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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)

The following submissions were registered by the S.C.A. College of Arms, December 2008:


Ascelina Alánn ingen Ailella. Name and device. Per fess azure and argent, a dragon counterchanged.

Submitted as Ascelin_ àlainn inghean Ailill_, the name had a number of small problems. First, Ascelin was documented as a masculine given name, which means it cannot be combined with a Gaelic byname using a form of inghean 'daughter'. The submitter noted that if Ascelin was not registerable she preferred the variant Ascelina. Ascelina is a Latinized form of the English name Asceline, and is dated to 1195, 1205, 1207, 1210, 1214, and 1228 in Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in A Dictionary of English Surnames." Second, the byname inghean Ailill violated RfS III.1.a. Linguistic Consistency by combining Early Modern Irish inghean with Middle Irish Ailill.. The latest example that we have of the masculine name Ailill is from 973, in Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals." Additionally, following ingen the father's name needs to be in the genitive case, i.e., Ailella. This means that the appropriate byname meaning 'daughter of Ailill' is Middle Irish ingen Ailella. Third, the byname àlainn, meaning 'comely', was documented from McBain, An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language. This is a dictionary of modern Gaelic, and so it does not provide support for the use of this word as a medieval Gaelic byname. Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals", shows forms of this word used throughout the Old and Middle Irish eras; during this period, the appropriate spelling is Alánd or Alánn. Though we haven't found any examples of Alánn or Alánd used by women, it's not unreasonable to think that it might have been so used. We have changed the name to Ascelina Alánn ingen Ailella in order to register it.

The submitter requested authenticity for a person with a Scottish mother and an Irish father. An authentic name for a woman with Scottish and Irish Gaelic parents would be wholly Gaelic. As the submitted name combines Latinized English and Gaelic, it is not authentic. Because we do not have any Gaelic form of Ascelina, we cannot make the name authentic.


Cecilia Mowebray. Badge. (Fieldless) A mullet of four points per pale azure and argent.

This is in conflict with Eleanor Leonard, (Tinctureless) A mullet of four points distilling a goutte. As Cecilia's mullet is not a solid tincture, this is registerable with Eleanor's blanket permission to conflict. Please see the January 2002 Cover Letter for more details of this permission.


Cecilia Mowebray. Badge. (Fieldless) A swan's head erased contourny argent gorged of a torse vert.


Cian O Cuilin. Name.

Submitted as Cian O'Cuilin, the submitter requested an authentic Irish name. The byname O'Cuilin is not authentic and violates RfS III.1.a. Linguistic Consistency by combining English O' with Gaelic Cuilin in the same phrase. A wholly Gaelic form of the byname is Ó Cuilín, which is a header in Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames. Woulfe indicates that this byname was in use temp. Elizabeth I - James I. Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals", has an example of Cian in 1577. This means that Cian O Cuilin is an authentic 16th C Irish Gaelic name. We have changed the name to Cian O_Cuilin to meet his request for authenticity.

This was pended on the April 2008 LoAR.


Fáelán hua Fáeláin. Name change from holding name Daniel of Twin Moons.

Submitted as Fáelán O'Phelan, this combined an Old or Middle Irish given name with an Anglicized Irish byname. The submitter requested authenticity for Irish. A wholly Old or Middle Irish form of the name is Fáelán hua Fáeláin. Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals", has examples of Fáelán throughout the Old and Middle Irish periods. Clan style bynames, using ua, first show up in Irish Gaelic around the 10th century. This means that Fáelán hua Fáeláin is an authentic name for the 10th-12th C. We have changed the name to Fáelán hua Fáeláin to meet his authenticity request. This was pended on the April 2008 LoAR.


Geoffrey of Atenveldt. Holding name and device (see RETURNS for name). Gyronny arrondy of six Or and sable, on each Or gyron a wyvern displayed gules.

Submitted under the name Eogan of the Breton March.


Kára inghean Dhuibhsith. Name and device. Per fess embattled sable and argent, a sword bendwise sinister inverted and a dragon sejant erect contourny counterchanged.

Submitted as Kára inghean Dhubhshith, the byname inghean Dhubhshith was documented from Black, The Surnames of Scotland, s.n. MacFee, where it is given as the Gaelic form of the Scots byname MacFee. However, precedent says:

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 [Séamus MacDhùghaill, LoAR 10/2006, Outlands-R]. This means that the citation from Black by itself does not provide sufficient documentation to register the byname inghean Dhubhshith. Previous precedent addresses the information that Black provides s.n. MacFee:

Black (s.n. MacFee) also states that "The AFM. record Dubside (mod[ern] G[aelic] Dubhsidhe) as fer-leiginn or reader of Iona in 1164 [...]". In this case, Black seems to have misidentified his source. His notation of AFM indicates that this information came from "Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters. Edited by John O'Donovan. Dublin, 1848-51. 7 v." (Black, p. lix). However, the rendering of O'Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters available at the CELT (Corpus of Electronic Texts) website shows that the entries for 1164 (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005B/) do not list any person by this name. However, the "The Annals of Ulster", also at the CELT site (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001/), entry U1164.2, includes the text "in fer leiginn (.i., Dub Sidhe)", where Dub Sidhe is a man's given name. Later examples of forms of this byname show -th- forms rather than -dh- forms. For example, the "Annals of Loch Cé A.D.1014-1590" (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100010B/), entry LC1577.10, includes the name Ferdorcha mac Dhuibhsith. Therefore, we have changed this byname to mac Duib Sidhe, based on the example from the "Annals of Ulster", in order to retain the -sidh spelling which the submitter used consistently throughout his submission form. [Rumann mac Duib Sidhe, 02/2004, A-Atlantia]

Based on this information, we have changed the name to Kára inghean Dhuibhsith in order to register the name.


Malinda Angelanne Hohen van Kester. Badge. Per fess embattled azure and argent, a heart gules, in chief a strawberry leaf argent.

Strawberry leaves are a compound leaf with three lobes, exactly as depicted.


Mateo Dominguez. Name.

Nice 15th C Spanish name!


Sara Blackthorne. Name change from Sara Rebecka Chadburn (see RETURNS for device).

Her previous name, Sara Rebecka Chadburn, is retained as an alternate name.


Stefan Jäger von Ansbach. Name and device. Paly bendy sinister argent and azure, on a bend sinister wavy vert between two edelweiss blossoms Or three fish argent.

Submitted as Stefan der Jäger von Ansbach, the documented forms of the byname do not use the definite article der. In order to register it, we have changed the name to Stefan_Jäger von Ansbach to match the documentation.

Please instruct the submitter to draw a more prominent wavy.


Tabitha Whitewolf. Name (see RETURNS for device).

The byname Whitewolf was documented via the grandfather clause. The LoI noted that the submitter had permission from her legal father-in-law, Johnathan Crusadene Whitewolf, to use the element Whitewolf in her name under the grandfather clause. However, the letter of permission provided is not valid: It contains neither Tabitha's SCA name nor her legal name. At least one of these must be included for the letter of permission to be valid.

Members of Pelican's staff were able to provide alternate documentation for the byname Whitewolf. Margaret Makafee's "Inn, Shop, or House names found in imprints from the EEBO database, 1473-1600" contains a number of inn sign names following the pattern <color> + <wild animal>, including Black beare, Black oliphante, Golden hinde, Red lion, Whyte beare, and White hart. On the basis of these examples, White wolf is a plausible late-period English inn sign name. When used as a part of a byname, we would expect the two words to run together, i.e., Whitewolf, following the examples in Reaney & Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.nn. Graygoose, Whitebuck.


Vincenzo Antonio Maria Paci. Name and device. Argent, two rapiers in saltire sable surmounted by a rose purpure and on a chief azure five mullets argent.

Submitted as Vincenzo Antonio Maria Pace, as documented the name combined four given names with no byname. No examples of period Italian names using four given names were provided on the LoI or in commentary; lacking examples, this pattern is not registerable.

The easiest solution is to make the final given name a family name, by changing it to Paci, i.e., Vincenzo Antonio Maria Paci. This leaves the name with three given names, which is a rare but documentable practice in late-period Italy. Precedent says:

Three given names is registerable in Italian, but is a weirdness: While registerable, the use of three given names in Italian is not typical in period. To date, only one example has been found. The registration of Arianna Rosa Christina Veneziano (registered in February 1996) was supported by documentation that Catherine de' Medici was christened Caterina Maria Romola. This single example of three given names in Italian makes three give names registerable, though a weirdness. Catherine de' Medici was born in 1519, so the example we have for three given names is 16th century. [Novella Francesca Caterina Zancani, 02/2003 LoAR, A-Calontir]

More recently, Maridonna Benvenuti has found the following:

James Grubb's "Provincial Families of the Renaissance", John Hopkins Univ. Press, 1996 includes naming practices for the Veneto (modern name of the region). On page 42 he says, "Personal names remained unstable in the Quattrocento and beyond, and the individual might have changed names completely in the service of a spiritual or humanist ideal: one Vincetine of the Volpe family was know variously as Nicolo, Battista, and Enea. Even those who retained baptismal names might customize them. Giovanni Andrea Nicolo Arnaldi shed his first and third names; brother Giovanni Battista and chronicler Giovanni Battista Pagliarini dropped their first names; and many with compounds - Margarita Bona Arnaldi and her brother Silvestro Francesco - dropped the second."

Because we have more than one example of Italian names with three given names, we rule that this pattern is no longer a step from period practice.


Walrick de Blakeney. Badge. (Fieldless) A tower per pale sable and argent.


Walrick de Blakeney. Badge. (Fieldless) In pale a demi-sun Or issuant from a tower per pale sable and argent.


Walrick de Blakeney. Badge. (Fieldless) A mullet of four points per pale sable and argent.

This is in conflict with Eleanor Leonard, (Tinctureless) A mullet of four points distilling a goutte. As Walrick's mullet is not a solid tincture, this is registerable with Eleanor's blanket permission to conflict. Please see the January 2002 Cover Letter for more details of this permission.


The following submissions were returned by the College of Arms for further work, December 2008:


Eogan of the Breton March. Name.

Originally listed on the LoI as Eoghan of the Breton March, a timely correction was issued changing the name to Eogan of the Breton March. The byname of the Breton March was documented from "About Song of Roland" (http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/roland/about.html) which indicated that Roland was called "Lord of the Breton Marches" in Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni, written c. 830-833. However, this is not quite the case. Section 9 of Einhard's Vita calls Roland Hruodlandus Brittanici limitis praefectus 'Hruodland prefect of the territory of Brittany/the Bretons'. The translation of Brittanici limitis as 'of the Breton March' is, as far as we have been able to determine, modern. What is modernly referred to as the "Breton March" is an administrative region in Neustria, the western part of the Frankish kingdom. The administrative region was first created under the rule of the Merovingian dynasty in the late seventh or early eighth century. This is the march where Roland was prefect. The Carolingians recreated this administrative region in 861, and the area was united with the neighboring Norman region in 911. So far as we have been able to tell, the phrase Brittanici limes is an administrative label rather than a geographical name. If it is primarily an administrative term, then it is not appropriate for use in a locative byname. The distinction between an administrative label and a geographical name is, for example, the distinction between 'the county of York' and York or Yorkshire. A man who lived in the county of York would use the byname of York or of Yorkshire, not of the county of York. Similarly, someone who lived in the Brittanici limes would not be known as de Brittanici limite but rather de Brittania 'of Brittany' or Brittanicus 'the Breton'. We would change the name to Eogan de Brittania or Eogan Brittanicus, but the submitter does not allow major changes.

His device has been registered under the holding name Geoffrey of Atenveldt.


Galen MacKintoch. Device. Sable, a bend abased Or charged with a bendlet vert, in sinister chief a wing terminating in a hand sustaining a sword bendwise argent.

This is returned for using a motif not found in period heraldry. The original return of this device, in January 2008, said "If this is resubmitted with a bend abased, the submitter should be prepared to argue why a bend abased charged with a bendlet should be allowed." The submitter has failed to do so. The only statement to that effect on the LoI was a reference to a 2002 registration of the same motif being registered, and the statement that it was registered without comment. It has long been policy that prior registration is no guarantee of future registerability and that registrations without comment do not set precedent. Section III.B.1 of the Admin Handbook requires that "Once registered, an item shall be protected until written notice of release is received by the Laurel Office from the owner,", so we are unable to overturn registrations resulting from mistakes, but we are unwilling to be forced to continue making the same mistakes.

Commenters questioned whether the bend, sword, and wing are co-primary charges. If they are, this submission would be in violation of Section VIII.1.a, which says that "As another guideline, three or more types of charges should not be used in the same group." Since we are returning this submission for the above reason, it is not necessary to decide this issue at this time. Please instruct the submitter that any resubmission of this motif, with documentation for the bend abased, should be drawn so that the bend, wing, and sword are clearly not a single co-primary group.


Sara Blackthorne. Device. Argent, on a heart gules a key fesswise reversed wards to base Or and in chief a staff fesswise sable entwined by a vine vert thorned sable.

With five tinctures (argent, gules, Or, sable, vert) and four types of charge (heart, key, staff, vine), this design has a complexity count of nine, exceeding our limit of eight. We will register designs that exceed this limit only if they are good period style, which this design is not.


Sorcha Broussard. Name and Device. Per fess azure and argent, on a fess Or between two escallops argent and a manta ray sable a rose gules.

The name is returned for administrative reasons. The documentation for the byname was inadequately summarized on the LoI; no information was provided about what the source said about Broussard. For further information on what constitutes a proper summary, please see the Cover Letter of this LoAR.

The device is returned for excessive complexity. The Letter of Intent noted that this device has a complexity of nine, which is beyond our rule of thumb limit of eight, except for designs which are considered to be good period style. Several commenters noted that the manta ray is New World fauna and its use is, therefore, a step from period practice. Precedent on manta rays says:

Blazoned on the LoI as a skate, the primary charge is instead a manta ray, which is distinguished by its two "horns". We have no explicit period citations for the manta ray, but it lives in waters frequented by the Spanish in period; we are giving it the benefit of the doubt here. If the submitters would prefer to resubmit with a genuine skate (as their order name would suggest), they could do no better than to copy the depiction of a skate in the Macclesfield Psalter, c.1330, as seen at http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/macclesfield/gallery.html. [Tir-y-Don, Barony of, 11/05, A-Atlantia]

More information was discovered during research for this submission: manta rays are surface fish known to exist in the Mediterranean, so they are not New World fauna, whose use is an automatic step from period practice. Unfortunately, there are still no period citations for the existence of manta rays, meaning that we would still be required to give the submitter benefit of the doubt in order to register this device. Since it would require this benefit it cannot be considered good period style, and so the device must be returned.


Tabitha Whitewolf. Device. Gules, a wolf rampant argent queue-forchy of lions tails between three four-leaved clovers Or.

The device is returned for a redraw. The items in the corner are not identifiable from any distance as clovers, violating Section VII..7.a of the Rules for Submission, which requires that "all items must be recognizable solely from their appearance."

Please inform the submitter that, on resubmission, we suggest that the wolf be drawn with lupine tails rather than leonine, to promote recognizability.


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