Jómsborg the New: Veizla 2006

The Veizla is the annual dinner of Jómsborg the New, and also marks the inauguration of a new Reeve and Companions. There will be a mead reception with puzzles and the annual Jómsphoto, followed by dinner (during which people will be asked to answer the Reeve's Challenge - see below), followed by port and more mead, and the traditional announcement of the new Reeve and Companions. Afterwards we are likely to retire for further merriment.

There will be a mead reception on Laundress Green (the large open area, outside the University Centre, accessible via the gate opposite the Mill) starting at 6pm. There will be puzzles to solve and a group photograph. The meal will begin at 7pm, in Riverside Rooms 1 and 2.

The menu will be as follows:

Smoked chicken salad, with an endive and apple salad, and avocado dressing
or
Char-grilled courgette and halloumi salad

Oven-baked salmon supreme, baked with cajun spices, and served with herb couscous, roasted courgette and pine nuts
or
Polenta with tomato and roasted vegetables, surrounded with a tomato and basil ragout

Chocolate and pistachio tart, with creme fraiche
Coffee
Port and mead

The dress code is black tie or fancy dress, or some combination. Please bring a pen and your Jómsscarf (if you have one).

Prices are: drinking £33 for members, £36 for non-members; non-drinking £22 for members, £25 for non-members. If you wish to become a member, CUSFS membership is available at the rate of £(3n + 1) for n years, and can be included in your payment (see below).

Bookings should be made by e-mailing the Reeve. Bookings close on Wednesday 31 May. Your booking should indicate whether you would like either or both of the vegetarian options, whether you would like some other alternative to the fish main course, and whether you have any other special dietary requirements.

Cheques (including CUSFS membership, if desired) should be sent to the CUSFS Membership Secretary, at 155 Gilbert Road, Cambridge, CB4 3PA. Please note that if you book, and do not cancel by the booking deadline, we will consider you liable for the cost, regardless of whether you turn up to the meal.

During the course of the meal, you will be asked to answer the Reeve's Challenge:

The Jómsvikingar were a group of hard-drinking, hard-fighting mercenaries terrorising the Norse coasts around the turn of the millennium. Only fragments of their sagas have come down to us. The Jómsviking-saga describes their founding and decline, and the Runingawaying-saga describes their eventual defeat and migration to Albion.

The Jómsvikingar suffered a number of important defeats and were finally attacked by a joint force with supernatural help, led by Magnus I of Norway, who razed their stronghold and drove them from Scandinavia. During their last defence and journey through many perils to their new home in Albion, chronicled in the Runingawaying-saga, they famously demonstrated all 167 Jómsviking major and minor virtues.

Most have been translated into English, either as prose or verse, though few nowadays still try to mimic the traditional Norse forms. They range in length from one couplet to over a hundred lines. Your task is to make up such an extract and present it at the Veizla.