Laurelin by Dawn Felagund, Almare

"Laurelin": Poem and Illumination

Did Laurelin mourn
The golden leaf, twisting on the wind,
Broken free,
Fallen?
Or did she rejoice
In its gift to the loam?

Did Eru mourn
The bright, tortured spirit,
Broken free,
Fallen?
Or did he rejoice
In its gift to the song?

Chapter End Notes

This is a piece that now evokes mixed emotions for me, as it was created from the heart for a person who turned out to be a fraud. Although not my best work (mostly because I was working under tight time constraints), I was generally pleased with how it turned out and wish I could have the original back. The "paper" is vellum--yes, the real stuff! Not the phony stuff that art stores sell as "vellum." :) The gilding uses a raised gilding technique, my first attempt at this on an actual piece. It is done by building up the shape you want to illuminate with gesso, then applying gold leaf like usual. Because the illumination is three-dimensional, it catches the light better than gilding done flat or with shell gold. Actual medieval manuscripts done with raised gilding are breathtaking, but I am not that skilled and also do not have the money for that quality of gold! :) The script is Gothic Littera Bastarda--Gothic Bastard Letters (worth doing for the name alone!)--a late-medieval script that developed as a cursive version of the familiar and highly formal Gothic scripts.