30 June 2004, A.S. XXXIX
Kingdom of Atenveldt

Unto Their Royal Majesties Cosmo Craven and Ismenia; Lord Seamus McDaid, Aten Principal Herald; the Heralds in the Atenveldt College of Heralds; and to All Whom These Presents Come,

Greetings of the New Year from Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy, Brickbat Herald!

This is the June 2004 internal Atenveldt Letter of Intent. It precedes the external LoI that will contain the following submissions, 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: brickbat@nexiliscom.com. Please have comments or questions to me, on any armorial matter, by 10 July 2004. (I know that this is short notice, but I’m trying to give the external Letters of Intent an earlier date.)

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.

Heraldry Hut: Lady Stefania Krakowska, Herald for the Shire of Iron Wood Loch, navigated the hot and wild stretches of the western Atenveldt desert to attend the June Heraldry Hut meeting (a submission in hand, too). Kudos to her for her intrepid spirit and her assistance at the meeting!

My next monthly meeting is Friday, 16 July, beginning at 7:30 PM. (This is the evening before the Tri-Baronial Collegium, which I plan to attend on Saturday, so this meeting probably won’t be going Until All Hours...come to think of it, there hasn’t been one of those in a long, long time...)

For the record, the Laurel Office has published the March 2004 Letter of Acceptance and Return; no Atenveldt actions appear on that Letter.

Please consider the following submissions for the June 2004 Atenveldt Letter of Intent:

Aelina inn ákafr (Tir Ysgithr): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Per fess engrailed argent and gules, four roses three and one counterchanged, barbed vert.

The name is Old Norse (or an attempt at it!). While Aelina is a Swedish feminine given name (found as Ælina form) dated to 1357 and 1378 (under Elena in “Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn (Swedish Medieval Names),” http://www.dal.lu.se/sofi/smp/smp.htm ) , what might be an earlier version, Elína, is found as an ON feminine given name in “Viking Names found in the Landnámabók,” Aryanhwy merch Catmael ( http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/landnamabok.html ). The byname is descriptive, “vehement” in E.V. Gordon’s An Introduction to Old Norse, 2^nd edition, p. 331, or “eager,” in The Old Norse Language's word-list ( http://hem.passagen.se/peter9/gram/ord_.html ) According Gordon, the feminine definite article is in rather than inn. I suspect that akafr is masculine (since most feminine things are given short-shrift), and that this might change a little in spelling to reflect that it is describing something feminine rather than something masculine. The submitter wishes the name to be as close to Aelina in(n) ákafr as possible and will accept major and minor changes as necessary; she is most interested in the language/culture.

Fallon of Kerry (Sundragon): NEW NAME

The name is shown as Anglicized Irish (the submitter requests a 12^th C. Irish name and will not take major changes to the name). Do NOT use Book of Irish Names, Coghlan, Ronan, Ida Grehan and P.W. Joyce: "The Book of Irish Names is an abysmal SCA source, particularly its discussion of first names, which is a description of modern (20th century) Irish naming practices." (Ensign [Cateline de la Mor la souriete] LoC, 17 February 1996). It is found in Appendix F: Names Sources to Be Avoided in Documentation of the Administrative Handbook for the College of Arms ( http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/admin.html#APPENDIX_F ). The standard for Irish Gaelic given names is Irish Names, by Ó Corráin and Maguire, which I believe is still in print, and there are many good free sources located at the Medieval Names Archive (http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/irish.shtml ).

A 12^th C. Irish name would overwhelmingly be constructed of a given name + father’s name. The use of a place name is very rare (http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/#rare ), but it still is permitted. There is no Fallon in OCM, the “closest” masculine given name being Fáelán, “wolf” (pp. 92-3). The Irish Gaelic cited by Coghlan et al, Ó Fallamhan, is found in MacLysaght, 6^th edition, as Ó Fallamhain (pp. 102-3, s.n. Fallon), and links to Fulloon, an OE occupational byname for a fuller (a type of textile worker), and to Folan, which eventually works back to Phelan (the Anglicized version of Fáelán). Those Fallons already registered by the CoA appear to be as surnames, not given names. A quick and dirty not-12th C. Anglicized form of the name would be Phelan of Kerry; hazarding a guess at a more period form, Faelán na (Irish Gaelic form of Kerry). A whole chronology of the given name is found at http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/Faelan.shtml.

I know that several commenters have a more solid Irish onomastics background, and I ask for their input.

Geoffrey Winterbotham (Twin Moons): NEW NAME

The name is English. Geoffrey is a masculine given name found in “Men's Given Names from Early 13th Century England,” Talan Gwynek (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/eng13/eng13m.html ). Winterbotham is cited as a variant of Winterbottom in A Dictionary of Surnames, Hanks and Hodges; while this is a discouraged source due to the lack of dates, the National Register of Archives’ Historical Manuscripts Commission contains a file record of the Winterbotham family of Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, with deeds, manorial records and family and estate papers ranging from 1466 to 1885 ( http://www.hmc.gov.uk/nra/searches/FEdocs.asp?FER=86087 ).

Michael Arthur of Kerry (Sundragon): NEW DEVICE

Azure, two swords proper and a bear rampant argent.

The name was registered January 1987.

An administrative quibble: whether “coloring” a device submission in by hand or by computer, just leave the argent parts white–no light greys, no metallic silvers. Let the contrast of light against dark be as noticeable as possible.

Muirgheal of Carlyle (Tir Ysgithr): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Or, a bird-winged pithon erect vert and a base rayonny gules.

Muirgheal is dated to 852 and again to 926 as an Irish Gaelic feminine name in “Scottish Gaelic Given Names for Women: Names of Scottish Gaels from Non-Gaelic Scottish Sources with Irish Gaelic Forms: Muirgheal,” Sharon L. Krossa ( http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/gaelicgiven/women/muirgheal.shtml ). Carlyle is found in Black’s The Surnames of Scotland, p. 134-5, s.n. Carlisle; an Odard de Carlyle is dated 1158-64. The submitter wishes a 1100-1300 A.D. Scots Gaelic name.

Nikaia Angelina Tagarina (Tir Ysgithr): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Per pale vert and argent, two Latin crosses potent quadrant each charged with a lozenge, and a base, all counterchanged.

The name is Byzantine Greek. Nikaia is a feminine given name, derived from the toponym/place name Nicaea, found in “Early 14th C. Byzantine Names of Macedonia,” Maridonna Benvenuti ( http://www.maridonna.com/onomastics/macedonia.htm ). Angelina is found as an exemplar (Maria Angelina Laskarina) in the structure of feminine names in “Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era,” Bardas Xiphias, and is the standard feminization of the masculine name Angelos (replacing -os with -ina); this could represent the woman’s father’s or mother’s genealogy. Tagarina is a family name (masculine form Tagaris), similarly feminized by replacing -is with -ina. This is a fine late Byzantine name! (While the submitter original wanted a name that had the sound of “Kia” in it, and had to turn to Greek for it, the sharp angles of the crosses on her armory remind me of mosaic designs found in Byzantine art.)

Romanus Castelyn (Iron Wood Loch): NEW DEVICE

Per fess sable and gules, a fess embattled counter-embattled between an eagle’s head erased and a tower argent.

The name was registered February 2003.

While not in conflict, this submission was designed to resembled the registered arms of his father, Gerold the Bald, Per fess gules and sable, a fess embattled-counterembattled and in base an eagle's head erased argent.

Senach mac Feideilmid na Droichead Átha (Tir Ysgithr): NEW DEVICE

Per bend sinister Or and gules, a raven’s head erased and an oak leaf counterchanged.

While a little on the “prickly” side, this is a red oak leaf; it maintains the lobes of the more commonly-used default oak leaf.

Synnöve mána (Sundragon): NEW DEVICE

Sable, a sun in splendor argent within an orle ermine.

The name appeared in last month’s internal Letter of Intent.

Tiphina of Ledbury (Twin Moons): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Azure, a weasel passant argent, and on a chief argent three sprigs of mint vert.

The name is English. Tiphina is a feminine given name, dated to 1322 in “Feminine Given Names in A Dictionary of English Surnames: Theophania,” Talan Gwynek. Ledbury is an English borough dated to 1250 in “A Collection of 613 English Borough Names for Use in Locative Bynames,” Frederic Badger (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/badger/placenames.html). This is a very well-constructed period name.

The following submissions will be included in the JULY 2004 Atenveldt Letter of Intent:

(due to scheduling issues, there will not be a June 2004 Atenveldt LoI)

This month’s commentary is provided by Ástríðr Þórgeirsdóttir (a “new” herald in Twin Moons, but formerly a territorial herald from Anglespur in the East Kingdom) [ÁÞ], Knute Hvitabjörn [KH], Maridonna Benvenuti [MB], and Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy [MMM].

Faílenn ingen Baldwin (Sundragon): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Per bend sinister purpure and vert, a bend sinister between a talbot passant and a heart argent.

[This is a long discussion on Irish Gaelic names, mixed names, and the use of proper particles in such names. Try to wade through it!]

Faílenn is a Irish Gaelic feminine given name, dated to the 7^th C. (p. 93, Ó Corráin and Maguire). ingen is the patronymic particle for “daughter of,” used before roughly 1200 A.D. (“Quick and Easy Gaelic Names," 3rd Edition, Sharon L. Krossa, http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ ). Baldwin is found in MacLysaght’s The Surnames of Ireland, 6^th edition, p. 11, but it is noted that it is of Old German origin, rather than being an Irish masculine given name. I don’t think that the usual construction of an Irish Gaelic name (with ingen as a designator “daughter of”, used prior to 1200 AD) can be used when a non-Irish Gaelic element is present.

Maridonna comments: “I believe the byname ingen Baldwin name violates RoS II.a.“Linguistic Consistency - Each phrase must be grammatically correct according to the usage of a single language.”, and II.a. i.. “A byname may be one of relationship, like a patronymic or metronymic: filz Payn, Johnson, Bjarnardottir, Gudr£narson, des langen Dietrich bruder `brother of the tall Dietrich', ingen Murchada `daughter of Murchad', Smythwyf, Mac a' Phearsain `son of the parson', abu Sa'id `father of Sa'id'.” I believe that Failenn Baldwyn would be registerable with one weirdness for Irish Gaelic-English mix.” [MB]

A second missive from Maridonna states: “Patrick Woulfe’s Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames, p.227, s.n. Baldun: VIII (which I think means diminutives) Baldone (Italicised), Baldoon, Ballon, Baldin, Baldwin; 'son of Baldon' (a diminutive of baldwin). Families of this name settled soon after the Anglo-Norman invasion in Dublin, Wexford, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Cork...The town of Cobh stands in the townload of Ballyvaloon, so called from Baldwin Hodnett, a member of the family who once owned the Great Island.” [MB] As the submitter is interested in an 11^th C. Irish name, this early influx of Baldwin into Ireland might conceivably been seen by the local population as “just another masculine given name,” and have been used to create a traditional Irish Gaelic name with the ingen particle. The submitter will accept major and minor changes to the name submission, and I am submitting it is seen in her original paperwork and hoping for the best.

The device is in conflict with Griffin the Black: Per bend sinister purpure and vert, a bend sinister between a thistle and an axe inverted bendwise sinister argent. There is a single CD for type of secondaries. [KH] Oh, man!

I have contacted the submitter. She is most interested in the Failenn portion of her name and understands the potential problems with Baldwin as an Irish Gaelic patronymic. She is also willing to “flip” the tinctures of the field, which clears the conflict with Griffin the Black, cited above, by provided a second CD for difference of the field. Her device will be submitted as Per bend sinister vert and purpure, a bend sinister between a talbot passant and a heart argent. [MMM]

Isabeau della Farfalla (Atenveldt): BADGE RESUBMISSION from Kingdom, March 2000

(Fieldless) A butterfly per saltire azure and sable within and conjoined to an annulet per saltire sable and azure.

The name was registered June 1995.

The original submission was returned for conflict. This is a redesign.

Marion Bradford of Yorkshire(Atenveldt): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Per fess engrailed argent and vert, a heart between two roundels gules and a roundel argent.

The name is English. Marion is a feminine given name, originally a medieval diminutive of Mary, dated to 1379 (Withycombe, 3^rd edition, p. 209 s.n. Marion); it is also dated to 1430 and 1491 and 1500 in http://www.galbithink.org/names/guild.txt. Bradford is an English surname found in “Surnames in 15th Century York,” Karen Larsdatter ( http://www.geocities.com/karen_larsdatter/york15/surnames-alphabetical.htm#B ). Yorkshire is the northeast area of England, the home of the Venerable Bede and numerous Viking attacks ( http://www.thenortheast.fsnet.co.uk/OurRoots.htm ).

Eilert Ekwall, s.n. Yorkshire, p. 545: Two early period spellings are <Eoferwicscir> c. 1050 and <Euruicscire in the Domeday Book. For later spellings, Reaney and Wilson, English Surnames, s.n. Yorshire, et. al., p.508 have <Euireikescire> 1260, and <Yorkescher> in 1379. [MB]

This is a bit unbalanced. The arrangement might be worth a weirdness. [KH]

Senach mac Feideilmid na Droichead Átha (Tir Ysgithr): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Per bend sinister Or and gules, a raven’s head erased and an oak leaf counterchanged.

The name is Irish Gaelic. Senach is a masculine given name, found in “100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland,” Heather Rose Jones ( http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/irish100/ ). Feideilmid is one of several gentive form of the masculine given name Fedelmid same source). This is a simple patronymic byname construction, as described in “Quick and Easy Gaelic Names,” 3rd Edition, Sharon L. Krossa ( http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/#givennames ). Krossa notes that locative bynames are “vanishingly rare,” but not non-existent, and the submitter would like it included in his name. Droichead Átha, “bridge of the ford,” is the Irish Gaelic form of the Irish city Drogheda (http://www.fionaplace.net/irishplacenames.html ), which lies on the Boyne river in County Lough and was founded in 911 by the Danes and chartered by King John in 1194 ( http://www.edunet.ie/stolivers/students/history2.htm ).

I’m not a Gaelic name guru, but this looks okay to me. <Droichead Átha> is found in Room, Adrian, A Dictionary of Irish Place-Names, revised ed., Appletree Press, Belfast, 1994, ISBN 0-86281-460-X, p.48, s.n. Drogheda. “Droichead Átha, ‘bridge of (the) ford’. The English name is a rendering of the Irish. There was a bridge over the river Boyne here as early as the 12th century.” It says essentially the same thing the website. [MB]

While a little on the “prickly” side, this is a red oak leaf; it maintains the lobes of the more commonly-used default oak leaf.

Synnöve mána (Sundragon): NEW NAME

Saint Sunniva was the daughter of a 10^th C. Irish king; she fled Ireland to Norway in an attempt to avoid an arranged marriage; she is also known as Synnöve of Norway or Sunniva of Bergen ( http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saints62.htm ). There is one instance of its registration with the SCA College of Arms, to Synnöve Nilsdottir in November 1996; Sunniva has been registered multiple times. máni is Old Norse and is found in “Viking Bynames found in the Landnámabók,” Aryanhwy merch Catmael ( http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/vikbynames.html ), as a masculine byname meaning “moon”; the introduction to the paper states “While most of the bynames are used by both men and women, there are a few that take different forms depending on the gender. A good way to tell the difference is that the feminine forms will use the definite article in rather than inn, and will end in a instead of i, generally.” For this reason, the spelling has been altered to using a terminal -a, since the submitter is female. The submitter will accept no major or minor changes to the name.

The formation of the feminine is correct, however, for the Norse, the moon is masculine and the sun feminine. For example, the Norse would say "the moon, he is bright tonight." For this reason, I am not sure that a girl would be given the by-name Moon, in period. More likely would be something such as Mani-Ragnarsdottir (daughter of Moon Ragnar or Ragnar the moon). However, as the submitter will not accept changes, this is point is moot. [ÁÞ]

In correspondence with the submitter, the lady will accept minor corrections to her name, so I’m sending this on to see how the CoA considers Ástríðr’s commentary on the gender issue of some nouns. [MMM]

The following submissions are returned by the Atenveldt College of Heralds for further work, June 2004:

Krolwyn (Sundragon): NEW DEVICE

Per bend sinister azure and vert, an arrow inverted and a quill pen, both bendwise sinister, all within an orle Or.

This came with a note stating that the submitter has no name to submit, and whether it was acceptable to use a holding name such as “Krolwyn of Sundragon.” Only the Laurel Sovereign of Arms can assign a holding name, and that is done in those circumstances where a name submission is returned but an associated armory submission is registered; the holding name “protects” the armory and allows it to be registered. Anyone can submit a perfectly acceptable SCA name using a given name and a registered SCA place name as a byname(yes, it looks like a holding name, but that’s not the point). However, this is still a “real” submission, and it must be accompanied by the standard submission fee and documentation for as-yet-unregistered elements of the name. (Neither of these criteria have been met.)

The orle is a bit thin. [KH]

Name RETURNED for use of a single element and lack of documentation; Device RETURNED (held) for suitable name submission.

And some interesting commentary from Knute, whose work on the April 2004 internal LoI got eaten by the ether

(note to self–never read e-mail on husband’s laptop when the connection in the hotel is wonky at best):

Corinne MacLeod (Atenveldt): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Per saltire Or and sable, a fret counterchanged and a bordure gules

Knute cites the returns of Per saltire..., a saltire cotised counterchanged. This is being returned per RFS VIII.3 for excessive counterchanging. (Rowan O Moroghoe, 10/96 p. 8) and a similar submission with a fret counterchanged on a gyronny field (Armand de la Croix, 11/97 p. 13). “This isn't quite as bad as the cited returns above but it's close. Long skinny charges aren't allowed to be counterchanged along their axis because they become unidentifiable. The problem here is that the long thin diagonals disappear in the counterchanging, leaving only the mascle as easily identifiable. There is a good chance that this will be returned for excessive counterchanging. The only registered fret counterchanged per saltire predated the two returns cited above.”

The submitter has been contacted as to how to proceed with the submission (it is at Laurel–should it be withdrawn?)–she wishes to let it remain at Laurel level for the CoA’s opinion.

Malcolm McGregor the Bold (Windale): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Argent, a fox’s mask azure within a belt sable

[Or, a gurges purpure within a belt sable.] Armory using a charge within a belt strap is restricted as such motifs were used as a standard form

of badge display in Scottish armory. There is a precedent going back some eight years banning the use of the 'Badge within a strap' since

this is a standard form of display for Scottish badges: the chief uses the plain badge and the clansmen use the badge within a strap. Therefore, we have on several occasions returned or pended submissions to allow them to be considered without the strap. In this case, dropping the strap would not be adequate to resolve this problem since conflicts then arise. (January 1990 LoAR, p. 20) [Pol MacNeill, 12/00, R-Meridies]

Dropping the strap results in the following potential conflict: Wolfbrand of the Tiger's Paw: Argent, a wolf's head caboshed maintaining in its jaws a sword fesswise vert. CD primary tincture, possible CD for the sword. This blazon long predates the sustained/maintained precedent and might be misblazoned by current standards. If the sword extends significantly beyond the sides of the head, which is quite possible, it is worth a CD and clear of this submission (visual call). The submitter has been contacted as to how to proceed with the submission.

I remain,

Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy

c/o Linda Miku

2527 East 3^rd Street, Tucson AZ 85716

brickbat@nexiliscom.com; atensubmissions.nexiliscom.com