EASTERN RESULTS FROM THE AUGUST 2016 LoAR
The Society College of Heralds runs on monthly cycles and letters. Each month, the College processes name and armory submissions from all of the Kingdoms. Final decisions on submissions are made at the monthly meetings of the Pelican Queen of Arms (names) and the Wreath Queen of Arms (armory). Pelican and Wreath then write up their decisions in a Letter of Acceptances and Return (LoAR). After review and proofreading, LoARs generally are released two months after the meeting where the decisions are made.
An “acceptance” indicates that the item(s) listed are now registered with the Society. A “return” indicates that the item is returned to the submitter for additional work. Most items are registered without comments. Sometimes, the LoAR will address specific issues about the name or armory or will praise the submitter/herald on putting together a very nice historically accurate item.
The following results are from the August 2016 Wreath and Pelican meetings.
EAST acceptances
Akiyama Kintsune. Name.
The question was raised whether the use of the element Kin- in the given name is presumptuous. This element has the meaning of “public official/officer/noble/duke” in classical Chinese (see Solveig Throndardottir’s Name Construction in Medieval Japan, revised edition, p. 192). As part of an attested given name, the use of an element that may indicate rank is not an unmistakable claim of rank. Therefore, the use of this element is not presumptuous, as it is clear it is not a form of address.
The submitter requested authenticity for a Japanese name. This name is not authentic because Akiyama is most likely a buke (military class) surname. Buke names follow the pattern of a family name/surname followed by a yobina (general use name) and a nanori (official/formal given name). This name only contains a surname and a nanori.
Bardolph Karlson. Name.
The submitter originally requested authenticity for a 12th century Anglo-Saxon name, but withdrew this request. The submitter may wish to know that this name is authentic for early 17th century England.
Bess Brechin. Name and device. Gules, on a saltire argent between four maple leaves Or five gouttes palewise gules.
Nice 16th century Scottish name!
Cristina Volpina. Badge. Gules, on a bezant a sun-cross gules.
Commenters wondered whether this design was too close to the X-Men logo. It is not. The rotation clears the potential presumption by changing the orientation.
It also does not presume upon the important non-SCA arms of the Arch-Steward of the Holy Roman Empire: Gules, an orb Or. There is a DC for the addition of a tertiary charge group and, by precedent, there is at least a DC between an orb and a roundel [Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme, A-Caid, May 2010 LoAR].
Dietrich of Timis. Device. Sable, a tower conjoined to park pales extending to sinister and on a chief argent an eagle vert.
Dragonship Haven, Barony of. Guild name Worshipful Company of Artificers of Dragonship Haven.
Submitted as Worshipful Company of Artificers, precedent implies that [designator] of Artificers is too generic to be registered:
[registering Company of Artificers of Marinus] Submitted as Company of Artificers, we have with the consent of the submissions herald, added the phrase “of Marinus” to make it less generic. [Marinus, Barony of, September 1996, p. 3]
The December 2002 Cover Letter states that the addition of a branch name does not make such a non-personal name less generic:
A submission this month raised the issue of generic identifiers again. Given the confusion that exists regarding what is and is not a generic identifier, as well as how generic identifiers are used, we are providing a clarification of this issue.
Generic identifiers are descriptions that may be associated with registered items (mainly badges) to identify the use of that item. Unlike registered names (award names, order names, guild names, household names, et cetera), generic identifiers are not registered as an independent item and are not protected from conflict. This does not mean that the group may not use this identifier, but simply that we will not limit the usage of that identifier to a single group.
Names that fall into the generic identifier category are names that would reasonably be used by more than one branch for common functions of the branch. All kingdoms can have a university. All baronies can have a baronial guard. All groups can have an equestrian guild.
Adding the name of the branch to the description does not affect generic identifiers (because branch identifiers are transparent for conflict). As an example, Outlands Equestrian Guild falls into the generic category because the only thing that would differentiate it from Equestrian Guild of Calontir are the branch identifiers Outlands and of Calontir.
However, later precedent shows that Worshipful Company of X is not generic when a branch name is included:
Submitted as a badge for The Most Worshipful Company of Æthelmearc Cooks and Bakers, as that name is neither registered nor a generic identifier we are unable to make this association. Recent precedent states:
Which gets us to the main question — is Worshipful Company of X, where X is a generic descriptive element a generic identifier? The January 1993 coverletter [sic] had this to say on the subject “A better term might be “job-description”: a simple declaration of the intended use of the badge…So long as the badge is associated with a purely functional name, it’s [the name] neither checked for conflict during submission or protected from conflict afterwards.” The addition of the adjective Worshipful lifts this out of the realm of purely functional, even through the adjective is part of the designator and not part of the descriptive element. [Lochac, Kingdom of, A-Lochac, 08/2004]
[Æthelmearc, Kingdom of, October 2006, A-Æthelmearc]
Therefore, we uphold the precedents that Worshipful Company of X is not generic as long as a branch name is also included and have added of Dragonship Haven in order to register this guild name. This ruling does not mean that generic identifiers in general can be made registerable in this manner.
Fearghus mac Cailín. Device. Per fess sable and argent, a sun Or and a wolfhound courant sable and in chief two mullets of seven points argent.
Fearghus mac Griogair. Device. Argent, a squirrel’s head cabossed sable jessant-de-lys vert.
The use of jessant-de-lys with anything other than a lion’s or leopard’s head is a step from period practice.
Halldís Úlfsdóttir. Name.
Submitted as Halldís Úlfsdottir, the accent in the given name was inadvertently dropped by kingdom: Halldis Úlfsdottir. We have restored the given name to the submitted form. In addition, we have modified the byname in order to use accents consistently throughout the name: Úlfsdóttir.
Hrafn Isauga. Name.
Submitted as Hrafn Is-augu, the constructed byname Is-augu was intended to mean “ice-eyes”. In commentary, ffride wlffsdotter found examples such as hrakauga (“crack-eye”), járnauga (“iron-eye”), and krókauga “hook-eye” in Tilnavne i den islandske oldlitteratur by Finnur Jónsson (http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Tilnavne) and in Lind Personbinamn. However, all of these examples use the singular form “eye”. Therefore, we have changed the byname to the singular form Isauga (“ice-eye”) to register this name.
Kellenin de Lanwinnauch. Name change from Rys Waytheman.
Nice Welsh name for around 1200!
The submitter’s previous name, Rys Waytheman, is retained as an alternate name.
Morwenna O Hurlihie. Name and device. Vert, in fess three drop spindles argent.
Morwenna is an English saint’s name.
Regnulf of Crakehale. Name and device. Vert, a corncrake and on a chief embattled Or three acorns vert.
This is the defining instance of the corncrake in Society armory. This bird is described in “De Arte Venandi Cum Avibus of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen” and the spelling “Corne Crake” dated to 1455 in the OED.
For purpose of conflict checking, the bird is considered poultry-shaped.
Settmour Swamp, Barony of. Order name Company of Mud.
This order name follows the pattern of naming an order after a founder. In this case, Mud is a late period English surname used as a given name.
Settmour Swamp, Barony of. Order name Order of the Copper Tower.
The pattern Order of the [Metal] Tower is grandfathered to the submitter.
Syele von Heidelberg. Badge. (Fieldless) On a garb Or a scythe vert.
Þorsteinn Hroðbjartsson. Device. Per pale azure and argent, a fox rampant contourny and a seal haurient embowed counterchanged, on a chief Or five hop cones inverted vert.
Vivien de Valois. Device. Argent, a lion passant double queued and in base two crescents gules, a bordure sable.
Yamada Kiku. Name.
The submitter requested authenticity for a Japanese name, but with no specific time period.
The given name Kiku was popular in the Muromachi period (1333-1573). However, Keystone noted in commentary that it is very unusual for a monothematic feminine given name like Kiku to be used without a prefix or suffix. In this case, Kiku is attested during the Muromachi period (1333-1573). At that time, according to Solveig Throndardottir’s Name Construction in Medieval Japan (NCMJ, revised edition), “the o- prefix to women’s names became universal for the buke class. Further, their names were frequently followed by the common name of a father, a husband, or another male relative.” Therefore, the given name plus the honorific would be O-kiku, with or without the male relative’s common name.
In addition, Keystone considered the surname Yamada to be unlikely, as it is a kuge (imperial court nobility) name. NCMJ states that women retained their uji (clan names) throughout life and these ujiwere combined with their personal names by the Kamakura period.
Therefore, this name is not authentic, but it is registerable.