Oh, to be a falcon! To fly to love and joyous respite, high among the lofty spires and windy peaks of the noble Kingdom of the Heartland. Oh to be the symbol of such a people, to sweeten and soothe the pain of a noble folk, to carry their ills to mother earth—from bone to flesh, from flesh to skin, from skin to hair, from hair to grass, to let all the worries of Calontir be borne away upon one’s wings.
Oh, to be a Pelican! To be loved as a servant of the heartland by Orren, gentle King; to be loved as one who would pierce their own breast in honored sacrifice by Lyra, knowing Queen. For all their highest praise is reserved for one such as this, who knows their own swollen feet from hours of labor yet does not cease to go to those who need her assistance.
One such as this is Giraude Bennet, of stature no less than Baroness but humble and diligent in love for her people. Bedecked of the ancient laurel wreath and newfound coronet, with panache has she labored under the sign of the Cross of Calontir. To lands held in honor for the crown, the crown now adds a field with a stream for the respite of her weariness; and a tithe of all the taxes upon cloth flowing through it forever as a sinecure in remembrance of her famous work.
Upon that lily gilded lady do the Crown bestow that sacred sign of the one whose heartblood would feed her chicks; so that by the power which guides the summit of the stars, her labor shall never be forgotten. A Pelican made and set among her flock, newest but never said to be least in honor.
By all the rules of justice done and in ancient honor set upon the ___ day of _______________________, in the 60th year since the founding of the West and of all gentle society.
____________________________ ______________________________
King Queen
(Text is based on multiple sources associated with Occitan poetry. The lines ‘Oh, to be a falcon’ and ‘Oh, to be a Pelican’ are from the incipit of an Occitan poem, called ‘Las, qu’I non sun sparvir, astur’ – literally ‘Oh, to be a sparrow-hawk, a goshawk.’ The reference to carrying ills to mother earth are from the poem ‘Tomida femina’, which is the oldest surviving Occitan poem. The lines beginning ‘so that by the power’ is adapted from Dante’s Inferno, where the narrator has a discussion with the Occitan troubadour Arnaut Daniel. The remaining poetry is my own, and an attempt to fit with the lyrical poetry of the Occitan troubadours)