Rhyme of the Valkyries
Well, well, well. It’s been a hot second, hasn’t it?
TL;DR: As promised to many folks at LPT this weekend, here is my documentation.
Stretch we tight the warp of war
O’er beam so wet and slick with blood
Back in the fall, I presented my paper at Ansteorra’s Kingdom Arts & Sciences competition. I was absolutely delighted to win the Academic Paper portion of the competition with a paper on my translation of the Darraðarljoð — the Valkyries’ Warp. I was later announced to be one of the five official entrants from Ansteorra for the Gulf Wars Arts & Sciences War Point. To say I was thrilled to receive this honor is an understatement.
Translation is a nuanced and challenging field to navigate. There is a lot that goes into good translation work. When you add in cultural differences, linguistic wordplay, poetic standards, and performance requirements, you end up with a delicate millefeuille of interpretive choices.
This past weekend, I was able to show my paper again at Laurel’s Prize Tourney. I also had a visual aid to accompany the poem: my tabletop warp-weighted loom, decked out to represent the contents of the poem. It has a spear for the top beam, “sinew” for the heddles, “braided entrails” (synthetic chenille yarn) for the warp threads, “corpse-blue” yarn for the weft, and hand-painted “enemies’ heads” for warp weights. I also have the beating sword I made for this loom.
This piece is not the entry itself, mind you. It’s just a visual lure — something to pique interest and get folks to come over. I am delighted to report that the lure absolutely works. People came over to admire and ask questions about the loom, then got sucked into a discussion about translation.
I was also encouraged to take the opportunity to perform the piece for the Laurels, so I did. I got some fantastic feedback from them, my fellow performers, and some of the populace that showed up. One Laurel said my performance was “delightfully unsettling,” which was awesome to hear — it was exactly the vibe I was going for.
One of the populace asked some great questions of all the performers; she was very engaged. It turned out to be her very first event, so we sat and chatted about the challenges of translation of dead and suppressed languages for about half an hour before court started. She has started to do some pre-Columbian Mesoamerican translation studies, which was awesome to hear about.
Anyway, I was able to apply some quick last-minute changes to my paper thanks to Laurel feedback, which has now been sent off for the GW A&S War Point. They ask you to send things in a month before the event so that all the judges can have an opportunity to look over said documentation beforehand.
One of the best recommendations I got was to include an extant copy of the original poem, not just a typed copy of the Old Norse. There is no single complete extant copy of Njal’s Saga; it is scattered over a few dozen early copies. I was able to find a version on Handrit.is, a digital catalogue of the contents of several Scandinavian institutions. I have now inserted that into the documentation and will be including it in my visual display at Gulf Wars.
LPT is one of my favorite events; I love seeing so many talented artisans showing off their hard work, research, and passion. It’s seriously inspiring. I met so many folks doing really interesting stuff!
It’s an event that really reinvigorates me. I love that. I was also delighted and honored to be approached by one of my friends, Magistra Osana van der Linden, to ask if I would like her to be my advocate in the Laurel Circle. Linden and I go back a ways, and I immediately accepted; it’s invaluable to have someone you know and trust to speak for you — especially when it’s someone who has seen your growth over the years and sees your art/teaching/efforts regularly. I am so glad she approached me.
While I technically had two Laurels, the nearby one no longer plays, while the other is at the other end of the kingdom and is being kept busy with kingdom-level work. We quietly ended our belted relationship, but not our friendship. I was encouraged to keep my belt to pass on to my own apprentice, someday (assuming I do eventually become a Laurel). I’m glad to be able to do so.
Thank you to everyone who made this a fantastic and memorable weekend. I got to see some very deserving people invited to the Order of the Laurel, while also enjoying the three elevations we had.
I’m feeling buoyed up and riding the wave. Time to set sail on the longship!
War still calls the Valkyries
Ride hard, we maidens, far away