Words: Katherine's Silver Martlet

Siobhan inghean ui Dhonnabhain did the calligraphy and illumination for Katherine Barr of Cumberland's Silver Martlet. I knew nothing of her persona, but supposed it's the Cumberland of northern England and picked an English form: Elizabethan sonnets for both Martlets (hers and Larry's). There's no specific source, just the form.

I focused on the airy quality of a small bird without feet, favoring words that sound light.

Years ago when I was on Geneviere II's guard, I wrote a sonnet comparing her a martlet because martlets are in her heraldry. I included that one below, too.

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Katherine Barr of Cumberland
Silver Martlet

The martlet sails the saltless sea of winds,
For neither earth nor water is her home,
Not this empyrean bird: her nest, the skin
Of lustrous clouds in the celestial dome,
Has all the permanence of questing thought;
And thus she brings solutions to all needs,
Her service always soaring, always sought,
Awarding the same guidance that it heeds.
Our Mistress Katherine Barr of Cumberland
Has well been likened to such graceful birds:
If ever earthly minds can understand
And shape exquisite aether into words,
Let this our order pass for law to tell
Her great worth to Drueta and Nigel.

We, by right Baron Nigel and Baroness Drueta of Iron Bog, induct Mistress Katherine Barr of Cumberland into our Order of the Silver Martlet, in loving memory, this 21st day of February, Feast Day of Saint Daniel, AS XLIII, at our first court in the Barony of Iron Bog.

Another Martlet Sonnet...
Sonnet for Geneviere II, a present from outgoing Queen's guard

The martlet travels upon heaven's skin;
For in her flight, she summons breezy things
To shape and curl into the summer winds,
Fair weather'd in the haven of her wings.
No earthly bird, unearth’d for want of rest
Upon two feet, her vehicle the grace
Of ever-beating wings, feather'd as best
May sponsor Eastern art's far-reaching lace;
A patroness of words by feather'd quills:
So know some younger gentles of the East.
And by such words and phrases, youthful wills
Immortalize their beauties and their beasts.
Imaginings are fanciful as sighs;
By artful flight, the earth shall meet the skies.