Crux Australis Herald
Baron Uberto Renaldi [mka Nigel Castle]
GPO Box 2719, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia
phone: (08) 8336 6791 or intl +61 8 8336 6791
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Crux Australis Herald
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"The CAMeL"
January 2001 (Anno Societatis XXXV)
Unto the College of Heralds of the Principality of Lochac, and all others who may read this missive, from Baron Uberto Renaldi, Crux Australis Herald, greetings!
In this issue…..
Kingdom device poll | The heralds' meeting at Twelfth Night | Proposed change to Lochac Heraldic Policy delayed
Reports | Roster changes | Important addresses | Subscriptions and Resources | Submission requirements
Meeting schedule | Recent submissions | News of previous submissions
Thanks for Twelfth Night
My sincere thanks to all those who assisted with the heraldry at Twelfth Night in Politarchopolis. As usual I forgot to write down names and must rely on my faulty memory in thanking: Karl Faustus von Aachen, Crispin Sexi, Loyola Juan Sanchez Mendoza, Catigern Goch and Sigmund Spelmann.
If there is anyone I have overlooked please forgive me, and rest assured that your assistance was appreciated.
Your servant,
VBERTVS
Baron Uberto Renaldi,
Crux Australis Herald
By the time you read this the deadline for the poll will have passed and will hopefully have returned a result showing the majority of members in favour of one of the devices.
If this has not been the result, we are in a bit of a pickle. We will have to beg and plead to West Kingdom and the BoD to accept our transition plan for going kingdom despite not having suitable arms registered, on the proviso that it is made Top Priority. This will probably mean yet another poll accompanied by some explanation as to why it is so important to get enough support from the membership for changing Lochac’s device.
One point that has not been made public to date is that we cannot technically register a new device and still use the current one as the arms of the sovereign of Lochac - a branch may only have one official "branch device" (ie with a laurel wreath). Fortunately, Laurel has accepted a proposal allowing kingdoms and principalities to retain their previous branch devices as "ancient arms" when they change them, so for the period between registration of our new device and the coronation of the first king and queen of Lochac, we will be using our "ancient arms" as our official arms, and hoping that everyone turns a blind eye (which I am sure they will).
Nor is our work with submissions done with the kingdom device. We must still devise arms to be borne by the sovereign’s consort as well as by the heirs to the throne, and names and badges for any new awards.
The heralds’ meeting at Twelfth Night
Present at the heralds’ meeting I convened at Twelfth Night Investiture were: His Excellency Lord Gui von Oberhausen, Lord of Lochac and PE At Large (now Prince Gui); Baron Uberto Renaldi, Crux Australis Herald; Master orfinn Hrolfsson, Bombard Pursuivant; Lord Karl Faustus von Aachen, Acting Cinquefoil Pursuivant; Caleb Adolphus, Acting PE for St Ursula; Master Ciaran Faoilchara, Pursuivant At Large; PE’s At Large Sir Bran of Lochiel, Lady Catigern Goch and Lady Marit the Wanderer; and heralds-in-training and interested onlookers Lady Artemisia da Quieto d’Arzenta, Lord Dafydd ap Iowerth, Katelina [?] and Lord Sigmund Spelmann.
The items were discussed and decisions reached were as follow:
Proposed policy change on resubmissions - Unanimous agreement on this, including the reduction of the original 10 years to five. Sir Bran suggested (and everyone approved) the inclusion of a phrase stating that submittor can appeal any withdrawal of a submission by Crux, as there may be mitigating circumstances. However, for the reason explained below, the implementation of this may happen later than expected.
CAMeL subscriptions for groups - I floated the idea that CAMeL subscriptions for groups be free, as it currently costs very little to produce them. This did not receive much support, especially as the accessibility of back-issues of the CAMeL are now available electronically on the Internet.
Price of submissions - The concept of lowering the price of submissions was debated at some length, but the decision of the meeting was that although $20 is perceived as too high, the cost should not be lowered as it will probably have to be raised again at some point in the future. It was suggested instead that groups with poorer members (such as colleges) find ways to raise funds to subsidise heraldic submissions.
Heraldic education - Feedback from those present indicated that the biggest problem is getting hold of written information. It was suggested that the Crux office could provide a West Kingdom Heralds’ Handbook to any group that does not currently have one. I few more articles written for the CAMeL would also help (that’s a hint, folks!)
Lochac Heralds’ Handbook - Several people volunteered to either write articles or proofread sections of this, although the bulk of it will probably be copied (with permission) from other kingdoms’ handbooks. It was suggested by Lady Marit that rather than arranging it solely by topic (eg book, voice, court) that instead it be split into ‘easy’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘advanced’ sections - in effect producing three separate handbooks plus the ceremonies, making it easier to find the relevant information without being overwhelmed by a huge tome. Articles and suggestions are now being sought - please contribute to what will be your Heralds’ Handbook!
Proposed change to Lochac Heraldic Policy delayed
As there have been no objections and a sufficient support from the College and others, I was all set to implement the following policy:
However, I then remembered that we are still part of the West Kingdom, and that West Kingdom policy is that all resubmissions are free. Therefore I have requested from Vesper Principal Herald that I be allowed to do make this change - one which she says seems perfectly reasonable, but will have to be discussed at a kingdom level first.
If, after seeking advice, Vesper decides it conflicts too strongly with West Kingdom policy and is therefore not acceptable, we will simply have to wait until we are a kingdom to implement it.
Thank you to Canon and Cordon Rouge Pursuivants and the PE for Lyos for your belated end-of-reign reports. The deadline for the next quarterly reports will be published next month.
The office of herald has once again changed hands at the College of Saint Ursula. The new incumbent is Caleb Adolphus who, being a Cornet, has initially been rostered as Acting PE for the group. As his predecessor vacated the office without attaining PE rank (or even sending a letter of resignation) she has been removed from the roster.
Philip of Richmond has resigned from the office of PE for the Shire of Torlyon. I would like to thank him for his efforts as herald of that group. Unfortunately, as he never got around to completing the herald’s test, he never achieved a personal rank within the College and so must be removed from the roster. A replacement herald for the group is being sought.
Subscriptions and Resources
"The CAMeL" is available from Crux Australis at $20 per year. Make cheques payable to "SCA Inc. College of Heralds".
Laurel's Letter of Acceptance and Return is available from the SCA College of Arms. Send a cheque for $US25 made out to "SCA Inc. — College of Arms" to Bruce R. Nevins, 2527 E. 3rd Street, Tucson AZ, 85716-4114, USA. As usual, everything of relevance to Lochac will be published in "The CAMeL".
The Armorial and Ordinary, as well as updates to them, are available from ‘SCA Inc. - Free Trumpet Press West’ in the USA. Their address is ‘1613 N. School St., Normal IL 61761-1240’. They also sell the ‘Heraldic Pictorial Dictionary for the SCA’, proceedings of Known World Heraldic Symposia and Compilations of Precedents by past Laurel Sovereigns of Arms. Contact me or see details of their web site below.
I also recommend that groups acquire some name resources, in particular P.H. Reaney & R.M. Wilson’s ‘A Dictionary of English Surnames’ and E.G. Withycombe’s ‘The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names’. Any decent bookstore should be able to order them for you.
Many interesting heraldic links can be found through the SCA Heraldry web page at www.sca.org/heraldry including the Laurel home page, on-line armorial and ordinary search, and the Academy of St. Gabriel (an heraldic consultation service). The Free Trumpet Press West web page is www.sca.org/heraldry/ftpw. Parker’s Glossary can be found at http://www04.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/ta2/saitou/ie401
Cost: $20 per new submission (name, device or badge). Note: a new name and device costs a total of $40. No cost for resubmissions or branch submissions. Make cheques payable to "SCA Inc. College of Heralds".
Copies required:
Please include ALL necessary documentation to support each submission. It is the responsibility of the submittor to present their submission in a way that makes registration easy. Name documentation should be as accurate as possible: remember to include photocopies of the title page as well as the relevent page(s) of any source used.
Crux Australis meetings are held once a month, usually at 36 Rosella Street, Payneham SA, starting at 2pm. Please call beforehand if you intend to bring submissions for processing. The next meeting is scheduled for the 21st January 2001 and the one after that will probably be on the 18th February 2001.
Crux Australis submission meetings are held once a month, usually at 36 Rosella Street, Payneham SA, starting at 2pm. Please call beforehand if you intend to bring submissions for processing. The next meeting is scheduled for the 18th February 2001 and the one after that will probably be on the 18th March 2001. The April meeting may be held at Rowany Festival.
The following submission was FORWARDED to the College of Arms for registration:
New Name
The submittor desires a 11th-14th century name (presumably English) of either gender. They care most about the sound and will not accept major changes.
‘Darby’ is listed by Withycombe (p.79) as dating from at least 1560 in Liverpool. According to Reaney (p.15), a ‘Richard de Askote’ is mentioned in documents dating from 1375.
This submission was pended by me last month as no copies of the documentation were provided. Copies were handed to me at Twelfth Night, allowing the submission to be processed this month.
The following submission was RETURNED for further work:
New Name
The submittor wishes to have an authentic Irish Gaelic feminine name. Unfortunately, I have had to return this for insufficient documentation.
Corrain lists ‘Líadan’ and there are no problems there. Furthermore, MacLysaght lists both ‘ Glaisín’ and ‘Mac Glaisín’ as acceptable Irish surnames.
However, ‘na’ means ‘from’ or ‘of’, and although I have been informed that ‘glaisin’ means ‘meadow’, no proof of this was included with the submission, nor evidence that names of the form [<given name>+<locative>] (eg ‘Líadan of the meadow’) were common in medieval Ireland. In fact, it appears that such names were extremely rare in Gaelic-speaking countries despite being quite common elsewhere. Although that does not necessarily mean that they cannot be registered, we should nonetheless be encouraging common rather than extraordinary medieval naming practices.
The submittor has been advised that the names ‘Líadan ingen Glaisín’ and ‘Líadan ingen uí Glaisín’ (and the later variants where ‘inghean’ replaces ‘ingen’) are quite acceptable, but that if she still wishes to use ‘na’ then evidence will need to be provided showing the meaning of ‘glaisin’ (or ‘Glaisin’ as a medieval placename) and examples of medieval Irish names formed in this way.
References
MacLysaght, Edward. ‘The Surnames of Ireland’. 3rd edition. Irish Academic Press, 1978
Corrain, Donnchadh and Maguire, Fidelma. ‘Gaelic Personal Names’. The Academy Press, 1981
Reaney, P.H. and Wilson, R.M. ‘A Dictionary of English Surnames’. Revised 3rd edition. Routledge London 1997.
Withycombe, E.G. ‘The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names’, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 1979.
From Laurel’s Letter of Acceptances and Returns for September 2000 (posted December 2000):