Thorfinna grafeldr, Order of the Hare Salient, 2023

I trow she sat at that cluttered desk
For a count of hours beyond knowing
Struck by her duty, offered to the Great Wolves
A gift to lands struck by plague
Stuck at that desk of which few still know
Upon which magic she struck.

‘Mid empty horn and gnaw’d bone
Her eyes gazed at unseen sights
Laughing aloud she shifted the Runes
And connected all alike.

For all her work on behalf of the barony, which she has dutifully served in many ways, forms, and means, and especially for her work creating ethereal content during the Great Plague, do We, Dubhessa and Joffr, Baroness and Baron of Skraeling Althing, induct Þorfinna gráfeldr into the Order of the Hare Salient, done on the 7th day of Góa, at Practicum in the Canton of Caldrithig, in the fifty-seventh year of the Great Althing.


Wording by Baron Colyne Stewart, based on Odin's Quest after the Runes (stanzas 137-144) of the Hávamál (The Words of Odin the High One) from The Elder or Poetic Edda, commonly known as Sæmund's Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems, edited and translated by Olive Bray (London: Printed for the Viking Club, 1908), pp. 61-111. Web version edited by D. L. Ashliman, University of Pittsburgh, https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/havamal.html Accessed January 11, 2023.

Góa is a month on the Old Icelandic calendar that lasts from February 19 through March 20. The 7th of Góa is therefore February 25th.

Helen of Greyfells, Order of the Hare Argent, 2022

To Her most revered and beloved Excellency, Helen of Greyfells, humble servant, greetings.

We have long witnessed and been told of all your good works, and here within Our leporine halls We would repay you for all your generosity and hospitality that you have shown to all. For, many times, in both canton and barony, as a Seneschal and Chatelaine, you have given hospitality and the true spirit of the Hare. Indeed, the members of one of Our orders has demanded your admittance as just recognition of all you have done! And so, We beg you to continue the good work you have always done, with reverence and love.

Deal, then, Our dear Helene, with this our request, that you join Our Order of the Hare Argent, so that here on earth your deeds may be recognized by all!

This do We, Dubhessa and Joffr,  Baroness and Baron of Skraeling Althing, decree. [Date and Place]

Wording by Baron Colyne Stewart, based on a letter from Boniface to Abbess Eadburga, c. 735.

Duncan MacLeod, Hare Salient, 2022

Many are the ways one may render service as an archer in these lands. First of all, yew could serve as a Marshal of the Bow, useful to ensure that others may practice the Art of Archery. Also admirable wood be those who have stood as an Archery Champion and do not loose composure nor quiver when competing for their patrons’ honour. Butt we must also tip our caps to one who likewise serves upon engines of seigecraft without being vane. Therefore we, Dubhessa and Joffr, give unto Duncan MacLeod the Award of the Hare Salient. Done November 12, AS 57 at Feast of the Hare in our Canton of Caldrithig. 

Wording by Baron Colyne Stewart, very loosely based on The Art of Archery by Anon., c. 1515. Translation by H. Walrond, 1901.

Marguerite Gingraix, Order of the Hare Salient, 2022

Wee speake to Our Herald, and Signet, and all of the Hare thus, Know my deare ones that this Dame Marguerite Gingraix is a personage of generosity of time and labour, and Wee have thought long about them, and Wee shall devide Our thinking into six parts. In the first what the generosity is, whiche is Service, secondly that said Service has been demonstrated by their time as Baronial Exhequer, thirdly that this Service was continued as Baronial Signet, fourthly that this Radicall gift to Us, our forebears, and Our people must and should be recognized, fifthly that We have an Order to recognize great Service, and sixtly that it be but naturall that Wee shall therefore induct Dame Marguerite into the Order of the Hare Salient. 

This, in Our wisdome was done by Dubhessa and Joffr, Baroness and Baron of Skraeling Althing at the Feast of the Hare in the Canton of Calrithig on the anniversary of the crowning of Lothair III, being the twelfth day of November, in the yeare of the Society seven and fifty.

Wording by Baron Colyne Stewart, based on A Chymicall treatise of the Ancient and highly illuminated Philosopher, Devine and Physitian, Arnoldus de Nova Villa who lived 400 years agoe, never seene in print before, but now by a Lover of the Spagyrick art made publick for the use of Learners, printed in the year 1611. Transcribed from Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1415, pp.130-146, by Hereward Tilton. https://www.alchemywebsite.com/arnaldus_treatise.html 

Eluned ferch Angor, Order of the Black Hare, 2022

As great store We set in Eluned,
She who the science and craft has spread,
Patron and supporter of vari’d arts,
Instigator from whom action starts,
In the kitchen, hall and sewing room,
Therefore do We pronounce this, her doom:
Let she of the rainbow’s coloured flair
Join with the Order of the Black Hare.

Presented by Dubhessa and Joffr, Baroness and Baron of Skraeling Althing, while sitting Their seats at [name of event], in [host group], [date of event].

Wording by Baron Colyne Stewart, based on “The Death-Bed Song of Meilyr, the Poet” by Meilyr Brydydd, c1137. 1

Meilyr Brydydd (fl. 1100-1137) was one of the Y Gogynfeirdd (The Less Early Poets) of 10th century Wales. These poets wrote works to praise the courts of their patrons, about the state of their souls, while also endeavouring to nurture a distinctively Welsh identity 2. Meilyr’s poem “The Death-Bed Song of Meilyr, the Poet” is part of a genre called marwysgafn which were religious odes in which the poet lamented their coming demise and expressed their sins. 3 4 This particular poem was written utilizing two different metres: cyhydedd naw ban and cyhydedd hir. 5 Cyhydedd naw ban consisted of two 9-syllable rhyming lines with the end rhyme often carrying over several lines in a row. 6 The fragment of Meilyr’s poem I used as a source seems to have been written in this meter (though the translator used lines of ten syllables rather than nine) and does not fit the definition of cyhydedd hir (two lines comprised of three 5- syllable sections that shared an end rhyme, followed by a four syllable section with a new end rhyme with the next line using c rhymes in place of a rhymes and having these internal rhymes remain within the line while the end b rhyme connected not internally but with the next line’s end rhyme). 7 I therefore used the Cyhydedd naw ban meter for my wording.

The poet and poem were selected to reflect the persona of the recipient. Eluned often dyes her hair bright colours, hence the reference to “rainbow’s coloiured flair.”

1 Graves, Alfred Perceval (transl. and ed.), Welsh Poetry Old and New in English Verse, 1912, Longmans, Green and Co: London, p. 15.
(https://archive.org/details/welshpoetryoldne00graviala)
2 Trehaime, Elaine. Medieval Literature: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 47.
3 Obermeier, Anita. The History and Anatomy of Auctorial Self-criticism in the European Middle Ages. Rodopi B.V., 1999, pp. 174-175.
4 Editors of Encyclopaedia. “marwysgafn,”. Encyclopedia Britannica, Britannica, July 20, 1998. https://www.britannica.com/topic/marwysgafn
5 Koch, J.T. & Minard, A. (eds), The Celts. History, Life, Culture, vol. 2, Santa Barbara, 2012.
https://www.academia.edu/41690687/St_Melor
6 Fischer, Todd H. C. Ossa poetices: A Cyclopedia of Early, Medieval and Renaissance Poetic Forms, Devices and Genres. Stonebunny Press,2017, p. 32.
7 Ibid. Pp. 28-29.

Avelyn Wexcombe of Great Bedwyn and Dafydd ap Alan, Order of the Friends of the Hare, 2022

As friendship is the result of great power and is found to the highest degree in people and their better spirits; as friendship is a righteous power which can be channeled to dwell among the virtuous; as friendship is the root of growth, the dispenser of all joy, the sincerity of truth, the strength of conviction, the foundation of peace, and the source of all good things; and as this power has been consistently displayed by Avelyn Wexcombe and Dafydd ap Alan to this, the Barony of Skraeling Althing, which flourished under their kind care, do We, Dubhessa and Joffr, Their heirs and current Baroness and Baron of Skraeling Althing, invite them to join our august Order of the Friends of the Hare. Done [date], at [event], in [place].

Wording by Baron Colyne Stewart, based on a segment from Amicitia, a treatise on friendship, written by Boncompagno Da Signa, in 1205.

Sources

Anon. “A Medieval Guide to Friendship.” Medievalists.net, Features, n.d. https://www.medievalists.net/2014/02/medieval-guide-friendship/ 

Gianluca Raccagni (2013) “The teaching of rhetoric and the Magna Carta of the Lombard cities: the Peace of Constance, the Empire and the Papacy in the works of Guido Faba and his leading contemporary colleagues,” Journal of Medieval History, 39:1, 61-79, DOI: 10.1080/03044181.2012.745446

Ines de Freitas, Award of Orion, 2021

 Decree of the King, Rattanicus, and the Queen, Isabel, first of those names.

Leaving aside the types and definitions of Justice, which many write about in unreasonable ways, it is Our intention to speak very briefly of justice alone, which is the reason royal power exists: to punish the evil and to reward the good.

And given that the King and Queen, whose reign is well-recorded, rule with justice – an act more pleasing to God than any other - We wish to speak about justice as those who have been greatly contented by the learning of one Lady, Ines de Freitas, who has embellished Our kingdom with song and scholarship in equal measure.

The King and Queen made vast use of the virtue of justice to bestow upon the Lady, Ines de Freitas, the Award of Orion, and on whose account we must consider that there was in this time the gift of justice, whose laurel and fruit is honorable fame in this world.

This was done on the 20th day of November, as We sat Our thrones in our land of Bastille du Lac, where We put Our hands and seal.

Wording by TH Lord Dietrich von Sachsen, based on The Prologue of the Chronicle of King Pedro I of Portugal.