Royal Bardic Competition 2022
Documentation Summery and Three Pieces
The following were created for the Royal Bardic Competition at Kingdom Twelfth Night under the just and honorable reign of Their Royal Majesties Eckehard and Jane. These three pieces demonstrate various Grecian topics, forms, and meters used in antiquity. All three are original and were written specifically for this competition. Each piece uses a unique ancient Greek poetic form and each is strict to the Grecian rules of qualitative meter.
The first piece, The Horseman, is a dramatic poem in iambic trimeter (12 syllables). This meter was used by the Grecian playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides during the classical period (500-336). Like those, it centers on the thoughts and emotions of the central characters. It examines our lack of control over nature and how the natural world is controlled by divine beings. It does so, as the ancients did, while staying in a singular setting. This piece is also an allegory of Atlantia’s 40th year by representing its struggles.
The second piece, Saved by Your Hand, is a Grecian ode in elegiac couplets, a form using unequal rhyming pairs. Traditionally, these short songs started by praising a god then praised a hero. They were often accompanied by a lyre and sung or spoken for entertainment at feasts. This ode glorifies the god and central character of the first piece. It uses phrase repetition, a common Greek feature, to emphasis the praise transition and the moral theme.
The third piece, The Fox and the Hare, is an original Aesop fable. Like many of the ancient Greek versions, it uses anthropomorphism (animals acting with human traits), here a fox and a hare. The value taught is humility, a common lesson in ancient Greek literature. For form, Grecian stories were typically done to meter. To replicate, this story uses choliamb verse, the same meter used by Babrius in the second century CE (the oldest surviving Greek version of the fables; Perry, 1965).
As a note on presentation, ancient Greek poetry was performed different from today. Lines were read without midline pauses regardless of idea breaks. Every line then ended with a pause, even if not grammatically appropriate. Additionally, the last long syllable in each foot was emphasized. For example, in the first and third poem the fourth, eighth, and twelfth syllables were emphasized (Vaughan, 2020). Singing differed too. The Greek language had pitch changes in most words. Additionally, long syllables were emphasized more than short. Because of these, the ancient language sounded melodic. As such, songs were often recited with their natural emphasis and not to a melody as today (West, 2008).
YouTube Links
The Horseman: https://youtu.be/WJB9YxXMbAY
Saved by Your Hand: https://youtu.be/ynNLj0FBA9M
The Fox and the Hare: https://youtu.be/V3NuoKEOmA0
The Horseman
Fear spread across the sturdy sailor’s weary face
Clench’d tight the jaw all while his heart like racing hare
His sailing eyes believed they had witness the worst
Till from the west a shadow dark begins to rise;
With heavy brow he hunts the sky to find relief
Though storm above has spread across from north to south
And soon the squall will take them all upon the sea.
For off the bow and charging hard toward the ship
Reigned the horseman riding high and thundering
He wields a shield of waves to knock men from the ship
To strike the side hard with an iron spear of wind
Trample a path of destitute with massive hooves
Burying bodies down to drown in muddy graves.
Captain he challenges the horseman overhead
For never has he lost to charger of the night
And standing on his mighty ship a worthy crew
He knows can overcome the greatest storm to blow;
So proudly barks his first command before the men
To set the ship upon a heading for the plight
They trim the sail and make a course into the storm
To battle horseman overhead till death do take
If rider of the depths below intend a life
They’ll fight the horse till he a broken foal again.
Descending horseman swiftly bounds the mighty ship
With spear of iron wind he stabs the lofty sail
To wretch it high above the mast of carved oak
Till canvas hovers overhead like ghastly ghost
Then snaps the line to pull the sail into his hold,
While heavy waves like raging hooves of horrid horse
Begin to tear the tackle off the rails and rig
Till lines atop the mighty mast are on the wind
And horseman holds a dozen whips above their head.
While horse assaults the mighty ship there turns an eye
From high atop immortal home of sacred ones
For he who rules the open oceans with a crown
Had often held the offerings from mighty ship,
The Captain had before the journey slain the bull
And fell the blood and burned the bone before the god
He pour’d the wine the milk the honey and the grain
To feast the gods as Hesiod had told to us,
For lofty god of sea is also known to us
As Master horseman and the shaker of the earth
So when the ruler saw the plight of devotee
He sought to punish riding horse for such offense,
God grabb’d the mast of oak from off the mighty ship
With lines aplenty hanging high the upper head
He whips the horseman ever hard in ripe revenge
Till horseman hurried from the ship as quick he could
To cast a cloud upon the sea without a curse.
Then king of horses and the sea he fix’d the sail
Upon the mast and gently laid it by the ship
The broken holds remain’d aboard and all the lines
Lay neat upon the open ocean right ahead
Then crew attended quickly to their task at hand
And got the mighty ship to sail the sea again.
Saved by Your Hand
O Great Lord of the Ocean here do we pray and adore you
All saved by your hand, saved from a drowning in blue
We praise your hand with our offering best do we bestow
The greatest wine pour’d, then we will eat of a doe
And god of Sea we thank you for aiding a captain
For steering his ship, saving a loss of our skin
For our most noble captain stands true as an oak tree
The greatest sailor, Hero of all on the wide sea
His crew never afraid for death forever he sails
True as a dolphin swims, great as a thundering whale
When waves are rough he rides the surface as a bird’s flight
West wind high on his back, Zephyr to change at his sight
Sailor of Oceans the Lord of Sea you do we owe all
Here by your strong hand, never allowing a fall
We praise your hand with our offering best do we bestow
The greatest wine pour’d, then we will eat of a doe
The Fox and the Hare
The crafty fox was bragging on to all his friends
How only he had fought the frozen hills and streams,
And he alone had felt the fiery dessert sun,
To climb the deepest cave then on a mountain range
No master in the wood or air to witness more
So count a guarantee on all the fox doth say
A careful hare should happen hear about this tale;
And thought the time to gather up an answer to
What tree the eagle lay a nest to raise her young
Where overhead and where can I avoid her claws
Though crafty fox had walk’d the wood he often boast
For barely had he left the bush to head out far
But crafty fox would not admit a flaw that found
So says to careful hare I know the fated flight
For soaring high above the head the eagle sails
She never has to face the earth as hare and fox
So logically the nest belongs upon those clouds
To care the chicks in fluffy wool to keep them warm
Plus mother has to mind an eye upon her nest
So stays around the downy cloud by day and night
So take my word I freely give to save your life
But only walk while sun around to evade birds
The careful hare had seen the foe above his head
And knew a hare who ended in the eagle’s claws
For catching hare a skill that eagles all employ
So careful hare was weary of this odd advice
And so replies unto the crafty fox’s words
Perhaps we watch your lead o fox before we try
You walk along the berry patch from out the trees
And feast upon the flavor all adore in taste
And then we all will follow in your honest lead
So fox declared its time to go my hunger calls
And led the group to berry field beneath blue sky
Alone the fox begins to walk upon bare brush
He strolls along till berry ripe so bright and red
He grabs the first and takes a bite the finest fruit
Till eagle happens fly upon the berry patch
And hunts his own bright furry fruit upon the ground