Lindquistringes for Ursula Sturludóttir
The text, done in artificial uncial, translates as:
By reason of her service to the lands of Insula Draconis we Gerhardt and Judith king and queen of Drachenwald invite Ursula Sturludottir into our Orden des Lindquistringes. Done August 22, a.s. xliv.
The calligraphy was done on Juuly 24, before I went to Pennsic, and then the border was drawn and inked on August 12 and 16. The border was way more headache than I expected. I'd picked what I thought was a relatively easy exemplar (fol. 191v of The Book of Durrow, which is reproduced in various places; I was working from plate 7 of Nordenfalk, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Painting), but spent a number of evenings trying to copy the bottom border, both by sight, with a grid, and then with a different grid method, and failing each time. I finally gave up and went with a simple dot + grid knotwork border, which I knew I could do but which I also knew didn't look as nice as the original I was trying to copy. I'd gotten the outlines of the bottom border all inked out one evening...and then it smudged. That was just the final straw, I had to put the entire thing away for a few days before I could even stomach to look at it to see if it could be fixed.
It could be, and was, fixed, but this is still nowhere near as good as I'd hoped, and definitely not one of my favorites. But I think the calligraphy turned out beautifully.
© 2009, Sara L. Uckelman.
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