seamus’s mark

I was absolutely overjoyed to create this scroll for Master Seamus McRay, one of the Premiere members of the Order of the Mark. Wordsmithery by Lanea Inghean Uí Chiaragáin, scroll created by me. Design based on The Book of Mulling and the MacDurnan Gospels, both Irish Insular manuscripts of the second half of the 8th century into the 9th. Much fuller writeup on its way.

Quiver bristling with keen-tipped shafts,
Linden well shaped, swan fletched to fly true,
Vane laced by sinew’s trace, string taut,
Neatly nocked and drawn to anchor’s place,
Eye bright finds the sight before the arrow is loosed,
Then flies, and soundly strikes home
In target, or prey, or ill-fated foe
Who heard naught but the whispering string’s fell song.

Let all good gentles know that a master
Marksman stalks Atlantia’s forests
Filling the kingdom’s larders with goodly game
And guarding our shores and borders from all threats.
Thus do Abran King and Anya Queen,
Just and worthy sovereigns of Atlantia’s lands
Proudly name Seamus McRay
A master of range, and hunt, and battlefield,
A Premiere most worthy to join the Order of the Mark.