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

November 2002 Letter of Intent
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Cover Letter (excerpt)

From Wreath: Period Rolls of Arms and Armorials

One of the best ways to learn about heraldry and heraldic art is to look at rolls of arms and armorials. These documents were compiled by heralds, who drew the heraldry that they saw around them. Thus, period rolls of arms and armorials are excellent sources for "getting a feeling for" period heraldry and heraldic art, either by visual immersion or by logical analysis.

It is important to realize the limitations of most heraldic books and Web sites when trying to learn about period heraldic style. Many heraldry sources discuss individual heraldic elements (such as tinctures or charges) but do not provide any guidelines about how to combine these elements so that the heraldry is appropriate for a particular time and place. A look at a roll of arms or armorial from that time and place will help answer these questions.

In addition, one cannot truly understand period heraldry without seeing period heraldic art. Any person who would like his shield, scroll, or encampment to be decorated in the style of a particular place and time needs to see appropriate heraldic art. A good facsimile of an appropriate roll of arms or armorial will provide that artwork. It is important to be careful to look for a "good" facsimile, particularly when doing research on the Internet. A growing number of Web sites claim to represent a period roll of arms or armorial but use modern heraldic clip art. These sites are poor substitutes for the original artwork.

It is not always easy to find good facsimiles of period armorials and rolls of arms. So, in order to help with the search, the next two sections of this article describe some selected sources that are available, and some places where you might be able to find these (and other) sources.

What are some good books or Web sites about period rolls of arms?

The sources in this list are only a small subset of the sources available in libraries or bookstores. Each of the sources on this list has the following characteristics (except as noted below):

Because this article includes a focus on period heraldic artwork, it does not discuss the many valuable books that describe the contents of one or more period rolls of arms only through blazon.

Some of the books mentioned below are not in English, which is no surprise considering that French may be the premier language for heraldic studies today. Luckily, the grammar / word order of blazon is fairly standard across European languages, so it is not difficult to translate a blazon in an unfamiliar language. A good guide to translating blazon between various European languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch) may be found at http://www.heraldica.org/topics/glossary/.

This article intentionally does not include Joseph Foster's The Dictionary of Heraldry in the list below, because this book does not reliably provide a good reproduction of the original artwork. Foster would often read a blazon-only roll of arms and create his own illustrations.

Where can you find period rolls of arms and armorials?

Libraries: Most heraldic books can be obtained via inter-library loan if you have their publication information. You may also consider seeing whether your local librarian or academic librarian would be willing to order books on rolls of arms for their library. It may be helpful to remind your librarian that these books are both of historical and artistic interest.

Web Sites: Most Web sites are poor sources for period rolls of arms. As noted above, most Web sites do not use period heraldic art. For example, http://www.heraldique-europeenne.org/Armoriaux/index.html uses modern heraldic clip art and geometric stylizations in its depictions of period rolls of arms, giving a very modern appearance to these coats of arms. Other Web sites include some period artwork but are not always clear about the date of the artwork. For example, the International Civic Arms site (http://www.ngw.nl/indexgb.htm) gives dates for when the civic heraldry was originally granted, and will sometimes date an illustration. However, the International Civic Arms site does not always date its illustrations, and the illustrations may significantly post-date the date of the grant. This observation is not a criticism of the site; it just reflects the purpose of the site. If a city has used the same coat of arms since they were granted in the 14th C, and the Web site designer chooses to illustrate that coat of arms with a 19th C drawing, the illustration is still an accurate depiction of that city's arms. But it doesn't help an SCA artist gain an understanding of 14th C heraldic art.

Stores and Publishers: No formal endorsement of these stores or publishers is implied by the following list. Neither the SCA Sovereigns of Arms nor Laurel Clerk are employed in any capacity by these stores or publishers.

ACCEPTANCES
Æthelind of Erbystok. Name change from holding name Æthelind of Hawk's Hollow.
Submitted as Aethelind of Erbystok, the submitter requested authenticity for 13th C Welsh/English and allowed minor changes. The only documentation provided for the submitted Aethelind was the statement on her form "Aethelind - Withycombe p.3 - Innes Compilation of 1992."
Andreanna Innes's An Index of Given Names Contained in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names by E. G. Withycombe lists Aethelind as a name found under Ethelinda. However, Withycombe (p. 109 s.n. Ethelinda) shows Æthelind, not Aethelind. The conversion from Æ to Ae is a modern editorial convention used when it is not possible to use the character Æ. As no evidence was found to support Aethelind as a period form of Æthelind, it is not registerable. We have changed the given name in this submission to the form Æthelind in order to register this name.
By the submitter's desired time period, the Old English form Æthelind was replaced by a Middle English form of this name such as Athelyna, which Withycombe (p. 109 s.n. Ethelinda) dates to 1346. However, Old English and Middle English are sufficiently different in enough ways (including appearance) that they count as different languages. As the submitter does not allow major changes, and changing the language of an element is considered a major change, we have registered this name using the Old English Æthelind rather than the Middle English Athelyna.
Christiana de Montford. Name (see PENDS for device).
Eigan of Black Diamond. Name and device. Sable, an amphora and on a chief Or three lozenges sable.
Submitted as Eigen of Black Diamond, no documentation was presented and none was found that Eigen is a plausible variant of the period Welsh name Eigon. Lacking such evidence, Eigen is not registerable. The submitter indicated that if Eigen was not registerable, he preferred the variant Eigan found in Morgan & Morgan (s.n. Eigon). We have made this change.
Geoffrey fitz Robert. Name change from Harold of Baumaris.
His previous name, Harold of Baumaris, is released.
George Woulfryth. Device. Per bend sinister azure and purpure, on a bend sinister argent three gouttes palewise vert.
Gráinne inghean Chonaill uí Eachadha. Name (see RETURNS for device).
Submitted as Gráinne inghean Chonaill uí hEachaidh, the submitter requested authenticity for 15th C Irish. This name means 'Gráinne daughter of Conall Ó hEachaidh'. In the submitter's desired time period, the genitive form of her father's byname would have been slightly different. It would have been Ó hEachadha rather than Ó hEachaidh. We have made this change to meet the submitter's request for authenticity.
There is one other change that we have made in order to follow the rules of Gaelic grammar. Bynames, such as Ó hEachadha, that are formed like Ó [name of eponymous ancestor] have an h prepended to the name of the eponymous ancestor if that name begins with a vowel. When this byname is used in a woman's byname, Ó (which is in the nominative case) becomes uí or Uí (which are in the genitive case). Since the name of the eponymous ancestor now follows uí rather than Ó, the h is not prepended to it. Therefore, Ó hEachadha becomes uí Eachadha in this submission. We have made this correction.
Isabella dell'Edera. Name.
Listed on the LoI as Isabella Edera, this name was submitted as Isabella di Edera. The particle di was dropped at Kingdom because di is used in patronymic bynames in Italian and Edera was documented as an Italian word meaning 'ivy', not as a given name that could be used in a patronymic byname. In fact, De Felice, Dizionario dei nomi Italiani (p. 135 s.n. Edera), indicates that the use of Edera as a given name is modern.
No evidence was presented to show that Edera was used in a byname in Italian in period or that edera was used as an Italian word in period. The College found that edera is the modern Italian word for 'ivy' and that it derives from the Latin word hedera. Therefore, it is plausible to assume that edera was a period word in Italian. Fucilla (pp. 76-78, 79-82, 97) shows bynames derived from the names of flowers, garden vegetables, and other plants. In these cases, the bynames do not use a particle. While Fucilla lists no surnames meaning 'ivy', Siren found listings on the Web for people in modern Italy with the surname dell'Edera, which means 'of the ivy'. Given all of this information, a byname deriving from Edera is plausible enough as a period name that it may be registered. We have registered this name using dell'Edera, because it is a demonstrated surname using Edera and it is closer than Edera to the appearance and meaning of the originally submitted di Edera.
Katherine Niemann. Name and device. Per chevron vert and sable, two mullets of four points and an open book Or.
Meriel of Tay. Device. Argent, a lozenge gules between four roundels two and two vert all within a bordure gules.
Morgan Railey. Device. Per pall inverted azure vert and Or.
He has a letter of permission to conflict from Rivka Vladimirovna Rivkina, Per pall sable, vert and Or.
Outlands, Kingdom of the. Acceptance of transfer of heraldic title Aspen Pursuivant from the Kingdom of Atenveldt.
Vladimir Musat. Name and device. Per chevron vert and sable, two Catherine wheels argent and a badger salient Or.
The submitter requested authenticity for Romania and allowed minor changes. Vladimir was documented as Russian. While both Vlad and Vladislav were found in Aryanhwy merch Catmael's article "Names from the Royal Lines of Moldavia and Wallachia" (http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/romanian.html), the College was unable to find examples of Vladimir used in Romanian in period. As the submitter only allows minor changes, we were unable to change Vladimir to one of the Romanian forms found in Aryanhwy's article in order to make this name authentic for the submitter's requested culture.
At this time, it seems reasonable to for a name using both Russian and Romanian elements to be registerable. However, no one has presented evidence to support sufficient contact between these two cultures to make such a mix registerable without a weirdness. Therefore, a name mixing Russian and Romanian is registerable, but carries a weirdness.

RETURNS

Gráinne inghean Chonaill uí Eachadha. Device. Argent, a horse rampant contourny gules crined sable and on a chief azure three trefoils Or pierced argent.
The trefoils are drawn with white piercings in the center of the yellow foil. This has inadequate contrast by RfS VIII.2. A pierced trefoil should follow the same contrast rules as a trefoil charged with a roundel. Note that a standard pierced charge would have the tincture of the underlying charge or field (in this case, the blue chief) as the tincture of the piercing.
Please advise the submitter to draw the slip of the trefoil thinner. Period trefoils could have prominent slips, but these slips are so wide that they could almost be mistaken for another foil. This depiction thus blurs the ability to clearly identify the charge either as a trefoil or as a quatrefoil.

PENDS (until the October 2003 meeting)

Christiana de Montford. Device. Per fess indented azure and vert, a cat couchant guardant and on an open scroll argent three musical notes in bend sable.
The tincture of the cat and the scroll were omitted from the blazon. While one commenter did guess at the correct tinctures and check for conflict, one commenter's research is not sufficient analysis by the College. This must therefore be pended for further conflict research.

November 2002 Letter of Intent
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