On the Matter of Glaves
…To that end, I agree with the research of our late Scholarch, Halwin Farkasey: that the tradition of glaves, and royal glaves especially, is rooted in the relationship of King Beilan Elrin and his guardian Wolfsong Vinmondson. As Morrell notes in his Histories, it was Wolfsong of the northern tribe of Vinmondson who was summoned from Helmond on the matter of weaponry. When he arrived, it is said in a letter we have from that bygone era, he and King Beilan found themselves to be of agreeable nature and developed an amicable relationship that soon turned into steadfast friendship.
Darklanders invaded Solmar in the tenth year of his reign, which we approximate to have been five centuries before the founding of our glorious Third Kingdom. Wolfsong, according to one report, never asked to join the king in the ensuing battles, nor would it have been usual to do so, as the country of Helmond had no special allegiance to Belmar at that time. Rather, we are told that as soon as the news came, Wolfsong sent a messenger to retrieve several of his clan from his homeland with orders to bring weapons, armor, and a group of strong fighting men. What information we now have suggests that this was the inception of the relationship between Helmond and Belmar, and marks the beginning of a routine exchange between the two beyond the matters of iron trading and smithing.
Over the following decade, now often called the Ten Dark Years, King Beilan held the darklander forces at the Yawning Pass, at the southeastern end of Solmar. Though the forces of Belmar, Solmar, and Narrania came together to fight them, the numbers of the darklanders were as could be expected of ants and flies, and they could not be driven off with ease. Their light armor made them mobile, and they fought with close weaponry. Seeing this, Wolfsong Vinmondson installed training camps where the men of the army learned the northern way of wrestling. After a year of study and practice in this art, the royal army finally secured victory and sent the darklanders back to their desert wastelands and away from the King’s peace.
When the war was ended, Wolfsong never returned home, choosing instead to remain with the king. Before the end of his days he secured a pact with his homeland, and sent for his grandson, Cloven Wolfsong, to come and serve the children of King Beilan the same way he had served the king. With this, it appears, the tradition of a Kingsglave was initiated without any official decree. The arrangement continued for centuries, but was not formalized until His Grace and Our Savior, the High King Eden Belrase, wrote it into the principles and agreements of the Concordant, at the inception of our glorious Third Kingdom. With that, he created two positions instead of one: a Kingsglave to always guard the Belrase heir, and, mercifully, an Elrinsglave to always guard the living heir of the deposed Elrin dynasty, in honor of the beginnings of Belmar’s relationship with Helmond.
Ever since Helmond was brought into the fold of the King’s Protection, it has become commonplace for lords, wealthy merchants, and those of title, to employ a glave of their own. These bear no special title such as the Kingsglave and Elrinsglave do, and are called simply glaves. In the time of this writing, anyone can see a glave or two at an inn, tavern, or else on the mainways and byways of the Nine. In keeping with tradition they are most often from Helmond, and in that state, it has become seen as honorable employment. Many young men, and even skilled women, for they too are tall and strong in Helmond, grow up with the ambition of becoming a glave. The most ambitious of them aim to become Elrinsglave or Kingsglave, for which they must compete in the Great Tournament when a new heir is born.
~ Scholarch Bartrem’s On the Matter of Glaves, Chapter 2
Written in the Twenty and One Hundredth Year of the Third Kingdom
Alisso Bartrem is the scriptor