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Kingdom of Atenveldt Home 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 2004:


Ælfwin Ironhair. Name.

Submitted as Aelfwyn Ironhair, no documentation was provided and none found for this spelling of the given name. However, Reaney and Wilson, s.n. Alwin say "Ælfwin Finche is probably identical with Ailwinus, Alwinus Finch 1168, 1173." We have changed the name to Ælfwin to match this documentation.

The submitter noted that Ironhair was intended to mean "someone who curls her hair with a curling or crisping iron." The intended construction is verb+object; a not uncommon form of English nickname. However, this meaning is highly unlikely. While the word Cryspyngeyren (crisping or curling iron) is dated to 1483 in the OED, the verb in this construction is "crisp" or "crisping", not "iron." The OED dates the first instance of the word "iron" as a verb meaning "smooth or press with a heated flat-iron" to 1680. Before that date, the meaning is to cover with iron, or to shackle with irons. The nickname Ironhair is more likely to denote someone with strong hair or iron colored hair.

Her old name, Guilla Ironhare is released.


Atenveldt, Kingdom of. Transfer of order name Order of the Madonnas of Ansteorra to Ansteorra.


Elizabet Alfinnsdottir. Name.

Submitted as Elizabet Alfinnsdottir von Rhine, this name has several problems. First, the byname combines the German von with the English spelling Rhine in violation of RfS III.1.a. A fully German form would be am Reine, dated to 1300 in Socin, Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. However, even with the locative in the fully German form, this name is two steps from period practice. The given name is Swedish and the byname is old Norse; this was ruled a step from period practice in 8/2002. Mixing German and Old Norse was ruled a step from period practice in 3/2004. Therefore, we have dropped the locative in order to register this name, leaving Elizabet Alfinnsdottir.

Gerardus Christopherus de Burgondia. Device. Sable, two swords inverted in saltire surmounted by a bear's head cabossed between two fleurs-de-lys in fess and another in base, all argent and in chief a label dovetailed Or.

The submitter has permission to conflict with Bryon l'Ours d'Argent de Bourgogne: Sable, two swords inverted in saltire surmounted by a bear's head cabossed between two fleurs-de-lys in fess and another in base, all argent. The depiction of the bear's head is also grandfathered to the submitter as it is identical to Bryon's.


Sabatino Galante. Device. Lozengy sable and Or, a pale gules, overall a bat argent.

Please advise the submitter to draw the bat larger.

Tairdelbach mac Conchobair. Device. Azure, four claymores inverted interlaced as a fret interlaced by a claymore inverted and a chief Or.

The submitter has provided a letter of permission to conflict with Finbarr Mathgamain mac Conchobair: Azure, four claymores inverted interlaced as a fret interlaced by a claymore inverted Or.


ATENVELDT RETURNS by the College of Arms, July 2004:

Bertrand de Lacy. Household name House de Lacy.

Conflict with the real-world Lacy family. The badge, [Tinctureless] A Lacy knot, registered as important non-SCA arms, is the badge of the Lacys'. Nine of the eighteen registrations of the name de Lacy have a device or badge using this charge. This suggests that, within the SCA, the mundane family name is closely enough associated with the registered charge that the name should also be protected.

Dobin Tir-y-Cwningen. Name.

Tir-y-Cwningen is a post-period form of this name. The submitted documentation shows several examples of Tir-y- names, but the earliest of them dates to 1666. The documentation dates the form Tireconynger to 1472. To change the locative to this form would be a major change which the submitter will not accept. Therefore, the name must be returned.

Jens Sveinsson. Device. Argent, a merman proper crined sable maintaining in his sinister hand a torch sable enflamed azure and on a bordure engrailed vert three escallops argent.

This item was originally pended on the January 2004 LoAR. The device is being returned for lack of documentation for the specific form of the merman. al-Jamal cites the following precedent, which is relevant in part: While we register brown beasts proper if the animal is found naturally brown, such as a brown rabbit, or a brown hound, this is not a beast, but rather a monster, because of the wings and halo. Since monsters do not have proper coloration, they cannot be brown. (Jaelle of Armida, LoAR May 1998, p. 28)

While it is true that merfolk do have a defined proper coloration, that is because their torsos must be torsos of human figures seen in heraldry. For a merman to have a brown-skinned torso, that torso must be of a recognized heraldic human figure whose skin is typically brown. As drawn, this does not match any of the known variants, nor was documentation provided for this style of human figure.

Mary Kate O'Malley. Device. Per saltire arrondy vert and sable, a lozenge argent charged with a wolf's head cabossed sable.

This has a complex low-contrast line division overlain by a nonskinny charge. It therefore violates RfS VIII.3 which says in part: "For instance, a complex line of partition could be difficult to recognize between two parts of the field that do not have good contrast if most of the line is also covered by charges." As al-Jamal notes, "arrondy is considered a complex line of division. As a consequence, it may not be used between two low contrast tinctures with a overlying charge, precisely for the reason shown in the emblazon - the line of division becomes very difficult to identify when it is obscured by an overlying charge." Brachet notes: "Whether or not there is a CD for quarterly arrondi vs quarterly in field-only armory, it is quite clear that the arrondi part simply does not show up in low contrast when the center part of it is obscured by a lozenge." The central part of the field illuminates the lion's share of the difference between plain and arrondy partitions. Obscuring that intersection with a nonskinny charge makes it very difficult to distinguish between plain and arrondy, blurring the difference between two lines of division that have a CD between them.
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