UNDER DER LINDEN by @swanfloatieknightâ
Fandom: 13th century CE, Historical RPF
Pairing: Wolfram von Eschenbach / Walther von der Vogelweide
Summary:
Wolfram and Walther meet each other on a beautiful summer afternoon out in the heath for just one reason.
Inspired by the poem Under der Linden, by Vogelweide.
The story text is in English, but dialogue is in Middle High German, with English translations as footnotes.
This brief fic was a bit of a guinea pig as I try out lightweight, quick methods for putting short fics in print. I bound this using the same basic zine method as I used on my own zine. Single signature, cardstock cover. Including the cover, this is only 20 pages.
Title illustration is a portrait of Walther von der Vogelweide from the Codex Manesse (Folio 124r). The booklet is sewn with yellow thread, picking up the border color from the illustration. Thread beats staples for longevity.
Iâve begun using the Dead Dove imprint logo. It may not always look right on the title page, and I donât plan to make a hard rule for where I place it in the book, but I thought it worked out pretty well up front in this case. For other works I may put it as a colophon page instead.
Add-ins: Full text of the poem that inspired the story in Middle High German and English translation. Also a bonus page with basic info from Wikipedia about Walther von der Vogelweide and the poem.
Printed on Neenah Astroparche Natural text and cover.
Date completed: August 2020
Anthology vs. Little Zines
As a preservation method, some would see this as less effective than a hardbound book and might be more in favor of creating anthologies rather than binding single works. Iâm on the fence about it. The anthology format introduces a lot of problems with how to handle the fics and metadata (which can sometimes be longer than the works themselves!). Publishing the little fics individually gets us out of having to deal with that design problem. It also means you can format and complete the fic MUCH more quickly. Iâll probably attempt anthologies again at some point, especially if I can organize one around a really niche theme, but until then, this zine style will work just fine, and be safely stored in my zine collection in a bag and board just like a comic book.
