Below are the results of the January 2003 Letter of Acceptance and Return from the Laurel King of Arms. This website is not authoritative, but is an accurate reproduction of the text of the January LoAR.

September 2002 Letter of Intent
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ACCEPTANCES
Adam Carmychel. Name and device. Per pale azure and gules, a gauntlet argent sustaining the dexter half of a spear fracted in chevron point to sinister Or.

The Letter of Intent noted that the charge group on the device resembled the Carmichael crest, which (per Way of Plean and Squire's Scottish Clan and Family Encyclopedia) is A dexter hand and arm in pale armed and holding a broken spear Proper. Some commenters wondered if this would be a presumption problem in combination with the surname.

The September 2002 LoAR (Áedán mac Bheathain, Outlands acceptances) stated:

The Letter of Intent asked if there was a problem with the combination of this badge and a version of the [clan name] surname. Way of Plean and Squire's Scottish Clan and Family Encyclopedia, endorsed by the Convenor of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, gives the [clan name] crest as [blazon] and the [clan name] badge as [blazon] as in the Crest within a chaplet of boxwood Proper.

In the Cover Letter for the March 1991 LoAR, it was ruled that "It has been decided that we will NOT check for conflicts against mundane crests". Therefore, we need only consider the [clan name] badge for possible pretense issues. The removal of the chaplet of boxwood makes it clear that no identity is being presumed.

In this case, the Carmichael badge is even less like the Carmichael crest than was the case in the previous ruling, as the crest and badge share no charges at all. The Carmichael badge is, A horse of war Argent furnished Gules within a circular wreath Azure and Gules.

It was suggested by some commenters that many Scottish clan books display the clan crest in a strap and buckle, and that this form might be familiar to the average SCA person, thus leading to presumption due to a combination of the name and armory (even though we do not generally protect crests). It is important to note that the clan books in question invariably display these crests within a strap and buckle. The insignia with the crest in a strap and buckle would presumably be the design that might cause a presumption "twitch" in the populace, not the design of a crest without the strap and buckle. We also hope that those who are so familiar with the contents of clan books that they might perceive possible presumption would also be familiar with the appropriate uses of clan crests and badges. It would not be real-world Scottish clan practice for a clan chief to display the clan crest on a field and use it as a device. Thus this is neither a use of insignia heraldically suggestive of rank, nor is it insignia which is so commonly seen by the populace as to cause offense. It is allusive, but not presumptuous.

Aindrea Mac Parthaláin. Name and device. Azure, an equal-armed Celtic cross formy Or issuant from a mount vert.

Submitted as Aindrea Mac Pharlain, the submitter requested authenticity for 12th to 14th C Scottish and allowed any changes. On her form, the submitter indicated that she desired a female name. The LoI stated that "The client has been informed that 'Aindrea' is a man's name and so her request for the desired gender is not possible. She would prefer to keep the name spelled as it is".

The submitted byname Mac Pharlain is a Modern Gaelic (c. 1700 to present) form. The example of Malcolm Mcpharlane that the LoI noted was dated to 1385 in Black (s.n. MacFarlan) is a Scots form, not a Gaelic form. (Scots is a language closely related to English.) The Early Modern Gaelic (c. 1200 to c. 1700) form of this name is Mac Parthaláin. We have changed the byname to this form in order to register this name and to meet the submitter's request for authenticity.

This submission uses a vert mount on an azure field, which violates RfS VIII.2 on armorial contrast. The submission was sent to Laurel under RfS VIII.6.a, the "Documented Exceptions" subclause concerning "General Exceptions". See the November 2002 LoAR for Kathws Rusa and Ileana Welgy, both in the Outlands returns section, for more discussion concerning requirements for such a documented exception to be acceptable.

As documentation for this submission, we have been provided with an article "Materials in support of the case for the trimount", assembled by Erasimierz Waspanieski as documentation for a December 1993 submission. The documentation does a good job of documenting the specific practice of a green mount on an azure field, so that the exception is indeed "in the exact form of the proposed armory". The particular color combination of green mount or trimount on blue is found in almost half of the examples. While most of the examples are of trimounts, there are enough mounts to demonstrate this exact form.

As for overall armorial design, this piece of armory follows a general design of armory using a green mount or trimount on a color field, with a single charge atop or issuing from the mount or trimount, and no other charges in the armory. The documentation does a good job of demonstrating that this design is found throughout Europe in period. The article provides thirteen examples with this design. The thirteen examples include many types of charge atop/issuing from the trimount: animate charges, constructed artifact charges (like a crown), and abstract heraldic charges like crosses and mullets. Two examples specifically use crosses. This is sufficient evidence to support this submission's design as compatible with a documented exception.

Some commenters asked whether this submission might have "too many weirdnesses" to be acceptable. A "weirdness", according to the Glossary of Terms, is a "break with the usual period style provided that it is not overly obtrusive". While the use of a Celtic cross in heraldry may be an SCA innovation, it is not considered a weirdness, as similarly constructed crosses are found in period heraldry. It is a reasonable extension of practices found in period heraldry rather than a "break with the usual period style." Any documented exception, by definition, is a period practice, otherwise it could not have been documented. Hence, this submission has no weirdnesses.

Braya Wrenne. Name and device. Per pale azure and argent ermined azure, an elephant statant affronty counterchanged.
 
Caerthe, Barony of. Badge. Or, three towers in bend and a chief embattled sable.
 
Cecily de Heselington. Device. Gules, a chevron between a horse courant and a rose argent.
 
Conrad von Zollern. Badge. (Fieldless) A rose per pale Or and argent barbed and seeded sable.
 
Laure Aleire de Laon. Name change from Laure Aleire de Leon.

Her previous name, Laure Aleire de Leon, is released.

Mór inghean Chathail. Badge. (Fieldless) A tuskless elephant's head couped close contourny purpure maintaining with its trunk a sickle Or.
 
Outlands, Kingdom of the. Acceptance of transfer of heraldic title Fretty Pursuivant from the Kingdom of Atenveldt.
 
Outlands, Kingdom of the. Acceptance of transfer of heraldic title Liber Pursuivant from the Kingdom of Atenveldt.
 
Outlands, Kingdom of the. Acceptance of transfer of heraldic title Palmer Pursuivant from the Kingdom of Atenveldt.
 
Outlands, Kingdom of the. Acceptance of transfer of heraldic title Rook Pursuivant from the Kingdom of Atenveldt.
 
Outlands, Kingdom of the. Acceptance of transfer of heraldic title Scalene Pursuivant from the Kingdom of Atenveldt.
 
Tam Grimm. Device. Per pale sable and vert, a sword inverted proper winged argent within a bordure argent semy of thistles proper.
 
Thorgrim af Købmannehavn. Name.

Submitted as Thorgrim van de København, the submitter requested authenticity for Danish and allowed any changes. The submitted byname van de København combines van de, which appears in both Dutch and Low German, withKøbenhavn, which is modern Danish. Because of this mix, this byname violates RfS III.1.a, which requires linguistic consistency in a name phrase. Metron Ariston provided information about period Danish forms of this name:

København is the official modern Danish name for the city according to the official list of Danish place names published by the University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet) at levende.kms.dk/su/h-l.pdf. However, histories of the city at www.aok.dk/E/G/CPHDK/0000/03/86/ and www.danbbs.dk/~erikoest/cph_info.htm#CopenhagenCityHistory indicate the city was originally known in the medieval period as either simply Havn or later in medieval Danish as Købmannehavn (Merchant's Harbor). The current name is an obvious derivation of the latter form.

From this information, af Havn and af Købmannehavn are period Danish forms of this byname. As the latter is closer to the submitted form, we have changed the byname to this form in order to register this name and to meet the submitter's request for authenticity.

Timony Olyveyr. Name.

Note: Timony is her legal given name.

Toirrdhealbhach mac Toirrdhealbhaigh mic Aonghusa. Name and device. Per bend sinister embattled vert and argent, a lion Or and a hand sable.
 
Ulrich Krieger. Device. Barry and per chevron throughout pean and erminois.
 

RETURNS

Thórvaldr í Vakkerfjelli Thórólfsson. Name change from Thorvaldr Gángläre Vakkerfjell.

There are multiple problems with the byname í Vakkerfjelli.

Vakkerfjell, the basis for the byname í Vakkerfjelli, was documented only as the name of a shire in the West Kingdom (registered May 1983). There are some limitations upon registerability of SCA branch names in a personal name:

[O]nly the actual registered form of an SCA branch name is automatically registerable as part of a personal name. [...] Given the lack of documentation standards in earlier years - particularly for SCA branch names - there is no reason to assume that a registered branch name is documentable even in the language it is registered in. [Roberto Raimondo de la Montana de Trueno, LoAR June 1998, R-Atenveldt]

The submitted byname í Vakkerfjelli does not use the actual registered spelling of this SCA branch name. Rather it uses a gramatically inflected form of the placename. Therefore, the allowance for automatic registerability of an SCA branch name in a personal name does not come into play. Instead, the byname í Vakkerfjelli is subject to the same requirements of any constructed byname.

In this case, the file for Vakkerfjell shows it to have been submitted as meaning 'Beautiful Mountain' in Norwegian, using only a modern dictionary for documentation. Therefore, this is an example of the situation described in the above precedent - that, from the documentation in the file, we cannot assume that Vakkerfjell is a properly constructed period Norwegian placename.

The submitted byname í Vakkerfjelli was documented as an Old Norse construction. Therefore, the byname í Vakkerfjelli violates RfS III.1.a, which requires linguistic consistency in a name phrase, because it attempts to form an Old Norse locative byname from a hypothetical Norwegian placename.

Additionally, no documentation was provided and none was found that a locative byname in Old Norse would use a construction like í Vakkerfjelli. The LoI cited Lindorm Eriksson's article "The Bynames of the Viking Age Runic Inscriptions" (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/lindorm/runicbynames/places.htm), which gives an example of a name which includes both a patronymic byname and a locative byname: Ólaf Erlendsson á Bygglandi 'Ólafr of Byggland, Erlendr's son'. From this example, if documentation were provided supporting Vakkerfjell as a plausible placename in Old Norse, Thórvaldr Thórólfsson á Vakkerfjelli would be a registerable form of this name.

As the submitter does not allow major changes, we were unable to drop the problematic element in order to register this name.

September 2002 Letter of Intent
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