10 June 2020

​It is my honour to present an interview with Scottish calligrapher and re-enactor 
DAWN BURGOYNE
who has kindly contributed to several of my books by creating lovely frontispieces.
 
What sparked your interest in medieval calligraphy?
From as far back as I can remember I have loved the colour and pageantry of the medieval period.  I have always drawn and painted so it was the books which caught my eye as they were nothing like the ones I read – they were beautiful, colourful and very appealing to the eye – and most amazing of all they were done by hand. I learned that the finest were done by Monks or Nuns who sat down, often in poor light, stuck a feather in a pot and produced the most beautiful writing I have ever seen – and they were done on animal skins.  That people did this as part of their normal day was awesome … that we can still see and enjoy what they produced nearly 2,000 years later is mind blowing.  And the more I learnt the more I wanted to know – which sparked a deeper interest in how they wrote such wonders and how writing developed from the easiest to read scripts of the early years to the cramped, packed lettering of the late Middle Ages.
 
Can you remember your first attempt and what was your judgement of it?
No … I’m afraid I don’t recall what I did it is so long ago but I know it would have been in Gothic.  That was the script at the time of Richard the Lionheart and I would have been watching Roger Moore as Ivanhoe - so that was where I started.  A few years later when living in the bush in South Africa and having rather a lot of time on my hands I started to write an annual anniversary poem for my late husband and wrote them out in what I thought was fair calligraphy.  And we planned and hosted a few really good medieval banquets and I wrote the ‘invitations’, which were more a command from the King & Queen, in Gothic which set the tone for the evening’s revelries.  They were sent out as scrolls sealed with a ribbon and a wax stamp.  I hand painted the capital letters and, in my ignorance, I thought they were good … now of course I cringe a bit. On one of my anniversaries my husband and I went to Stellenbosch for the weekend. He gave me a huge heavy book…an incredible copy of the Book of Kells. And that, all by itself, totally changed my direction and interest – I rarely do Gothic now but I constantly do Half Uncials This book is my favourite possession
 
 
Which surface do you prefer working on and why?
That’s an easy one.  Calfskin vellum.  I buy mine from William Cowley, the only company still producing vellum and sheepskin parchment the traditional way.  It is quite unlike the finest of paper to write on, the quill just glides over and deposits the ink in a very comfortable, natural and pleasing manner.  Best of all when you lay gold leaf and colour down there is a brightness and depth which zing from the slightly translucent surface.   Gold glows with a very deep but soft glow – it is just not the same with paper which has a 2-dimensional hard, flat finish.  But I work on whatever surface I am asked for so a lot of what I do is on paper as it is a much cheaper option.
 
Do you use a quill?  If so, how do you procure the feathers?
On vellum always and on paper mostly.  When I do shows it depends on how busy we are. If it is fairly quiet then I sometimes use a quill (sometimes a member of the public wants me to use a quill for photographic purposes) but for speed and efficiency at the big shows like Linlithgow Palace where there are thousands of visitors I use a modern pen with a metal nib as it holds a reservoir and keeps its edge.   I always explain why and demonstrate too as a quill might be perfect for vellum and parchment but on modern shiny white card it has a tendency to squeal which is most unpleasant on the ear.  I get given feathers by all sorts of people who pick them up on their walks when the birds go into moult.  I get fabulous wild geese feathers from the friend of a friend in the Orkney Isles – and I have even gone to one of the petting zoos and asked them for feathers!  We can’t use guinea fowl, turkey and such like(wrong period) but they are always good to show the public. Actually all or most of the barbs are stripped off for writing so it is only the need to know what we are using is authentic which prevent me using them.
 
What ink do you use?
That varies.  For serious work on vellum and parchment and at shows I use iron gall ink.  This is made from oak galls, iron sulphate and gum Arabic (dried sap from acacia trees in North Africa).  It is a glue which binds the light gall water and the heavier metal water together.  It is amazing … goes on  watery grey but oxidises into a deep black as it dries.  It is a magical looking thing to make … in one hand you have a tube of chestnut brown water and in the other you have one with the yellow/green water (if using old nails in water!!) – put the two together and these browns instantly go black.  For messing about at home I use all sorts.  Quink mostly but I have a wide range of inks to choose from.
 
 
What is your favourite script and why?
Now that is impossible to answer.  I have 3 .. all early!  Uncial majuscules, Half Uncial majuscules and Anglo-Saxon minuscules.  I don’t mind Carolingian and although developed in the 8th century it looks too ‘modern’ for the shows so it is only shown for historical interest during our presentations.  The first two are formal scripts used in religious books and are incredibly easy to read and are letterforms of great beauty.  They sit on the vellum with great dignity – the older one, Uncials, seems almost like an old Dowager Queen looking disapprovingly down on the very uppity Half Uncials as a modern version of itself.  And the Anglo-Saxon is a vernacular hand.  That just means it is the everyday script the people wrote in.  A lot of the old religious books are written in the first two scripts but as time went on and people lost the ability to read or write Latin each line was translated into the spoken language of Old English and the words written in tiny Anglo-Saxon minuscules letters between each line.  That is called interlinear gloss.  This script is a delight and although perhaps more difficult to read it has a joyful lively look which I find most pleasurable to write.
 
You are a re-enactor. Why? What got you started?
About 10 years ago my daughter Fleur bought tickets to Dirleton Castle for Father’s Day.  There was a group of re-enactors there and after watching them I realised that they were having an amazingly fun time.  So, to my family’s utter astonishment as by nature I am self-conscious and rather shy, I got up and asked if they would like a calligrapher.  They jumped at my offer and a year later I had hand-made an entire outfit and designed what I would be doing.  After 2 shows I was asked to form a guild within the group and I have been going ever since.  We are still the only re-enactment group in Scotland with a calligraphy element but I believe other groups are now starting to address this.  As to why …. that is easy to answer – without the scribes of the medieval centuries nothing would be known of the kings, nobles, farming, laws …. you name it and we would be none the wiser.  So although it is lovely watching the knights of old doing their thing the public find it very interesting to be able to have a go at medieval writing – with a quill and iron gall ink!  We give them alphabet sheets showing them how to do it and they are utterly astonished at how hard it is and it brings home that this is highly skilled work and demonstrates in the best possible way how long the old books would have taken to write.  Especially children who are not used to a pen which you have to keep putting the ink on for it to work! 
 
Do you prefer re-enactment or scrivening?
That is impossible to answer as they are so different.  I love being a re-enactor and being able to have fun whilst educating people about the fascinating history of writing and the materials of the period too.  It is warming to know that not only have we been instrumental in re-connecting people with pens sitting in the back of a drawer gathering dust but have also fired some up enough to go onto the calligraphy path.   It is a very rewarding feeling if you can transfer your passion to another.  My own personal commissions are very different as this is when I get the opportunity to put what I can do into practise.  I turn out work which is done with all my medieval experience using the same materials.  I even do work which looks a bit like medieval manuscripts but I am a scribe of my time so I am not constrained in what I do and can switch scripts and how I approach the decorative element to suit.  These original art works are a most satisfying challenge – and unlike the monks of old who would never have thought their work would still be viewed after such a long period of time I know that if my serious pieces are cared for they might still be around for hundreds of years.  That is one very humbling thought.
 
If anyone is interested in becoming a scribe how should they start?
The best thing, and quickest, is to find a teacher. Failing that there are zillions of calligraphy books out there and lots of YouTube tutorials to help you.  I am self-taught … I started in the South African bush at a time when calligraphy was totally unknown there.  I only found teachers when I moved to Cape Town and joined The Cape Friends of Calligraphy – there were no such things as personal computers then but now you can simply Google your request for calligraphy teachers in your area and you will get an instant response.  There might even be evening classes in your nearest college.
 
What is your favourite period of British history?
From the first Roman invasion in 55-54BC up until the Reformation with Henry VIII in the 16th century.
 
What was life like before you took up these two hobbies?
Busy just differently and perhaps not quite as busy as it is now.  I have always been a busy person.  In South Africa I had my children, we ran a busy shop, I went to gym.  I wrote my first 2 children’s books.  I ended up writing, and illustrating, 17.  Not published in the usual sense …. they get personalised so each one is produced individually.  We had a big house and a swimming pool so entertained a lot.
 
Do you have other hobbies and interests?
Yes although I am so busy with calligraphy now I have less time for other things.  I used to do craft fairs .. I was almost a complete fair on my own as I did really lovely rag dolls, there were my books which I still get asked for now and again, I make jewellery, sew, knit, crochet … even do a bit of tablet weaving not forgetting that I can also paint and do so in pastels, watercolour and oils.  Also, although now I am a widow without a husband to feed I still like to bake for my grandsons.  And last but not least a few months ago I was approached by my friend John Broughton to do frontispieces for some of his books and that brought a whole new lot of challenges to my life.  And variety.
 
An afterthought:
Not only are we the only group in Scotland with a calligraphy element but to the best of my knowledge we are the only group in the UK who do a total hands-on experience for the public. Maybe because it's messy and requires table management!! Others demonstrate.
 

THE ANGLO-SAXON SHIELD

Most warfare in the Anglo-Saxon period was conducted on foot. Often cavalrymen would dismount to join their comrades in the shield wall. As such, the shield was an essential part of their equipment. The modern word shield derives from the Proto-Germanic word skelduz, in turn, from the root word skel- meaning to divide or split, probably from the notion of a flat piece of wood obtained from splitting a log. The Old English word became gescildan, meaning literally board but more liberally translated as protector. 
 
The crafting of the shield was an interesting process that developed in complexity over time but basically, the Anglo-Saxons made them without sawing, preferring to work with a sharp axe. Archaeological finds teach us that the most popular wood for the shield was the poplar, most likely chosen owing to its fine grain giving resistance to heavy blows. But it was not the only wood chosen as alder, and willow were also much used, followed by lime and linden.
 
Essentially, Anglo-Saxon shields comprised a circular piece of wood constructed from planks which had been glued together; at the centre of the shield, an iron boss was attached. It was common for shields to be covered in leather, so as to hold the planks together, and they were often decorated with fittings of bronze or iron.
 
In detail, the selected wood has a good balance of toughness to weight and a close grain that made them resistant to splitting. The shield was made up of 3 equal width planks with a total diameter of around 72cm. The planks were glued together before the wood was shaped; the edges were simply butted together and joined using animal-bone glue, stag glue was popular. Planks 50mm thick were used and a convex board formed by hollowing out the centre and thinning the edges. The resulting board varies in thickness across the diameter between approximately 10-15mm, being thickest at the rim and thinnest near the centre. The entire thickness of the planks was used; hence, the front surface curves by 35mm over the radius. This is a relatively shallow curve, though still noticeable to the eye and sufficient to change the physical properties of the board. [Dickinson T. and Härke H. 1992, 1].  The shaping of the wood was undertaken using chisels and would have taken as long as 40 hours for a less experienced craftsman.
 
The curvature of the board was an ingenious expedient, increasing the shield strength but not its weight. The final weight of the shield would have been around 9 lbs (4kg). The robust convex board made of planks simply glued together without dowelling or rebates was not reinforced by batons. This can be explained technically because the glued joint curves along its length so that any torque applied to the joint is balanced by the compression of the wood at either end of the joint.Planks would be formed by splitting a tree either once into half-rounds or several times radially to form segments and then reducing the excess to form planks using axes [Goodburn, 2001, 2].
 
The next stage in construction consisted in covering the board in leather. The curvature of the board requires the leather to be cut into panels. Five panels were used, each a curved sided triangle. They were laid on the board so that they overlapped, marked up, cut to size and then stitched together using linen thread. The ensuing cover fitted the board easily and was attached using animal glue. The edge of the cover was nailed in place, and the rim of the shield strengthened with a rawhide rim but some richer shields were refined here with a copper band. The rawhide was soaked to make it flexible and secured by stitching to the board through pre-drilled holes using a leather thong.
 
The basic shield was finished by attaching a short iron flanged grip enclosing a wooden handle and an iron ridged boss. The boss became larger and more practical for offence as time passed. 
 
As with all aspects of the Anglo-Saxon warrior culture, the status of the owner was reflected in the decoration or ornamentation of the shield. Archaeology has unveiled some interesting cast elements such as a winged dragon, heads and legs of birds. All of the decorative elements on the Sutton Hoo shield are either cast from moulds and tool finished or stamped with dies into thin gold or bronze foil. The bird is a combination of both techniques. Both techniques also include additional punched decoration. On this same shield is mounted a large boss made of gilt-bronze iron. Evenly spaced around the flange of the boss are five ornamental rivet-heads. These rivets attach the boss to the shield board. The metal rim of the shield is decorated with twelve evenly spaced cast animal heads (of two types) facing inwards and interspersed with rectangles of gold foil stamped with at least two different zoomorphic designs. The animal heads and foil are attached to the rim by fluted clips and rivets. There are many scholarly works detailing and explaining the decorative work on the shield for those who re interested. I refer just to the reconstructed image of the Sutton Hoo decoration. I’ll stop here, because I only wish to make a small explanatory contribution since shields feature heavily in my novels.
References 

1. Dickinson T. and Härke H. 1992. Early Anglo-Saxon Shields, Archaeologia, 110 
2. Goodburn, D. 2001. pers com. 

 

---