Outlands College of Heralds

From the office of the Rampart Herald
Lady Alia Marie de Blois
rampart@outlandsheralds.org

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February 2004 Letter of Presentation
March 2004 Letter of Response
March 2004 Letter of Intent
July 2004 LoAR Results
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Commentary was provided by: Master Da'ud ibn Auda, al-Jamal Herald; Lady Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Boke Herawde; cnut; Lord Gawain, Green Anchor Herald; and Lady Mór inghean Chathail. Thank you all.

Present at the Rampart Decision Meeting: Alia Marie de Blois, Rampart Herald; Anne Aliz de Basle, Fretty Herald; Charles Robert Blackstone; Juan Balthazar Tegero; AEthelwulf of Golias.

(Unless otherwise noted, all submittors will accept all changes, have no authenticity requests, and wish a name with the "common sense" gender, based on the submitted name.)

The following submissions were sent on to Laurel and the College of Arms for final decisions:

Diana of Llanberis. New Device. Purpure, a tower within an orle of hearts argent.
Iames of Mann. New Device. Sable, a bend sinister bretressed Or between an abacus palewise and a rocket bendwise sinister argent.
Everyone at the decision meeting commented that this submittor must, indeed, be a rocket scientist. However, there was not an overwhelming case for obtrusive modernity (and I usually leave those as a Laurel decision), and no other reason to return this device.
Mawadda bint Suleyman. Resubmitted Name.
"Names from the Geniza of Cairo" by Juliana de Luna (http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/geniza.html) lists Mawadda as meaning 'love'. "Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices" by Da'ud ibn Auda (http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/arabic-naming2.htm) does list Sulayman, Sulaiman, and Suleiman, and this is likely a reasonable transliteration.
Unfortunately, the name as submitted (Mawadda bint Suleyman bint Karima) would mean "Mawadda, daughter of Suleyman, who was the daughter of Karima". This has two problems. Firstly, Suleyman, as a masculine name, cannot be anyone's daughter - a modifier on Suleyman would use "ibn", meaning "son of". Secondly, Arabic does not use metronymics (bynames based on the name of the mother), so "daughter of [female name]" is not going to be authentic or registrable, even if the intended meaning is "Mawadda, daughter of Suleyman and Karima". As all changes were allowed and an interest in an authentic Arabic name was indicated, "bint Karima" was dropped to make this registrable (and more authentic).
Mephiboseth ben Yosef. New Name and New Device. Azure, a bend Or between a star of David argent and a candle enflamed proper, a bordure Or.
Julie Stampnitzky's "Medieval Jewish Names Research" (http://www.yucs.org/~jules/names/main.html) has <Yosef> from as early as the 7th century. Yehoshua ben Haim haYerushalmi's " Names of Rabbis in Pirkei Avot" (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ yehoshua/perkei_avot.html) covers 2nd C AD names and lists several names with Yose as the given name, but I'm not sure that it's the same name (though, if Yosef/Yoseph/Joseph is Biblical, it likely is). Since all changes were allowed, I have changed the spelling to the dated form.
Also, one commentor noted that she was unable to find any evidence that Mephiboseth was used outside the Bible, but that does not make this name unregistrable, merely possibly inauthentic.
Nikolaus von Stahlburg. Reconsidered Name and Unpended Device. Per chevron throughout vert and sable, a chevron throughout between three rams heads cabossed argent horned Or.
A few commentors indicated that there was a decent case for Stahlburg as a constructed place name (that is, plausibly could have been a place name in that period, but not documented as it stands), but since there is an SCA branch with this name, there's no real reason to go to such trouble.

The following items were returned for further work:

Iames of Mann. New Badge. Sable, in pale a crescent pendant and a rocket argent, a bordure Or.
This is being returned primarily for a redraw. This is not a suitable crescent pendant - the horns of the crescent should nearly touch. This is nearly, as one commentor described it, a "heraldic banana". However, I would note that every person at the decision meeting immediately made remarks about "shooting the moon" and "being a rocket scientist" (particularly in conjunction with the device), and that, even if redrawn properly, it may well be considered obtrusively modern (and returned by Laurel for such).
Kirka Bjornsdottir. New Name.
This name is being returned for gender mismatch. As Kirka is a male name, it cannot be matched with a byname meaning "Someone's daughter". Even if the submittor doesn't care about the gender, the name has to agree in gender with itself. So, This could be Kirka Bjornsson (or Bjarnarsson, as that seems to be the proper Old Norse patronymic), or [Female Name] Bjornsdottir. To move closer to the time period of the given name, another possibility would be Kirka Biornsson (Biornsson being a Danish patronymic dated to 1460). As any of these possibilities is a very large change, I am returning this so that the submittor can decide what she wants to do.
I asked commentors to try finding Kirka as a female name, Kirka closer to Old Norse, and/or a female name sounding similar to Kirka. I regret to say that the pickings are slim. One commentor looked in "Viking Names found in the Landnámabók" (http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/landnamabok.html) and found Kaðlín (pronounced KATH-lin) and Katla. Another similar name in that source is Þorkatla (pronounced THOR-kat-la).
Mawadda bint Suleyman bint Karima. Resubmitted Device. Sable, a mullet of four points, a bordure potenty argent.
This is being returned for a redraw. Both charges (the mullet and the bordure) really need to be drawn larger, so that they fill the space on the shield. The bordure should be approximately twice as thick, and the mullet should nearly fill the remaining space (about three times as large). I've made a badly computer-drawn version of the approximate proportions at: http://www.wombatinfestation.org/rampart/2004-02-lop/mawadda-suggested.gif
Also, for the "line" copy, it should be an outline of the "color" copy, and on the same forms as the "color" copy.
Slaine inghean Ui Sheanain. New Device. Per chevron inverted argent and sable, in chief an thistle vert.
This is being returned for a redraw. In short, this depiction cannot accurately be blazoned. It is very close to: per chevron inverted, chaussé, a pile, and a chief triangular. However, it is not exactly any one of them, but a somewhere between all of them. As such, to call it any one of those would blur the distinctions between them, leading to difficulty in identification. This is easily remedied by redrawing it to be any one of those four things.
For more information, images, etc., take a look at "Chevrons (inverted), Chaussés, Piles, and Chiefs Triangular, Oh My!" (http://www.wombatinfestation.org/rampart/lessons/blurring1.html) or at "Triangular Field Divisions & Charges" (http://users.easystreet.com/rafaella/triangle.html) .

Line Emblazon Sheet
Color Emblazon Sheet
January 2004 Letter of Presentation
February 2004 Letter of Response
February 2004 Letter of Intent
June 2004 LoAR Results
Return to the Rampart home page.