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" 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...
Still looking for a successor... | Reports | Position vacant - Baryl Pursuivant
A plea from the First Coronation steward | Going to Rowany Festival?
Roster changes | Important addresses | Subscriptions and Resources | Submission requirements
Meeting schedule | Recent submissions | News of previous submissions
February 2002 (Anno Societatis XXXVI)
What I did on my holiday... I was going to write a full report on my SCA activities during my trip to the USA, including details of the coronations in The West and Ansteorra. However, this CAMeL is already way behind schedule so you're going to have to wait until a future issue.
As the Golden Stag Players say - cope!
Your servant,
Baron Uberto Renaldi,
Crux Australis Herald
Still looking for a successor...
A reminder that I will be stepping down at First Coronation so am seeking a successor who will also have the honour of being Lochac's first Principal Herald. So far, I have received only one expression of interest.
A summary of the duties of this office were in the December 2001 CAMeL and online at the Crux Australis website. If you are interested, write to me and I will send you a full duty statement.
All written applications must be received by 3rd May 2002, and a decision will be made shortly thereafter.
Next quarterly reports from all group heralds were due by 11 March 2002.
Position vacant - Baryl Pursuivant
Thomas Flamanc has accepted a job overseas and as a consequence must resign the office of Baryl Pursuivant, my deputy for commenting on other kingdoms’ Letters of Intent. Therefore, this position is now vacant.
The job involves producing a "Letter of Comment" at least every other month, in which submissions recently forwarded to the College of Arms for registration by other kingdoms are discussed. Requirements for the office are: a good working knowledge of the Rules for Submissions and the Administrative Handbook, access to e-mail, access to reliable reference books and the SCA Armorial and Ordinary, and a friendly group of locals to assist you.
If you are interested let me know and I will arrange to have some Letters of Intent and Letters of Comment sent to you so you can see what you are expected to produce.
I am quite keen to have commenting being done in as many groups as possible, with Baryl being the coordinator and possibly collating the results into their Letters of Comment. Commentary meetings are an excellent way to improve book heraldry at all levels and to keep in touch with what the rest of the Society is doing in this area. Contact me if you’d like more information.
A plea from the First Coronation steward
Mistress Kiriel du Papillon has written to me requesting the support of the College of Heralds in helping to run what will undoubtedly be one of Lochac’s largest indoor events on July 6th-7th.
Therefore, I am calling for volunteers to assist with field work for the rapier tourney on Saturday and the heavy tourney on the Sunday, duty work for both days and the many hours of courts on the Saturday. Please contact me by mid-June with your preferences and I will have your name added to the duty roster.
The eyes of the Known World will be on Lochac for this event. Our participation is crucial for its success, so I expect all rostered heralds in attendance to volunteer some of their time (it’s part of your duties and responsibilities, remember?). If you are present and a rostered herald and don’t volunteer, you’d better have a very good reason why, because I will be asking!
If you are going to Festival, please consider volunteering to be the duty herald for your campsite at least once. (For those who haven’t heard - the system this year requires each campsite to provide it’s own herald who will be responsible for checking regularly for new announcements.)
Please also consider volunteering to herald some of the tourneys, especially Crown Tourney for which we can expect to have a very large lists (probably with several list fields, each of which will need a herald).
I have not scheduled an official heralds’ meeting but was intending to have an informal get-together in the Tavern after Crown Tourney (where those of us with overworked throats may soothe them).
Thomas Flamanc of Kelsale has, as stated above, resigned from the office of Baryl Pursuivant. He remains on the roster as a Pursuivant At Large.
Hrothgar æt Gytingbroc has taken on the office of Cinquefoil Pursuivant in the Barony of Rowany.
Gruffydd ab Ieuan ab Cynan has, due to other commitments, had to step down as Frette Rouge Pursuivant in Innilgard, leaving that position vacant. He will remain on the roster as a Pursuivant Extraordinary At Large.
Crux Australis Herald: Uberto Renaldi [Nigel Castle] GPO Box 2719, Adelaide SA 5001. Ph (08) 8336 6791. Email herald@sca.org.au
Hund Herald (West Kingdom external commentary) and Bombard Pursuivant (Ceremonies deputy): Thorfinn Hrolfsson [Steven Roylance] 1592 Malvern Road, Glen Iris VIC 3146. Email roylance@corplink.com.au
Canon Pursuivant (Precedence and Gentry list): ): Morag Freyser [Helen Brinsmead] PO Box 455, Woden ACT 2606. Email canon@sca.org.au
Mortar Pursuivant (Education and Training): Massaria da Cortona [Melanie Johnston-Hollitt]. Email: massaria@hotmail.com
Rocket Pursuivant (New PE test): Aislinn de Valence [Megan Dansie] PO Box 526, Unley SA 5061. Email aislinn@merlin.net.au
Baryl Pursuivant (External commentary): VACANT- PLEASE APPLY
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. Their address is '1613 N. School St., Normal IL 61761-1240, USA'. 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 visit their web site for more details.
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". The latter is currently out of print, so if you spot it at a second-hand book sale, buy it!
Useful or interesting links:
The Blazons mailing list, the email list for Lochac's heralds - www.sca.org.au/mailman/listinfo/blazons.
The SCA Heraldry web page - www.sca.org/heraldry including the Laurel home page and on-line armorial and ordinary search.
The Academy of Saint Gabriel (lots of good articles on medieval names) - www.s-gabriel.org
West Kingdom Heralds' Handbook - heralds.westkingdom.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
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 or money orders payable to "SCA Inc. College of Heralds". Do not send cash through the post!
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 submission meetings are usually held once a month at 36 Rosella Street, Payneham SA. Please call beforehand if you intend to bring submissions for processing. The next meeting is scheduled for Sunday 10th March 2002 at 2pm. The following meeting is tentatively scheduled for 14th April.
Present at the Crux Australis Submissions Meeting held on Sunday 10th February 2002 at 36 Rosella Street, Payneham SA were: Uberto Renaldi, Crux Australis Herald; William Forester de Blackwode, Pursuivant at Large; Laufey rau{dh}refr and Wakeline de Foxley, heralds-in-training; and interested onlookers Liselle of Wolfglen and James McIuyer.
The following submissions have been FORWARDED to the College of Arms for registration:
Device Resubmission to Laurel
Per saltire sable and purpure, two ferrets rampant combatant Or.
The submittor’s name was registered in December 1999 and her previous submission, Gules a ferret statant argent, was returned by Laurel in April 2000 for conflict.
This design appears free of conflict. The ferrets should be drawn larger but are acceptable for registration.
Device Resubmission to Crux Australis
Sable, a valknut inverted argent.
The submittor's name was submitted on the Lochac LoI dated 15 November 2001.
Their previous submission, similar to this one, was returned by me in November 2001 for bearing too similar a resemblance to an offensive political symbol. This redraw has corrected that problem.
We are unsure if the valknut is still an acceptable charge: it is (according to the Pictorial Dictionary) an SCA invention and its most recent registration was in April 1994 with only 5 registrations prior to that. However, we could not find a precedent specifically banning it, so we are leaving it up to the College to comment and Wreath Queen of Arms to decide.
New Name
The submittor desires an authentic 12th-14th century masculine name of unspecified origin and will accept major changes.
Griffin: Withycombe (s.n. Griffin, Griffith) dates Griffinus to 1428 and Griffin to 1655, whilst Reaney (s.n. Griffin, Griffen) dates Griffin as a given-name to 1130 and as a (presumably patronymic) byname to 1197 and 1219.
Reid: Reaney (s.n. Read, Reade, et al) states that "Reid is Scottish" but gives no date for this spelling - at least the 2nd edition doesn’t, but we are led to believe that a more recent edition does. If this spelling is unacceptable then the submittor will accept Rede instead, which Reaney dates to 1327.
[Crux rant of the month: once again, photocopies of the documentation used were not provided. The Crux library has only the 2nd edition of Reaney, whereas it appears the 3rd edition was used here. This made it difficult to verify the dating of Reid. Please, always supply copies of the documentation!]
Device Resubmission to Laurel
Ermine, a bend sinister wreathed sable and Or.
This gentle’s name was registered in November 1996. His last submission, Ermine, a bend sinister wreathed sable and argent, was returned by me in December for poor contrast between the bend sinister and the field.
This design has no contrast problems and appears free of conflict.
New Device
Argent, a fox passant proper, on a chief vert a compass star elongated to base argent.
The name was submitted on the Lochac LoI dated 15 December 2001.
The SCA default colouring for a "fox proper" is a red body with black feet and a white tip to the tail.
(NOTE: the string {dh} represents the "eth" character which not all browsers can display.)
No submissions were RETURNED for further work - yay!
References cited
Reaney, P.H. and Wilson, R.M. 'A Dictionary of English Surnames'. Revised 2nd edition. Routledge London 1979.
Withycombe, E.G. 'The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press, 1979.
(Lots of) News of previous submissions
Lochac submissions from the September 2001 Letter of Acceptances and Returns:
REGISTERED
Benedick von Greifswald. Device. Vert, in pale two griffins couchant to sinister Or.Nice cant.Cassandra Cattani. Name.Submitted as Kassandra Cattani, the submitter requested an authentic name for an unspecified language/culture. Documentation was found for Cassandra as an Italian Renaissance feminine given name, but no evidence was found that a "K" spelling would be authentic in an otherwise Italian name. As such, we have changed the initial letter in the given name to a "C".RETURNED
None.
Lochac submissions from the October 2001 Letter of Acceptances and Returns:
REGISTERED
Cassandra Cattani. Device. Argent, a cat statant between three mullets of seven points sable.Listed on the LoI as Kassandra Cattani, the name was registered in September 2001 as Cassandra Cattani.Catrina of Lochaber. Name.Submitted as Caitriona of Lochaber, the submitter requested authenticity for Scottish language/culture. In period, a name would have been written completely in Scottish Gaelic or completely in Scots. As Caitriona is Gaelic and of Lochaber is Scots, the name is not authentic as submitted. Since locative bynames are vanishingly rare in Gaelic, we have put the name entirely in Scots to meet the submitter's request for authenticity.Gryffyd Ruddlan. Device. Argent, a bend sinister azure overall a wolf rampant gules.
Rowena of Seventowers. Device. Per chevron gules and purpure, a cat salient guardant Or collared purpure and in chief three crescents one and two Or.Listed on the LoI as Rowena Seventowers, the name was registered in July 1999 as Rowena of Seventowers.Salaberge de Granson. Device. Or, a salamander couchant reguardant azure enflamed and a chief rayonny gules.
Sigmund Spelmann. Device. Sable, three braziers Or enflamed proper.The blazon in the Letter of Intent did not reflect the fact that the flames were proper. However, since this only changes one-fourth of the tincture of the charge, it was not necessary to pend it.RETURNED
This submission is clear of conflict with Seamus Gillemore, Sable, a brazier argent flaming Or. There is one CD for changing the number of the braziers. In both these armories the brazier pan is half the charge. Therefore, three-fourths of the charge tincture has changed: all of the brazier pan and half the tincture of the flames. Changing half or more of the tincture of the charge group is a second CD.
None.
Lochac submissions from the November 2001 Letter of Acceptances and Returns:
REGISTERED
Gerald of York. Name and device. Argent, on a cross cotised gules between four crosses of four lozenges purpure a sword inverted proper.Please advise the submitter to draw the cotises wider and with more separation from the cross.Massaria da Cortona. Name and device. Sable mullety argent, a continental panther rampant to sinister Or vomiting flames gules.Submitted as Massaria di Cortona, the particle used with placenames in Italian is da, not di. We have made this change.Niall de Marseilles. Name.
Continental panthers are sometimes drawn in period with a horse or bull's head, bull horns and cloven hind hooves. This variant of a panther appears to be a standard artistic variant of the Continental panther. It should not be distinguished in blazon from other forms of Continental panther, such as the one found in the Pictorial Dictionary, which resembles a wingless griffin.
Rosemary Pinches notes, in her edition of the European Armorial, a.k.a. the Armorial of the Toison d'Or p. 36 (15th C), that the "panthere heraldique" was represented medievally with the head of a horse and the horns of a bull, as well as breathing fire. That Armorial presents a panther similar to this one, with bull horns, cloven hind hooves, and a long face. Warnecke's Rare Book-Plates 1400-1600 gives arms using a monster like the one submitted here on three plates, all belonging to members of a family of Scheurl. A monster almost identical to the one shown here is on plate 2 (Albr. Scheurl) ca. 1513, and plate 64 (Scheurl von Defersdorf, 16th C). A similar monster (with an eagle's head and cow horns) is on plate 46 of the same book (Christoph Scheurl, 16th C). Rietstap blazons the monster in the arms of Scheurl von Defersdorf as a panther, which is another indication that the charge used by the Scheurl family is meant to represent a panther rather than some other sort of monster.All evidence provided with the submission and found by the College indicates that Niall is a spelling unique to Gaelic in period. It is included in the headers in Withycombe (p. 228 s.n. Nigel), but the text makes it clear that Niall is the usual modern Irish form. Given that the Anglo-Normans who settled in Ireland spoke French, and many were descended from families from Normandy, this Gaelic and French mix is registerable, though it is a weirdness.RETURNED
Jan Antheunis van Ghent. Badge. (Fieldless) A pomegranate argent slipped leaved and seeded Or.This is not a standard heraldic pomegranate as seen, for example, in the various depictions of arms of Granada. The standard pomegranate slipped and leaved has the fruit clearly visible against the field, with a small slip to base with plain "leaf-shaped" leaves. Here the fruit's outline is almost entirely obscured by large, complex-outlined, acanthus leaves. The submitted artwork may well be a period design, as might have been used in a Renaissance brocade, but it is not heraldically identifiable as a pomegranate. Moreover, because the white fruit lies almost entirely on the Or leaves, this design has insufficient contrast.
There were various possible conflicts called against this badge in the Letter of Intent, each of which depended on tincture use to clear the conflict. Any redesign of this badge which would clear the identifiability problem would also change the proportions of the tinctures in some way, so we cannot address these conflicts here. However, please do advise the submitter to avoid these possible conflicts on resubmission: a badge of Allaine de Beaumont of Glastonbury, (Fieldless) A pomegranate slipped and leaved Or; a badge of Cathlin Sommerfield, (Fieldless) A pomegranate sable slipped, leaved, and seeded Or; and Katherine Lynten of CaerLeon, Per bend sinister rompu argent and gules, in sinister base a pomegranate slipped and leaved argent, seeded gules.
Lochac submissions from the December 2001 Letter of Acceptances and Returns:
REGISTERED
Áedán óc mac Rónáin h-i Fáeláin. Name.The submitter requested authenticity for 11th C Irish and allowed any changes. As we were unable to find any evidence of the name edán after the 9th C, we were unable to make this name authentic for the submitter's desired time period. It is an excellent 9th C name, though.Bess Buckland. Name and device. Quarterly gules and azure, a sun and on a chief wavy Or three oak leaves bendwise gules.Submitted as Bess of Buckland, the submitter requested authenticity for 16th C English and allowed minor changes. By the 16th C, surnames had become inherited. Hitching and Hitching, References to English Surnames in 1601 and 1602, (p. xxxii) dates Buckland to 1601 as a surname. We have dropped [the element] of to meet the submitter's request for authenticity.Emma de Lastone. Device. Azure, a fess argent fretty vert between three mullets pierced argent.Please compliment the submitter on designing idiomatic Anglo-Norman armory to match her name.Fína ingen uí Scolaighe. Name and device. Or, an arrow inverted bendwise sable flighted purpure entwined with a vine vert flowered all within an orle purpure.The vine has been reblazoned from a morning glory vine to a default flowered vine, as it does not have the morning glory's distinctive trumpet-shaped flowers.Hanbal al-Barbari. Name.
Konrad Athalwolf. Device. Per pale gules and sable, a pithon erect argent and a label ermine.
Magnus {th}egjandi. Name and device. Sable, a lion couchant and a bordure Or.Submitted as Magnus {TH}egjandi, the submitter requested an authentic 11th C male English or "Viking" name and allowed minor changes. Following the examples in Geirr Bassi, we have lowercased the initial letter of the byname. [Note from Crux - uppercase and a lowercase thorns are different, but not by much!]Miles de Colwell. Name (see RETURNS for device).
He has permission for his device to conflict with Natalya de Foix, Sable, a lion couchant, its head a sun in splendor, Or.
Olekh of Rowany. Holding name and device (see RETURNS for name). Or, on a fess indented vert a natural salamander passant Or.The device was submitted under the name Olekh of Kiev.RETURNED
Miles de Colwell. Device. Argent, a chevron and a chief sable overall a griffin segreant gules.Overall charges may not surmount peripheral charges such as chiefs. "The orle overlying the point violates the rule prohibiting overall charges over peripheral charges." (LoAR October 1999, p. 22).Olekh of Kiev. Name.This name conflicts with Oleg whom the Encylopedia Britannica describes as a "semilegendary Viking (Varangian) leader who became prince of Kiev and is considered to be the founder of the Kievan Rus state." The names of monarchs in the form "[monarch's given name] of [location ruled]" have been protected for some time and the ruling was recently upheld:As Polonus means 'the Pole' or 'of Poland', this name conflicts with the three kings: Wladyslaw I (king of Poland from 1306), Wladyslaw II (king from 1386) and Wladyslaw III (king from 1434). [Wladyslaw Polonus, 04/00, R-Æthelmearc]Since Oleg conquered Kiev, his name is protected in the form Oleg of Kiev.
His armory has been registered under the holding name Olekh of Rowany.