2024 Barony of Carillion A&S Championship Winning Entry
- Sabine di Sandra
- Oct 31, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 12, 2025
Update - At the 2025 (A.S. 60) Southern Region War Camp, this scroll was re-entered into what we are calling "The Baronesses' Last Minute Black and Gold A&S Challenge”, where it won the prize.
This scroll was entered into and won the 2024 Barony of Carillion A&S Championship. The theme was "Display something which symbolizes the Barony of Carillion."
The poem on the scroll is titled “A Carillion Tale.” It is a poetic, tongue-in-cheek retelling of the very wet Pennsic 51, highlighting the spirit of service that is strong in the Barony of Carillion. It is written in the style of the Canterbury Tales’ “Man of Law’s Tale.”
The poem is presented as a 14”x11” scroll, with calligraphy and illumination modeled after a 15th century copy of the Canterbury Tales known as the “Ellesmere Chaucer.”
This piece is constructed with natural pergamenata paper, Pelikan 4001 ink, and gouache. A size 4B quill nib was used for the calligraphy.
Words, Calligraphy, Illumination by Sabine di Sandra
Words - "A Carillion Tale"
Let all hear of Pennsic’s fiercest foe.
Clans and houses came from ‘cross the land.
Their worthy fighters soon faced many blows
and mighty kingdoms braced to make their stand.
Yet this was not the war that they had planned.
It came with hail and mud through bog and plain;
their foe was not of man, it was the rain!
Where once there was a Lake there now were lakes.
A deluge like this storm is rarely known
and flooded battlefields had raised the stakes
for one could take a ship to reach the throne.
Gathered people all were soaked to bone,
from war that left behind no signs of blood.
Instead they say the streets turned red with mud.
O filthy sludge no less than ankle-deep
in all the places people tend to tread
added many challenges to camp upkeep.
Those who often jaunt stayed home instead
and it was feared that levity was dead.
Into the mire their armored wagons sank,
Carillion though, their spirits never shrank!
Offerings were brought before their comrades.
Necessities for flooded camps unfurled.
Fellows who were no more armor-clad
set examples still for our known world.
People volunteered as water swirled.
Black bell on yellow field stayed til ‘twas done.
Lo, kinship won the War of 51!
Competition Write-up
“A Carillion Tale” is three projects rolled into one. It is a four stanza poem modeled after one of the stories in The Canterbury Tales. The subject matter is based on the author’s experiences at Pennsic War 51, which is held at Cooper’s Lake Campground in Slippery Rock, PA. This is referenced in the line: “Where once there was a Lake there now were lakes.” Though the event is marked by the excessive rain and even hail, the story highlights the service and generosity of many Carillion members in a time of need.
The poem is presented as a 14”x11” scroll with calligraphy and illumination. Both are based on an early 15th century copy of The Canterbury Tales known as the “Ellesmere Chaucer.” The exception is a fun little fish, chicken, man hybrid from a 13th century English Bible, added to elicit a visual of land and sea combining in the floods of Pennsic 51.
Method and Design
The Poem
“A Carillion Tale” is a four stanza poem written in the style of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales from 14th century England - specifically “The Man of Law’s Tale,” which is written in rime royal. Rime royal is a type of stanza which “consists of seven iambic pentameter lines riming ababbcc.” (Rime Royal, 2024) Each of the stories in the Canterbury Tales written in rime royal cover ‘“grave discourses," and all are works concerning the suffering of innocent victims.’ (Rime Royal, 2024). However, “The Man of Law’s Tale” is a story of resilience and has a happy ending. (The Man of Law's Introduction, Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue, 2024) This fits the subject matter of “A Carillion Tale” perfectly: a story of the rainy problems faced at Pennsic 51, and the resilience and service-mindedness of those in the Barony of Carillion who worked through it. And ultimately, no matter the challenges faced at Pennsic, it is always understood that good times were had.
Calligraphy
The calligraphy on the scroll designed for “A Carillion Tale” is gothic littera bastarda, as found in Marc Drogin’s Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique. This font is a generalized version of a script used for a famous 15th century English illuminated version of The Canterbury Tales known as the “Ellesmere Chaucer.” (Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (The Ellesmere Chaucer), 1410) (Drogin, 1989, pp. 74-75).
Pergamenata paper was used for this piece. To create the straight lines of calligraphy, even margins, and space for illuminated letters, the page was first lined using an Ames guide and a T ruler. A size 4B quill nib and Pelikan 4001 ink from were used in its transcription.
Illumination
The illumination was closely based on the titular page of the prologue of “The Man of Law’s Tale” in the Ellesmere Chaucer (Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (The Ellesmere Chaucer), 1410, p. 107). The paint is Winsor and Newton’s designers gouache, which is a highly pigmented professional-grade water-based paint. Gouache has been in use in England since at least the 14th century, where it was used by artists such as Albrecht Dürer (Gouache — Art Mediums, 2022). A small spotter brush was used for all parts of the illumination, due to the number of small details in the piece.
The illuminated letters are based on illuminated letters from other pages of the Ellesmere Chaucer: the “L” from page 169, the “W” from page 152, the first “O” from page 107, and the second “O” from page 113 (Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (The Ellesmere Chaucer), 1410).
The process began with a sketch of the general layout and main details from the original page. The paint colors were mixed by hand from primary colors and black. From there, the painting was done in 3 main parts. The first was painting in the main colors of the piece. This scroll stays true to the original by using mainly reds and blue, with some green details.
The second part of the painting was adding white lines and highlights. The illuminated letters were also outlined in white.
Finally, black gouache was used to outline each line, leaf, and flower, revealing the finished piece as it is presented.
A bonus piece was added after the completion of the scroll. This was a creature that appears to be a cross between a fish, chicken, and man. It was chosen due to the watery content of the poem - evoking the image that the sea and land had become one. The fish was painted to better match the style of the rest of the scroll. The original is pictured below, from a 13th century English Bible. (Bible, 13th c)
Results and Lessons Learned
One of the most important lessons learned in this project was how to clear errors from a pergamenata paper scroll. At one point near the completion of the scroll, ink was smudged after a drop of water fell onto the page.
With careful, light scraping of a knife across the page, the smudge was easily removed. This technique was used multiple times throughout the creation of the scroll due to stray drops of ink or water - the mistakes are now very difficult to find, or can’t be seen at all. Scribal arts are delicate, and learning how to fix them can prevent a lot of rework on larger projects. However, mistakes are part of the art form - they are period, too!
References
Bible. (13th c). https://arca.irht.cnrs.fr/ark:/63955/md10js958b7n
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (The Ellesmere Chaucer). (1410). Huntington Digital Library. Retrieved October
Drogin, M. (1989). Medieval calligraphy : its history and technique. Dover Publications.
Gouache — Art Mediums. (2022). Obelisk Art History. Retrieved October 11, 2024, from
The Man of Law's Introduction, Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue. (2024). Harvard's Geoffrey Chaucer Website.
Retrieved October 10, 2024, from
Rime Royal. (2024). Harvard's Geoffrey Chaucer Website. Retrieved October 11, 2024, from
