Rolich, by Nicholas of Nuremburg
Nov. 28th, 2002 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unbibiumIn my senior year of high school, I had a very ambitious English teacher. In retrospect, I think she must have been a rennie, because she made us show up in costume one day for a medieval feast, and memorize the first ten lines of the Canterbury Tales to get in. She made us study the Shakespeare authorship issue for at least a month. And at the beginning of the semester, after we read bits of Beowulf, she made us write our own Anglo-Saxon epics... on tapestries, which would then be hung in the classroom.
Now, typing the story out on my PC was no problem, but I'm no Martha Stewart. I wasn't about to go through all that effort for something that I knew I wouldn't be happy with anyway and the teacher would only keep it and hang it up next year. Nor was I about to handwrite all that stuff out after I worked so hard typing it in. But fortunately I had a better idea.
I printed the story onto small paper-sized strips of canvas, had them sewn together, and glued wooden rods onto the ends to create a scroll. My mother even had some tassels I could put on the ends, though in retrospect it would have been better to simply cap them somehow. The result was quite impressive-looking, if slightly awkward to handle due to its uneven patchwork nature.
My teacher let me keep it, and I gave it to my grandparents. Recently, my mother found it among my late grandmother's belongings, and took it to her house. I found it on a chair in the backyard; I think they meant for me to discover it as I explored the house.
I read a few paragraphs of it, and started to remember the requirements of the Anglo-Saxon epic. Exaggerated physical characteristics and mighty accomplishments, and a sword with a name. And boy did I ever lay those alliterations on thick. And the grammar errors, too; it's a wonder I got such a good grade on it.
I wasn't fooling anyone with those names, was I? I mentioned the Knights of Bueller in the first sentence. I remember researching some basic geography so I wouldn't get that wrong. I was to give him three adventures, and that I did. I had him stalk and destroy a burrowing fire-breathing beast that was laying waste to castles, as well as a mysteriously malevolent wizard and some golem-like concoction that the wizard created in a pit somewhere. I was pretty creative. It even has a tragic ending.
I'd love to make another scroll, but I wouldn't know what to put on it. I don't quite feel like writing fiction, and most worthwhile C programs are too long to just print out.
Now, typing the story out on my PC was no problem, but I'm no Martha Stewart. I wasn't about to go through all that effort for something that I knew I wouldn't be happy with anyway and the teacher would only keep it and hang it up next year. Nor was I about to handwrite all that stuff out after I worked so hard typing it in. But fortunately I had a better idea.
I printed the story onto small paper-sized strips of canvas, had them sewn together, and glued wooden rods onto the ends to create a scroll. My mother even had some tassels I could put on the ends, though in retrospect it would have been better to simply cap them somehow. The result was quite impressive-looking, if slightly awkward to handle due to its uneven patchwork nature.
My teacher let me keep it, and I gave it to my grandparents. Recently, my mother found it among my late grandmother's belongings, and took it to her house. I found it on a chair in the backyard; I think they meant for me to discover it as I explored the house.
I read a few paragraphs of it, and started to remember the requirements of the Anglo-Saxon epic. Exaggerated physical characteristics and mighty accomplishments, and a sword with a name. And boy did I ever lay those alliterations on thick. And the grammar errors, too; it's a wonder I got such a good grade on it.
I wasn't fooling anyone with those names, was I? I mentioned the Knights of Bueller in the first sentence. I remember researching some basic geography so I wouldn't get that wrong. I was to give him three adventures, and that I did. I had him stalk and destroy a burrowing fire-breathing beast that was laying waste to castles, as well as a mysteriously malevolent wizard and some golem-like concoction that the wizard created in a pit somewhere. I was pretty creative. It even has a tragic ending.
I'd love to make another scroll, but I wouldn't know what to put on it. I don't quite feel like writing fiction, and most worthwhile C programs are too long to just print out.
