Carl's AoA

I was given a pretty long lead in time for this particular piece for a 14th Century German who went by the name of Uther of Anglespur. I had to make sure I knew the person since I wanted to personalize one of the figures, but the important thing was that I was super excited to be doing a German piece. So, I searched through manuscripts and finally decided on one of my favorites: World Chronicle Charlemagne. It is a manuscript from the 14th century, around 1300 exactly, in the German language that hails from the Upper Rhine region. There was a illumination in particular that really captured my attention, so I ended up choosing it to be the main focus of the scroll. This mean, though, that I was going to need to keep my wording short to keep it as true to the manuscript as I could.

The words I ended up writing were inspired, as well, by a 14th century document known as The Foundation of the University of Heidelberg AD 1386, also German.

The words I ended up with were as follows:

"We, Edward Rex and Thyra Regina, by the grace of the East Kingdom, for the comfort and honor of Our people, send greetings. The outstanding praise of chivalric skill and knowledge of Our subject Uther of Anglespur, which watchful fame spreads abraod on flying wings, has reached Our ears. We have heard of his great prowess, as well as his fine teachings and labors with a calm enthusiasm. Lest We seem to forget the privilege conceded to Us by Our Kingdom, and lest, for this reason, We should merit to be deprived of the privilege granted - do decree with provident counsel, which decree us to be observed there unto all time, that Uther shall be awarded, presented, and endowed with arms. Given under Our decree, signed by Us at Our Market Day at Birka in Our Barony of Stonemarche, on the 24th of January, AS XLIX."

For me, this is pretty short and sweet and to the point.

I then got out my sumi ink to get the calligraphy done in a littera bastarda font style, just like the original manuscript, and my gauche paints and walnut ink for the illumination.

This is the original manuscript I was trying to recreate in design:

 

And here is the final result of the scroll, including transforming the very middle figure into what the awardee looks like in his armor:

 



It was then, after I just finished putting the final details on, 4 days before the event... that I was informed that he changed his name from Uther to Carl. And I freaked out. I had no idea what to do. I was scared and nervous and didn't want to start over and especially did not want to accidentally ruin the scroll through some kind of scraping or worse.

So I did nothing. And just hoped that he would accept my apologies.

And that was the thrilling joy of Uther/Carl's AoA scroll.