Northshield Bardic College Charter

tinyurl.com/nbccharter

The Northshield Bardic College was originally chartered in 1994 by the Middle Kingdom, to which Northshield then belonged. Once Northshield became a separate kingdom in 2004, for it to reissue the charter would be fitting; but this meant rewriting the verses with the date and place and issuing monarchs' names. Cerian Cantwr, the Chief Bard (Speaker) for that year, kindly invited me to revise my original:

In this the birth year of Our Realm
Of Northshield, which We proudly helm,
We King Siegfried, and Bridei Our Queen,
Greet all by whom these words are seen.

Witting full well the worth of arts
That move and mellow all mortal hearts,
And holding among these in high regard
The ancient and honored craft of the Bard,

We confirm the words set down afar
By the Midrealm’s Catherine and Jafar,
That chartered the Northshield Bardic College
To take and teach this worthy knowledge.

Not only Bards but all deserve
To practice arts, and thus preserve
And pass them to posterity.
For this We grant authority

To foster Bardic Arts events
And bear its badge without hindrance
Its own officials to select
And all its members to protect.

Thus no other may demand
Punishment for verse ill-scanned
For meter mangled, rhymes mislaid
Or satires at the mighty made.

Members shall be answerable,
For such actions liable,
To the College of Bards alone;
The College answers to the Throne.

That skill in crafting all may seek,
Without ambition for a clique,
Be students ’rolled, and teachers named,
But let no other rank be claimed.

Though “Master” and “Prentice” some may use,
Only between a pair who choose
In apprenticeship to teach and learn,
No rank’s conveyed by either term.

We charge the members let no fools
Administer the College rules,
But name a Council made of four
Whose terms shall last two years, no more.

Let them in turn appoint a Chief
Whose vote in ties provides relief;
Who shall for one year be their voice
In public, at the Council’s choice.

Let all who seek to be a Bard
Beware, the duty can be hard —
To sing the praiseworthy to fame
And give the blameworthy their blame.

A poet’s justice must you give,
And by the ancient creed must live:
“Y Gwir yn erbyn y Byd”, which says:
“The Truth Against the World” — always.

Let all give heed, and hence remember!
Done this fourth day of December
In the thirty-eighth year of the Society
At Our Court in Caer Anterth Barony.

[The Suno AI has composed and performed a tune for the original 1994 charter.]

[The Suno AI has also composed and performed a new tune for this 2004 charter.]