land’s love of golden daughter

Asking all from Mecca to here
To view bright pearl of Calontir

Alqsar gardens in their splendor
Crave her steps so soft and tender
The elegance that in palace dwells
Envies her pace swift as gazelles
Arches and columns sadly stand
Missing those adorned by her hand

They ask caliph to lend his ear
Hear of bright pearl of Calontir

Through flowing pines a wind so soft
Calls those Allah has held aloft
Matsu Caliph the falcon’s sword
With Elena Calipha’s true accord
Ask Their lords and ladies renowned
To list words of justice profound

Spoken by crafters of things so dear
Attest well bright pearl of Calontir

Garlands of laurels she has earned
With flowing skills both taught and learned
We cannot list the gifts bestowed
As lovely as December’s snow
She has increased your kingdom’s worth
As though she brought heaven to earth

They now pronounce for all to hear
Reward due bright pearl of Calontir

Caliph and Calipha both agree
Such gifts must thus rewarded be
Let her be adorned in trappings old
That recognize such brilliant souls
When horses prance and falcons soar
Fifty years since the lions first roared.

Behold forever the leaves so dear
That adorn bright pearl of Calontir

Behold forever the leaves so dear
That adorn bright pearl of Calontir

 

The Story of Bayad and Riyâd ("hadeeth Bayad to Riyâd"), 13th C.,  Public domain worldwide

The Story of Bayad and Riyâd (“hadeeth Bayad to Riyâd”), 13th C., Public domain worldwide

Performing Arts at 50 Year

From the SCA Bards list:

Singers, storytellers, bards and buskers: Want to perform at 50 Year?
Please fill out this Google Form: http://goo.gl/forms/xA0Xs3T24b
to submit your application to perform on the outdoor stage, tavern, busking area, or indoor stage. Please note: the application is NOT required for any Bardic Circle. The deadline for applying to perform is May 1.
The staff will be filling slots as we go, so the earlier you submit your application, the better selection of performance opportunities you’ll have.
A note about material in Performing Arts:
The site for SCA 50 Year does not have a performance license; accordingly, the event staff requests that all performers restrict their repertoire to original pieces for which you own the copyright, pieces which you have permission to perform, and pieces in the public domain. Any questions regarding what material can be performed at this event can be directed to the Performing Arts Lead, Lady Sophia the Orange via Performance@sca50year.org
Opportunities for every level of performer are available at this event, and the Performing Arts Staff will assist any performer who submits an application by recommending resources for you. Our crack Performing Arts Team is bringing you a Performers’ Evening Tavern, Bardic Circles, Indoor and Outdoor Stages, Busking areas, and a special Performing Arts Day
Want to know more? Email: Performance@sca50year.org
Vicountess Shava
Unknown Artist. Minstrels with a Rebec & a Lute. 13th c. Manasseh Codex. El Escorial, Madrid.

Unknown Artist. Minstrels with a Rebec & a Lute. 13th c. Manasseh Codex. El Escorial, Madrid.

The Vatican Library Digitization Project

The Vatican Library Digitization Project ( http://digital.vatlib.it/en/ ) is in the process of scanning, saving and distributing the Library’s collection of documents, with over 4400 of them currently available online.

Documents range from the pre-Columbian Aztec “Codex Borgianus,” to the Mishneh Torah, to fragments of the Koran Kufic, to Virgil, the Iliad and various Bibles. The stated purpose of the project is to preserve all human heritage for posterity and make it available to the public.

Calontir CD Vol II Available for Download

The CalonSound Project has made the image file (.iso) of the Calontir CD Vol II available for download.

The CD includes two songs, Swan Road and Loki’s Song, written and sung by Mikal the Ram.

The CD can only be distributed as a physical CD or as an ISO file, due to the permissions of the artists involved. Most modern computers are capable of burning CDs from an ISO without any special software.

Midrealm Bardic Madness October 31st

Midrealm’s Bardic Madness is upon us.

Bardic Madness XVII , “Fillet of a Fenny Snake”, will be hosted by The Marche of the Unicorn, in the Barony of the Flaming Gryphon, on October 31st

(MacMillan Hall, Miami University, 531 E Spring St, Oxford, Ohio 45056)

We will explore the relationship between Shakespeare and Halloween. Yes, there are many Macbeth references 🙂

Some of the challenges that day will be:

  • “Speaking For-Seuss-ly”
  • “Look Ma, No Hands” (that’s Shakespeare Puppet Theater, Titus Andronicus Edition)
  • “At Last, Poor Yorick” (give voice to a dead person, fictional or real)

And our “Come As You Aren’t” party!

For a full list of challenges and more info on the event, go to
http://www.no-gorsedd.com/bmxvii/

And, in particular, please contact me if you’d like to be a patron or teach.

Llywelyn Glyndyverdwy
(Mark Cipra) cipram@sbcglobal.net

Bardic College “Big Damn Stick” Competition Requirements.

From Lord Janos:


The competition will be held at Bardic Bedlam. I don’t have the dates
handy. (Ed. note:  September 26th at Puddleford)

The requirements are:

Original song, story, or poem. Any theme you like. By ‘original’ I mean:
written for this contest. You can have done it around the campfire a
couple of times, sure, but definitely not entered in a competition before.
In other words, Dorcas could not use Compact between Horse and Man (and
I know she won’t mind me using her as a random example).

After some thought, I am going to go ahead and open it up to past holders
of the BDS.

Filks are allowed, but please announce it as such; fully original pieces
will have an edge.

Pieces will be judged on creativity/appeal, technical aspects (musical
composition for a song, rhythm and meter/rhyme or alliteration for a poem,
or story construction and mechanics for a story), and performance.

Documentation is not required, but if you want to supply a written copy of
the work, or information about the style, then feel free. Feel free to do
a brief introduction as well.

Drakenfjord Songbook Taken Down

The Drakenfjord songbook, Bardic Babblings, has been taken down.

Katrin Karlsdottir, the compiler of the songbook, issued this statement on the SCA BARDS email list:

I am very sorry to all whose works are in the Bardic Babblings file
currently up on the Drakenfjord website. The Book is a copy of my
personal lyric sheet collection with my annotations regarding where
they all came from trimmed out and a few articles I was using to teach
a bardic class It was never supposed to be published at all! Now that
I am aware the files were thrown together and published I am working
to get it taken down asap.

She later reported:

I got it down. I have no idea how long it has been up. I pulled the
whole library page until we can double check copyright information on
everything!

Again, my sincere apologies to all.

Drakenfjord Songbook Copyright Infringement — UPDATED

TSivia bas Tamara V’Amberview reports that a 1200 page online songbook has come to their attention which contains “…songs unattributed from: Ansteorra, Atenveldt, Calontir, Drachenwald, Ealdormere, Glean Abhann, Lochac, Midrealm, and Outlands. And that was just SKIMMING.”

In most cases these songs have had the names of SCA kingdoms replaced with “Drakenfjord” or similar such changes. Most material is older; some of the songs she has identified belong to Shava reports that she has identified material from Master Hector of the Black Height, Mistress Eleanor Fairchild (Truly Carmichael) , Sir Bela of Eastmarch (Poul Anderson), THL Emer ( Em Holbert), Baldwin of Erebor,Tim Jennings (Garraed), and Morgana Bro Morganwg.

The PDF document states:

If you have any lyric sheets, sheet music or other commentary to add please contact Dame Katrin Karlsdöttir at the email address of Katrin.karlsdottir@gmail.com and pass along whatever information you may posses. For instance many of these pieces are of unknown origin and any notes of where they originated would be appreciated. Also if you are interested in increasing your collection of works many many more can be found archived at the Bardic Bower Website also known as the Bardic Hall… http://bardsbower.multiply.com Many notes and alternant versions can be found there as well. Printed copies of this document are unavalible due to the prohibitive cost of printing and shipping a 1,200 page document. Feel free to print it and distribute it as you will for use within the realms of the organizations that promote the Bardic arts such as Amtgard, The High Fantasy Society, and The Society for Creative Anachronism…

If you recognize any of the unattributed material there, know who wrote it, or if you wrote it, they ask that you email the compiler and ask her to provide proper attribution and obtain permission, or remove the item(s).

http://www.drakenfjord.org/bardic.pdf

The Ealdormere Gazette reported futher details:

It has come to the Gazette’s attention that the Free Kingdom of Drakenfjord (part of the High Fantasy Society in Texas, and formally part of Amtgard) has compiled a lengthy publication called Bardic Babblings.

Unfortunately, the compiler of this tome has taken works from numerous bards of the Society for Creative Anachronism (as well as other modern artists) without permission, and has not included any credit or copyright whatsoever. These versions of the Society’s bards were also apparently housed on a website called the Bardic Bower (which is now defunct).

Although the compiler, attributed as Dame Katrin Karlsdöttir, claims that “many of these pieces are of unknown origin” it seems unlikely that all these pieces by the Society’s modern day bards would have been discovered with no credit or copyright noted.

Officers of Drakenfjord are listed on their website. The High Fantasy Society website has no contacts listed, and appears to be years out of date, though they do also have an active Forum and a Facebook group.

[Update: Bardic Babblings has also been published on a site called Yumpu.]

 

(Edit — additional reporting from The Ealdormere Gazette)

(Edit — to correct the attribution to only TSivia)

You’ll Never Leave this War Alive — a Contrafactum

Tune “You’ll Never leave Harlan Alive” by Darrell Scott
Lyrics by Lord Vincenzo Traina. mka Mark Lavette

In the deep dark hills of Southern Calontir
Is the place where I lived my whole life
And it’s there that I read on a moss covered gravestone
You will never leave this war alive
Well my family is proud to heed the call of the kingdom
And my Kin has raised many a stone
But this Last call to Duty has left me thinking
I will never leave this war alive

When the Sun comes up, we’ll be lined up in formation
And the sun gives off …to our enemies surprise
And we fill our cups whatever bitter brew we’re drinking
And you spend you free time thinking of how to get away

Now the kingsman said there was gold from our enemies
It will go to all who survive
But last night I saw they carried him in linen
And he never left this war alive

When the Sun comes up, we’ll be lined up in formation
And the sun gives off …to our enemies surprise
And we fill our cups whatever bitter brew we’re drinking
And you spend you free time thinking of how to get away

My wife sold our land and left out with a tinker
Saying her son will learn to survive
And My ghost followed them
as they rode out through the battlefield
Yes He will leave this war Alive

When the Sun comes up, we’ll be lined up in formation
And the sun gives off …to our enemies surprise
And we fill our cups with whatever bitter brew we’re drinking
And you spend you free time thinking of how to get away

When the Sun comes up, we’ll be lined up in formation
And the sun gives off …to our enemies surprise
And we fill our cups whatever bitter brew we’re drinking
And you spend you free time thinking of how to get away