Winner scrolls are weird. You don't
know what the persona of the winner will be so you can't custom tailor the look
& feel of it to them. Therefore it either needs to be medieval non
specific... or about the crown who is giving it out. In the East, for the
King's Bard scroll sometimes it is also about the lineage of the Bards who came
before you.
Rowan [the scribe] really wanted the
chance to do something non western in her scroll, had her eye on Mughal
mineatures. So I, as outgoing King's Bard, obliged her with the words I
crafted.
The King’s Bard Scroll is based on
Purananuru # 201. I picked this poem as the source because the speaker is
a poet, talking to a King, asking them to take on a 3rd person into their
house. In this case the 3rd person is the daughter of a king who has been
treacherously killed. The poet is trying to get the daughters married off to
other kings to protect them.
I adaped the original (below) to ask
the King to take a new Poet/Musician/Entertainer into his house.
Puranānūru 201, Poet Kapilar sang to
King Irungōvēl, (Thinai: Pādān, Thurai: Parisil)
If you ask who they are, they are
his daughters,
he who granted towns to those who
came in need
and earned great fame for gifting a
chariot to a
jasmine vine to climb,
he who owned elephants with jingling
bells, the
lord of Parampu, the great king
Pāri. They are
my daughters now.
As for me, I am their father’s
friend, a Brahmin,
a poet who has brought them here.
You are the best Vēlir of the Vēlir
clan,
with a heritage of forty-nine
generations of Vēlirs
who gave without limits,
who ruled Thuvarai with a fort with
tall, huge walls
that were made of copper, the city
that appeared in
the sacrificial pit of a northern
sage.
O king who is victorious in battles!
O great king with garlanded
elephants!
O Pulikatimāl with a bright garland
who knows what a man’s
responsibility is,
and what your duty is to bards!
I am offering them. Please accept
them.
Lord of the sky-high mountain that
yields gold!
You whose strength cannot be equaled
on the earth
that is covered by an arched sky and
surrounded
by the ocean, you whose army puts
fear into
enemies with victorious spears!
O ruler of a land that can never be
ruined!
Scroll text below: I gave Rowan [the
scribe] options for some words. Those options are in parentheses. I am not sure
which ones she picked:
Poet Megha sang to King (Tsar?)
Ivan:
O
great king with garlanded elephants!
O
Ivan with a gleaming beard,
who
knows what a man’s responsibility is
and
what His duty is to bards!
You
have selected a new bard,
____NAME
GOES HERE_____________
Their
art cannot be equaled on the earth.
They
will inspire your army and put fear into your
enemies
with songs!
O
ruler of a land that can never be ruined!
Oh
King (Tsar?) of the rising sun,whose generosity
to
bards knows no limits, may you grant them
rice,
ghee, sweet liquor and ornaments of gold,
As
you have this poor, unworthy, poet before them.”
Done
this Day, Shani-vaasara (Saturday), February 19th, in the season of Hemanta (Winter) AS 52 In the The Crown Province of Ostgardr
(Cutsheet) Words by Chatricam
Meghanta, modeled on Puranānūru poem 201 by Kapilar.
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