Unto Their Royal Majesties Cosmo and Elzbieta; Dame Anita de Challis, Acting Aten Principal Herald; the Heralds in the Atenveldt College of Heralds; and to All Whom These Presents Come,

Greetings from Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy, Parhelium Herald!

This is the October 2009 Atenveldt Letter of Presentation. It precedes the external Letter of Intent (and it's itty-bitty!) that will contain the following submissions that are presented here, asking questions of submitters and local heralds who have worked with them; if these questions are not addressed, the submission may be returned by the Atenveldt College of Heralds. I accept online commentary, in addition to questions pertaining to heraldry and consultation. You can send commentary to me privately at brickbat@nexiliscom.com or join “Atenveldt Submissions Commentary” at Yahoo!

( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Atenveldt_Submissions_Commentary/ ) and post there. (Any commentary is likely be included in the next month's Letter of Presentation so that all may learn from it, and we can see how additional documentation or comments may have influenced a submission.) Please have commentary to me by 10 November 2009.

Consultation Table at Kingdom Arts and Sciences / Pillage, Poke and Plunder: Many thanks to the heralds who attended the Heraldic Consultation Table at Kingdom Arts and Science Competition: Lady Helena, Lady Nest and Lord Seamus (the usual jolly gang). We received several submissions, consulted on more, and of course, had a jolly time.
There will be an Heraldic Consultation Table at the Shire of Granholme's "Pillage, Poke and Plunder" event on Saturday, 21 November. (This time of year, an early heads up is always appreciated.) The event is a one-day event and will be held at Central Arizona College (about as midway between the metro Phoenix area and Tucson as you could want, and just off I-10). Looking at the calendar, Granholme's event might affect the November Heraldry Hut, so you'll likely see updates in the future (either having Heraldry Hut the night before or canceling it in November).

Submissions Website: You can send electronic commentary on the most recent internal LoIs through the site, in addition to any questions you might have. Current submission forms (the ONLY forms that can be used) can be found on the site. Please let your local populace know about the site, too: atensubmissions.nexiliscom.com.

Please consider the following submissions for the November 2009 Atenveldt Letter of Intent:

Isemay of Whytby (Brymstone): NEW DEVICE

Per fess engrailed argent and azure, a reed pen sable and an escallop argent.

The name was registered October 2008.

Moire Ayres (Mons Tonitrus): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Quarterly Or and azure, in bend two frets couped vert.

Moire is cited as a feminine given name found in “Index of Names in Irish Annals: Mór,” Mari Elspeth nic Bryan ( http://www.medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/Mor.shtml ). While Mór has a very long run thoughout period, listed many, many times from 916 to 1599, except for one reference, the name is Mór; the one incidence of Moire is noted as this being the genitive (possessive) case of the name. Academy of S. Gabriel Report 2223 ( http://www.s-gabriel.org/2223 ) demonstrates the Irish Gaelic name Gille Mhoire or Gille Moire, which means “servant of Mary”, hence our seeing this element in period names; in this case it doesn't appear to be independent and the whole given name is made up of both parts < Gille + X >. Moire nic Greagair was registered without comment August 1999, but that was 10 years ago, and I'd be happier knowing when Moire came into use as an independent given name. (This registration supersedes that for Máire Catriona of Peridot Isle in January 1995: “Submitted as Moire Catriona of Peridot Isle, Moire was a form which in period referred only to the Virgin Mary. We have registered the form used as a personal name.”)

The September 2003 registration of the name Tomás Insi Móire doesn't address Moire as a feminine given name but has the following commentary: “Submitted as Tomás of Inis Mór, the submitter requested authenticity for 13th to 15th C Irish and allowed any changes.

“The submitted byname of Inis Mór combined the English of with the Gaelic placename Inis Mór and, so, violated RfS III.1.a, which requires linguistic consistency in a name phrase. Additionally, the placename Inis Mór was not grammatically correct. The word Inis 'island' is a feminine noun, Inis being the nominative singular case of this word. When the adjective Mór follows Inis, it lenites - taking the form Mhór. Therefore, the correct form of this placename is Inis Mhór. Locative bynames are rare in Gaelic. When they are found, those that refer to the proper name of a specific location use an unmarked genitive construction. "Annals of the Four Masters", vol. 4, (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005D/), entry M1415.1, lists "Emann Mag Findbairr prióir Insi Móire Locha Gamhna". In this entry, "prióir Insi Móire", meaning 'prior of Inis Mhór', shows an example of this placename in the genitive case. Effric Neyn Ken3ocht Mcherrald explained that an adjective (such as Mór) must match the noun it modifies in gender, case, and number and that the feminine genitive singular of Mór is Móire. Additionally, an adjective should not be lenited when it follows a genitive singular feminine word (such as Insi). As a result, a genitive form of Inis Mhór is Insi Móire. Therefore, the grammatically correct form of the submitted name would be Tomás Insi Móire in the submitter's desired time period and would mean 'Tomás [of] Inis Mhór'. We have changed the byname to this form in order to register this name...”

Ayres appears to be a Scottish surname (Black, p. 12, s.n. Air), but unfortunately, with a number of spelling variations listed there, Ayres is not among them. While not dated, Ayres is listed s.n. Ayer in Reaney and Wilson as an English surname; period spellings include Ayer, Air, Aer, de Are and Eyre.

The client desires a feminine name and is more interested in the language/culture of the name. She will not accept Major changes to the name (eep!).

The quarters are a real “true blue” on the submission forms.

Tangwistel Corista (Twin Moons): NEW DEVICE

Argent, a flamingo statant proper and on a chief enarched vert two hedgehogs statant argent.

The name was registered June 2008.

The following submissions appear in the October 2009 Atenveldt Letter of Intent:

This month's commentary is provided by Coblaith Muimnech [CB], Helena de Argentoune [HdA], Jeanne Marie Lacroix [JML], Michael Gerard Curtememoire [MGC] and Marta [MMM].

Alaric von Bern (Sundragon): NEW NAME and DEVICE: Per bend vert and argent, a hammer bendwise argent and an anvil reversed sable, a bordure counterchanged.

Documentation that a person lived in period and that modern historians call him by a particular name is not evidence that the name was used in period in anything approaching the modern form. Additionally, a locative byname needs to be based on a period place name. It is not enough to show that there were people in a given area in period and that the area is now bears a specific label. (If it were, "of Phoenix" could be registered based on evidence that the Hohokam were irrigating the Gila River valley in the 13th century.)

According to Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 2249 < http://www.s-gabriel.org/2249 >, "Alaric" is a modern English form not seen in

Germany before the 19th century. It's too bad the submitter has disallowed all changes; the report goes on to date the very similar Alrich" to 1371 and "Adelrich" to 1310, citing Brechenmacher.

The submitter is more fortunate in the case of the byname. As a surname, "von Bern" appears in Aryanhwy merch Catmael's "German Names from Rottweil, Baden-Württemberg, 1441" < http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/german/rottweilsur.html >. Should this submission be returned, the submitter might be advised that "Alrich von Bern" is a very plausible High German name from the early 15th century and given the above-mentioned references. [CB]

The registration of AlaricWintour in May 2004 (the S. Gabriel report cited is from March 2001, so I hope this supercedes this) notes:

"The given name is documented as the name of a King of the Goths and dated to 410. Combined with the 16th C spelling of the surname, there is a more than 1000 year gap between the dates for the names. This is an unregisterable combination; in such cases either documentation must be found that lessens the dates between the names, or the name must be returned. In this case, documentation was found that lessens the gap in dates. Morlet, Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle dates Alaricus to the 12th C. This is a Latin form, but the vernacular would be Alaric." This is closer to the 15^th C documentation found for “von Bern.” [MMM]

"The vernacular", as applied to the Morlet citation, would be French. Combining French and German in a name is one step from period practice <http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/sca/weirdness_table.html>. I don't know how, exactly, the issue of linguistic compatibility will be handled when one of the elements is already being translated from one language to another, but it looks like a potential problem. And there might be a second step for temporal inconsistency, depending on when, exactly, in the 12th century "Alaricus" was recorded. (Anything before 1141 is over 300 years earlier than the mentioned instance of "von Bern".) It's probably a good idea to see if you can remove that as a factor by looking for an earlier "von Bern" citation. [CB]

Alianora Alexandra da Lyshåret (Barony of Atenveldt): BADGE RESUBMISSION from Kingdom, July 2006: (Fieldless) On a narcissus blossom affronty argent a Celtic cross Or.

A copy of the client's badge in the Archives reveals what appears to me to be a lazy reconstruction of the original submission. The blossom looks like a multi-petaled flower (e.g., a simple daisy) rather than a trumpet-like flower. It's not on any “official” form, but rather a single piece of paper. If my memory serves me correctly, even when I joined the SCA in 1975, there were standard submission forms, although there is the chance that this may have not been the case two years earlier or in a different kingdom (I find that a little hard to believe). Considering that the client's device shows snub-nosed/snub-trumpeted narcissus flowers, and in discussion with the client, she has always used narcissus, nothing close to a daisy, I can only conclude that this was a reconstruction done by a person who didn't know what a narcissus blossom looks like.

If the blossom needs to be reblazoned as a sexfoil, the client is agreeable to that. If the registered badge Per fess sable and Or, on a narcissus blossom argent a Celtic cross Or., needs to have a correct emblazon provided for the Archives, we are happy to supply that as well.

Alianora Alexandra da Lyshåret (Barony of Atenveldt): BADGE RESUBMISSION from Laurel, November 2007: Per pale sable and argent, a chevron rompu and in base a lozenge, all counterchanged.

Conflict with Magnus the Black (07/2000, Meridies), "Per pale sable and argent, a chevron rompu within a bordure counterchanged." There's a single CD for changing the bordure to a lozenge. [JML] The client is amenable to “flipping” the design, hence Per pale argent and sable, a chevonr rompu and in base a lozenge, all counterchanged. [MMM]

Ascelina Alánn ingen Ailella (Twin Moon): NEW BADGE: (Fieldless) A demi-wyvern wings displayed argent.

Consider Middle, Kingdom of the (05/1985), "(Fieldless) A demi-dragon rampant argent". There's clearly a CD for fieldlessness. I'd check with Shauna - if the Midrealm's dragon has its wings addorsed (which I suspect it does), then there's a second CD for wing posture. That's the closest I found. [JML]

Another that might be need to have the archived emblazon compared against: Chabi of Burkhan Khaldun: Per bend sinister sable and vert, a reremouse argent. There's one CD for the field – is there a second CD for the charge? I'm a big bat fan, and I don't see a problem here. [MMM]

Atenveldt, Barony of: NEW ORDER NAME, “Order of the Red Hurlebatte,” and NEW BADGE: Argent, two palm tress couped, trunks crossed in saltire, and in chief a hurlbat gules.

Given the importance the submitter has assigned to the meaning of the term "hurlebatte", it would be best to confirm its definition with

sources more reliable than what appears to be a copy of the Wikipedia article on axes < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe >. The Middle English Dictionary, where the spelling "hurlebatte" is dated to 1450, defines the term only loosely, as "a weapon" < http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx? type=byte&byte=82982438&egdisplay=open&egs=82983599 >.

Page 166 of Mark Antony Lower's 1860 _Patronymica brittanica_ < http://books.google.com/books?id=-fhtxH5vKV8C&pg=PA166 > says: Halliwell, citing Howell, defines hurlebat as a kind of dart, which is clearly a misapprehension. I find the word in Boyer's Eng.- French, and Ainsworth's Latin Dictionaries. The latter gives it as the equivalent of the classical cæstus, and describes it as "a kind of club, or rather thong of leather, having plummets of lead fastened to it, used in boxing." But there was another implement of sport used in the time of Elizabeth for the game of 'hurling' which was called the "clubbe or hurle-batte." For a description of hurling, see Hone's Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, pp. 98-99.. . .Johnson gives "Whirlbat, anything moved rapidly round to give a blow," and adds, "It is frequently used by the poets for the ancient cæstus." He cites L'Estrange, Creech, and Dryden, for the use of the words.

In the transcription of the second edition of Sports and Pastimes found in the Internet Sacred Texts Archive < http://www.sacred-

texts.com/neu/eng/spe/spe10.htm > Strutt cites "Philogamus" (which was published by W. Hill, of London, in 1548) as his source for the use of "hurle-batte" as the name of a bat or club used in hurling. “Philogamus" is now available in facsimile to anyone with direct or

remote access to Early English Books Online < http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn3433405 >, but I don't have such access, so I can't verify the claim.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary of 1913 gives "hurlbat" < http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?WORD=hurlbat > as a synonym for "whirlbat", which is in turn defined as "Anything moved with a whirl, as preparatory for a blow, or to augment the force of it," <http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?word=Whirlbat>.

Four reasonably scholarly sources, and not one supports the "all-metal ax of doom" definition; it looks to me like the barony might be

better off choosing a term that is less ambiguous. In fact, the sovereigns at arms might well decline to accept the term as the blazon for the ax on the badge, as under RfS VII.7.b <http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/rfs.html#7.7>, "Any element used in Society armory must be describable in standard heraldic terms so that a competent heraldic artist can reproduce the armory solely from the blazon," and if the definition of the term is disputed, the blazon couldn't be expected to reliably inspire emblazons showing the intended charge. [CB]

Considering the entry in the COED is as much at odds as to precisely what kind of weapon this might be (it gives suggestions as to the cæstus, some form of club, a small javelin, and a short bat with spikes of iron), a consistent emblazon of a hurlebatte is most likely not possible. As the Barony really likes the name of the Order, I believe merely reblazoning the charge in chief as an axe would solve any ambiguity, and just allow the term hurlebatte to represent a piece of weaponry that doesn't actually need to be drawn. [MMM]

Bella Emiliana de la Monte (Tir Ysgithr): NEW NAME and DEVICE: Argent, two chevonels azure between three roses azure barbed and seeded proper.

Docs for Emiliana- S.n. Miliano, variant, apheretic form of the personal name Emiliano. <Miliano>, a. 1550. Dizionario Onomastico Della Siclia, G. Caracausi, 1994, Palermo. [MB] It is not uncommon for a masculine Italian name to be feminized by changing the terminal -o to an -a: “ Submitted as Amanita Villarosa, the documentation showed a masculine name, Amannito in 15th C Florence. We have changed the given name to Amannita to match the submitted documentation. [Amannita Villarosa, LoAR 07/2004, Middle-A]” The client's legal given name is Emily, and she'd like to include an element similar to that in her SCA name. [MMM]

When submitting a name that doesn't follow the standard "[given name] [byname]" pattern, it's always best to offer some argument for the plausibility of the construction used. In this case, we have "[given name] [given name] [byname]". Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 3225 <http://www.s-gabriel.org/3225> says, "Double given names or middle names were common in some parts of Italy in [the 15th or 16th century] and later. . . .The most common pattern was for one of the names to be a saint's name, usually the second. . .." The cited references relate to Palermo and Florence. So if we can document the proposed name phrases to that period, especially near those cities, the submission should be pretty solid.

"Bella" appears as a feminine given name in the Online Catasto of 1427 < http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/catasto/newsearch/

first_names.html >, which places it in Florence in the 15th century (perfect for the setting to which the construction is documented). It's also in Juliana de Luna's "Names from Sixteenth Century Venice" < http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/16thcvenice.html >.

The argument for "Emiliana" is incomplete. It gives no dated examples of the spelling of the name at all, even in relation to the saint, and makes no mention of any evidence that the name, in any form, was used in period by ordinary human beings. (The latter is less of an issue than the former, I think, in this instance, since the Italians were fond of using saints' names for their children in the relevant period. A reasonable argument that "Emiliana" might plausibly have been so used wouldn't be hard to make once you'd shown that it was, in fact, known as a saint's name in those centuries.) "Emilia" appears as a feminine given name in Juliana de Luna's "Names from Sixteenth Century Venice" < www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/16thcvenice.html >, and the introduction to that article says, "Diminutives are relatively common. For women, diminutives are formed by adding -ina or -etta to the name after dropping the final vowel. . .." So it looks as though "Emilina" or something similar could reasonably be submitted as a constructed name if need be.

The submitted byname has a major problem. "Monte" is a masculine noun < http://www.wordreference.com/iten/monte >, and therefore

requires a masculine article < http://www.ielanguages.com/italian1.html#nouns >. "La" is a feminine article. So any use of "la monte" is grammatically incorrect. (English nouns don't have gender, so I can't offer a direct parallel. But the degree of error is roughly equivalent to a numerical disagreement like, "He has five cow," or a confusion of case like, "She has already went to the mall three times this week.") I think it highly unlikely that anyone is going to find evidence of the use of such a phrase in a period name. The singular masculine definite article used before consonants is "il", which when it follows the preposition "di" ('of') combines with it to form "del" < http://www.ielanguages.com/italian2.html#contractions >. This is seen in the family name "del Monte", meaning 'from the mountain', which is found in Juliana de Luna's "A Listing of Family names from the Condado Section of the Florence Catasto of 1427" < http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/condado/familyalpha.html >. Another option is "da Monte", which uses a preposition meaning 'from' and is seen in Arval Benicoeur and Talan Gwynek's "Fourteenth Century Venetian Personal Names" < www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/venice14/venice14sur.html >. (This example predates the period to which the overall name construction is documented, of course, but Talan Gwynek's "15th Century Italian Men's Names" < http://www.s-gabriel.org/docs/italian15m.html > says that "da" was the normal preposition for 15th-century locative bynames, so I think the combination appropriate.) "De" is not Italian at all, but a Latin preposition meaning 'from' < http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~econrad/lang/lprep.html >. It is found in records from all over Europe as part of locative bynames, including names that are otherwise in the vernacular, so the appearance of "de Monte" in an Italian manuscript written in (or partly in) Latin is unsurprising.

The submitter should be made aware, however, that a name incorporating "de Monte" is likely to be a documentary form, not what her peers would use in everyday language in the period in question. [CB]

Further consultation with the client (10 October 2009): she prefers the byname da Monte (del Monte sounds like a taco stand...). [MMM]

Bjorn Bloodax (Ered Sul): NEW NAME and DEVICE: Quarterly gules and sable, a double-bitted axe argent charged with three gouts in fess gules.

You can register Old Norse names with or without the accent marks; however, o-ognek isn't an accent mark so it can't simply be dropped. Precedent (01/2007, Bjorn Zenthffeer) states: “There was some question about whether the given name could be registered as "Bj_o_rn". Haraldsson, The Old Norse Name, shows the name as "Bj_{o,}_rn"; in this case the o-ogonek is not an accent but a distinct character separate from a plain o. However, Lind, Norsk-Isl{a:}ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fran Medeltiden, s.n. Bi{o,}rn, shows several examples of "Biorn", one of which dates to 1334. This makes the form temporally consistent with the byname. The name mixes Norwegian and German; this is one step from period practice.”

I'd say that Bloodax was the lingua anglica of blóðøx, not the normalized spelling. This is clear of Bjorn Blodøx Thorgrimson by the removal of the patronymic. [JML]

Those are gouttes? I'm not sure they're recognizable enough for registration. Someone question the "grey" - grey counts are sable or argent, depending on how dark it is. Given that the axe is argent, I'd say it's close enough to sable for registration. [JML]

Duncan Drax (Tir Ysgithr): NEW NAME and DEVICE: Quarterly vert and sable, a griffin segreant contourny erminois.

Are all of the surname citations from the National Archives? [Marta: Yes.] I'm reading the text as placing on "de Drax" at that site. As a marked locative, de Drax can also be found in "An Index to the 1332 Lay Subsidy Rolls for Lincolnshire, England" by Mari Elspeth nic Bryan (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/LincLSR/BynD.html ).

Duncan is a masculine Scots given name dated to 1591-1596 and found in "Names from Papers Relating to the Murder of the Laird of Calder," Margaret Makafee (http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~grm/calder.html). Based on a previous LoI (my copy of Black is also unavailable so I can't verify this): Black p. 130 s.n. Campbell lists a Duncan Campbell dominus de Gaunan dated to about 1390.

Scots/English is not considered a SFPP. So that gives both elements within about 12 years (Duncan to 1390 and Drax to 1402). I don't think you're going to get much better than that. [JML] Yow! [MMM]

Griffins are segreant by default so that can be dropped from the blazon. [JML]

Eogan Britannicus (Barony of Atenveldt): CHANGE OF HOLDING NAME from “Geoffrey of Atenveldt”

`Ijliyah bint Rashid (Tir Ysgithr): CHANGE OF HOLDING NAME, “Kelli of Tir Ysgithr”, from Laurel January 2009

The original name submission, Ainaiyra al-Rashna, was returned “for problems with the documentation and construction. First, no documentation was provided on the LoI, and none was found by the College, that Ainaiyra is a period given name in any culture. The LoI documented Ainairya (note spelling) from "Avesta: Zoroastrian Archives" ( http://www.avesta.org/znames.htm ), but this website gives no evidence either Ainairya was used before 1600 or that, if it was, Ainaiyra is a plausible variant spelling. Lacking such evidence, neither Ainairya nor Ainaiyra is registerable.

“Second, the byname al-Rashna was intended to mean 'the just'. Rashna was also documented from "Avesta: Zoroastrian Archives" as a masculine Parsi given name. Loyall notes: The Parsi names from the submitter's source are dated to the nineteenth century; unless they can be shown to have been used in our period by another source, they are not suitable for use in the SCA..

“Even if Rashna was shown to be a period masculine given name, al-Rashna is not a correct construction. Da'ud ibn Auda, "Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices", lists various laqabs ("a combination of words into a byname or epithet, usually religious, relating to nature, a descriptive, or of some admirable quality the person had (or would like to have)") of the form al-X, e.g., al-Rashid 'the Rightly-guided' and al-Fadl 'the Prominent'. “These examples show that the pattern was used in Arabic, but not that it was used in Persian. Because Arabic and Persian are distinct languages with different grammar, orthography, name construction, and name pools, patterns which are plausible in one language are not necessarily plausible in the other. Lacking evidence either that Persian words were used in Arabic al-X laqabs, or that Persian used the construction al-X 'the X' to form bynames, al-Rashna would not be registerable even if Rashna was shown to be a period Persian word.” This is a complete reworking of her name.

(It might also be a good idea to request that this paper, which appears in the Medieval Names Archive, be deleted, as it appears the forms seen are post-period and does more to mislead potential clients than to help them.)

The name is Arabic. All elements of the name come from “Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices,” Da'ud ibn Auda ( http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/arabic-naming2.htm ). `Ijliyah is a feminine given name/`ism. Rashid is a masculine given name/`ism. The name means “`Ijliyah daughter of Rashid.”

The client desires a feminine name and is most interested in the sound (she'd like a name that sounds as close to Inara as possible).

Ingvarr ørrabein (Twin Moons): NEW NAME and DEVICE and BADGE

(device) Gyronny of six argent and gules, a Thor's hammer between three valknuts sable.

(badge) Per pale wavy argent and gules, all semy of Thor's hammers counterchanged.

The use of valknuts is a SFPP. The use of a gyronny field with the gyrons centered on the corners (rather than the line of division) with a central charge may be a second SFPP. The precedent applies is for gyronny arrondi - I'm not sure it applies if the gyronny isn't arrondi. See the 07/2005 CL, "From Wreath: Gyronni Arrondi", which concludes: "Given this information, gyronny arrondi may be drawn so that the corners of the shield are in the center of a gyron rather than having the line of division issue from the corner. This emblazon of gyronny arrondi has no heraldic difference from the standard gyronny arrondi or from gyronny. The use of a central charge on a field drawn in this manner is one step from period practice." [JML] This definitely needs to be addressed by Laurel. [MMM]

Isbera Beradóttir (Twin Moons): NEW NAME and DEVICE: Gules, a tree stump eradicated and on a chief double-arched argent three lozenges gules.

On correcting her name, would adding the S be Major? [GMC] No, I believe that's a minor change. [MMM]

If there could be an allowance for the formation of a metronymic, using Bera as the mother's name, the construction of a name ending in -a changes to -u for a son's byname (Sturla becomes Sturluson), but doesn't seem to be affected for a daughter's byname (Sturladóttir). This would maintain the submitted spelling. [MMM]

The lozenges are awful small, but I think they're registrable. There may be a SFPP for using the double-arched chief, but if so that's the only one. Relevant precedent: “Chiefs double arched have been acceptable in the S.C.A. for over twelve years. According to J.P. Brooke- Little, the first use of this line of partition seems to have been in 1806 in a grant to William Proctor Smith: Gules, on a chief double arched Or, three trefoils proper. (Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry, 1969 revision, footnote, p. 75) Therefore, there is no period evidence upon which to base a decision. However, from this example, we can infer that nineteenth century heralds viewed double arching to be different from a straight line of partition; at least a blazonable difference. (Richard Stanley Greybeard, September, 1993, pg. 13)” [JML]

Kali Amman (Barony of Atenveldt): NAME and DEVICE RESUBMISSION, Kingdom, August 2009

Per pale gules and sable, the symbol Om between three lotus blossoms in profile Or.

The client's previous name and device submissions, Lily Del Sol and Counterermine, a phoenix displayed gules charged with a fleur-de-lys argent., were returned incorrect name construction and for insufficient contrast of the charge on the field. The client has decided to completely revise her persona and submissions.

The name is Tamil or Tamilized Sanskrit, from the Indian subcontinent. Kali is found in “Female Chola Names,” from A Concordance of the Names in the Cola Inscriptions (3 vols.), Karashima, Noboru, et al., Madurai: Sarvodaya Ilakkiya Pannai, 1978 ( http://sites.google.com/site/vairavisca/Home/creations/indian-name-research ). This is a very large collection of personal names found in southern India before 1400. It is also found in “An Analysis of South Indian Female Names found in Donors, Devotees and Daughters of God” ( http://sites.google.com/site/vairavisca/Home/creations/dddog-names ). Amman is an element in many womens' names and is found in “Women's Names from (Mostly) 16th Century Inscriptions at Tirupati (India),” Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn ( http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/india/tirupati_f.html ). All of these articles are found on the Medieval Names Archive.

Om (Aum) is the most well-known mantra (a sequence of sounds used as a meditational device) in Hinduism. This sound is believed to be an aspect of the creation of the cosmos ( http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/religionet/er/hinduism/HGLOSSRY.HTM#Mantra%22 ); it is common as a decorative motif in temples, in writings and as personal adornment.

Mariyah al-Mediniah (Tir Ysgithr): NEW NAME CHANGE and NEW DEVICE CHANGE: Per pale azure and Or, a crescent with a mullet of four points between its horns all counterchanged.

No information is given in the summary about how the submitter got from the masculine locative nisba "al-Madini" to the speculative

feminine locative nisba "al-Mediniah". Is it just a guess?

Juliana de Luna's "Andalusian Names: Arabs in Spain" < http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/andalusia.html >, correlates the masculine "al-Andalusi" to the feminine "al-Andalusiyya", the masculine "al-Qurtubi" to the feminine "al-Qurtubiyya", and the masculine "al-Garnati" to the feminine "al-Garnatiyya". The introduction says, "In this list, I have followed the transcription system used by Da'ud ibn Auda. . .," so I wouldn't expect it to use "-yya" where Da'ud's article would've used "-ha".

If "al-Mediniah" is just a guess, it might be wise to use the documented (and citable) pattern from Juliana's article, instead, generating "al-Madiniyya" as the likely feminine form of the byname.

While the article draws its data from 8th- through 12th-C. Andalusia, the intro says, "Arabic names are relatively similar across the Arabic-speaking world," so the pattern might well be more widely distributed. [CB]

Yes, this is messed up. I'd tend to go with the masculine al-Madanī to the feminine al-Madaniyya (referring to individuals from Medina in Arabia, birthplace of the Prophet) or with the masculine al-Madīnī to the feminine al-Madīniyya (referring to individuals from a place near Cordoba, Spain). Both of these masculine versions are found in Juliana's article. If -ah were to be used, to match the ending of the 'ism Mariyah, Da'ud gives the Arabic form of Medina as Madinah, with a man from that city using the nisba al-Madini. I'm guessing the feminine form would then be al-Madiniah (aha!). The client's citations come exclusively from Da'ud's article. [MMM]

Reblazon "Per pale azure and Or, a crescent and between its horns a mullet of four points all counterchanged." The reblazon is based on the blazon for the flag of Mauritania, "Vert, a crescent and between its horns a mullet Or." [JML] Cool. I'm all about consistency. [MMM]

Nikita Dobrynia Kievich (Barony of Atenveldt): NEW NAME and DEVICE: Sable, a St. Peter's cross throughout gules fimbriated argent.

The support for the submitter's proposed name construction is much stronger than you'd think from what's in the summary. The article says, "From the adoption of Christianity in 988 onward, most Russians used Christian names, but many also had a Russian name. . .. The result was an apparent double given name.. . .In such cases, the first element in the Russian's name was usually the

'Christian' (i.e., baptismal) name and the second was the 'Russian' one. Semenova. . .notes that there are exceptions to this pattern, with both names being Christian in origin or both Russian, or with the order simply reversed. . .." This not only makes it clear that double given names, generally, were common from the end of the 10th century on, it explicitly states that the '[Russian given name] [Russian given name]" pattern reflected in the submission was sometimes used in period. With that evidence on hand, I can't imagine why using the submitted construction would be a problem.

The summary dates "Nikita" to "before 1147" and the other two name phrases to the late 16th century, leaving the name with a temporal weirdness and unable to withstand any second one that might be found. However, the cited article lists "Nikitich" as a patronymic derived from "Nikita", and indicates it was used by someone mentioned in a record from 1423. That puts the given name in use (by the recorded man's father) in the 15th century, and eliminates the temporal problem. [CB]

Device #1: "Sable, a St. Peter's cross throughout gules fimbriated argent."

Precedent allows the registration of a Latin cross inverted (Aaron Graves, 10/98 p. 4) but there's been no rulings that I could find on the difference (or lack thereof) between it and a regular cross.

Against Aubrey Rainald, "Sable, a cross gules fimbriated Or overall a plate." No, there's nothing for changing the tincture of the fimbriation. I wouldn't be surprised if it were ruled there was no difference between a cross and a Latin cross inverted. After all, there's no difference between a cross and a Latin cross (see the 05/2009 CL).

Additional conflicts, assuming no difference between a cross (throughout) and a Latin cross inverted:

Robert Milne Stebbings (08/1979), "Sable, a cross gules, fimbriated argent, between in first and fourth quarters two wolves passant reguardant argent and in second and third quarters two fleurs-de-lys Or." There's a single CD for removing the secondary charges.

England (important non-SCA flag), "Argent, a cross gules" with a single CD for the tincture of the field.

Iceland (important non-SCA flag), "Azure, a cross gules fimbriated argent" with a single CD for the tincture of the field.

Templars, Order of the Knights (important non-SCA arms), "Per fess sable and argent, a cross gules" with a single CD for the tincture of the field.

Antonius Ambrosius (05/1982, Atlantia), "Sable, on a cross gules fimbriated argent a dragon segreant Or" with a single CD for removing the tertiary dragon.

Device #2 "Sable, a St. Peter's cross throughout gules fimbriated and cotised argent."

This one appears clear.

Device #3: "Counterermine, a St. Peter's cross throughout gules fimbriated argent."

Pretty much the same conflicts as device #1 - anything that had only a CD for the field will also conflict with this. It would also conflict with Iomhar Eoghainn (12/1983, East), "Counter-ermine, a cross gules surmounted by an escarbuncle of eight swords conjoined at the hilts argent" with a single CD for removing the swords.[JML] The device will be submitted as Sable, a St. Peter's cross throughout gules fimbriated and cotised argent.[MMM]

Ragnarr the Lefthand (Tir Ysgithr): NEW NAME and DEVICE: Per saltire gules and sable, an axe head Or.

Will he allow major changes to render "the Lefthand" into Old Norse? [As stated in the September LoP, no. MMM] The Viking Answer Lady (Gunnvôr silfrahárr) website has a page on left handedness, http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/left.shtml. She notes "With the very few mentions of the word vinistri, it's hard to see any cultural value placed on the word or the concept of "leftness" during the Viking Age." So it doesn't look promising for rendering the byname in Old Norse.

However, in registering Edward Senestre Laurel noted: “Submitted as Edward the Sinister, the submitter requested authenticity for 12th to 14th C and allowed minor changes. The LoI provided documentation for this byname from Weekley, Ernest, M.A., Surnames, (p. 304, footnote 3) which states: "Cf. Sinister, O.F. senestre, left-handed, awkward [Simon Senestre, of Dieppe, Close R.]. Lefthand is a ME. name." The LoI also noted that the Close Rolls dated to 1205. We have changed the byname in this submission to use the documented form Senestre in order to meet the submitter's request for authenticity.” The LoI also noted that Kingdom had been unable to find examples of Sinister or Left-handed as bynames in Reaney & Wilson or Bardsley. The byname meaning 'left-handed' is difficult to findin Reaney & Wilson because the byname became corrupted over time. It is found on p. 275 s.n. Leffan. This entry dates Robert Lifthand to 1204, Ralph Lefthand to 1258, and John Leftehand to 1390. The LoI did not specify whether the submitter preferred a byname that sounded like Left-handed rather than Sinister. Therefore, we have registered this name with the documented form Senestre. We have provided the information from Reaney & Wilson in case the submitter preferred a byname that sounds like Left-handed. That would probably allow the registration of Ragnarr Lefthand with a SFPP for the lingual mix; however, there doesn't appear to be justification for "the Lefthand". Dropping the article (the) would be a major change, which he doesn't allow. [JML]

ON epithets documented in Geirr bassi that are mentioned in the summary do not constitute compelling evidence that a byname like "the Lefthand" is plausible for that linguistic context. They are all physical characteristics that are visible to the casual observer--a squint, a black beard, a limp. I'm not sure what the proposed byname is meant to indicate--that the submitter is left-handed, that he the follows the Left-Hand Path, that he's his liege lord's third in command (his "left-hand man"), or what--but most of the options I could come up with aren't things you'd see at a glance. And even if it is something visible--that he has only one hand, or that his left hand is twisted or freakishly large--I don't think "the Lefthand" is likely to have been what he would've been called by the Norse. Lack-hand, perhaps, or bear-paw; Norse descriptive bynames seem to have been either very literal or poetic, never just vague allusions.

That doesn't mean that all is lost, however. According to Jeanne Marie Lacroix' "'Misplaced' Names in Reaney & Wilson"

< http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/misplacednamesbyname.htm >, "Lefthand" can, as an English byname, be dated to 1258. Mixing Middle English and ON has been ruled one step from period practice < http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/sca/ weirdness_table.html >. But there's nothing weird about either name phrase, in and of itself, so the only place a second step might come from is a temporal inconsistency. Aryanhwy merch Catmael's "Viking Names found in Landnámabók" < http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/norse/landnamabok.html > supports Geirr bassi's assertion that "Ragnarr" appears once in the Landnamábók and indicates the first version of the book was created no earlier than 1068. That puts the recording of the name close enough to the date for the English "Lefthand" to avoid a temporal issue. If the date at which the earliest *surviving* edition was penned is considered, instead, the two are even closer--it's from the second half of the 13th century "or a little later". The only problem would be if the sovereigns at arms determined to use the date assigned to the "lifetime" of the figure in the book, rather than the date at which the book was made(which I think unlikely); from what I've been able to tell he was Ragnarr loðbrók, a semi-legendary figure purported to have died around 865 C.E. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar_Lodbrok>, some 400 years before the date for "Lefthand". In short, if the submitter could be persuaded to accept "Ragnarr Lefthand", I believe a strong case could be made for its registration. He would have to revise his position on alterations, however, as dropping an element constitutes a major change <http:// heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/coagloss.html>. [CB]

Upon further consultation with the client (7 Oct 2009), he will allow “the” to be dropped from the name if necessary for it to be registered. [MMM]

I don't believe that the primary charge is identifiable. Assuming there is a CD between an axe and an axe head, the following are clear: James Odo (12/2008, Calontir), "(Fieldless) A pickaxe Or." CD for fieldlessness, CD for axe/axe head.; Sean Ruabarua MacGillaphaidraic (02/1975, reblazoned 07/1996, East), "Vert, an axe Or." CD for fieldlessness, CD for axe/axe head. [JML]

Rober Le Rousse (Tir Ysgithr): NEW NAME and DEVICE: Azure, a turtle and a base engrailed Or.

The cited article includes "le Rous" and "le rous", both of which are masculine, and "la rousse", which is feminine. But I couldn't find either "Le Rousse" or "le rousse". I didn't find that surprising. This is clearly one of the many French adjectives ending in "-s" to which a feminizing "-se" was suffixed in period. (The same thing happens today, essentially. . ."rous" has become "roux", but "rousse " is still the feminine form < http://www.ielanguages.com/french3.html#fem >.) Being a feminine adjective, "rousse" requires a feminine article < http://www.ielanguages.com/french1.html#nouns >. "Rober le Rous" would be a perfectly lovely late-13th-century masculine French name, based on the cited resource. And fortunately, since the submitter didn't disallow changes, it can be sent up on his behalf. [CB]

Further consultation with the client (10 October 2009): he's even happier with Rober le Rous than he is with the original submission. [MMM]

The following submissions were returned by the Atenveldt CoH for further work, October 2009:

Otto Langhorn von Baden (BoA): NEW BADGE: (Fieldless) A two-towered castle azure, battlements and parapet enflamed proper.

Conflict with Matillis atte Hethe (08/2007, An Tir), "Argent, three bendlets purpure and overall a tower azure." Matillis's badge has the equally valid blazon "Bendy argent and purpure, a tower azure." No difference is granted between a tower and a castle, nor is enflaming worth anything. That leaves a single CD for fieldlessness. [JML] Nuts. [MMM]

RETURNED for conflict.

Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy

c/o Linda Miku

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Tucson AZ 85716

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