Poem draft done!

Not online yet, but done.  And about the right length.  I don't get to chat up the horrible April tithe-collecting monster that Storvik keeps in check as much as I'd like to, but c'est la vie.

I've almost finished reading The Sagas of the Warrior-Poets, which are prose.  They frequently feature the legal arbitration that was a part of Icelandic life.  (If the arbitration failed, there was usually a duel instead.)  That's a nice mirror of the story I'm telling, in which the king must decide between two candidates for baron without inciting bloodshed.  (Of course, I think the Icelandic arbitration comes partly out of them not having a king to lay down such decisions autocratically, but...)  Rather than the tit-for-tat calculus featured in the sagas ("This insult counters that insult, and this attack is offset by that seduction of his wife, but you killed his pig so fork over an ounce of silver"), there's a coin-toss, but hey, that's how it happened!

I found out that my copy of the Prose Edda (the softcover version of this edition) is abridged!  It doesn't include the types of meters at all.  I will have to go out and hunt down something more complete.

Comments

[Patty]

I want to write something for the poetry challenge, but after reading your invitation to Their Majesties, I don't think I can come anywhere near you!

[TeleriB]

Well, thank you! But please don't bow out on my account - I'm not competing in my own contest. (Conflict of interest, much? :) ) My tentative idea is, with their Excellencies' permission, read my poem as part of the festivities during court, and have the winner (and maybe some other competitors) of the contest recite during feast.