Greetings to you all on this bright Festival morning.

As we all prepare to attend Rowany festival it is my pleasure to release
the latest letter of acceptances and returns.

• Aife ingen Cathail. Badge. Azure, a chevron and overall a pall argent.

Commenters questioned whether this badge was a visual conflict with the
flag of Scotland, Azure, a saltire argent. It is not. SENA A5D2 says:
“Occasionally, two arrangements of charges may create a design that is
nearly indistinguishable visually, even though there is sufficient
technical difference between them. In general, any significant visual
difference between the designs will be enough to give the submitter the
benefit of the doubt.” The presence of a wide vertical stripe on the
lower part of the field is a significant visual difference.

• [1] Alot de la Bro. Name.
• [2] Angharad Rheged. Badge change. (Fieldless) A rabbit sejant
  reguardant contourny argent.

This badge was pended on the November 2023 LoAR to redraw the rabbit as
clearly sejant.

The submitter’s prior badge, Per fess vert and argent, a thistle=20 counterchanged, is released.

• [3] Bersi =C3=B8rrabein. Name and device. Sable, a boar’s head erased
  argent, in chief three mullets Or.

Nice 9th-11th century Old Norse name from Iceland!

• [4] Gaylord of Saint Monica. Device. Argent, a chaplet of thorns gules
  and overall a cross of Santiago sable.

This badge was pended on the November 2023 LoAR to enlarge the cross so
its arms extend past the edges of the chaplet.

• [5] Grainne Uaine. Device change. Per chevron sable and vert, in pale

a crescent argent and an eye Or irised vert charged on the iris with a
triquetra argent.

This device was pended on the October 2023 LoAR for a redraw to lower
the line of division, place the crescent entirely on the sable portion
of the field, and make the triquetra more visible.

The submitter’s prior device, Per bend sable and vert, a fox rampant
contourny Or and in base a triquetra braced with an annulet argent, is
released.

• [6] Guy le Bastard. Device. Or, a saltire sable between four lozenges
  azure.

Nice device!

• [7] Julia of the Ravens. Name and device. Argent, a raven striking
  sable and in base a triquetra braced with an annulet, a bordure wavy
  purpure.
• [8] Lore Lei Martins. Name and device. Per chevron rayonny argent and
  gules, two hearts enflamed to chief and a fox’s mask counterchanged.
• [9] Lucia Markwardt. Reblazon of device. Per chevron sable and argent,
  on a chevron gules between two triangles inverted argent, each charged
  with a triangle throughout, and a great helm affronty sable, two swords
  argent.

Blazoned when registered in January 2023 as Per chevron sable and
argent, on a chevron gules between two triangles inverted argent, each
charged with a triangle throughout, and a great helm sable, two swords
argent, we are clarifying the orientation of the helm.

• [10] Muirghein ni Ghrainne. Badge. (Fieldless) A Lombardic letter “M”
  argent crowned Or.

The submitter has been granted a court barony and viscounty and is thus
entitled to display a coronet.

• [11] Theodwin Vriunt. Device. Sable, a sword inverted argent
  transfixing in base a wheel of cheese Or all between two panthers
  combattant argent spotted of diverse tinctures incensed proper.
• [12] Thibault Nesti de Danzig. Name change from Thibault Nesti.

Submitted as Thibault Nesti Von Danzig, this name was not registerable
per SENA PN2d which states: “If a name phrase in an existing
registration was found in a registered name that combined languages from
two or more regional naming groups, the new submission may combine those
same regional naming groups. If this allowance is used, then no new
regional naming group may be added.” The name Thibault Nesti, already
registered to this submitter, combines French and Italian. Therefore,
any additional name elements added to this name must be either French or
Italian. They may not introduce a new language as this submission does;
the byname von Danzig is German. Fortunately, Alys Ogress found
evidence of the locative phrase de Danzig in a French book published
circa 1574-1618 (Th=C3=A9=C3=A2tre des cit=C3=A9s du monde, Vol. 2, by
Georges Bruin,
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bd6t5700001s/f330.item.r=3D%22de%20Danzig%2=
2.zoom#).
As French is one of the component languages of the name Thibault
Nesti, the French phrase de Danzig can be added to the existing name.
Since the submitter allows all changes, we have changed the name to
Thibault Nesti de Danzig for registration.

The submitter’s previous name, Thibault Nesti, is retained as an
alternate.

• [13] Uberto Renaldi. Badge. (Fieldless) In pale an ibis argent gorged
  of a coronet gules atop a barrel palewise proper.

The submitter has been granted a court barony and is thus entitled to
display a coronet.

PENDING:

• [14] Muirghein ni Ghrainne and Alexandra Hartshorne. Joint badge.
  (Fieldless) A bull’s massacre sable enflamed proper.

This badge is pended to redraw the enflaming with more and smaller
flames entirely surrounding the massacre. As drawn the flames are large
enough to be worth difference as secondary charges, but are not in
blazonable locations.

This was item 8 on the Lochac letter of November 29, 2023.

Nil returns:

Congratulations to you all.

The cover letter:

FROM LAUREL: FREE CHANGES FOR OFFENSIVE NAMES AND DEVICES, REVISITED

The April 2020 Cover Letter instituted a policy to ‘allow submitters to
request name and armory changes to address offensiveness concerns free
of charge (including both Laurel and kingdom charges)’. This has proved
useful, and we have no intention to change the practice. However, a
recent case shows that some clarification is needed. Note that this only
applies to waiving the fees: changes that do not fulfill these criteria
are welcome and will be treated as regular change submissions.

The goal of this allowance is to encourage people to consider whether
their names or armory may cause offence, and to enable them to correct
such problems. Because of this, two conditions have to be met. First,
the change has to address the potential offensiveness: for instance, in
Martin von Dachau the main offensiveness comes from the byname, so
while a change to Kaspar von Dachau would remove the reference to the
last commandant of the camp, the main source of offensiveness, the camp
name itself, would not be addressed. Second, the old potentially
offensive item has to be released. Retaining the old name as an
alternate or the old armory as a badge does not address the
offensiveness concerns at all as the entire point of having an alternate
name or badge is to be able to use it at will.

• [15] FROM WREATH: CLARIFICATION OF SENA APPENDIX I2B – SEMY

When discussing secondary charges SENA Appendix I2b refers to strewn
charges around a primary ordinary; however, the same paragraph notes
“with or without a central ordinary”. We are clarifying that this
section applies regardless of the type of primary charge. As the
existing examples make clear, this does not change the interpretation of
I2b.

b. Semy: This type of secondary charge group consists of charges strewn
over all or over one part of a field. Charges semy are almost always in
a separate charge group from all other charges. However, when a divided
field (with or without a central ordinary) has a semy of charges (or
charges semy) on one half of the field and another charge or group of
charges on the other, the charges form a single secondary charge group
around the primary ordinarycharge(s).

We wish to thank Mathghamhain Ua Ruadh=C3=A1in for bringing this issue to our
attention.

• [16] FROM WREATH: ON IRRADIATION

Two submissions this month led us to consider our rules in irradiation.
In the January 2016 return of the badge of Cuthbert Longschankes,
(Fieldless) A Celtic cross Or irradiated azure we wrote: “Blazoned as
a Celtic cross irradiated, irradiation would surround the entire charge
and would leave no gaps between the azure extensions.” In the May 2017
return of the badge of Alexandru Morarul, (Fieldless) A rat rampant Or=
irradiated sable, we wrote: “A proper depiction of irradiated has
alternating points and rays issuant perpendicular from the edge of a
charge.”

However, a review of period armory that includes irradiation shows that
neither of the requirements from precedent align with period practice.
The armes of all the cheife corporatons of England shows the crest of
the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, a sheep argent irradiated,
with gaps between the rays around some of the sheep’s extremities.
Arms, part II, English and Scottish nobility, p. 90, shows the crest
of Lord Grey, a unicorn ermine irradiated Or, with gaps between the
rays around some of the unicorn’s extremities. Insignia Anglica, f.
4r, shows the same crest of Lord Grey, (as the Duke of Suffolk) with all
straight rays, and gaps between the rays. Based on this evidence, we
overturn the two precedents noted above, and will allow irradiation with
all straight rays, and irradiation with some gaps between rays. The
irradiation must still surround the entire charge

We also considered the question of whether tertiary charges could be
irradiated. The majority of examples of irradiated charges in period
armory are either badges or crests; very few are found in the arms
themselves. A search through the Dictionary of British Arms for
irradiated tertiaries shows a single example of a rose irradiated on a
chief, in the arms of Edmund Bonner, Bishop of Hereford and of London.
As the practice is incredibly uncommon, and as irradiation will shrink
an already small tertiary charge to the point where recognizability is
impaired, we will no longer register irradiated tertiary charges as of
the August 2024 Wreath meeting.

• [17] FROM PELICAN: THE OLD NORSE GIVEN NAME BJARKI

This month we considered the name Holta-Bjarki. The given name
Bjarki was documented from Geirr Bassi, The Old Norse Name.
Commentary on this item revealed that there was a single character in
the Icelandic sagas that bears this name, and he is a
werebear/shapeshifter in most of the places he is discussed. As a
reminder, we will only register names from sagas that are borne by
ordinary humans, as they otherwise constitute an impermissible claim to
powers per SENA PN4C. As the character Bjarki is not an ordinary
human, we will no longer register this given name in an Old Norse
context as of the May 2024 LoAR. The name element bjarki, which means
‘bear cub’, does appear in the sagas as a descriptive byname borne by
ordinary humans. Therefore, we will continue to register it as an Old
Norse byname since it does not constitute a claim of powers as defined
by our rules when used this way. Palimpsest is directed to update the
“Standard Source Errata” article as appropriate.

The name element Bjarki does appear as a given name in 15th century
Denmark borne by normal humans (Birky/By{ae}rke/Bi{ae}rke), and
continues to be registerable in this context compatible with late period
Scandinavian names.

• [18] FROM PELICAN: SURVEY OF ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES

The Survey of English Place-Names is a database found at
https://epns.nottingham.ac.uk/. As noted on the website, “Since the
1920s, English Place-Name Society scholars have been working on a
county-by-county survey of England’s place-names, collecting the early
forms of names from classical, medieval, and later documents and
offering interpretations of their linguistic origins.” For our purposes,
forms dated directly or indirectly (e.g., OE or Old English) to 1650 or
earlier are acceptable. Header forms with at least one period spelling
are acceptable as lingua Societatis forms and, as with any lingua
Societatis spelling, are considered to have the same date as the
underlying form. Palimpsest is directed to add this resource to the
Administrative Handbook Appendix H with the short citation [EPNS].

• [19] FROM PELICAN: COMBINING TURKISH AND ARMENIAN

This month we considered the name Demhayr bin Johar. The patronymic
marker bin is Turkish, while the given name Johar is Armenian.
Normally, combining two languages in the same name phrase is not
permitted per SENA PN1B1. However, during the commentary period Lillia
Crampette provided ample evidence of this lingual mix actually appearing
in names during our period. Therefore, relationship-style bynames
combining a Turkish marker and an Armenian given name are permitted as
of publication of this letter. Palimpsest is directed to add a note to
SENA Appendix A under the Turkish header regarding this type of
relationship-style byname construction.

I hope you all get to have a good time at Rowany to those that attend
and I look forward to catching up with some of you there.

Enjoy reading

Isabella Crux

Links:

[1] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#212
[2] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#223
[3] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#213
[4] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#224
[5] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#222
[6] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#214
[7] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#215
[8] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#216
[9] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#210
[10] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#217
[11] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#219
[12] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#220
[13] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#221
[14] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02lar.html#218
[15] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02cl.html#3
[16] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02cl.html#4
[17] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02cl.html#5
[18] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02cl.html#6
[19] https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2024/02/24-02cl.html#7