ARTS & SCIENCES: Of Oak and Meadowsweet and Broom - A Narrative Poetic Adaptation from the Mabinogion

 I was honored at the 2025 East Kingdom A&S championship to be chosen as Sovereign's Champion for my work in creating a narrative poem "Of Oak and Meadowsweet and Broom" as an adaptation of a portion of the Welsh Mabinogion. 

Included here are the research documentation submitted for the work, and a recording of the narrative poem.

Original Song: Robin and the Lady May

 For the Bardic War Online, we were tasked with various challenges, and one of mine was Original Song In a Period Style (or on period topic) and I chose the immortal Robin Hood. There is no tale of Robin and getting outsmarted by a lady in the wood that I'm aware of... but this sounds like something that could (should?) have happened.

"Robin and the Lady May" MP3

Robin and the Lady May

Gavin Kent aka Greg Tremblay AS LV 2021

Original Song: Kerridwen's Ride

No shit... there we were!
In my early days of the SCA, I dwelt in the Outlands and had a number of other young bold household mates, including Keridwen Andersdottir. Keridwen was (and still is) a Registered Badass and was a terror on the armored field... there was one battle where we came back to a muster point and everyone started hearing about how she'd overwhelmed the line by USING ONE OF THE OTHER TEAM'S SHIELDS AS A RAMP. ... so MAANNNNY years later, this became a song. Love you Dwen!

"Keridwen's Ride" 

Gavin Kent, AS XLI

Original Storylet: The Woodman

I have always been moved by the skills of the Calontir skald Morgana bro Moranwyg, and inspired by some of her short praise pieces like "The Amber Merchant" I have written a few storylets like "The Woodman" in fond imitation.

The Woodman

Gavin Kent, AS LVI

Original Poem: To Kindle a Mighty Blazon

The SCA College of heralds brought about an astonishing feat in 2021, holding a never-before-attempted, wholly online version of a War Herald’s Point. In her preface to the January 2021 Letter of Acceptance and Returns, Laurel Soverign of Arms Emma Featherstan had this to say, which provided the entirety of the factual content of this ode:

“As I write this, we are finalizing the last consulations(sic) from the Virtual Heralds Point. Signups ran for three weeks, and by the end we're looking at 616 items from 359 different individuals, from all twenty kingdoms! This is an amazing result, far better than we'd hoped for…---

...In total, I believe we had something over eighty heralds working in various capacities. I cannot express how floored I am by the amount of work done in a relatively short amount of time, and wish to commend each and every one of you for truly participating in this thing we call the Society College of Arms. Well done!“

To Kindle a Mighty Blazon MP3

“To Kindle a Mighty Blazon”

An ode in honor of the SCA College of Arms, for their labors on the Virtual Herald’s Point endeavor of AS LV

by Lord Gavin Kent (mka Greg Tremblay) February 2021, for presentation as candidate for the office of Sylvan Bard of Aethelmearc.

Original Poem: An Ode to the Bards of the East and Matthias and Faelinn

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Bardic Championship competition in Isle du Dragon Dormant in February of 2024, and while my life did not permit me to commit to competing and potentially needing to serve as a champion, I helped run the competition and did some light entertaining in between rounds. I was so moved by the first round entries and the second round themes, that I composed this simple couplets ode on the spot and performed it before the finals. 

In the end, Astrapia and Reinhardt were chosen Consort and Soverign's bards respectively, and very well done, too!

"An Ode to the Bards" 

Gavin Kent, AS LVIII

Original Poem: Gareth and Lynette

Gareth, the son of King Lot of Orkney and... (mumble mumble sources vary) mother, appears in various of the Arthur legends, earliest I've read is Thomas Malory, tho Gareth appears in a 12th century French story for the first official time. The theme of "fight an increasing boss set" is an enduring one in legend, and is still the core of a lot of video games, and I've taken elements of various Gareth legends here and set them to a simplified form of the Welsh poetic meter, the "Cywydd Llosgyrnog" which is a 6 line stanza, with an unlimited number of stanzas, the format of each is that lines 1, 2, 4 and 5 have 8 syllables, lines 3 and 6 have 7 syllables, and there is a rhyme structure of 1+2, 3+6, and 4+5. In traditional Cywydd Llosgyrnog, there is an internal rhyme in line 3 to lines 1 and 2, and in line 6 to lines 4 and 5. I have chosen to omit the internal rhyme in a poem of this length for my own sanity. 

Gareth and Lynette MP3

Gareth and Lynette, or The Knighting of Gareth

Gavin Kent, AS LI