Unto Black Lion and the College of Heralds of the Kingdom of An Tir and to all who read these words GREETINGS from Ciaran Cluana Ferta Lion's Blood Herald. I pray you are all well and those of your households prosper.

In the past few months some problems with submissions have been recurring. Among these are problems with the forms. If you download your forms from the An Tir web site please be certain that the form covers the entire page when it is printed. Forms that are too small may be rejected by Laurel, as they are extremely hard to read, and, with the emblazon form, are too small to be accepted by Laurel.

As you will become aware several changes are occurring in the Black Lion staff including the positions of Black Lion and Lion's Blood. At Twelfth Night Master Guerin de Bourgogne will become Black Lion. Applications are now being solicited for the position of Lion's Blood. This job entails processing of submissions, and requires a reasonable knowledge of book Heraldry (Names and Armory). The ability to recognize a well-reasoned argument, and the ability to do a large volume of paperwork. Several deadlines occur each month and the successful applicant must be able to communicate with submitters on a timely basis. A staff of assistants is helpful but not necessary.

Applications must be received by Master Guerin and myself by January 1st. The announcement of my successor will be made at Twelfth Night. Submissions should be sent to my successor beginning February 1st 1998. There will of course be a period of transition (and if I receive submissions I will forward them.)

It has been my joy to serve the Kingdom as Lion's Blood, but the paperwork is more than I care to handle and with my new home more work than I need. I wish to thank all of the submitters and mostly the commenters who made my job easier. Thanks also to the Ciaran-Kickers.

Commentary on this letter is due no later than Thursday January 8th, in order to be included in the decisions made at Twelfth Night. Day and time for the meeting will be made available at the event.

Commentary on the October Letter should get to me no later than Friday, December 12th for inclusion in decisions made on the 14th. The meeting will be held at Countess Elizabeth's home, (16308 SE 165th St, Renton, WA. Call her at for directions).

Now to the submissions:

Old Submissions

[There were no old submissions included in this edition of the Internal Letter of Intent]

New Submissions:

1) Abigail MacLachlan (Pendale) resub-K/D

Purpure, two bones in saltire and a chief argent.

Her name was registered in December 1995. Her previous device submission (Argent, a whip sable and a dexter tierce azure) was returned in January of this year for stylistic and conflict problems. This is a complete redesign.

2) An Tir, Kingdom of, for the Black Lion Principal Herald change/Seal

(Tinctureless) Two trumpets in saltire bells to chief, overall a lion's head caboshed.

Black Lion's previous seal ([Tinctureless] Checky, two straight trumpets in saltire bells to chief entwined with a lion's tail erect, forked and nowed, erased) was registered in December 1981. That seal is to be released upon registration of this submission.

3) Aric McBride (Glymm Mere) change/D

Azure, a unicorn rampant contourny and on a chief invected argent three suns azure.

The submitter's previous device (Azure, a unicorn rampant contourny and on a chief invected argent three suns azure) was registered in December 1989. A Letter of Permission to Conflict from Leif McBride (Azure, a unicorn rampant contourny and on a chief engrailed argent three suns azure) is included, as is a Letter of Permission to conflict from Conner Hume (see below) (Azure, a unicorn rampant contourny and on a chief embattled argent three suns azure).

4) Arnelfr Thingkona (Corvaria) New/D

Argent, a dogs head couped within a bordure embattled azure.

Her name was registered in December 1994.

5) Corvaria, Shire of (Inlands) New/B

Argent, a raven's head erased azure to sinister orbed and beaked gules. (PROPOSED REBLAZON: Argent a raven's head erased contourney beaked gules).

The shire's name was registered in March 1995.

6) Conner Hume (Glymm Mere) new/N & D

Azure, a unicorn rampant contourny and on a chief embattled argent three suns azure.

Conner is cited from Withycombe (p. 62) and from ² Corr·in and Maguire (p. 57, sub Conchobar). Hume is shown from Black's Surnames of Scotland (p. 362 sub Home), where an Alexander de Hume is dated to 1408.

A Letter of Permission to Conflict from Leif McBride (Azure, a unicorn rampant contourny and on a chief engrailed argent three suns azure) is included, as is a Letter of Permission to conflict from Aric McBride (see above) (Azure, a unicorn rampant contourny and on a chief invected argent three suns azure).

7) Crickstow-on-Sea, Port of (Northern) resub-L/N&D

Per pale or and azure a castle gate argent within a laurel wreath counterchanged.

Their previous name, Laighe na Greine, was returned by Laurel for non-period style in September of this year. This is a complete change of name. The device was returned because there was no registered name to attach it to. A petition of support signed by five officers and five other people is included. Documentation for the name includes: Kenneth Cameron's English Place-names (No publisher or date given.) Page 39 "A particularly common Celtic Hill-name was that represented by modern Welsh Crug 'hill ridge, barrow' it is found as a simplex name in various forms like ... Crickheath (Sa) and Cruchfield (Brk).

John R Clark Hall's A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (No publisher or date given) Page 323 Sub stow F. spot, site, station, locality, position gives the meaning of place. Ekwall's Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names page 188 shows the example of Frinton-on-Sea in Essex.

8) Damietta di Carnevale (Three Mountains) New/D

Argent goutty de l'armes a bordure nebuly vert.

Her name is pending on the November letter of Intent.

9) Dragon's Laire, Barony of (for the Order of the Albion Light) (Western) New/N&B

Per pale gules and sable on a mullet of eight points throughout argent a torch azure flamed gules.

The Barony's name was registered March 1988 (and updated to Barony in September 1996).

10) Dragon's Laire, Barony of (Western) New/B

Per pale gules and sable a bumble bee proper within a bordure Or

The Barony's name was registered March 1988 (and updated to Barony in September 1996).

11) Dragon's Laire, Barony of (Western) New/B

Per pale gules and sable, a snapdragon within a bordure Or.

The Barony's name was registered March 1988 (and updated to Barony in September 1996).

12) Dragon's Laire, Barony of (Western) New/B

Per pale gules and sable, two dragon's heads addorsed and conjoined at the neck within a bordure Or.

The Barony's name was registered March 1988 (and updated to Barony in September 1996).

13) Eglantyne Merryweather (River's Bend) change/D

Vert, a bend vair.

Her name was registered in ?September 1992. Her previous device (Sable, on a hand argent a rose proper, in chief two estoiles of eight rays argent) registered in November 1992, would be released upon registration of this submission.

14) Elric Strangulf (Dragon's Mist) resub-K/D

Vert a wolf passant argent within an orle Or.

His name was registered in January of this year. His previous device submission (Azure mulletty Or, in pale a dolmen and an increscent moon argent) was returned at Kingdom in September 1996 for artistic reasons. This is a complete re-design.

15) Falco Elphege McCrorey (Blatha an Oir) resub-k/N & D

Per bend argent and sable, a tree proper and a roundel ermine. (PROPOSED REBLAZON: Per bend sable and argent, a roundel ermine and a tree proper).

His previous name submission (Folker Elfin Kee Birre McCrorey) was returned in November 1996 for use of five names in five different languages. The Book of Saints (Crowell, New York, 1966) sub Falco lists a Bishop of Maestricht with the name dated to 496-512, a Benedictine abbot in Cava, Italy (d. 1146) and a hermit from the Abruzzi (d. 1440). Elphege is shown from the same source sub Elphege where it is shown as the name of a bishop of Winchester (d.951) and of an Archbishop of Canterbury (d.1012). A copy of an U.S. Armed Forces Identification card shows his modern surname to be McCrorey.

The device submission accompanying that name (Per bend argent and sable, a roundel counter-ermine and a tree argent) had to be returned for lack of a name to register it to.

16) Iain Ruadh MacKinnon (Blatha an Oir) new/N & D

Quarterly azure and argent, two squirrels rampant regardant addorsed gules within a bordure counterchanged.

Ian Grimble's Scottish Clans and Tartans (Harmony Books New York, 1982) sub Mackinnon, mentions an Iain Mackinnon (abbot of Iona, d. 1500). P.374 of Charles Mackay's The Gaelic Etymology of the Languages of Western Europe (N. Tr¸bner & Co., London, 1877) sub ruby, shows the Gaelic word for red to be ruadh.

17) Juliana Felicita Boccaccio (Porte de l'Eau) new/N

Withycombe (1947) sub Julian(a) shows the name to be dated to 1196 in England. De Felice's Dizionario dei Nomi Italiani p. 166 sub Felicita is cited to show the second name. Boccaccio is shown from Hanks & Hodges A Dictionary of Surnames sub Bocca, where is stated that the name is a nickname for a talkative or indiscreet person, an orator....

18) LjÛtr Einarsson (Krakenfjord) resub-L/D

Per saltire vert and Or, in chief a hammer palewise argent and in fess two wolfs heads erased addorsed sable.

His name was registered in September of this year. His previous device (Per saltire vert and Or, in chief a dexter gauntlet fesswise reversed maintaining a hammer palewise argent and in fess two wolfs heads erased addorsed sable) was returned by Laurel in September for use of three different charge types in the same group. This re-design addresses that problem.

19) Rhys ap Gwilym (Blatha an Oir) new/N

Intended to be Welsh, he accepts no changes. Rhys is found from Morgan & Morgan's Welsh Surnames p. 185. Gwilym is shown from the same source, p. 112. Several examples of this surname are shown, including Rice ap Guillan (1553).

20) Thora of Skye (Dragon's Laire) new/N & D

Argent, a chevron and in chief a decrescent and an increscent azure overall a wolf stantant sable. (PROPOSED REBLAZON: Argent, a chevron azure overall a wolf sejant sable in chief a decrescent and an increscent argent).

Thora is cited from Reaney & Wilson's Dictionary of English Surnames (3rd Ed, p. 444). Fry & Fry's The History of Scotland (Barnes & Noble, 1995) p. 74 says: "In 1262 one of Alexander's feudal lords, the earl of Ross, invaded Skye, then a Viking possession."

Although the secondaries art indeed argent, please research this as though the increscent and decrescent were azure. I will contact the submitter regarding their coloration (which is argent in the color emblazon).

21) Yvon-Maurice Charon (Madrone) new/N& D

Ermine, a fox rampant contourney gules maintaining in dexter forepaw a rapier within a bordure sable charged with eight fleurs-de-lys Or.

J. B. Collins' Classes, states, and order in early modern Brittany (Cambridge Univ. Press, no date or city) p. 124 mentions an Yvon Rocaz, a Nantais merchant (c. 1552). P. 89 of the same source speaks of a descendent of the Rocaz family (Marie) who married Maurice

Boylesve (who became a councilor a the Parlement 1976). 1576 same source shows (p. 142) a Jan Charon to be a local (Breton) war treasurer in 1614. John Hale's The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance (Atheneum, New York, 1994) p. 587 mentions a Jacques Charron (dated to 1571) as an editor of an edition of Erasmus' Adages. Change to the surname only is snowed ,

22) Yvon-Maurice Charon for The house of the Three Furies (Madrone) new/household N & D

Argent, on a pall within and conjoined to a bordure azure between three cups sable three rapiers points to center proper.

The name is intended to be that of an inn whose sign depicts the three Furies of Greek mythology. The origin of the Furies is described in Man, Myth and Magic (ed. R Cavendish Marshall Cavendish Corp.. New York no date) p. 1054 sub Furies The Portable Dante p. 47 is cited to show the mention of the three Furies in canto IX of Dante's Inferno. A further reference to the Furies and the Fates is from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V Scene I (First Quarto, printed in late 1600).

The name and device would be registered to Yvon-Maurice as second pieces of name and armory because we do not register items to groups other than branches.

An Tir College of Heralds - Internal Letter - November 1997