So, rather than look at a specific scroll creation, let’s talk about a theoretical process of converting a period piece to an SCA scroll. This is an introductory article, and literally using a period piece with a minimum of modification.
I’m not going to drone on at length about the elements of structure (that’s a subject for one or more future articles), I’m simply going to address here word swapping.
Let’s take the following period text, that I have from the book The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchial Orders of Knighthood In Later Medieval Europe 1325-1520 by D’A.J.D. Boulton. Here’s a letter written by En Pere, King of Aragon to the Vicar General of the Duchies to induct a group of people into their knightly order the Enterprise of St. George in 1381. The letter, translated from Catalan, reads as follows:
En
Pere, by the grace of God, King of Aragon, Valencia, Mallorca, Sardinia, and
Corsica, Count of Baercelona, Duke of Athens and Neopatria, and also Count of
Rousillon and Cerdagne. To our noble and
beloved councilor and chamberlain, Mosen Felip Dalmau, Viscount of Rocaberti
and Vicar General of the said duchies, greeting. Forsamuch as we know that our
noble and dear cousin Enm Loys d’Aragó, Count of Malta and, and Mosen Jofre Ca
Rovira, and the noble En Johan d’Aragó, dwelling in the said duchies have great
affection for our honour, for which they desire our favours and graces, by the
tenor of the present letter we command you in our name and by our authority to
place them, and each one of them, in our Enterprise of St. George, and to give
each of them the white mantle with the red cross which we and the nobles and
knights who are in the said Enterprise wear every Saturday, and on St. George’s
Day. We command you to receive from each
of them in our name the oath and homage relevant to the matters contained in
the chapters of the said Enterprise, which you shall arrange to have given to
them, sealed with our pendant seal.
Given in Zaragoza, on the 18th day of May, in the year of the
Nativity of Our Lord mccclxxxi. Rex
Petrus.
This is a great piece, because it plays well with very little change to our SCA sensibilities, with a structure of greetings, naming a person (or in this case, persons) to receive an honour (membership in a knightly order), the regalia and trappings granted with the honour, the referral to a letter or scroll and seal, and finally a conclusion with a place and date. You can see how it sounds close to our traditional SCA scrolls (and shows our ‘default’ scroll wordings adhere pretty closely to period structure.
Now, let’s turn this into an SCA knighthood scroll with a bare minimum of changes. I am going to delete some extraneous wording, and show changes of the remaining words with bolded text to show how closely we can stick with this period piece.
Roak and Hyrrokin, by the grace of the Line of the North, King and Queen of Ealdormere, Lord and Lady of
the Beornweald, and also Admirals of
the Inland Seas. To our noble and
beloved , Ignatius of Eoforwic, Companion of the Order of Thorbjorn’s
Hammer and Marshal of our Royal City,
greeting. Forsamuch as we know that our noble and dear Lord Ignatius, dwelling in the said royal city has great prowess, for which he deserves our favours and graces, by the tenor of this present letter we command him to be placed by our authority in
our Order of the Chivalry, and to
give him the white belt with the gold chain which the knights who are in the said Order wear every Saturday, and on Pennsic Days. We receive from him the oath and homage relevant to the matters contained in the
chapters of the said Order, and arrange to have give to him this proclamation sealed with our pendant seal. Given in Septentria,
on the 18th day of May, in the year of the Society liii. Rex Roak, Regina Hyrrokin.
If you see, about 40% of the scroll changes are swapped proper nouns, a few slight changes of plural to singular address, and the insertion of a couple of two words to make it obvious this is a scroll. We’ve shortened the wording to remove the bits about god, the excessive titles, and the addressing of a middle man to make it not an order to a chamberlain to induct someone into a knightly order, but to do it directly.
This is how easy it is to take a period piece, and make it an SCA scroll! This period text can be used for an Award of Arms, a warrant for a kingdom office, a peerage scroll, or anything that you can think of that’s specific to your kingdom’s honour system.
If you have questions about word swapping or period pieces, by all means drop me a line.
Cheerfully slaving for my feudal masters,
Brande, Barenwalde
checkyboy@gmail.com