Last modified: June 26, 2007
27 June 2007
From the Office of Rampart Herald
Furukusu Masahide (John Newton)
rampart@outlandsheralds.org
Unto the Outlands College of Heralds, the esteemed submitters, and all others who come by these letters, on this 27th day of June 2007, A.S. XLII, does Furukusu Masahide, Rampart Herald, send greetings.
My deepest gratitude to those who took time to send internal commentary: Aethelwulf Muenc, Anpliça Fiore (Compass Herald), Breichiol map Lludd o Fannuac, Cnut, Gwain of Miskbridge (Green Anchor Herald), Ines Alfón (Saker Herald), Marie de Blois (White Stag), Pipa Sparkes (Axed Root Pursuivant), Rohese de Dinan (Shadowdale Pursuivant), and Ursula Georges (Loyall Pursuivant).
Line Emblazon Sheet
Color Emblazon Sheet
May 2007 Letter of Presentation
June 2007 Letter of Response
June 2007 Letter of Intent
October 2007 LoAR Results
Return to the Rampart home page.
The following items were sent on to Laurel for final determination:
The following items were returned for further work:
Gender: Male. The client cares most about the sound of the name. No major changes accepted.
[Connal]: Black, _Surnames of Scotland_, p. 168: "sn. CONNAL, CONNELL et al: 'Modern for Congal or Cingual, Cuthbert...Connell was a voter in the parish of Qwilton (now Coylton), 1513. Cf. Gille-Conal' s.n. GILLECONAL (.303)"
[MacNachtan]: Black, _Surnames of Scotland_, p. 547: "s.n. MACNACHTAN, MACNAUGHTAN, et al: 'q.v. Gillecrist Mac Nachtan granted the church of Kelmurkhe (Kilmorich) in 1247 to the Abbey of Inchaffray...Donald Macnachtane, son of an unmarried nobleman and an unmarried woman, was dean of Dunkeld in 1431...Sir Duncan McNachtan was dean of Dunkeld in 1438.' "
Commenters indicate that Black documents [Connal] as a modern form of a surname. Commenters also indicate that Ó Corrain & Maguire's _Irish Names_ only shows [Conall].
Changing the spelling of the submitted [Connal] to [Conall] is a bit beyond a minor change. The client prohibits major changes of the name.
Name returned for lack of documentation.
At this time, no conflicts were found with the device.
Device returned for lack of name.
The name is currently in submission; it was sent to Laurel on the January 2007 Letter of Intent.
The previous device submission, [Azure and purpure gyronny, in base a pegasus passant, in chief two scimitars argent], was returned on the September 2006 Letter of Response:
"The device is actually three piles in point, as a gyronny would have equal divisions, and they would be conjoined in the center of the field. Given that this is three piles, they violate Rfs.VIII.2.b.i - Contrast Requirements - which states that the field must have good contrast with all charges placed upon it. In this case, the three piles are of a color, and not a metal. Having a color (purple) on a colored field (blue) does not provide good contrast. Rfs.VIII.2.a - Contrasting Tinctures - defines good contrast, namely a metal on a color, or a color on a metal. This rule holds true even if this device were a form of gyronny. "
There was considerable comment on the emblazon, blazon, and style of this submission. First there is no partition of [per pile], it would simply be [a pile inverted]. However, the charge as submitted is too wide to be a pile, and the charge touches the top of the field, which a pile would not do. In order to describe this as [per chevron throughout] the purpure portion would have to be narrowed to make the white and purpure portions roughly equal. The drawing is very close to [Purpure chapé argent], but we don't allow charging of chapé, so the scimitars would not be allowed in their current placement.
Commenters conflict checked this as [Per chevron throughout argent and purpure, two scimitars and a Pegasus passant counterchanged], and it did not appear to have any conflicts at this time. The device would have to be redrawn as indicated above to be considered [Per chevron throughout] however.
Device returned for redraw.
Gender: Male. The client cares most about the language/culture of the name, and wants an authentic Arabic name (period not specified). No major changes accepted.
"Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices" by Da'ud ibn Auda (http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/arabic-naming2.htm) [1];
"The One Hundred Most Beautiful Names of God" by Mustapha al-Muhaddith ibn al-Saqaat (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mustapha/cnamesofgod.html) [2]
I leave plowing through these articles for the documentation of this name as an exercise for the reader.
Email from Ursula Georges, Academy of St. Gabriel: "You asked about the masculine Arabic name [Hassan al-Najjar al-Rumi ibn abd al'Azalee al Najjar ibn al-Ba'eeth al Rashid]. You found the elements of the name in (the two articles cited above). The general structure of the name is reasonable, though you would probably have used just a given name and one or two bynames in all but the most formal situations. We do have a few comments about spelling, tansliteration and punctuation. Your two sources use different systems for transliterating Arabic into English. Following the transliteration system of [1], your names could be written as [Hassan al-Najjar al-Rumi ibn and al'Azali al Najjar ibn Abd al-Ba'ith al Rashid]. Note that we have written [Abd al-Ba'ith]; [al-Ba'ith], "Raiser from the Dead" is an epithet of God, while [Abd al-Ba'ith] means "servant of the Raiser from the Dead". A more accurate transliteration, using double letters to indicate Arabic long vowels, would be [H.assaan an-Najjaar ar-Ruumii ibn 'Abd al-Azalii an-Najjaar ibn 'Abd al-Baa'ith ar-Rashiid] (cites: Dodge, Baynard, The Fihrist of al-Nadim (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), and "The Divine Names" by Aisha Bewley (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ABewley/names.html)) . (Here the period after the 'H' in [H.assaan] represents a small dot underneath that letter.) The spellings [an-Najjar] and [ar-Ruumii] reflect the Arabic pronunciation of these parts of the name: the 'l' in the definite article [al-] is not pronounced before an \N\ or \R\ sound." (Castle note: guys, if you have an email that is a critical part of your documentation, can you forward it to me so I can cut and paste instead of retyping the whole thing, with all the error potential that entails? I do not have OCR software, so scanning it in is not an option.)
Rampart Notes: The client should also please remember that summary of documentation should be just that, not simply a list of links to review. A summary should explain the origin and date and documentation source of each name element, as well as the explanation and documentation of the overall name structure. Failure to do so can result in return, even if the listed links explain this. Someone has to do this summary before it gets to Laurel, and it is primarily the responsibility of the submitter to see that it is complete.
The client did not submit this name submission on current forms, requiring a return under Administrative Handbook IV.C.1 - Submission Forms. Current forms can be found on the Rampart website at http://rampart.outlandsheralds.org/forms/OCoH-name-i.pdf.
Commenters indicate that the transcription method used in "Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices" by Da'ud ibn Auda is generally held as the standard within the SCA, and Rampart strongly suggests that the name be re-written using this transcription style instead of the double vowel style in order to reduce the chance of return on this technical detail.
Name returned for improper forms.
Commenters indicate that the device appears to be free of conflict at this time.
Device returned for lack of name to send it forward with.
Gender: Male. The client cares most about the language/culture of the name, though what langualge/culture he believes that to be is not specified.
The previous submission was returned on the October 2006 LoAR for conflict:
"This name is a direct conflict with Seamus mac Dubhghaill, registered June, 2006. To clear this conflict, we recommend that the submitter add a Gaelic descriptive byname.The spelling MacDhùghaill was documented from Black, The Surnames of Scotland. Please note that when Black documents a name as simply "Gaelic", he means that it is modern Gaelic. Unless documentation is provided showing that these spellings are found in period, they are, in general, not registerable. His armory was registered under the holding name Séamus of Dragonsspine."
[Seamus]: O'Corrain & Maguire, _Irish Names_, p. 162.
[MacCrae]: Black, Surnames of Scotland, pg 479.
Castle/Rampart Notes: The client should please remember that summary of documentation should be just that, not simply a list of books to review. A summary should explain the origin and date and documentation source of each name element, as well as the explanation and documentation of the overall name structure. Failure to do so can result in return, even if the listed links explain this. Someone has to do this summary before it gets to Laurel, and it is primarily the responsibility of the submitter to see that it is complete.
Commenters state that O'Corrain & Maguire indicates that the form [Séamus] is a pre-12th C form. Please note the accent.
Commenters also indicate that Black shows that the spelling [MacCrae] was not used until 1684, and beyond our cutoff and "gray area" for documentation. Under [MACRAE] Black lists lots of forms from the 13th C. onwards.
While Rampart could adjust the surname to a period form using an allowed major/minor change, it is felt that the client would be better served by reviewing Black and selecting a form that they will be happiest with, as opposed to potentially registering something the client is not happy with and requiring an addition a submission fee to change it.
Name returned for rework.
Gender: Male. The client cares most about the language/culture of the name, and is interested in having an authentic Swedish/Scandinavian name (period not specified).
[Soren]: Academy of St. Gabriel Report 1952 (http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi/1952.txt) states this name is derived from the name of St. Severinus, found in Denmark from1400 on. It is found in the spelling [Søren] in 1403-1540, though [Sewryn] and [Sewren] were more common in the period. The name came to Norway ca. 1440 as [Søren], and was likely in use in Sweden by the 16th Century.
[Thorvaldsson]: Academy of St. Gabriel Report 3090 (http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi/3090.txt) documents [{TH}orvaldr] as a 9th-10th-century Norwegian/Icelandic masculine name.
Rampart Notes: The client should please remember that summary of documentation should be just that, not simply a list of links to review. A summary should explain the origin and date and documentation source of each name element, as well as the explanation and documentation of the overall name structure. Failure to do so can result in return, even if the listed links explain this. Someone has to do this summary before it gets to Laurel, and it is primarily the responsibility of the submitter to see that it is complete.
Commenters indicate that the two names are beyond the 3 century rule of thumb for temporal compatibility. Commenters could find no documentation to indicate that [Søren] was used prior to the 15th C. or that [{TH}orvaldr] was used after the 11th C.
Name returned for lack of documentation.
The axes in the device partially overlie the field, and need to be corrected to be completely contained within the chief. The device appears to be clear of conflict at this time.
Device returned for redraw and lack of name.
Thus ends my Letter of Response.
In service and duty,
Furukusu Masahide
Rampart Herald
Line Emblazon Sheet
Color Emblazon Sheet
May 2007 Letter of Presentation
June 2007 Letter of Response
June 2007 Letter of Intent
October 2007 LoAR Results
Return to the Rampart home page.