By Will Douglas
On a field of royal blue
Stands a snowflake white
Symbol of great Nordskogen
Both by day and night
Symbolic of our people fair
And justifiably so
It represents our people well
And this I mean to show
For blue is all around us found
With all our many lakes
Amidst them are our people
And some of them are flakes
And some of them are really wet
And some of them are dry
And almost all of them are white
(Whatever can we try?)
As snowflakes sparkle brilliantly
Especially by moonlight
Our folks are many-faceted
And all are very bright
Now some of them can sometimes seem
To be a little cold
But gather them in numbers and
It's warm inside the fold
Written at the Bardic Challenge at Twelfth Night
on this the 12th day of January, A.S. XXXVI
(copyright (c) 2002 by Douglas Cox)
Background: This is from when I went to Twelfth Night and made a name for myself.
I had wanted to participate in this challenge since I first heard about it, a few months before the event. I thought up a few good snowflake analogies, then I promptly forgot about it. At the event I went to this bardic challenge, which was presided over by Their Excellencies Geoffrey and Anne, then Baron and Baroness Nordskogen, along with Lady Elena Tangwystl ab Morgan, the outgoing Bard of Nordskogen.
I had nothing.
Bits of what I had thought of came back to me, so I bummed a piece of paper off of Elena and went over to the side of the room to write. The above is the result. Geoffrey and Anne were impressed, and Anne asked me if I had just written that. I had to say yes.
Then she asked me if I had a name in the Society yet. I told her I was leaning toward Will as a given name, but had no surname. Owen was sitting right next to them and promptly suggested Douglas, it being a good solid historical name (as well as my mundane first name). It stuck.
But the best compliment on the above came the next morning, as I was standing in line to get breakfast. Elena loomed up behind me, and in her best bardic voice said "Do you know how <i>hard</i> you made the judging?"
I didn't get the position; that's just as well because I was pretty new at the time and would have flopped at it. But it was fun to participate. Some day I'll get it, but I'm not going to sweat over it.