I would like you to go back in time to May of 2010 for an event entitled Castle Fever. Many a good thing happened at that event, but I would like to focus on an award project that was unveiled at that time. I had been approached by my household sister Katerinka Lvovicha in producing a "scroll" for Ingus Moen, my teacher, for he was being inducted into the Order of Týr, which is one of the top service awards in Northshield. The original thought was to reproduce the Sigtuna box of the early 11th century, fitting because Ingus' wife Katja is a merchant. However, there was a lack of material, so the ultimate inspiration for the project was the Ladoga Pendant, dated to the second half of the 10th century. If you follow the link, scroll down to the Old Ladoga II inscription.
Because of the poetry on the Sigtuna box, I created a commemoration poem in the dróttkvætt poetry form, in Old Norse rather than English, and then transliterated it into runes. And being the stickler I am, I did it in younger futhark rather than the often used but temporally incorrect elder futhark, specifically the Norwegian short twig form. Both Ingus and my persona are Norwegian, though his is of a later period than mine. At the time I wasn't sure his time period, so I went with mine, hence the short twig form. Katerinka then etched the inscription into the metal of our scroll. In addition to the pendant, Katerinka also created a traditional scroll that included the Old Norse text in Roman letters, as well as the English translation.
| Sigríðr, Tómas sögðu skjöld'gar góðar þjóðar: Herstillis í halli háværr skald kemr ærligr (Hvárki Áss várr Úlfliðs ágætingr ne Ingus) á átti dag skerplu, eptir ang ýs strangan frá inum eyju fjöllum; (flýðu lýðs nauðsynjar.) | Sigrid, Tom said, the good rulers of people [lit. the good shields of the people]: To the troop-controller's [=king's] hall the noisy and honest skald comes. (Neither our God of the Wolf-joint [=Týr] nor the goodlyman Ingus) on the eighth day of Skerpla, after the yew's strong sorrow [came] [=fire] from the island's mountains [=castle, =Eyjafjalla volcano]; (fled the people's needs.) |
Which means:
The noisy and honest skald comes into the Hall of Tom, King of Northshield, and Sigrid, his Queen. Týr did not flee form the needs of the Gods, and so neither has Ingus fled from the needs of the people. Thus we induct him into the Order of the Týr, done this day on the Eighth day of Skerpla, when the Fire came to the Castle [=Castle Fever], after the volcano in Iceland erupted.
Since scroll text has to hit several items, my poem ended up longer than that on the Sigtuna box. So to help condense it for carving, I employed a period practice of merging several of the runes together. Also, in my research, I came across an semantically unknown rune, that is the triple-týr rune. As the name suggests, it´s the týr-rune that has three iterations on one stem. It seemed appropriate to steal it for the Order of Týr. Katerinka took it one step further, and doubled it again, producing this nice symbol on one side, as seen to the right.It ended up being a very cool "scroll," and I'm very proud that I was a part of creating it. And also at this event, I was witness to the aftermath of a certain battle that helped inspire a memorative poem. But I shall leave that to another post.
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