This particular scroll came to me as a request from a friend with only 3 weeks to complete it and get it delivered. Most Laurel scrolls are given much more time and there were circumstances behind the short time frame which were what they were.
The recipient of this award is an AMAZING person whom I hope to meet some day. He is a true Renaissance Man – he creates necessary items as well as art from a diverse field – whatever he sets his hand to is accomplished and often quite beautifully. He is currently in the process of recreating a Viking find, the contents of the Mastermyer Chest. This along with his dear wife’s hints (Viking persona, written in runes and a mention of shearing sheep (inside joke)) was enough to get me started personalizing this scroll.
Of course, we as scribes don’t really “write” in runes, but rather use them as a transliteration (substitution of one letter for another). Some day perhaps the code will be cracked to provide a full translation. The source of my conversion is here. I created the wording of the scroll, adding bits such as the word Haustnánudur which is a period-correct term for the season encompassing October. At the bottom I also placed a translation of a stanza from Sigrdrífumál. It talks of the giving of runes by the gods to mankind and all creatures, and that one who knows and correctly uses these runes helps himself….very much a Master Grimm thought! Yes, this is from Wiki (I see the cringe), but time was of the essence for this scroll which did not allow for further research back to the primary/secondary sources to check veracity if I were to complete it on time.
Beech-runes are there/ birth-runes are there, And all the runes of ale /And the magic runes of might. Who knows them rightly and reads them true, Has them himself to help; Ever they aid, till the gods are gone.
Passing of Knowledge Stanzas from Sigrdrífumál:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigrdr%C3%ADfumál
Next was the imagery of the scroll. I love “hoard finds”. Thinking of searching a farmer’s field or bog and being rewarded by hundreds-years-old treasure is amazing to me. I am fascinated by a more recent one called the Galloway Hoard, discovered in 2014. Not only does it have Viking era beads, bands and jewelry, but it has gold-flecked balls of dirt (thought to be collected from holy pilgrimage sites) as well as jewelry and a container thought to date possibly 200 years BEFORE the Viking items from Central Asia (noted as Zoroastrianism and Sasanian imperial iconography on the vessel). Its treasures wrapped in wool textiles from between 680 and 780 AD amazingly preserved. Such a unique and diverse find of beautiful things…perfect for this man.
I chose to show some of the items of the find spilling out from the vessel which engraving I modified to have Laurel branches as part of the design. I created bars raised by gesso and covered in 12K gold leaf to mimic silver (but won’t tarnish like silver leaf), rings done similarly in 23K gold, a bird pin done in shell gold and gouache, and beads from the find tumbling out and rolling across the bottom of the page done in gouache. All done on true vellum.
This scroll however needed…more. I was aided by my Laurel, Goodwife Michel Almond de Champagne, for this part. We created a presentation box, from which the front panel would fold down, unfurling the scroll to be presented and displayed. This box held another purpose as well…I had requested that members of his household add a small token of their relationship with him to this box, in essence, creating a real treasure box.
In the season of Haustnánudur, do the clans gather close to honor one who kneels before you. Truly a man of determined talent who holds to the belief of that which is worth doing is worth overdoing. His crafting creates not only objects of beauty but also of practicality, for an object of beauty is admired, but one that is beautiful and practical is a true work of art. He is unafraid to put his hands to any task for the reward is well worth the effort. Now that the sheep have been shorn, We, King Eckehard and Queen Jane, call out to Master Stephan Grimm of Grimmsfield to come before Us and take his rightful place among his peers within Our Beloved Order of the Laurel on this 2nd day of October, A.S. LVI, at Our Trial By Fire and Royal Archer in Our Barony of Bright Hills.
Philomene’s Scriptorium 