This one was interesting as it was during the height of the pandemic. When I was asked on it I knew the perfect source that I wanted to use for a few reasons.
- Margarita is a very accomplished bard.
- This was September 2020 and we were all still suffering from the loss of activities that this poem spoke too.
- I’ve always wanted to find a use for this source from Countess Marguerite_Ingen_Lachlainn who is one of the best poets that I know (and fun fact I was squired to in a different game).
- Margarita is a feminine given name in Latin and Eastern European languages, originally derived from Persian Morvared meaning ‘pearl‘
This is what was accomplished together.
Some will speak, a tale they’ll spin
of noble deeds long turned to dust;
We’ll freshly mourn for times gone past,
For history’s glory lost to us.
They’ll say:
Where has honor gone? Where the belt?
That gracefully hung from noble waist?
Where once the aim of mighty men
Was simply seen and easily traced.
Where the vision, brightly shining?
Where the path so clearly laid?
Where our purpose pure and shared,
In blood and friendship equally paid?
Where the hallowed, hollowed hills
Where we were want to strive or sing?
Where the mirth and merriment
That made the timbered woodlands ring?
Where the bard whose chanting voice
Would stir the hearts of better men?
Where the verse and where the rhyme?
We’ll never hear their sound again.
Gone the mead-hall, gone the cup
The fire there has long been dead
And moss and lichen gather now
Where rightful rulers ably led.
Gone the field of clashing steel,
Where rivals met with open hand.
Gone the grace and gone the skill;
as fear now stalks our fertile lands.
Our brightest days are long behind us
The trust we placed in you is spent
Naught remains of our finest hour
But these our words of sad lament.
Lo, Margarita will say:
I’ll not deny those days of glory
Have left their mark upon us all.
I will deny we’ve heard the last
Of honor’s brilliant clarion call.
For at this hearth in friendship clasped
I see the same, no more, no less.
True heroes of our past would know
Our glory’s now! Not lost to us!
For here sits Honor on her bench
And there is Vision’s steady gaze
And in this breast does Duty live
In all our souls bright purpose blaze!
For when we stand to face the dark
The East’s true strength is shown:
We keep alive the only hope
This tattered world has lately known.
The old ways are reborn in us,
Our story’s not yet ended.
This bard will fire your noble hearts
To keep our land defended!
And so do we Tindal and Alberic Consuls of these unbowed Eastern lands roar that Margarita’s deeds will not pass into silence! For her untiring work in leading, inspiring and loving these lands and her people , do we grant her all rights, privileges, honors, and duties as a Lady of the Rose and take heart; heroes shining like Pearls walk among us.
So none may gainsay our words, do we fix our ensigns manual, in our mighty Shire of Quintavia,
On this 15th Day of August, AS 55
Based on poetry written by Countess Marguerite inghean Lachlainn, words by Sir Matthias Grunwald, Scroll by Duchess Thyra Eirksdottir