Looking for the perfect quote

[liadethornegge]

I have to do up a little stage-by-stage thing of how we do illumination/scrolls in the SCA for our upcoming demo. I thought to do it like six series of initials starting a short text all on one page. The problem I am having is - what text would suit being broken up in six parts with an initial starting each piece. And the snippets can't be too long either.

It would be awesome if it could be some sort of medieval text, song lyrics maybe? a poem? If not that then maybe short texts describing either a) the SCA b) my shire c) the process of illumination d) what scrolls are.

Then I might do more stuff around these initials and snippets of text, but that's above and beyond what I'd planned originally.

Anyway, I post here because someone who reads might have a really good suggestion for a text that would suit. I'm not sure about language, if I should do it in Swedish or if English is ok... I even started looking to my own poetry, but I'll leave that as a very last resort I think :P

ETA: It came to me as self-evident: The Canterbury Tales!

I searched and promptly found this excellent site with middle and modern English side by side. I also found the British Library's two Caxton editions online for perusal. I could write it in middle English with the proper script, but I don't know the proper script, nor can most people read it, so I'll go for the modern translation, taking the introductions to the knight, squire, monk, prioress, miller and merchant.

Comments

[myralea.livejournal.com]

have you seen the götting modelbuch?
it has excellent nice step by step i llustrations on how to use tempera techniques in medieval bookpainting! but it might not be what you are looking for though...

but one could actually use the text too and end up having made an pretty and illustrated guide to medieval illumination techniques. hm, i like that idea. maybe i should actually do a göttingen modelbuch of my own?!

/m

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

I do know about the Göttingen Modelbuch, and it's that kind of project, but I have only one page to do it in, so that is a bit too much text to go after. But hopefully you'll see the process anyway, in six steps. Sometime when we have a regular scriptorium and I have dedicated time to do this sort of stuff again I might make a better version of a modelbuch type thing. For now, a single page will have to do.

[myralea.livejournal.com]

i thought so, but one might be able to choose just one of the colour combinations?

oh and please give me a call if you ever start out that scriptorium again, i would definately be tempted to go to uppsala every now and again. i miss so much not having any oportunity to discuss/make calligraphy and medieval tempera techniques... :)

/m

ps

[myralea.livejournal.com]

just realised i had my digital scans of the book on my computer at work.
page 5, illustrating the dark blue and red leaf, is actually a one-pager :)

/m

We be soldiers three

[bend-gules.livejournal.com]

http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiSOLDIER3;ttSOLDIER3.html

You get three verses, and can write different lines of the chorus...

Re: We be soldiers three

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Ooh, cool! I'll do that one some day. I already started sketching in the canterbury tales (me being impulsive that way), but definately something to consider. Thank you.

[peronel.livejournal.com]

THe other thing you might like is Pangur Ban (http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/2237/lit/PangurBan.html) (there are other translations).