query for the LJ hive mind: seeking inspiring quotes

[kareina]

Greetings,

At the first Drachenwald Crown tourney I attended the first people I met were those people who happened to be sharing a cabin with me. One of the ladies in our cabin had a lord fighting for her in the tournament that day, so she had prepared a bunch of inspiring quotes, and each round before the tourney started, when the salutes were called she went onto the field, and as he champion knelt before her she read one of the quotes from a little leather book before retiring to the sidelines and watching him to battle in her honour. This idea captured my imagination, and when he was given victory on the day I suggested that she write up the story of the day to share with the known world. However, being about to be invested as Queen she didn't have time for this, so I offered to write it for her to edit as she would. Eventually we got the story into a form we liked and submitted it to Tournaments Illuminated.

However, the review panel didn't like the fact that the quotes she'd chosen to inspire her champion mostly came from modern and Victorian sources (including Tolkein). After consultation with both the TI editor and her (now) Grace (this having been the second time she'd used the quotes technique to inspire her champion) we have decided to substitute period quotes for the things she actually said on the day. However, she and I are both in very busy places in our lives at the moment, and don't have time to start skimming the period literature for quotes that would be suitable to speak to one's champion before he raises his sword in defence of one's honour in a Crown Tournament in the SCA.

Therefore I call upon the hive mind: if any of you can think of (or just happen upon in your reading you are doing now) any quotes that you think would be suitable for this article, and are willing to share it with the world, please let me know the quote, and the source (with the details we'd need to cite it in the article). I think for this project any culture, any place, any time within SCA period is fair game, so long as the topic is appropriate.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter. Once I've got a nice pile of quotes I'll give them to her Grace and let her choose which ones she wishes to substitute for what she actually said on the day.

Comments

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

Consider your origins: you were not made that you might live as brutes, but so as to follow virtue and knowledge.
-- Dante in The Divine Comedy, 14th century

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (for both)

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

A Knight ther was, and that a worthy man,
That from the tyme that he ferst bigan
To ryden out, he lovèd chyvalrye,
Trouth and honoúr, fredóm and curtesie.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (General Prologue, Lines 43-6), 14th century

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised you have no new quotes. I was looking forward to reading some. Do you want me to signal boost?

[kareina.livejournal.com]

yes, please. but give me a minute, I'll take of the f-lock, and change the date/time to now...

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Ok, edits made, don't know if it changed the links or not, but I'm not messing with it again, so boost away!

[ludio-king.livejournal.com]

"Do not be afraid; our fate
Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift."
— Dante (Inferno)

"The path to paradise begins in hell."
— Dante

"Remember tonight, for it is the beginning of always"
— Dante

“Women desire six things: They want their husbands to be brave, wise, rich, generous, obedient to wife, and lively in bed”
— Chaucer

Lying in a featherbed
will bring you no fame, nor staying beneath the quilt,
and he who uses up his life without achieving fame
leaves no more vestige of himself on Earth
than smoke in the air or foam upon the water.
— Dante (Canto XXIV, lines 47-51)

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[ianhess.livejournal.com]

From the song of Roland (or at least a translation I found online:

LXXXVII

Pride hath Rollanz, wisdom Olivier hath;
And both of them shew marvellous courage;
Once they are horsed, once they have donned their arms,
Rather they'd die than from the battle pass.
Good are the counts, and lofty their language.
Felon pagans come cantering in their wrath.
Says Oliver: "Behold and see, Rollanz,
These are right near, but Charles is very far.
On the olifant deign now to sound a blast;
Were the King here, we should not fear damage.
Only look up towards the Pass of Aspre,
In sorrow there you'll see the whole rereward.
Who does this deed, does no more afterward."
Answers Rollanz: "Utter not such outrage!
Evil his heart that is in thought coward!
We shall remain firm in our place installed;
From us the blows shall come, from us the assault."


"Whoever has received knowledge
and eloquence in speech from God
should not be silent or secretive
but demonstrate it willingly.
When a great good is widely heard of,
then, and only then, does it bloom,
and when that good is praised by man,
it has spread its blossoms."
— Marie de France (late 12th century poet)


Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.
- Saint Augustine

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[dream-wind.livejournal.com]

This is the problem with most of my library being away from me. I have quite a bit at my place, from Hildegard of Bingen and other sources, but dammit, I don't have internet at my place at present. Or power, for that matter.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Hopefully you will have soon; it sounds like the repairs are actually going forward now. May they get everything done to a high standard, in a reasonable amount of time. And I don't think we will have time to actually return to this project for a while, so if you want to participate later, feel free. I'm swamped right now with trying to finish up my research and get my stuff packed before the end of the month, so I don't anticipate making time for fun stuff like this till Jan...