I was asked to do a pair of Award of Arms scrolls for a husband and wife for Twelfth Night. Their personas are night and day different, so felt it was important they got very individual scrolls.
When planning the scroll for Techan MacGothraidh, I knew pretty early on I wanted to include knotwork of some kind. I began digging around the annals of the internet to find a good exemplar to work from and kept coming back to The Book of Durrow. It was not the standard Book of Kells everyone knows, and predates it by about a century. I felt that because Techan refers to himself as an 8th century Irishman, the Book of Durrow would fit a bit more for him.
The Book of Durrow was relatively small, just under 5 inches by 10 inches. In reviewing the knot work on the various pages, I knew a scale that size was going to be beyond my skill set. And I certainly couldn’t calligraph that small. Techan had been in the SCA for more than 10 years; I really wanted this piece to shine. I decided pretty early on I’d be making the scroll on an 11″x14″ piece of bristol. This meant I could take the knotwork up in size and really be exacting with my skill.
The next part was to figure out what specific page I was going to be replicating. Admittedly, I’m a scribe who needs a good foundation, and does not need to freestyle. Thankfully, Mistress Camille des Jardins assured me that tracing was perfectly acceptable. Excellent. As I dug through the Book of Durrow, I kept returning to one plate.
The Lion of John provided a great border to work with and one I felt pretty confident I could recreate with time and patience. I also felt I could best adapt it with colors which were significant to the recipient. Also, there were about a million dots in the knot work on the sides. I knew that would prove itself time consuming, but ultimately very cathartic.
Once settled, I began working with my light table to get the knot work laid out onto the bristol. I did the line work before the calligraphy, in part because I wanted to see how much space I was going to have to work within and to get the tedious part out of the way. I used an 8H drawing pencil and ever so lightly added the lines in. I actually did this process twice, because I was unhappy with the first go around. I’d share a picture, but it mostly looks white.
Once the lines were in, I developed the words. I have known Techan for the better part of nine years, and I really wanted the words to mean something. I drafted a few times before finally settling on the following:
“Now comes before you Techan Mac Gothraidh, son of Godric of Hamtun. Fierce, proud, and stalwart he stands; wavy mane beneath armored helmet behind a shield of blue and gold. Eyes sharp, focused behind the string of a long bow; mind clear and keen, in control of the pen. His heart filled with love for his family and homelands. For these strengths do we Ivan and Matilde, Tsar and Tsaritsa of these Eastern Lands, find him worthy and award him these arms: Azure, a chevron between three bowen crosses and on a chief Or three compass stars azure.
We declare this thing true during Twelfth Night, in his homeland the Barony of Endewearde on Our sixth day of January AS Fifty Two.”
The words were simple, but I felt they captured his essence well. Thankfully, I had a bit of experience already with uncial writing, so I was able to work through the calligraphy pretty easily. Using Higgins Eternal Ink for black, and Calli Ink – Burgundy for the red, I ended up with the following piece.
It isn’t the most amazing calligraphy, but as a beginner, I’m crazy proud of it. I feel like it is relatively uniform and doesn’t slant too much. I worked with a Mitchell left-handed nib, and it really made everything flow nicely. I look forward to exploring more with them.
Once the calligraphy was complete, I started to work on the illumination. Working with Winsor Newton Gold gouache, I laid in the knots and the gaps on the side. This went relatively quickly as I had nothing to work around, and I didn’t have to put layers in–just solid blocks of color.
Once the gold was in, I began filling in the colors. The palette was simple: black, red, and blue. I knew blue was one of Techan’s favorite colors, so I wanted to reflect that in the knotwork. Shown below is a picture of the knotwork before I lined everything. At this point, I was generally concerned with how it was looking. I felt like the paint job was sloppy. I had to continuously remind myself it was a work in progress, and once I went in and provided the lines, it would be fine.
After all the detail work was put in place, and the lining done, all that remained was a zillion little dots. On the plus side, the dots were in a line, so I didn’t have to “wing it”. I thinned my black just a touch, and equipped with a toothpick, began to dot my way through the sidebars.
An hour and a half later, the scroll was complete.
Looking back on this project, I was able to truly learn the value of what our scribal community does. All said and done, I would guess I had about 40 hours into the scroll, not counting research time. Strictly time with the page and creating it. I am pleased with how it came out, and I sincerely hope Techan is, too.
Paper: Strathmore Bristol Smooth Finish
Ink: Higgins Eternal Ink, Calli Ink
Nib: Mitchell .75mm left-hand
Paint: Holbein Artist Gouache, Winsor Newton Gouache
The Voice of Audrye Beneyt 