An Tir Internal Letter for September, AS XXXX / 2005 CE

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• LETTERS FROM KINGDOM HERALDIC STAFF
  • From Black Lion
  • From Lions Blood
• HERALDIC ARTICLES
  • Period Forms of Address
  • “But I don't have any books!”
• LAUREL ACTIONS
• LIONS BLOOD ACTIONS
• NEW SUBMISSIONS

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Unto Christopher Black Lion and the esteemed members of the An Tir College of Heralds to whom this missive comes, Richenda du Jardin, Lions Blood Herald, sends greetings and felicitations.

COMMENTARY ON THE ITEMS IN THIS INTERNAL LETTER IS DUE ON THE 10TH OF NOVEMBER.

CHANGE OF MEETING LOCATION!!!!!The September Lions Blood meeting will be held Sunday, September 18, at Border War instead of my house. Directions are available from the event web site.

The October Lions Blood will be held at my house. I have newer and easier directions (now that the construction season is dying down). Directions:

From the West: Take your best route to I-90. Get off on exit 280 (Lincoln Ave/Maple Ave.). Turn left at Lincoln (the second light). Go one block and turn right (Third). Follow directions from **.

From the East: Take your best route to I-90. Get off on exit 280 (Lincoln Ave/Maple Ave.). Turn right at Third (the light).

** Turn right at the second light (Wall). Follow Wall until it ends at a T. Turn left onto Sixth. At the next intersection, turn right onto Howard. Find whatever parking you can as parking is rather tight. Walk up to 7th and I am in the brick building on the left (524 W 7th.). Buzz apartment #510 and someone will be down to get you.

Limited crash space will be available.

LETTERS FROM KINGDOM HERALDIC STAFF

From Black Lion

Black Lion is out of town on business this month.

From Lions Blood

Greetings this fine month of September. Tourney season is nearly over and we may rest our voices. But don't rest your books quite yet! Now is just the time to encourage people to submit! If they submit now, they should have the decisions on their devices and badges by next tourney season.

Just a few notes about the submissions I've been receiving:

• Please have your submitters send their submissions via regular postal mail, not certified or registered mail. I work during the day and must leave my office to get anything other than regular post. If your submitter must have confirmation that I've gotten their submission, the post office suggests sending the letter via delivery confirmation. I, myself, recommend following up with an e-mail.
• Please make sure your submitters understand that we need three copies of all forms and documentation. I have had to contact several submitters in the last month to let them know I needed more forms. This is a matter of customer service — lack of the right number of forms is a cause for return. Administrative returns provide lots of grist for the “heralds hate me” stories we've all heard!
• Please explain to your submitters that they need to send a $12 payment for each action. When a name and device are submitted together, it is two actions. I do not need a separate check for each item, just $12 for each item (one check for all items submitted is fine).

In addition, I need more commenters if I am to keep sending out hard copy of the Herald's Page. Later in this letter is a discussion, kindly written by Siren (Juliana de Luna), providing lots of ideas on how to do names commentary without a huge library.

HERALDIC ARTICLES

Period Forms of Address

By Lord Christopher Thomas, Black Lion Principal Herald

Hail An Tir!

This is the beginning of a small series of articles that come out of this year's Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium. This month I will be writing about something near and dear to many of us: Titles. In the interest of saving space in the Crier I will make this brief. Please forgive me for not going into too much detail here. I will be quite happy to discuss this with anyone who has questions.

First, on the subject of using more than one title before the name - “Duke Sir”, “Baron Master”, “Lord Baron”, etc. This practice, called title stacking, is very modern. More correct period title usage is to announce people by their highest or preferred title but not by multiple titles. “Duke Hammerhand Hitshard” not “Duke Sir Hammerhand Hitshard”, “Master Askme Illdoit” not “Baron Master Askme Illdoit”.

On the flip side it is quite acceptable, even encouraged, to add additional information after the name: “Duke Hammerhand Hitshard, Member of the Chivalry, Master of the Laurel, Holder of the Iron Chain, Baron of the Court of An Tir”. For an even fancier, more formal sound you can use honorifics such as “His Grace Sir Hammerhand Hitshard, Duke of An Tir, Master of the Laurel, Holder of the Iron Chain, Baron of the Court of An Tir.” All of these flourishes add a very nice touch and feel to formal introductions.

For less formal introductions or where repeating a name frequently (for example, in the second or later rounds of a tourney before the final round) you can use the shorter, quicker single title and name, “Duke Hammerhand Hitshard” or “Lord Letme Squashmbad.” You should announce title and honors for people when announcing combatants in the first and final round of a tourney or on formal occasions.

When using honorifics please be careful to be sure they are appropriate. For example, Royal Peers and landed Barons and Baronesses are Excellencies (we extend the courtesy honorific to Court Barons and Baronesses as well) but non-royal Peers (Knights, Laurels, and Pelicans) are not.

“Honorable Lord/Lady” is reported to have only been found in use in written form. “Lordship/Ladyship” are a referent (object) form. The direct form of address would still be “Lord/Lady.”

Thus, spoken form:

          “Good morning, my Lady.”
          “May I present His Lordship, Viking Vikingsson.”
          “Her Excellency, Baroness Esmeralda of Thisland, has business before this Court.”

In written form of address:

          “Unto the Honorable Lord John on the Tuesday before Michaelmas...”

In a similar vein, sergeant, squire, protégé, and apprentice are not titles. Corpora specifically prohibits their use that way. It is not appropriate to use them before a name. If announcing that someone is a squire/protégé/apprentice or sergeant/courtier/yeoman/gallant you should say who they are in fealty to. “Cannonfodder Macclesson, squire to Duke Hammerhand” not “squire Cannonfodder Macclesson”. “Lord Froderich Ironhand, sergeant to Baroness Esmeralda of Thisland” not “sergeant Froderich Ironhand.”

In addition to them not being titles a potentially even more important problem is that it is insulting to the person they are in fealty to. How can anyone know to tell His Grace Duke Hammerhand of the deeds of courtesy his squire has performed if they don't know who Cannonfodder is squired to? Why is Cannonfodder hiding his association with Duke Hammerhand?

While we're talking about announcing names on the tourney field I would like to take a moment to discuss fighting titles. This long-standing tradition, true. However, like all traditions it should be reexamined periodically. What exactly is a fighting title? Is a Grant of Arms for years of being a marshal and list mistress a fighting title? What about an AoA that was given in part for growth on the field? No one at the symposium seemed to be able to come up with a good definition or a good reason to limit field calls to strictly fighting titles. We don't limit A&S displays to strictly “A&S titles”, why do so on the field?

I am asking all members of the An Tir College of Heralds to give everyone their due and use the title they have earned. If someone has an award that confers a title then call them by that title (but only one of them) unless the holder asks you not to. It does not matter if they are Master Footsbane because they are a Master of Arms or a member of the Order of the Pelican or Laurel. A title comes from an award conferred by Their Majesties or by being a Royal Peer. We should recognize this fact.

I will stop here for this month though there is much more to say.

In Service to Kingdom and College,
Lord Christopher Thomas,
Black Lion Principal Herald

“But I don't have any books!” Commenting without Sources

by Juliana de Luna

Many of you doubtless feel that you don't have anything useful to say about the new Letter of Intent, because you don't have a great library and you aren't really comfortable with conflict checking. But there are still a lot of useful things that you can do. And many of them don't require any heraldic knowledge at all.

1. When the name is in submission, or already registered, check that names are spelled correctly - Believe it or not, submitters sometimes don't spell their own names correctly. Sometimes, their name was changed and they haven't yet been informed; sometimes, they just forget the spelling they submitted. You can check them in two ways:
   • Go to a copy of the Ordinary and Armorial, like that at http://oanda.sca.org/ and click on Name Pattern Search Form.
   • Go to a search engine like Google, and search on the name and “site:http://www.sca.org” or “site:http://www.antirheralds.org”
   Also, when previous devices or badges are mentioned, you can check that the blazon of the item is correct; again you can search through the Ordinary and Armorial or through a search engine. Just a few weeks ago, I found an old device listed on an LoI as “Per fess” when it was actually “Per pale.”
2. Check that online documentation says what the submitter says it does. A recent submission was documented from an Academy of Saint Gabriel April Fools letter, which discusses names for a “Scottish-Gaelic Klingon” (no really, check it out at http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/membersguide/apr1998.html). Only one commenter noticed.
3. Read over each submission and its documentation to fill in any holes. Even if you can't provide the information, pointing out something that's missing is helpful. What are some common things that are missing?
   • URL's for online documentation
   • dates of registration for items
   • evidence that someone has the right to a restricted charge (i.e., the date of a knighting, county, etc.) - these are found in the kingdom Order of Precedence
   • tinctures in blazons
4. Point out things that you don't understand. If you don't understand it, the explanation probably needs to be rewritten, at least to explain it to the submitter.

After you get comfortable with those things, there are more things that you can do. Some of them include:

1. Look up supporting data for name documentation. The main sources for good articles to do this are:
   http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ The Medieval Names Archive
   http://www.s-gabriel.org The Academy of Saint Gabriel (which has a search form for old letters)
   http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names.html Names Articles on the Laurel Home Page
2. Check for style problems. Some basic style rules are pretty easy to apply. Last month's Herald's Page had a brief style checklist. Once you are comfortable with it, you can also use the “Argent Snail's Armory Insta-Boing Check List” at http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/boing.html. Other articles discussing armory style can be found at http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/education.html. Try them; that's how you learn.
3. Try your hand at conflict checking - A basic guide can be found at http://www.antirheralds.org/education/basic_conflict_checking.html. Take a look, and give it a try. There are many copies of the O&A (Ordinary and Armorial) online; a list of links can be found at http://www.sca.org/heraldry/OandA/index.html. Make sure you explain why you think two items are in conflict. Don't worry if you get it wrong - it takes time to get good at conflict checking. One way to keep getting better is to check out Lions Blood decisions to see if she agreed with you.

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LAUREL ACTIONS

There have been no LoARs published since the last letter.

LIONS BLOOD ACTIONS

These items will be forwarded to Laurel

• Adam Fairamay — Device, New
  
  Gyronny argent and vert, in bend a mallet bendwise sinister and a chisel bendwise sinister Or
• Aleksii Konstantinovich Chernyi — Name, New
  
  Submitted as Aleksii Konstantinovich Chernoi, we changed the name in kingdom to Aleksii Konstantinovich Chernyi because we couldn't find any documentation of Chernoi as the form used in a surname.
  
  Chernoi can be found in Paul Wickenden of Thanet's “Dictionary of Period Russian Names” on the Laurel website (http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/a.html) under the heading <Chernoi>, dated to 1498. This listing provides several bynames based on the given name, including <Crnyi> (1280), <Chernyi> (1393) and <Tsernyi> are all found as bynames under the heading Chernoi. We changed the byname to <Chernyi> as it seemed closest to the submitted form.
  
  The first byname citation under <Chernoi> follows exactly the submitted format: <Fedor Rostislavich Crnyi>. Wickenden tends to only provide the first citations of a name he finds, so we don't see any temporal problem with this name.
• Arianwen Prydydd — Name, New
  
  Prydydd can be found in the Compleat Anachronist, issue entitled “A Welsh Miscellany” by Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn. It can also be found in T.J. Morgan & Prys Morgan, Welsh Surnames. Siren questions whether or not the name should be mutated, possibly to <Brydydd>, similar to the changes that occur when Irish names are lenited.
• Eibhlin nic Domnaill — Name, Change of Holding Name Eileen of Dragon's Laire
  
  ingen Domnaill is documented from St. Gabriel letter 2702 (http://www.s-gabriel.org/2702). St. Gabriel cites Sharon Krossa's “A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Names” (http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.shtml) and George F. Black, The Surnames of Scotland, (s.n. Donald). St. Gabriel asserts that Domnall was used in Scotland in the 12th century and that the genitive form is Domnaill. There was a minor problem with the name's grammar, but, per a phone call with submitter, she will accept grammar changes for post-1200 form of name. As the submitter asked for a post-1200 form of the name, Siren believes that would be <inghean Domhnaill>.
• Harald Warwicker — Name and Device, New
  
  Azure, on a cross argent between four arrows in saltire points to center Or, a drawknife sable
  
  Warwicker can be found in P.H. Reaney and R. M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Warwicker. Reaney and Wilson assert that Warwicker is a variant of Warricker and influenced by Warwick; however, no dated form was provided. Warwicker means maker of warrocks (scaffolds). P.H. Reaney and R. M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Warwick date Warwick to 1086 (Turchil de Waruuic) and 1196 (Richard de Warewic). They also date Warrock (s.n. Warrick) to 1271.
  
  While the An Tir CoH was unable to find dated forms of Warwicker, we were able to find a few names that occur in both the object form and the object form +er (such as Wardrobe and Wardroper). We were unsure if this pattern would apply to this name and asked the College of Arms for help.
  
  Drawknives are attested in period to the 13^th century according to Gary R. Halstead on page 18 of his European Woodworking 600-1600 C.E. issue of the Creative Anachronist (Autumn 2003). In addition, there is one registered drawknife (Peter Sebastian Wyrhta, October 1988).
• Lars ís Björn — Name and Device, New
  
  Argent semy of estoiles, on a base azure a bear passant contourny argent
  
  Li Bann found Lars used as a given name in the lists of Swedish settlers from an article linked to the Medieval Names Archive entitled “New Sweden Settlers, 1638-1664”, by Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig (http://www.genealogia.fi/emi/3d41indexe.htm). The Medieval Names Archive makes the following note about the source:

  A bit later than our period, but otherwise excellent. The list of several hundred names includes men and women, Swedes and Finns.

  We were unable to find any documentation of Isbjörn as a period byname or word meaning polar bear. The closest Siren was able to find was hvíta-björn in Zoega's Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic. Zoega cites that this is the old Norse word for polar bear. Cleasby and Vigfusson's An Icelandic-English Dictionary concurs. In a telephone conversation with the submitter, the submitter indicated that if Isbjörn is not registerable, he would accept hvíta-björn.
  
  We believe that this base line is not unreasonable given that the base is charged and the primary charge is a semy. We are asking the submitter to draw the bear a little smaller and the line of the base a little lower.
• Margit von Kreuznach — Name and Device, New
  
  Argent, a fess counter compony azure and Or between two crosses formy and a lozenge sable
  
  The submitter will accept any changes, does not care what must be changed, desires a female name, does not want name changed to be authentic, and will accept a holding name.
  
  von Kreuznach is documented from a web site about Stadt-bad-Kreuznach (http://www.stadt-bad-kreuznach.de/stadtportrait/stadtgeschichte.htm). However, this web site did not provide period spelling of the city name. Brechenmacher, Etmologisches Wuurterbuch der Deutschen Familiennamen, (s.n. Kreuznacher) dates <Conr. Cruzenechir> to 1377, suggesting <von Cruzenech>.
  
  The An Tir CoH is concerned with the potential issue of presumption with this name and device combination. According to the submitter's web site documentation, the arms of the city of Kreuznach are Argent, a fess countercompony Or and azure, three crosses sable. There is 1 CD for the change of the bottommost of three secondary charges. Precedent is very clear when a submitter wants to use arms that are too close to the family arms of the surname they choose. No one was able to find a precedent which applies when a submitter chooses arms that are too close to the corporate identity they are using as a surname (in this case von Creuznach/Kreuznach). Therefore the College left that determination up to Laurel.
• Mateusz z Plocka — Device, New
  
  Counter-ermine, a bucket Or
• Owyne of Clan Frog — Device, Resubmission
  
  Per pale sable and gules, an escarbuncle and on a chief enarched argent, two frogs tergiant respectant vert
• Swan the Red — Device, Change
  
  Or a swan naiant contourny within a bordure gules
  
  If this is accepted, the submitter wants to release his old device, Argent, a swan naiant contourny gules and a bordure sable.
• Winefred Dyghere of the Wode — Name, New
  
  Dyghere can be found in Reaney & Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Dyer, where Alexander Dyghere is dated to 1296. <Gilbert le Dyghere> is found dated to the 1340s in “Misc. Roll DD - 5 Nov 1339 - 15 Dec 1346 (nos 349-399)” http://british.history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=35976. Reaney & Wilson (s.n. Wood) dates <Alexandre of the Wode> to 1285. Dyghere is also found in entitled “Index to the Kent Lay Subsidy Roll of 1334/5”, by H.A.Hanley, B.A. and C.W. Chalklin, M.A., B.Litt at http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/KRV/18/7/315.htm - Dyghere, Rd. le, 86.
  
  of the Wode can be found in Reaney & Wilson, s.n. Wood, where Alexander of the Wode is dated to 1285.

These items are being returned for further work

• Aleksii Konstantinovich Chernyi — Device, New
  
  Lozengy sable and gules, a bear rampant maintaining a spear argent enflamed within a bordure Or
  
  The original blazon incorrectly identified all charges as Or. This is the correct blazon based on the emblazon.
  
  Unfortunately, this device violates RfS VIII.2.b.iv:

  iv. Elements evenly divided into multiple parts of two different tinctures must have good contrast between their parts.

  For example, checky argent and gules is acceptable, but checky azure and gules is not.
  
  Lozengy, like checky, evenly divides the field into multiple parts of two different tinctures. Gules and sable do not have good contrast between them; gules and Or, gules and argent, sable and Or, or sable and argent would have good contrast. The lozenges would be easier to see if they were fewer (five to eight horizontally and five or eight vertically) and thus a little larger.
  
  In addition, the spear is not enflame; the head of the spear is fimbriated of a flame. CoH members at the meeting were unable to identify what the charge was without the blazon. This violates RfS VIII.3 Armorial Identifiability:

  Identifiable elements may be rendered unidentifiable by significant reduction in size, marginal contrast, excessive counterchanging, voiding, or fimbriation, or by being obscured by other elements of the design. For instance, a complex line of partition could be difficult to recognize between two parts of the field that do not have good contrast if most of the line is also covered by charges. A complex divided field could obscure the identity of charges counterchanged. Voiding and fimbriation may only be used with simple geometric charges placed in the center of the design.

  The spear would be much easier to identify without the flames. On resubmission, the bordure should be drawn about twice as thick as it is in this submission.
• Sigelhundas, Shire of — Badge Resubmission
  
  Azure, on a sun or a talbot's head erased affronty azure
  
  This badge conflicts with the following registered armory:
  • Wendryn Townsend, January 1973, Azure, a sun in glory Or. There is one CD granted for the addition of the tertiary talbot's head per RfS X.4.i.
  • Leith Ambránid, March 2002, Azure, a sun Or eclipsed azure and in base a triquetra inverted argent. There is one CD granted for the removal of the secondary charge. There are no CDs for the change of the tertiary charge. Per precedent, eclipsed suns can be reblazoned on a sun, a roundel; therefore, the eclipsing is treated as a tertiary for the purpose of conflict-checking. Because a sun is not a simple enough charge to be voided, two changes to the tertiary are necessary to qualify for a CD per X.4.j.i. There is only one change to the tertiary (from a roundel to a talbot head).
  • Tatiana of the Swans, May of 1993, Azure, on a sun Or, a mullet of four points purpure charged with a swan naiant argent. There is one CD granted for the change of tertiary from a mullet of 4 points purpure to a talbot's head azure as per RfS X.4.j.i. However the swan is a quaternary charge (a charge on a charge on a charge — four layers) and therefore does not count for conflict per Mistress Shauna of Carrick's Point:

    [Sable, on a compass star argent a Maltese cross azure and in base two swords inverted crossed at the tips argent] The device conflicts with Conner McAuliffe FitzJames, Sable, within a sun throughout argent, eclipsed azure, a goshawk displayed argent, which could also be blazoned as Sable, on a sun throughout argent, a roundel azure charged with a goshawk displayed argent. This emphasizes the quaternary nature of Conner's goshawk, and we ignore quaternary charges completely when checking for conflict. We give no CD between a compass star and a sun, nor for throughout vs. not-throughout for non-ordinaries. Since compass stars are not eligible for X.4.j.ii, there is no CD for type only between a roundel and a Maltese cross. Thus there is only one CD between this armory and Conner's for adding the secondary swords. [John the Wanderer, 05/04, R-Caid]

  • Western Keep, Shire of, January 1994, Azure, on a sun within a laurel wreath Or a tower azure. There is one CD granted for the removal of the secondary laurel wreath as per RfS X.4.b. Because a sun is not a simple enough charge to be voided, two changes to the tertiary are necessary to qualify for a CD per X.4.j.i. There is only one change to the tertiary (from a tower to a talbot head).
  • Stefan of Seawood, January 1973, Azure, upon a sun Or an eagle displayed sable. Because a sun is not a simple enough charge to be voided, two changes to the tertiary are necessary to qualify for a CD per X.4.j.i. There are two changes to the tertiary charge (from an eagle to an talbot head and from sable to azure) granting a single CD. Cumulative changes to single tertiary charge group can only provide a single CD per RfS X.4.j. Therefore there is only one CD for changes to the tertiary.
  • Barre FitzRobert of York, April 1996, (Fieldless) On a sun Or a horned owl perched atop a spear azure. There is clearly one CD for the addition of the field. A quick review of Laurel's decision in this case indicated that this badge had a letter of permission to conflict with Laurelen Darksbane, Azure vêtu ployé sable fimbriated, on a compass-star Or an annulet azure. The only way for Barre's armory to have been in conflict was for the spear to be a maintained charge. If it were a sustained spear, the tertiary charge group would have had the requisite two changes to gain a second CD. Therefore, there is only one change from Barre's device to the submitted badge and they are in conflict.
  • Laurelen Darksbane, October 1982, Azure vêtu ployé sable fimbriated, on a compass-star Or an annulet azure. There is one CD for the change to the field. Because a sun is not a simple enough charge to be voided, two changes to the tertiary are necessary to qualify for a CD per X.4.j.i. There is only one change to the tertiary (from an annulet to a talbot head).
  The shire has submitted an alternate badge that will be on the September internal letter for consideration in November.

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NEW SUBMISSIONS

To be ruled on at the November Lions Blood Meeting.