27
April 2005
From the Office of
White Stag
Principal Herald
Lady Sorcha MacLeod
(Tammy
Ackerson)
whitestag@outlandsheralds.org
UNTO Elisabeth
de
Rossignol, Laurel Queen of Arms, Margaret MacDuibhshithe, Pelican Queen
of
Arms, Gwenllian ferch Maredudd, Wreath Queen of Arms, and the College
of Arms,
upon this 27th day of April 2005, A.S. XXXVII (2005 CE), does Lady
Sorcha
MacLeod, White Stag Principal Herald, send greetings.
Unless otherwise
noted,
submitters accept all changes, desire a name with the common sense
gender, and
have no requests for authenticity. With the caveat that my recent
illness was
both more lengthy than expected and compounded by my son’s sharing of a
completely unrelated virus, and that this is definitely not my
best
work, I present the following items for your consideration:
1. Angus Reid MacFarlane. New Name
Angus is found in Black, Surnames under the header Angus, "Angus, son of Somerled, c. 1150." Reid is the submitter's legal given name - a copy of his driver's license is enclosed. Macfarlane is found in Reaney and Wilson as an undated variant under the header MacFarlan. The exact desired spelling is not found, but this should be a reasonable variant spelling considering these two header forms. The only dated spelling is Mcpharlane (c1385). Lambent Herald offers "…Black; Surnames of Scotland; P.492; s.n. MacFarlan. MacFarlane is shown as an alternate header form, though I was unable to find it dated."
2. Astriðr Hálfdanardóttir. New
Name and Device. Per
pale sable and gules, domestic cat rampant guardant, in chief two Norse
sun
crosses Or
Astriðr is found as a feminine given name in Geirr Bassi, pg. 8. Hálfdan is found as a masculine given name on pg. 11 of Geirr Bassi, and is one of the exemplar names used in the discussion of the creation of patronymics/matronymics on pg. 17, which lists Hálfdanardóttir as the form for Hálfdan's daughter.
The original name was returned for several reasons, and they are listed in the December 2004 Letter of Response at: http://rampart.outlandsheralds.org/2004-11-lop/0412-lor.html. The original device Sable, a domestic cat rampant guardant Or maintaining in its dexter paw a Norse Sun Cross, a bordure embattled argent was also returned in Dec 2004 for multiple conflicts. Changing the sun cross from one maintained charge to two secondary charges clears all original conflicts.
3. Bloodstone Keep, Canton of. New Branch
Name and
New Branch Device. Gules, a gryphon segreant argent, in base a
laurel wreath
Or
A petition for both name and device is included. Keep is an SCA compatible branch name element:
Keep has long been used as part of SCA branch
names. The
most recent registration is Crossrode Keep, Shire of (registered
November 1999
via Ansteorra). This element is effectively regarded as SCA compatible
as an
element in an English place name. Given the forms in which it has been
registered, spellings of the element Keep are registerable both as a
separate
element (such as Crossrode Keep), and as the final element in a
compound place
name (such as Northkeep). [Tristan Ravencrest, A-Æthelmearc,
11/2001] [Michael
of Ravenskeep, A-Outlands, 07/2002]
Bloodstone is not well supported by the provided documentation. There is a Bloodstone Hill listed under a header of the same (Bloodstone Hill, Rum Island, Inverness-shire; 1273 ft.) in the Gazetteer of the British Isles published by John Bartholomew& Son, Ltd., Edinburgh, but it is undated. The documentation includes two citations from a genealogical site: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/IGI/individual_record.asp?recid=100200106547&lds=1®ion=… They are for "Mr. Bloodstone" and "Mrs. Bloodstone," indicate an approximate birth of 1585 and a marriage in 1600, all in Leacroft, Cannock, Stafford, England, and the citations indicate "No additional information is available." Genealogy sites are not suitable for SCA documentation, since their purposes are not ours - frequently spellings are modernized, for one example of why we cannot rely on genealogy sources for documentation. Additional citations are provided from a variety of sources, most of them intended to draw parallels between various color+stone, or thing+stone names, the closest of which are from R&W, Blundstone: Robert de Blundeston 1327 SRSf; Nicholas Bluneston 1593 FFHu. However, we find in the May 1993 LoAR:
Jaren Bloodstone. Name and device. Azure, four swords in cross, points conjoined proper, overall a cartouche gules, fimbriated Or.
Jaren is the submitter's mundane given name. The OED cites bloodstone to 1551; it might refer here to a personal token, or possibly to one who deals in the material (cf. the entries for Jewel, Silver in Reaney DBSII).
Finding nothing new to support or refute these interpretations, we are sending this up in the hopes that the CoA may offer further insight into the plausibility of this name. If sufficient pattern of place names from ores or gems found in the area can be established, and if it is reasonable to consider "bloodstone" to be a type of gemstone, then this name should be registrable. The canton will not accept major changes, and has no preferences or requests for authenticity.
4. Elisant le Chevaler. New Device. Purpure,
a
horse rampant and on a chief nebuly argent three trefoils sable
The original submission, Purpure, a horse rampant and on a chief embattled argent, three orchids sable, was returned in kingdom for lack of reproducibility (orchids) and for conflict with Luzia do Valongo, Purpure, a horse salient and a chief embattled argent. The trefoils address the reproducibility issue. This name appears on the Dec 04 Outlands LoI. There is also a CD between nebuly and embattled, so this redesign answers the issues. " The line of division on the chief appears halfway between nebuly and dovetailed/embattled, between which there is a CD…" [Elysant atten Oke, R-West, Aug04]
5. Emma Yate. New Name
Emma (header Emma)is dated to 1186 in Withycombe. Yate (header Yate) is dated to 1260 in Reaney and Wilson. Submitter accepts all changes, cares most about an unspecified language/culture, desires a feminine name, has no request for authenticity, and permits the creation of a holding name.
6. Gabriella de L'orme. New Name
Gabriella is justified by the presence of the masculine "Gabriel" in an article regarding the crew of Le Cristophe in 1535, found at: http://www.geocities.com/~carignan/E15Christophe.html and linked from S. Gabriel's French name article list. Required photocopies were not included. The element de L'orme is found as Delorme and del'orme in Morlet, undated, but the entry says "n. très fréquent, var. région," which I take to mean "very frequent, in various regions."
7. Helga Tynker. New Device. Argent, a cauldron sable and on a chief gules five hearts argent
Originally blazoned Argent, a cauldron sable,
on a
bordure gules, five hearts argent, the emblazon depicts a chief,
and the
blazon has been corrected to reflect that.
The original submission, Vert, a cauldron Or and on a chief
argent
five hearts gules, was returned in kingdom Aug 2004 for conflict
with
Angharad Glas Vert, a cauldron Or, on a chief argent, three
penannular
brooches inverted gules, and
the
redesign addresses the issue. This name
is on the August 2004 Outlands LoI.
8. Igrainne of Gwynedd. New Name and Device. Per fess embattled sable and Or masoned sable, a sword gules between in chief two goblets Or
Igrainne was not found in the sources at herald's point (Estrella), and is listed as "Cornish." Rede Boke provides:
Submitted as
Ygrainne ferch Rhun, the
spelling Ygrainne is
not registerable, since no
documentation was
presented and none
could be found that a
spelling with a double "n" is
plausible. Therefore,
we have changed it to the
standard form Ygraine.
"Precedent allows
registration of Arthurian
names:
Current precedent is to accept the names of significant characters from period Arthurian literature as there is a pattern of such names being used in England and France in period. [Bedivere de Byron, 06/99, A-Atlantia]
Gwynedd is found in Morgan & Morgan Welsh Surnames under the header Gwynedd on p. 118, dated to 1614. Submitter accepts all changes, cares most about the sound, desires a feminine name, has no authenticity request, and permits the creation of a holding name.
9. Kovach Bol'shoi. Device Resubmission. Per pale gules and sable, two dragons combatant Or and in base a lotus blossom in profile argent
The blazon has been changed to add the phrase "in profile." The original submission, Or, a tree eradicated proper between in two dragons combattant, that to dexter sable and that to sinister gules, was listed as withdrawn by the submitter on the May 1998 LoAR.
10. Melangell Dwn. New Name and Device. Per chevron argent and Or, two gouttes gules and a decrescent azure
Melangell is dated to 570 in Colm Dubh's "An Index to Bartram…," KWHS, Meridies, AS XXXI (June 1996) as a feminine given name. The balance of the title would be appreciated. Dwn is cited as a "byname of coloring" from p. 32 of CA#66 "A Welsh Miscellany" by Heather Rose Jones, and means "dark." Submitter will not allow major changes, but makes no other limitations.
11. Nicolina of Cornwall. New Name
Nicolina is found in de Felice Nomi,
p. 177,
header Nicola. I am unable to make out
the Italian well enough to know how much of it to quote, and the
passage is
quite long. Rede Boke provides,
"<Nicholina> is
dated to 1524 in Talan's
'Feminine Given Names in
A Dictionary of
English Surnames'
(http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/)" and "R&W s.n. Cornwall date <Cornwale>
to
1205." English and
Italian are a weirdness, "… An Italian-English name combination is a
weirdness (barring evidence of such combinations in period) but
acceptable…"
[Veronica de Holloway, A-Artemisia, Sep99] Submitter
accepts all changes, cares most
about the sound, and desires a feminine name.
12. Serena da Vinci. New Name
(Gleann Medonach)
The documentation summary lists, "Serena - de Felice Nomi, p. 330. da - common Italian preposition. Vinci - de Felice Cognomi, p. 262." Serena appears to be undated, as does Vinci, though I suspect there should be no trouble with da Vinci. Rede Boke helpfully provides
<Serena> was registered as recently as 02/2004,
when <Serena de la Mar> received a 'good name!' comment. S. Gabriel
Report #2337 (www.s-gabriel.org/2337) says:
"both <Serena>
and <Dolce> were used in Florence in your period [6]; at least in modern
usage, <Serena> is common in the region of Venice, so it's a slightly
better choice for your given name [1]."
[6] Rhian Lyth, "Italian Renaissance Women's Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman,
1996).
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/italian.html
[1] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei nomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori
Editore, Milan, 1992), s.nn. Dolce, Serena.
Thus ends my Letter of Intent. I count 8 new names, 1 new branch name, 5 new devices, and 1 new branch device, for a total of 15 items for which payment is due, as well as 1 device resubmission. A check for $60 will be sent separately.
In service and duty,
Sorcha, White Stag