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Kingdom of Atenveldt Home Page

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Heraldic Submissions Page

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Atenveldt Submissions (excerpted from the S.C.A. College of Arms' Letters of Acceptance and Return)

ATENVELDT REGISTRATIONS by the College of Arms, July 2003:


Áedán Mór Mac Donough. Name and device. Or, a bend sinister between two ermine spots sable and overall a griffin's head erased gules.

Alamanda de Claret. Device. Per pale argent and gules, a goblet charged with a lotus flower affronty all within a bordure counterchanged.

Alamanda de Claret. Badge. (Fieldless) A goblet per pale gules and argent charged with a lotus flower affronty counterchanged.

Alexander Bones. Name.

Good name!

Alwyn MacQuill. Name and device. Per bend sinister sable and vert, a mullet Or and a pegasus salient argent.

Alyne Strangwych. Name and device. Per bend sinister purpure and azure, an oak leaf and a chief embattled argent.

Submitted as Allyne Strangwych, all period examples found for this given name are spelled with one l. We have made this change. Please advise the submitter that the chiefmost point on the per bend sinister line should be where the bottom of the chief meets the sinister side of the shield.

Annalies Katerina Schneider. Name.

Antoinette Joaliere. Name and device. Sable, two roses in pale and a bordure argent.

Arthur of Atenveldt. Holding name and device (see RETURNS for name). Gules, a chevron and in dexter chief a fleur-de-lys Or.

Submitted under the name Arthur Daniels the Instigator. Nice device!


Ásta Þorvaldsdóttir. Device. Purpure, a chevron couched from dexter interlaced with a chevron couched from sinister Or and overall three arrows inverted in fess argent.

Some commenters were concerned about blazoning the arrows as an overall charge group, since only the center arrow actually surmounts the chevrons. An entire charge group may be blazoned as overall without requiring that each one of the charges surmounts the primary charge group. The three identical arrows in a standard arrangement (in fess) are clearly a single charge group.

Atenveldt, Kingdom of. Badge. Azure, an escallop argent and a demi-sun issuant from base Or.

Atenveldt, Kingdom of. Badge. Azure, an escallop and a demi-sun issuant from base Or.

Birgir Bjarnarson. Name and device. Per fess wavy sable and azure, a drakkar reversed sails furled argent and a bezant.

Submitted as Birgir Bjórnson, the submitter requested authenticity for 10th C Norse. The patronymic Bjórnson was not correctly formed for Old Norse. The patronymic byname formed from the masculine given name Bj{o,}orn is Bjarnarson. We have made this change in order to meet the submitter's request for authenticity.

The bezant was originally blazoned as charged with a Norseman's face. The "Norseman's face" is a set of very stylized thin-line details. The "face" details are drawn with lines so thin that they cannot be said to be a charge upon the bezant. Because the "face" details are so thin and insignificant, we can consider them to be purely artistic details and blazon the charge in base simply as a bezant. If the "Norseman's face" details were drawn more boldly, the College felt that the details were not clearly identifiable as a face or any other charge. Without documentation for this sort of "face" as a heraldic charge (rather than a period artistic design) the "Norseman's Face" will not be registered. Note RfS VII.2, which states "Use of an element in period art does not guarantee its acceptability for armory. Use of the Greek key design, which was common in period decorative art, never carried over into armory."

Bjorn Krom Hakenberg. Name (see RETURNS for device).

Submitted as Bjorn Krom von Hakenberg, Hakenberg was documented as a Danish rendering of a German placename found in Knudsen, Kirstensen, and Hornby, Danmarks Gamle Personnavne (column 400, s.n. Hakenberg), which dates Hans Haghenberch to 1429, Bernd Hakenbergh to 1464, Bernd Hakenbergs to 1468 (the source notes the byname is in genitive case in this example), Bernt Hackenberg to 1470, and Bernd Hakenberg to 1481. This submission noted von as an attempt at a Danish word for 'of/from' and requested help in correcting this element. The particle von is German while Hakenberg is documented as Danish. As a result, the byname von Hakenberg violates RfS III.1.a, which requires linguistic consistency in a name phrase, and so is not registerable. As all of the Danish examples of bynames referring to Hakenberg do not use a particle, we have registered this byname without a particle in order to follow the standard Danish usage for this name.

Brian Sigfridsson von Niedersachsen. Name (see RETURNS for device).

The submitter requested authenticity for 10th to 11th C Germanic and allowed any changes. The byname Sigfridsson was documented to the 17th C as Swedish. While no documentation was found of Sigfridsson as a German byname in period, it follows a documented patronymic construction pattern found in German. Sigfrid is dated to 1310 as a masculine given name in German in Talan Gwynek's article "Medieval German Given Names from Silesia, Men's Names" (http://www.s_gabriel.org/names/talan/bahlow/bahlowMasc.html). German bynames ending in forms of sohn 'son' are rare, but do occur. Brechenmacher lists a number of examples of this type of name, including (s.n. Sohn) Henrich Adrians Sohn dated to 1580, (s.n. Jakobsen) Drewes, Jacoppes son zu Lübeck dated to 1335, (s.n. Friedrich) Chuonnrat Friderichs sun zu Hottingen dated to 1313, and (s.n. Wilhelmsen) Jakob Wilhelmes sohne dated to 1526. These examples demonstrate that this construction existed in period. They also show that the expected form would have an s added to the end of the father's name, forming a patronymic such as Sigfrids son. Brechenmacher (s.n. Wolterssohn) also shows an example of the sohn 'son' element appended to the end of the patronym: Jasper Wolterszoen 1573. This example supports a construction such as Sigfridsson. As we were unable to find evidence that any of the elements in this name were used in German in the submitter's desired time period, we were unable to make this name authentic for the submitter's requested time and culture.

Cadhla Ultach. Name.

Submitted as Cadhla Ultachan, Ultachan was documented from Woulfe (p. 682 s.n. Ultachan). However, Woulfe gives no evidence that this form is period. While Ultach 'the Ultonian' (refers to a person from Ulster) is a byname found in period, no examples of diminutives (including -an forms) have been found of this type of byname in period. Lacking evidence that a diminutive of a descriptive byname would have been used in period, we have changed the byname to the documented form Ultach in order to register this name.

Connor Elphinstone. Name and device. Per pale sable and argent, a winged domino mask and a bordure dovetailed counterchanged. There was some question whether Connor is a period form. C. L'Estrange Ewen, A History of Surnames of the British Isles (pp. 210-211), lists some names from patent rolls of James I from the years 1603 and 1604. Among the names included in this list are Connor O'Moyle O'Fahie of Lickmolashe, clerk, Garrat McArt O'Connor, yeoman, and Teige McTirlagh McGerralt O'Connor, gent. Given these examples, Connor is a registerable as a late-period Anglicized Irish form of the Gaelic name Conchobhar and O'Connor as an Anglicized Irish form of the Gaelic byname Ó Conchobhair.

Diana Ygraine Lylywythe. Name and device. Azure, an owl and on a chief argent three fleurs-de-lys azure.

Diego Ramos del Lobo. Name and device. Vert, a wolf rampant contourny and on a chief invected argent three crosses of Santiago gules.

Submitted as Diego Ramos de la Sangre Lobo, the submitter requested authenticity for Spanish. No evidence was presented and none was found that de la Sangre Lobo 'of the blood wolf' is plausible as a byname in period. Elsbeth Anne Roth's article "16th Century Spanish Names" (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~kvs/heraldry/spanish16/) lists María del Aguila 'María of the Eagle' dated to 1560. Based on this example, we have changed the submitted byname to del Lobo 'of the Wolf' in order to register this name.

Fáelán Mac Cuinneagáin. Name (see RETURNS for device).

Felice Throkemarton. Device. Per pale azure and gules, a seahorse within an orle Or.

Franz der Schmidt. Name and device. Per pale sable and gules, on a pale argent a sinister bat wing sable.

Friðrekr berserkr. Device. Per saltire azure and sable, in pale two mullets and in fess two Maltese crosses argent.

Gudrun Elizabeth Johansdottir. Name and device. Per bend sinister gules and argent, a cog wheel Or and a wyvern erect contourny wings displayed gules.

Gwenhevare Easter. Name and device. Per bend sinister vert and argent, a threaded needle bendwise sinister and a frog sejant affronty counterchanged.

Hallbjorg hin miskunnarlausa. Name.

Submitted as Hallbjorg hin Miskunnarlausa, we have changed the byname to lowercase in order to use standard transliteration conventions. (See the Cover Letter for the October 2002 LoAR for more information.)

Helena the Fair of Ravenglass. Name and device. Per chevron azure and argent, in base an escallop vert.

Ignazio James. Device. Argent, a chevron embattled azure and in chief an arrow inverted bendwise sinister proper flighted gules and a wooden bow bendwise string to base proper.

Jurik Novgorodskii. Name.

Submitted as Jurik of Novgorod, the submitter requested that the byname of Novgorod be translated into Russian.

Locative bynames can take different forms in Russian, including nouns, patronymics, and adjectives. Wickenden (3rd edition, pp. xxviii - xxvix) lists a thorough description of these constructions. A summary of the more common forms is provided below. Quoted text is from this section of Wickenden. Forms constructed according to these rules are in parenthesis.

Nouns: "a noun formed from the place name, usually meaning 'inhabitant of' or 'citizen of'." (Novgorodets)

Patronymics: "Literally these 'patronymics' would be translated as 'son/daughter of <place name>,' as if the city was the father of the person." Wickenden uses Novgorod as an example in this entry where he gives the patronymic form as Novgorodtsev and says of it that it means "'son of Novgorodets' or literally 'son of a Novgorodite'". Pennon found a dated example of this type of byname: "According the Dictionary of Period Russian names; Paul Goldschmidt, <http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/zgrammar.html>; s.n. Toponyms: dates Sidor Novgorodov (15th Century) [Gra 276] ("from Novgorod")".

Adjectives: "'the person of <place name> or 'the <place name>ish person.' The person is described as being colored by his/her place of birth, bearing the place (as a Russian would say) in their soul." (Novgorodskii, Novgorodskoi Novgorodskyi, Novgorodskogo)

As the adjectival form is the form most commonly associated with locative bynames in Russian, we have changed the submitted byname of Novgorod to the form Novgorodskii to meet the submitter's request to translated the byname into Russian.

Kata the Forthright. Name and device. Per pale argent and gules, four wolves' teeth issuant from dexter gules.

Submitted as Katja the Forthright, no documentation was presented and none was found that Katja was used as a Russian name in period. While Katja is a modern Russian name, no documentation was presented and none was found that Katja was used in period. The closest name found to the submitted name was Kata, which Nebuly found listed in Wickenden (s.n. Ekaterina) dated to 1088. The LoI stated that: Katja is cited as a Russian version of Katherine (p. 272, Bahlow, under Katharina header); in recent registrations, it appears to be acceptable as a Norse feminine given name as well.

Prior registration is not evidence of current registerability. Aryanhwy merch Catmael found information regarding the "recent registrations" referred to in the LoI: The most recent registration of the name was to Katja Gaussdottír of Storvik in 12/01. According to the LoAR, <Katja> is the submitter's modern name. The most recent registration of the name prior to this was in 02/92, (changed in 08/96).

Lacking evidence that Katja is a plausible name in period, it is not registerable. As the submitter allows any changes, we have changed the given name to the documented form Kata in order to register this name.

Lavinia Betteresse. Device. Argent, a chevron sable between three lizards statant contourny each per pale vert and gules.

Magnus Ragnarsson. Name and device. Gules, two flanged maces in saltire Or surmounted by a sword inverted proper.

Submitted as Magnus Ragnarson, the patronymic Ragnarson was not correctly formed. The patronymic byname formed from the masculine given name Ragnarr is Ragnarsson. We have made this correction.

Magy Blackmore. Name and device. Azure, a cat sejant contourny and on a chief argent an oak tree proper.

Maine of Galway. Name and device. Azure, a tree blasted and eradicated and on a chief Or three Celtic crosses azure.

María Isabel Falcón de la Sierra. Device. Per bend sinister wavy sable and argent, a decrescent argent and a rose bendwise sinister azure slipped and leaved vert.

Marya Tatiana Zvesdina. Name and device. Per chevron sable and argent, two mullets and a swan naiant counterchanged.

Moira O'Droogan. Device change. Per pale purpure and vert, a dragonfly within an orle Or. Her previous device, Per pale vert and argent, two dragonflies counterchanged, is retained as a badge.

Nicolette d'Avranches. Name and device. Per bend sinister vert and argent, two fleurs-de-lys and a bordure counterchanged.

Listed on the LoI as Nicolette d'Avanches, both the submission form and the documentation supported Avranches. We have made this correction.

Osanna Schauenengel. Name and device. Argent, an annulet sable between three oak leaves bendwise sinister vert.

Good name!

Paul O'Flaherty. Name and device. Azure, three triangles conjoined, one and two, Or.

One commenter noted that this symbol was frequently found as an item of insignia in artwork associated with some Nintendo games, including the Zelda series of games. However, the symbol is not copyrighted in the USA, and we have received no information that the symbol is copyrighted elsewhere. As a result, it need not be protected against conflict.

Ragnarr Gunnarsson. Device. Per pale sable and gules, a bear rampant contourny and on a chief Or three Thor's hammers sable.

Richard Ironsteed. Badge. (Fieldless) A European elk's head erased affronty azure gorged with a county coronet Or.

The submitter is a count and entitled to use a county coronet in his armory.

Robert McGuiness. Name and device. Per pale purpure and vert, in bend sinister two millrinds Or.

Rowan O'Bannon. Name and device. Argent, on a pale between a decrescent and an increscent vert a rowan tree couped argent.

Rowan of Atenveldt. Holding name and device (see RETURNS for name). Argent, a chevron throughout sable between two roses gules slipped and leaved and a shamrock vert.

Submitted under the name Rowan Katerina O'Flaherty.

Rowan of Galway. Name and device. Per fess gules and vert, a fess between three trees couped and a stag salient Or.

Sarah nic Leod. Name (see RETURNS for device).

Sorcha inghen Chon Mhara. Name and device. Or, five wooden drop spindles in annulo, handles to center, proper, threaded azure.

Submitted as Sorcha inghen Cú Mara, there was some discussion regarding the submitted inghen. This spelling has been addressed previously:

[T]he Annals of Connacht [...] also includes examples of the spelling inghen which seems to be a conservative spelling of the standard inghean. [Temair Brecc inghen Choluim, 01/02, A-West]

When the masculine name Cú Mara is used in a woman's byname, it needs to be put into the genitive case and lenited. Therefore, inghen Chon Mhara and, more typically, inghean Chon Mhara are forms of this byname appropriate for Early Modern Irish Gaelic (c. 1200 to c. 1700). We have changed the byname to the first of these forms, as it is the closer of the two to the submitted form of this byname, in order to register this name.

Taliesin Flynn. Device. Per pall inverted embattled gules sable and Or, two winged lions passant respectant Or and a harp vert.

Taran the Wayward. Badge. Gules, a fess between three delfs all within a bordure argent.

Thomas Godefroy. Name (see RETURNS for device).

Good name!

Tristam McFarland. Badge. Vert, in fess a castle between two wolves rampant addorsed each maintaining a sword argent.

Uilliam Ó Cléirigh. Name (see RETURNS for device).

William Hazell. Name and device. Sable, five talbots statant two two and one argent.

Note: Hazell is his legal surname. Nice device!


ATENVELDT RETURNS by the College of Arms, July 2003:

Arthur Daniels the Instigator. Name.

Regarding the byname the Instigator, the LoI only stated that "Instigator is dated to 1598, according to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary." No summary was provided of what the Compact Oxford English Dictionary says about this word. Nor was any indication provided of why the Instigator would be a plausible byname in period. Such lack of summarization has been reason for return in the past:

The documentation was not adequately summarized on the LoI: it is not sufficient to say that a name element is found on a book, we need to know what is said. As the College did not provide independent evidence, we have to return this as per the May [2000] LoAR cover letter. [Adelicia of Caithness, 03/2001, R-Caid]

As a reminder, inadequate summarization will continue to be a reason for return. In this case, the College provided no support for the Instigator as a plausible byname in period. Lacking support for the Instigator as a byname in period, this byname is not registerable. As the submitter allows no changes, we were unable to drop the problematic element in order to register this name. His armory has been registered under the holding name Arthur of Atenveldt.

Bjorn Krom Hakenberg. Device. Vert, on a bend sinister argent between a sheaf of tulips slipped and a sheaf of arrows inverted Or a demi-bear affronty palewise, paws outstretched, sable.

Conflict with Elisa of Thescorre, Vert, on a bend sinister argent between two open books Or a rapier sable. Quoting from the LoAR of June 2001, "A sheaf is considered a single charge, therefore there is [... a] CD for changing the type of the secondary charges." Here, we have changed the type but not the number of secondary charges: we have changed two open books to an arrow-sheaf and a tulip-sheaf.

There is no difference for changing the type only of tertiary charge under RfS X.4.j.ii. The armory is not simple for purposes of that rule, because the secondary charge group contains more than one type of charge.

Brian Sigfridsson von Niedersachsen. Device. Argent, three bendlets azure each charged with a mullet of six points palewise Or.

Conflict with Awilda Haeulfdan, Per pale gules and sable, three compass stars in bend sinister Or. Because armory with three or more bendlets is equivalent to armory with a bendy field, this armory needs to be considered as if it were blazoned as Bendy argent and azure, in bend sinister three mullets of six points Or. Under this interpretation, there is one CD for changing the field. There is no type difference between the compass stars and the mullets of six points. Because of the unusual (and non-period) design of compass stars, with their four greater and four lesser points, they are considered as variants of both mullets of four points and mullets of eight points. There is no type difference between mullets of six points and mullets of eight points and, hence, no difference between mullets of six points and compass stars.

Fáelán Mac Cuinneagáin. Device. Sable, a saltire and a bordure argent.

Conflict with Duncan Dalziell, Sable, on a saltire argent, a triskelion arrondi between a decrescent, an increscent, a decrescent and an increscent, all palewise azure, a bordure argent. There is a single CD for removing the tertiary charge group.

Gabriel Kenrick. Device. Vert, a bend sinister Or between a bird close and an arrow bendwise sinister inverted argent.

Conflict with Rosamond Tindomielle, Vert, a bend sinister Or between a white oak and a lyre argent, entwined of a vine Or. There is one CD for changing the type of the secondary charges around the bend sinister. The vine on the lyre is very insignificant and does not contribute to difference.

Katherine of 'Akka. Name and device. Argent, a winged cat sejant contourny sable and a bordure engrailed azure.

The byname of 'Akka violates RfS III.1.a, which requires linguistic consistency in a name phrase. The byname of 'Akka combines the English of with the Arabic 'Akka in a case where the common English form of this placename, Acre, is different from the form of this placename in the original language. RfS III.1.a says in part: In the case of place names and other name elements frequently used in English in their original form, an English article or preposition may be used. For example, of Aachen might be used instead of the purely German von Aachen.

Recent precedent discusses this issue: Some placenames do not appear in English in their original form. For example, the German city of Köln appears in English as Cologne. Therefore, bynames referring to this location would be von Köln or of Cologne. The byname of Köln mixes English and German and so is not registerable because Köln is not the form that this placename takes in English. [Nathaniel Constantine von Laubach, 12/2002, A-Atenveldt]

In the case of this submission, 'Akka is an Arabic form of this placename. In English, it is rendered Acre. This name would be registerable as Katherine of Acre. As the submitter allows no changes, we were unable to make this change in order to register this name.

The device conflicts with Gwenllian the Forgetful, Argent, a cat sejant contourny sable and a bordure engrailed, azure. There is one CD for adding the wings to the cat. Please advise the submitter, on resubmission, to draw fewer and larger engrailings. In particular, the engrailings at the top of the bordure should be deeper.

Richard Steavenson. Name and device. Azure, a bend sinister between four lozenges argent.

No documentation was presented and none was found to support the spelling Steavenson as a plausible form in period. As the submitter allows no changes, we were unable to change this byname to the documented Stevenson in order to register this name.

As the submitter allows no holding name, we must return his armory as well.

Rowan Katerina O'Flaherty. Name.

Rowan was submitted under the Legal Name Allowance as it is the submitter's legal given name. As there is no evidence that Rowan was used as a feminine name in period, it falls into the category of "non-period names allowed under the Legal Name Allowance" and its use carries a weirdness. (For a further explanation, see "From Pelican: A Clarification Regarding the Legal Name Allowance" in the Cover Letter to the February 2003 LoAR.) Rowan is also SCA compatible as a feminine given name. Use of an SCA-compatible name element carries a weirdness. So, whether Rowan is viewed as registerable to the submitter via the Legal Name Allowance or as an SCA-compatible name, its use in this name carries one weirdness.

No evidence has yet been found that two given names were used in Ireland. Two given names are registerable in an Anglicized Irish name (just as they are in Scots), but it carries a weirdness. Therefore, the submitted name has two weirdnesses, which is cause for return. As the submitter allows no changes, we were unable to drop the second given name in order to register this name. Her armory has been registered under the holding name Rowan of Atenveldt.

Sarah nic Leod. Device. Vert, a dove rising wings addorsed Or.

We have reblazoned the dove from volant wings addorsed to rising, as its somewhat bendwise body posture and legs "planted on the ground" are indicative of the rising posture. A bird volant wings addorsed would have a fesswise body posture and the legs would be tucked up as with a bird in flight. The device conflicts with Conall Ó Cearnaigh, Vert, a hawk striking within a bordure embattled Or. There is one CD for removing the bordure. "There is ... nothing for the difference between striking and rising" (LoAR January 2001). Per the Cover Letter for the LoAR of January 2000 (which should be read in its entirety for a full discussion of the interaction between bird posture and type difference), "In the future I will be more likely to grant difference between different types of birds when they are (a) different in period, (b) in a period posture, (c) drawn correctly, and (d) there is some visual difference." Hawks and doves would be considered different in period when in their default postures. However, Conall's striking hawk is not in a period posture, and Sarah's rising dove is not in a standard period posture for doves. Sarah's dove is drawn with the dove's heraldic attribute of a tuft at the back of the head. However, Conall's hawk is also drawn with a tuft or crest at the back of its head. The body shapes and beak shapes of the two birds as depicted in their emblazons are not as distinct as one would expect for good depictions of either type of bird. After visually comparing the two emblazons, it was the strong opinion of the people present at the Wreath meeting that there was not much visual difference between these two birds. As a result, we cannot give additional difference for changing the type of bird.

Thomas Godefroy. Device. Per fess gules and sable, in chief a chalice between two griffins addorsed and in base a Maltese cross argent.

This armory contains a single primary charge group in a standard arrangement (four charges arranged three and one around a per fess line of division). This charge group includes three types of charge (griffin, chalice, and Maltese cross). RfS VIII.1.a states that "three or more types of charges should not be used in the same group."

Uilliam Ó Cléirigh. Device. Argent, in pale a cypress tree couped and a brown otter statant all proper.

Conflict with Allendale of the Evergreens, Argent, a pine tree proper. There is one CD for adding the otter but no difference between a pine tree proper and a cypress tree proper.


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