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

"The CAMeL"
April 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…..

Festival thanks | On the subject of announcements| The Lochac Heralds' Handbook | Reports

Roster changes | Important addresses | Subscriptions and Resources | Submission requirements

Meeting schedule | Recent submissions | News of previous submissions | Position Opening - Laurel Sovereign of Arms

 

Petitions for submissions from groups

Over the past couple of months I have received submissions from groups where the accompanying petition has been inadequate or only just acceptable.

The requirement for such petitions is set out in the Administrative Handbook of the SCA College of Arms, section IV.C.5:

What this doesn’t mention is that the petition showing support for a group’s name should clearly indicate the name on the petition, and that this should match the name on the submission forms. Similarly, a petition for registering or changing a group’s device must include the blazon and/or an emblazon (drawing) of the device being submitted on the petition.

I have whipped up a couple of forms for use by groups which I have included here. I would like some feedback on them before they are put into general use, but if your group (or a group you know of) are in desperate need feel free to make use of them.

Your servant,

Baron Uberto Renaldi,
Crux Australis Herald


Festival thanks

A very big thank-you to everyone who volunteered to do voice heraldry at Festival. There were many of you so I cannot list you all, but special thanks go to Declan of Drogheda and Karl Faustas von Aachen for running around and generally organising things.

My apologies for not holding a heralds’ meeting during the event (one was scheduled for 9am on Friday but only a couple of people showed up). If you didn’t manage to catch up with me but had something important to discuss, feel free to contact me. If it is something that should be discussed by the College as a whole then I can include it in a future CAMeL.


On the subject of announcements

Following my observations at Festival, there are a couple of things I must rant about.

One is that a herald should always wear the regalia (a green tabard, baldric or cloak with crossed yellow or gold trumpets) whilst making official announcements.

The other is to remember that while you are being the voice of the Crown, it is inappropriate to make advertisements for merchants alongside official announcements. There is a fundamental difference between "armour inspection begins at 9:30" and "Boris the Bootmaker is offering 15% off all merchandise at his stall today", one which I hope will be obvious. I am not saying that the latter should not ever be said, but rather that the person saying it should remove their regalia first and say it after or separate from all official and formal announcements.

You would also be quite entitled to ask for a fee from Boris for the use of your voice, or to simply refuse to do the announcement at all (but not both, that’s fraudulent). If you aren’t sure whether an announcement is appropriate, speak to the herald-in-charge at the event or to me if I am present. If you are ever hassled because you refuse to announce something you consider inappropriate then please ask the aggrieved party to contact me and I will attempt to resolve the issue.

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The Lochac Heralds’ Handbook

Several people have kindly offered to write articles and/or review drafts. I still need more suggestions on the articles required and volunteers to write them.


Reports

The deadline for last quarter’s reports was 22 April. If you failed to report you will be hearing from me shortly (if not already), asking you why you shouldn’t be removed from office.

The deadline for end-of-reign reports will be 5 weeks before Midwinter Investiture (and once I know when that is I will give you a specific date).


Roster changes

The Shire of Torlyon has a new herald: Isabella de Bordeaux [Lyn Reidlinger] has volunteered to do the job and has been rostered as Acting Pursuivant Extraordinary for the group.


Important addresses

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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.

Useful or interesting links:
The SCA Heraldry web page - www.sca.org/heraldry including the Laurel home page and on-line armorial and ordinary search.
The Academy of St. Gabriel (an heraldic consultation service) - www.s-gabriel.org
Free Trumpet Press West (SCA heraldic publications) - www.sca.org/heraldry/ftpw.
Parker’s Glossary of Heraldry - http://www04.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/ta2/saitou/ie401


Submission Requirements

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:

  • Names: two (2) copies of both the form and ALL documentation, including title page of each book.
  • Devices and Badges: four (4) colour copies and one (1) black & white OUTLINE copy. The colour copies should be accurately coloured, preferably in felt tip pen (eg Crayola Classic Colours). Faint colour printers or faint coloured pencil is not acceptable. The colours must be visible across a crowded Herald's meeting.

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.

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Meeting schedule

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 13th May 2001 and the one after that is scheduled for the 17th June.


Recent submissions

Present at the ‘let’s take the meeting to an archery practice’ Crux Australis Submissions Meeting held on Sunday 8th April 2001 at "Pine Lodge" in Mount Barker SA were: Baron Uberto Renaldi, Crux Australis Herald; Lord William Forester de Blacwode, Frette Rouge Pursuivant; Lady Katharine Parry, herald-in-training; Lord Iame de Estwde, interested onlooker; and several others who occasionally wandered in and out between shooting arrows at things.

The following submissions were FORWARDED to the College of Arms for registration:

  1. Alethea of Shrewsbury

  2. Group: Torlyon
    Consulting herald: Cristoval Gitano

    Change of Device
    Purpure, on a lozenge within an orle argent a fleur-de-lys gules.

    The submittor’s name was registered in August 1993. Her currently registered device will be released upon registration of this submission.

    We are not sure if this is illegal by XI.4 - Arms of Pretence, as the argent lozenge charged with a fleur-de-lys gules could be interpreted as the arms of the City of Florence borne on a lozenge, and therefore presumptuous. It would not hurt if the lozenge and fleur-de-lys were both drawn larger (and the submittor will be advised to do this).

     

  3. Cristoval Gitano

  4. Group: Torlyon
    Consulting herald: the submittor

    Change of Device
    Per saltire sable and gules, a cross fleury argent.

    The submittor’s name was registered in September 1986. His currently registered device will be released upon registration of this submission.

    The submittor wrote a different name, "Cristoval of the Crossroads" on the forms and ticked the "name submitted with this device" box - it seems that they wished to change their name as well. Unfortunately, no name forms and no documentation was provided. After checking with the submittor the device has been submitted under their currently registered name instead.

     

  5. Draksfjord, Canton of

  6. Consulting herald: Aldric Greybeard

    Name and Device Resubmission to Laurel
    Gules, a drakkar Or, its sail charged with a laurel wreath vert, in base a ford proper

    This groups previous name submission of ‘Drakkarfjord’ was returned by Laurel in August 1999 for lack of documentation for ‘Drakkar’, a word apparently unknown in period.

    The group has opted to follow the Laurel’s advice from the August 1999 LoAR:

      "Lind...(col 202) shows the late medieval personal name Draki with a genitive form Draks so Draksfjord looks to be a likely name."
    Unfortunately, my copy of Lind’s ‘Norsk-Isländska Dopnamn’ (Almqvist & Wiksells Botryckeri-A.-B., Uppsala 1905–1915) does not contain this entry, so I can only hope that Laurel’s reference is correct.

    The name submitted to Crux was actually ‘Drak’s Fjord’, but as they allowed major changes we have modified it to the form suggested by Laurel. A petition was provided for the name (albeit for the name ‘Drakk’s Fjord’), and as the device has not changed since it was returned by Laurel (at the same time as the name) we figure the petition for it in Laurel’s files will be sufficient.

 

The following submission was RETURNED for further work:

  1. Vera Lupa

  2. Group: Stormhold
    Consulting herald: the Hund Herald's meeting

    Device Resubmission to Crux
    Azure, a winged wolf segreant argent breathing fire proper, a chief argent.

    There were a number of problems with this submission.

    Firstly, the creature drawn could not be recognised immediately as a wolf. RfS VII.7.a states "elements must be recognisable solely from their appearance" and this isn’t (or at least wasn’t to any of those present at the meeting). Identification is made more difficult by the non-standard position of the head, forcing the flames to obscure the creature’s upper body.

    Secondly, the flames are not drawn in a period heraldic style, which is to have individual tendrils of alternating gules and Or.

    Next is the issue of having a creature other than a dragon (or other mythical beast) which both has wings and breathes fire. One of these, when applied to a wolf, would be a step away from period practice. Both is considered two "weirdnesses", and such deviation from period practice has previously been grounds for Laurel to return devices.

    Lastly, the submission was on the wrong forms - they were West Kingdom device forms dated May A.S. XXIV. The Crux office stopped accepting these forms some time ago. The current forms have "Lochac College of Heralds" on them are dated August A.S. XXXIII. If you have any forms other than these then please throw them away!

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News of previous submissions

From Laurel’s Letter of Acceptances and Returns for December 2000 (posted March 2001):

    The following items from Lochac were ACCEPTED by Laurel for registration:

      Douglas Hathaway. Name.

No submissions from Lochac were considered at Laurel’s January, February or March 2001 meetings.


Position Opening - Laurel Sovereign of Arms

[Need something to use up that copious spare time you have? Here’s just the thing! Note that the term of office is normally three years. The deadline for applying has been extended to June 15, 2001.]

The Laurel Sovereign of Arms (Laurel) is the principal heraldic officer of the Society and the head of the College of Arms. Laurel is responsible for fostering the study and practice of heraldry, processing submissions, and overseeing the heraldic activities of the Known World. Because the time and commitment required to oversee the College of Arms and process submissions are so great, the Laurel Sovereign of Arms usually has a major deputy, the Pelican Sovereign of Arms, to perform part of the duties. The current split has Pelican in charge of processing name submissions and Laurel in charge of everything else. The previous incarnation had Pelican in charge of administration instead. Applicants may use either of these configurations, or a new one which better fit the applicant’s skills. The Board will accept applications from an individual or a team to perform the duties of these offices; however, they will not accept applications where only part of these duties will be assumed.

Laurel and its deputies are unpaid positions. Laurel currently requires approximately 20 hours a week (primarily submissions processing) plus about 10-20 hours a week for Laurel staff. Also required is office space sufficient for 18 filing cabinets, 20 boxes of "to be archived" submissions files, 1 filing cabinet of "currently in process" submissions, and about 20 more boxes of assorted books, etc., plus the computers, computer programs and documentation, backup tapes and disks, printer, photocopier, and flatbed color scanner.

The position requires tact and patience, local staff to assist in the weekly filing (an average of 4-6 people at least once a week), knowledge of armory and onomastics, bureaucratic ability, the ability to meet tight deadlines and produce a Laurel letter of Acceptance and Return monthly, computer literacy and word processing skills, e-mail access, and time and ability to travel.

Resumes should be made in writing to the SCA office, at Box 360789, Milpitas, CA 95036 by January 1, 2001.

If anyone has any questions regarding the workload or the job function, feel free to contact the current Laurel (Elsbeth Anne Roth (Kathy Van Stone), (412) 306-0416, herald@sca.org).

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