At A Loss For A Project

[PaganArcher]

Recently, I set myself to a rather encompassing task and I want to employ fountain pens for the entire process.

 

I plan to transcribe and bind a hand written copy of the Hávamál as translated by James Allen Chisholm. His book on the Eddas has been out of print for a number of years and nigh impossible to find a hard copy. Eventually, I would like to do an illuminated version but that will be a ways off.

 

For myself, I have many aspects planned, but two have me befuddled.

 

I will either have to learn a basic script for calligraphy or default to penning it in the Elder Futhark.

 

Either way will require a new pen, most likely a Pilot parallel for cost effctiveness.

 

My questions you all are these:

 

If learning a basic script, which would you suggest I pick up?

 

And for the Pilot, which size would best suited to letters 3/4" (~19mm) in height?

 

I thank you all in advance for the vast world of fountain pens has finally allowed me to see this idea come to fruition. But alas, on my own I'm stumbling around in a land I am not yet able to fully understand.

[GClef]

Elder Futhark! I vote Elder Futhark!

[SkylarKnight]

I don't think I could read Elder Futhark.... That would reuire for me to learn a whole new alphabet!

What about copperplate? or a form of it?

I think Italic is nice, too.

[PaganArcher]

That's where my problem arises. Many of the finer scripts require a fair bit of practice and so many of them are quite pleasing to the eye if done properly. Historical context not included, I've been writing and reading Elder Futhark for 12-13 years. Reading it in the modern sense is the same as reading English to me. My historical understanding and grammatical comprehension of Old Norse is decidely lacking.

[Stompie]

Get yourself some cheapish notebooks - I like Muji because they are cheap, well bound and can take fountain and dip pens.

 

Take one of those notebooks and experiment - trying different fonts, letter sizes, lay out etc etc on every page.

Find something you like and then try out a proper copy.

It is great fun!

I go around our area and pick up little information booklets that the many churches have in our area. They give you the history of the church, the buildings and so on.

I then write them out by hand in a little booklet and go and place them back in the church. I don't put my name or anything on them so there is no way of identifying me, except if they read this post
But it is great fun and perhaps will brighten someone's day, perhaps just mine but it does give me lots of things to practice with.

 

My present project has been (and I am almost finished) to write out 12 copies of Luthers Small Catechism. these I have sent to folk in Kenya who have a shortage of these booklets. I try do one a month and I have used various styles and fonts of writing and layout. It has been a tremendous set practice with a good end result and not just hours of meaningless doodles on scraps of paper that get thrown away.

[harpo-polo]

From my own experience (I cannot use such a pretentious word as "expertise" and feel worthy to continue) as a calligrapher and bookbinder, you should really go with a script that you know very well. Thus, I vote for the Elder Futhark. When spearheading a large project like a whole manuscript, your greatest challenge will be momentum. So if you are chomping at the bit to get started, you'd shoot yourself in the foot to put off getting to work by perfecting an unfamiliar script. I've been in the same situation plenty of times, and unless I don't capitalize on the child-like excitement to get started right away, I just don't have that creative energy carry through to the whole piece... in order to get it finished. I have lots of works-in-progress that I haven't touched in a long time because I delayed the project itself in order to perfect an unmastered script for the piece.

 

I've found that I work best by "dovetailing." I'll put it in terms more personal to you. With your creative plans laid out in your first post, get started on the manuscript in Elder Futhark. And because you know it well, you're going to nail it, pal. It's gonna be awesome, and you, along with anyone privileged to see it, are going to be so proud of yourself and your ability. That momentum carries through to your next project. But all the while you are working on the Hávamál, you take little breaks from it. Since it (I'm guessing) is a longer work, there WILL be days when you think, "I don't feel like working on it today. I want to write, just not on this project today." Those days give you a chance to think about your next project and a suitable script. Let's say you want to use Chancellery Corsova. Spent the time that day that you would have spent on Hávamál to work on Chancellery Corsova. Then maybe the next week, you get back to Chancellery Corsova. In the end, by the time the Hávamál is complete, BOOM! You are a champ at Chancellery Corsova, and can get started right away on your next piece. So not only do you have a beautifully penned and bound manuscript, you have also mastered a new script. You're flying high, and you cannot be stopped.

 

Does that help? As I was deliberate to say "experience" and not "expertise," I hope none of it sounded condescending.