Lindquistringes for Arianhwy Wen

I have been waiting to do this scroll for ages, and had the exemplar picked out for nearly as long (the exemplar is Oxford Bodleian MS Auct. D.4.6., fol. 91r). When I got the assignment Nov. 3, I had to get work right away -- sketched out the initial and put in the words. :) Nov. 14 (I think?) I painted in the frame of the letter and the green flourishes on the left. Nov. 17 I finished painting the inside flourishes. Then, the fun of drawing out the lines, which I did Nov. 18.

I composed the text that evening, and it reads:

Domina Arianuia Alba quae dicitur Gemina Mala, scriptrix, sag ittaria, callida doctaque, serviens Drachenwaldensis est autem hinc ordonis anuli lindquisti. Fit manibus Leifi regis et Morriganae reginae xxix novembris xlix.

In translation, this is:

Lady Arianhwy Wen who is called the Evil Twin, scribe, archer, cunning and learned, servant of Drachenwald is moreover henceforth of the Order of the Lindquistringe. Done by the hands of Leif king and Morrigan queen, 29 November 49.

I left it at that as I wasn't sure what to write for the subtext yet; I didn't want to merely translate. I wrote the subtext on Nov. 21, and was extremely pleased with the end result. I hope she likes it, for it was made with lots of love and affection.

Here's a close-up of the initial:

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© 2014, Sara L. Uckelman.

Dragons Pride for Angelica of Guildford

I received permission from TRM to go ahead with my proposed idea for something extra in the scroll text on Jul. 11, and began sketching out the structure that evening. I knew from as soon as I'd gotten the assignment that I wanted to do something from the Macclesfield Alphabet book, but didn't decide on which alphabet until that evening as well. I decided to go with one of the simple ones where I could then, hopefully do every initial in that style, which I thought would look cool. I managed to sketch out the first L before it was time to head to bed.

On Jul. 23, I inked and calligraphed from the beginning up to (but not including) the third initial. Jul. 25 I calligraphed from D through to the end of the next line, but it was Too Hot to do any more. On Jul. 27, I calligraphed through the initial "A" during Gwen's nap and while she painted, and then after she went to bed got all the way up through the final capital. I finished the calligraphy on Jul. 28, working my usual magic to get the text to end at JUST the right place.

The text was composed on the fly and reads:

Leif and Morrigan, king and queen of Drachenwald, to our princes, dukes, bishops, and most especially to the members of our most ancient and honorable order of the dragons pride: who throughout our land serve as examples to all that skill in arts and sciences does not respect age and that even amongst our youth may our teachers be found, greetings and salutations. It is our right and royal prerogative and privilege to increase the members of the orders of our kingdom in accordance with law and custom, and further to recognize and give special mark to those who have distinguished themselves in deed and word above the rank of their peers and one such person is Lady Angelica of Guildford, damoiselle de Covenham, companion of the dragons jewel and champion archer of the court of Paul and Aryanhwy, who has long and diligently striven to reach the heights of heraldic excellence, who has made a name for herself throughout our lands and whose service to our persons at our coronation we deeply and joyfully wish to reward and recognize and so do we the abovenamed king and queen do hereby enlist, enroll, account, and create the said Angelica abovementioned in the foresaid Order of the Dragons Pride, with all rights, responsibilities, and privileges appertaining thereto: inlcuding the rights of bearing the badge of the order and styling herself in all places as a member of the said order: We hereby further assign to the same damoiselle the privilege to be held by herself a lone for so long as we sit the dragon thrones to serve as the herald of the order and to be known in all our lands as Dragon Prides Pursuivant: Witness ourselves in our court at castle Raglan on viiij august anno societatis xlix.

I'm quite pleased with this one.

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© 2014, Sara L. Uckelman.

Lindquistringes for Cassandra della Corona

This was done on a blank illuminated by Herrin Elysant Walters. I received the blank from her over the weekend of Jul. 12-13, and wrote the text and calligraphed it on the night of Jul. 14

The text is derived from Rotuli litterarum patentium in Turri Londinensi, derived from the "miscellaneous letters patent" from the time of KingJohn in the introduction. It reads:

The King and Queen of Drachenwald to Signora Cassandra della Corona, seneschale in our western lands, greetings. Know ye, that by these present letters we have elected you to the status of member of the ancient and honourable Orden des Lindquistringes, with all appertaining rights and responsibilities, witnessed ourselves at Castle Raglan, on the 9th day of August, anno societatis xlix.

I tried a new hand of calligraphy -- trying to get something along the lines of an elegant Italian secretary, and it wasn't entirely succesful. The perg wouldn't stay flat, and my ink kept glooping. However, I did get the letter forms basically uniform, and the spicing is good, so I'm not too unhappy.

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© 2014, Sara L. Uckelman.

Lindquistringes for Thomas Flamanc of Kelsale

I began the illumination at Arts in April, during my intro to illumination class; I had the border printed out, and it seemed nice and simple, and a good way to illustrate various techniques. I continued using it for the same purpose for my intro to illumination class at Double Wars. Then a few days later, Margaretha came over for C&I night and was looking for advice on gilding, so I took the opportunity to put down all the size and then, rather than deal with gold that night, painted in all the black outlining. It started turning out really nice, so I decided then to use it for Thomas's Lindquistringes, rather than trying to start a completely new design from scratch in the remaining time I had left. So two nights later, Jun. 1, I returned and did all the gilding -- or at least, I put gold over all the size, and left the matter of cleaning up the edges and removing the extra bits for another night. That other night was Jun. 5, when I discovered a nifty trick of running my finger very lightly over all the gilded parts, which did remarkably well of cleaning up the edges and removing the extra bits. Then I went in to painting the inside of the initial, which I had previously forgotten to sketch when I was sketching everything else. I managed to get that, and a little bit of the whitework done before needed to turn my attention to other things.

I put down the size for gilding the inner part of the initial the evening of Jun. 6, and during Gwen's nap on Jun. 8, I gilding that, finished, the whitework, and re-went over all the outlines in black. Only thing left, now, writing the text and doing the calligraphy!

Joel offered to watch Gwen some on Jun. 9, which allowed me to get the lines ruled out and the text written. The text reads:

Drachenwaldenses reges, nominaliter Leifus et Morigana, ad Thomam Flandrensis de Kelsale, salutationem, gratiam, et benedic tionem. Agnitionis muni quod prebuisti nobis, offerimus ideo tibi admissionem in nostris ordo nis anuli lindquiste, qui confert jus ostendere insigne ordonis, anulus factus draconi aurei sine pennis habentis ornamentum rubrum. Ut usus commune: The drachenwaldish rulers, Leif and Morrigan by name, to Thomas abovementioned, salutations, goodwill and greetings. In recognition of the service which you have rendered unto us, we therefore offer unto you admission in our Order of the Lindquistrin ges, which confers the right to bear the badge of the order, a ring formed of a wingless dragon or maintaining a gem gules.

Datum apud Castrum Bolton praeter Depe dene supra Wychewood, xiiij kal. junii, anno societatis xlix. Teste huius Arianuia Bona nostra scriptrix fecit hos presentes, signatos Leifo regi, Morigane regine.

It took just under two hours to do all the calligraphy, along with all the internal capitals and flourishes, interrupted only three times by a small child who recognize the power of the toilet as a "get out of bed free" card. The internal decorated initials are drawn from BL MS Egerton 751 f. 13v.

And I was just about ready to wrap up shop for the night...and realized I'd forgotten to put the green bits around the golden balls. Out come the paints and brushes again... V. pleased with the result; the green made the border pop, quite a bit more than I would've thought on the basis of my exemplar.

Here are some close-up details:

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© 2014, Sara L. Uckelman.

Dragon's Pride for Kane Ragnarsson

Normally I'm very good about backlog scrolls. But this one seemed ill-fated from the start. I started it, but didn't quite finish it before the event; and the event was three weeks before Gwen was born and I physically couldn't sit hunched over to finish it. And then she was born, and I was dealing with a newborn and no sleep and no desire to do C&I, and then we moved and I lost the nib that I'd done half the calligraphy with, and then we moved again and I found the nib but it seemed to fight me at every step, and as time went on it became less and less a thing of joy and more and more of an anchor. So I did what I've only rarely done before: I scrapped it and started over. I asked the recipient what his preferences were, and the response was "16th C German writ-style", which, thankfully, is something I enjoy doing very much. I found a beautiful 16th C German calligraphy exemplar book, and choose this initial for it. Once I had a letter, I could then write a text, which reads:

We, Lief and Morrigan, King and Queen of Drachenwald, &c., to all people to whom these presents shall come, greetings: know that we have given and granted, for us and our heirs, to our trusty and wellbelo- ved subject Lord Kane Ragnarson, of Vielburgenshire, free licence and full liberty from hereon out to style himself a member of the Order of Dragon's Pride, now and at all times for ever hereafter, with all rights and responsibilities and privileges attendant thereto. Witnesse our selves at Miltenburg Hall the 22, day of October, the forty-sixth year of our Society. Anno Dom 2011. Per ipsos reges, &c.

I don't remember which day during the week I did the planning and wrote the text, but I do know that my plans to work on it Friday evening were snaffled by a wrenched muscle in my right shoulder which thankfully was somewhat better on Saturday. So on the 14th I did the initial, which, alas, didn't turn out as well as I would've liked, because the vermillion ink I have always plays up. And I think I should've had a few different nibs than what I used. Unfortunately, the issues with ink have plagued the calligraphy too, so I quit for the evening after not too long. I returned to the calligraphy on the 16th; luckily, things looked better after a day or so away. I finished the calligraphy that evening, and though I'm not entirely happy with it, adding the flourishes helped (though I'm not entirely happy with the either), and I think I'm sufficiently satisfied with it. It was a bit dull, though, so I added this flourish.

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© 2013, Sara L. Uckelman.

AoA for Maerith aff Weselax

The blank was done by Racaire; all I did was add in the relevant text.

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© 2011, Sara L. Uckelman.

Panache for Emelyne of Twynham

This was calligraphed on a blank by Bridget Greywulf, over the course of Oct. 29 and 30. The text reads:

By the king and queen of Drachenwald: To all who shall see or hear these presents, greetings. We who not only by common renown but also by the report of many credible gentles are truly advertised and informed of the great skill and knowledge in leatherworking of our subject Emelyne of Twynham so that she has deserved well and is well worthy so that henceforth and forevermore she be admitted, numbered, and accounted among the company of Our Order of the Panache. And for the remembrance of this we assign to the same Emelyne the right to bear the badge of the order, which right we affirm and ratify by this present charter, in witness whereof we have set our hands below on the vth day of November, a.s. xlvi.

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© 2011, Sara L. Uckelman.

AoA for Osk Grimsdottir

This blank was done by Margaretha; all I did was add in the details.

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© 2011, Sara L. Uckelman.

AoA for Jon Knutsson

This was a blank done by Racaire; all I did was fill in the details.

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© 2011, Sara L. Uckelman.

Panache for Richard the Rampant

Scroll	Exemplar

The exemplar is British Library MS Egerton 286, fol. 2. The scroll was done in one sitting; from start to finish it took just over 3 hours. This was my second time using oak gall ink; I'm still quite happy with it.

The text reads:

Lief and Morrigan king and queen of drachenwald to all seeing or hearing these words, greetings. It is the perogative of the crown to reward men of good skill and knowledge for their merits. And so we who have been truly advertised that Richard the Rampant has long persued feats of arts and sciences so that he deserves well and is well worthy that he be henceforth accounted, admitted, and renowned in all places among the number and in the company of our order of the panache. And for the remembrance of this we charge the said Richard to bear the badge of the order, and in witness of this we have signed our names below on the xth day of august, a.s. xlvi

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© 2011, Sara L. Uckelman.

Panache for George Fitzhume

Scroll	Exemplar

This scroll was done on a blank by Nicole d'Anjou, based on a 15th C MS. I did the calligraphy on Jul. 18 and painted the panache on Jul. 19.

The text reads:

Lief and Morrigan, king and queen of drachenwald, to all the dukes, counts, barons, lords, and gentles of this kingdom, greetings and salutations. Let it be known that we have not only by the testimony of many worthy and credible gentles but also by our own witness been informed and acquainted with the skills in diverse arts and sciences, most particularly metalurgy, displayed by our subject Sir George Fitzhume. In recognition of this we the above-named king and queen make the said George a member of our Order of the Panache, with all the rights, responsibilities, and privileges appertaining thereto, and so that all may know of his excellence, of his knowledge, and of his prowess in these matters we charge him to bear the badge of the order, depicted in the margin below. So that none may lawfully contest this our will we have signed our names below on the 10th day of August, a.s. xlvi, at Pennsic War.

It is based on the 1459/60 grant of arms to John Alfrey, number 4 at http://verysleepy.itgo.com/grants.htm.

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© 2011, Sara L. Uckelman.

Birthday scroll for Judith de Northumbria

Queen Morrigan asked for a scroll to commemorate Countess Judith's birthday, so Saraswati and I combined our skills. She did the illumination, I did the calligraphy:

The full thing:

Close-up of the text:

Even closer-up of the text:

The text reads:

Dies natali Judite de Northumbria est magna festivitas! And so it pleases us greatly to celebrate the birthday [of] our royal cousin and most dear friend. So that all shall know the esteem and affection we hold for her and so that there be a perman[en]t token of our regard we have charged our scribes to draw up this present document after the manner of the scribes of Burgundy. In witness of our fidelity, we place our names below.

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© 2011, Sara L. Uckelman.

Court Barony for Alexander von Hardtwald

Scroll	Exemplar

The exemplar is British Library MS Egerton 2432, fol. 34v, from S. Germany or Switzerland. Hardtwald is in the southwestern part of Germany, so I tried to find a suitable exemplar as close as possible to there.

The scroll was produced over the course of four days; on July 3, I chose the design, drew out layout, painted all background colors, and started but did not complete the red outlining. On July 4, I completed the rest of the illumination except for the detail work on miniature. July 7 I did the outlining in brown and started the calligraphy, and I finished it on July 8.

The text reads:

Leif by favor of arms of drachenwald king and Morrigan by favor of beauty and inspiration of the same realm queen to our right trusty and wellbeloved lord Alexander von Hardtwald. Whereas by the advice and assent of our peers for certain arduous and urgent and serious affairs concerning Us and the defence of our kingdom we are minded to surround ourselves with such barons as shall give us council in these affairs we strictly enjoining command you upon the allegiance by which you are bound to Us that you (waiving all excuses) place personally yourself before us so that we may make you a baron of our court in recognition of your service to Knights Crossing and so that with the said prelates, great men and peers you treat and give your counsel upon the affairs aforesaid. And this as you regard Us and Our honour and the safety and defence of the realm in nowise do you omit yourself from our counsel, and in commemoration of this newly acquired honor we hereby grant unto you the sole and unique right to bear the arms blazoned as follows, that is to say: per chevron or and sable, a sun and in canton a mullet counterchanged, depicted more plainly above. This we do on the 16th day of July, in the year of the society xlvi.

It is based on the summons to parliament used by Queen Elizabeth II, which so far as I can tell is little changed from the period summons.

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© 2011, Sara L. Uckelman.