The "Legendary History of Storvik" competition was as successful as the Sapphire Joust one. We had three entries, all excellent:
- A runo from Sir Axel's Atlantiavala concerning the Assessment Battle in '81, between Storvik and Sacred Stone. Most historical, and in a northern European (although not Nordic) meter.
- An edda from Lady Swannoc about how Storvik was formed and populated by maggots-turned-to-men from the rotten hand of the giant Storverk. Very much rooted in Norse mythology with a staggering number of allusions and kennings, although related in the style of an English translation rather than in metered verse.*
- Another edda from Master Igor about Sir Volodimir of Cambion's battle with and consumption of the Midgard Lobster up in Carolingia. Sprinkled with modern allusions but applied some kennings and did use fornyrðislag meter.
A panel of judges consisting of her Majesty Queen Kalisa, her Excellency Baroness Janina and myself, after much gnashing of teeth, settled on Sir Axel as the winner of the day's prize. But Baroness Janina had on hand some handsome stoneware mugs and goblets we offered to the other two performers in view of their excellence.
No, seriously. Atlantia can really write itself some poetry, folks. I'm not just tossing around "excellent" because That's What You Do. As a perfectionist, authenticity geek, poet and performer, I was Seriously Impressed. (All three poems were performed aloud for the judges, with Master Igor doing a stunning Sir Axel impression.)
I darted off-site for an hour and a half to make copies of all of the entries and put them into nice report covers. All the contributors got/will get a copy; the office of Poeta Atlantiae will keep one; and the others were passed out to Storvik's baronage, past and present. The poems were recited again at feast.
For the record, I generally dislike feast performances, but court was too busy. I think they were as well-received as a feast performance is likely to be.
*I still often feel like medieval poetry should sound like free verse, because I've read so many free verse translations of medieval poetry!
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