This assignment was a challenging secret, because the recipient is the current Signet, the officer who manages scroll assignments. So we had to handle this entirely behind her back. Luckily the scribe is one of the absolute best and was willing to play along with my silly idea. The text is a combo of the creation stories from the Book of John (NT) and Genesis(OT). We took the Douay-Rheims, which is an English translation of the Vulgate, assembled our text, and then translated it back into Latin for the final scroll.
Latin Text
In principio erat Ideam et Idea mandabatur Æsam feilinni Jossursdottiri et Ideam Feilinn suscipiebatur. Pagina autem erat inanis et vacua et candidiatis erat super faciam paginae: et manus Feilinnis ferebatur super paginas. Dixitque Feilinn ‘fiat tabula’ et facta est tabula. Et divisit textam a imagonem, et paginam fulgere in tenebra confecit. Litterulae rubrae et atrae et aureae parere in pagina confecit, verba et sensiculi et paragrapha scripsit. Omnia per ipsa facta sunt: et sine ipsa factum est nihil, quod factum est.
Videruntque Ioannis et Honig, Imperator et Imperatrix Orientis cuncta quae fecerat et cuncta manum eam tetigerat, et erant valde bona, in vice eam creaverunt Comes Ordinis Manulei. Et factum est Mane et Vespere, dies sextus, mensis undecimo, quinquagesimo sexto anno Nostri Societatis.
English Text
In the beginning there was the assignment, and the assignment was given to Æsa Feilinn Jossursdottir and the assignment was accepted by Feilinn1.
And the page was void and empty, and blankness was upon the face of the parchment; and the hand of Felinn moved over the across the page2. So Feilinn said “let there be text” and there was text, and she separated the text from the illumination and caused the page to gleam in the darkness3. Letters in black and red and gold she caused to appear on the page, words and sentences and paragraphs she wrote. All things were made by her, and without her was made nothing that was made4
And Ioannis and Honig, Emperor and Empress of the East, saw all she had made and all her hand had touched, and called it good, and they, in turn, created her a Companion of the Order of the Maunche. And it was Morning and it was evening, the 6th Day, the 11th Month, the 56th year of our Society5
Credits
Scroll by Mistress Rhonwen Glyn Conwy
Text by Master Gun∂ormr Dengir, Lady Aelia Fortunata and Jerome of Stridon
Notes
- John 1:1
- Gen. 1:2
- Gen. 1:3-4
- John 1:3
- Gen 1:31
