CAMeL

November 1998

Those wonderful people who helped.

Lady Katerina da Brescia , Lord William Forrester de Blacwode and Daffyd Wallraven.

December 6th, 2pm. Meetings will usually be on the first Sunday of the month at 2pm. Call first if you are bringing a submission to the meeting. There will not be a January meeting. Remember all submissions must use the new forms by the start of 1999.

Chris Colyer

Hund Herald: þorfinn Hrolfsson. External commentary franchise and heraldic publications. [Steven Roylance] 1592 Malvern Road, Glen Iris VIC 3146. Ph (03) 9885 6348.

Cannon Pursuivant: Haos Windchaser. Precedence and Gentry list. [Danny Bartel] PO Box 1623 Kersbrook SA 5231. Ph (08) 8389 3404.

Baryl Pursuivant: position vacant

Bombard Pursuivant: þorfinn Hrolfsson. Ceremonies deputy.

Drop Dead Deputy and Sydney Regional Mentor: Giles Leabrook [Braddon Giles] 58/122 Saunders St Pyrmont NSW 2009. Ph (02) 9660 3865

Positions vacant:Field/voice deputy; regional mentors.

C.A.M.(e).L. 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, C/O Mistress Sionyn Muirgen niDhomnall, Pelican Queen of Arms, Jackie Watson, 3532 Winding Wind Cove, Bartlett, TN 38135-3044, USA for US$25 per year. Make cheques payable to "SCA Inc. - College of Arms".

Please note that everything of relevance to Lochac will be published in the CAMeL.

I would like to thank the people of Hunters Isle for the wonderful hospitality I received on my recent visit. I played Royal Tennis, and proved that while a Pelican may be good at service, it doesn't mean I can serve. I welcomed the chance to meet with the local heralds, and I hope that they found the exchange of ideas useful.

November Coronet

Thanks to those heralds who assisted me at November Coronet, in particular Gui, Tovye (who did his first court in 15 years!), William, Kyriel and Ingerith. It takes a lot of time and energy to do all the heraldic work in a principality event, and I was very grateful for those who stepped into the breach at the last minute.

Running Courts

I had a query about what advice a court herald can give Royalty when they think that the court will be too long, or otherwise interfere in the serving of a feast. Sometimes there is little you can do. It is important to remember that we are servants of the Crown, and can only advise and suggest. However, planning and tact can help keep the event running smoothly.

If at all possible you should contact the Royalty a day or two before the court to find out what ceremonies will be needed. This is the opportunity to ask them if the have completed their promissory notes, and to check they have enough tokens. You may need to volunteer to find a scribe to stand by on the day to complete the promissories. If you discuss this beforehand, you should try and discuss it as early as possible in the event. Even if the Royalty have not organised anything, this may remind them to do so. It is not your job to keep the event running on time. Ideally, the event steward will liase with the royalty about timing. You may sometimes find yourself delegated the job. Be tactful. The royalty have a lot of demands on their time. It is acceptable to remind them of the timing, and offer to find help, for example to put ribbons on tokens. Use your local guard or escort to help set up court. Use your second to run errands. In other words, you need to delegate also.
If it is apparent that there is so much business that it will not fit into the time allotted, say so. There are several options you could offer the royalty. The court could be split, and perhaps continued between removes. Some business could be held over to the next day. An award will still be special if two of three others are given at the same time. If there is still a problem, you could remind the royalty of the need to serve the food before it is spoilt, or that a long court in hot weather is uncomfortable for the populace. If you feel out of your depth, ask the autocrat, a senior herald, a peer or the baron/ess (if they are not the problem) to help. In the end, you must abide by the decision of the royalty, and you must carry out their wishes quickly and competently. You are the voice of the Crown, not their conscience.

You should keep a copy for your files, and give copies to your Seneschal, Baron and Baroness and College/Canton Heralds.
The sort of things I would like to see in a report include:

• date of report
• submissions made by the group
• names of active Heralds and what they have been doing, e.g.. Consulting, court, field work
• recommendations for rostering e.g.. as PE etc.
• any questions you may have for me
• problems you have encountered (preferably with solutions!)
• anything else you feel I or Heralds in other groups should know, or would benefit from.

The report does not have to be long, or 'forsooth'. It should give me a picture of how Heraldry is going in your group, and what assistance I can give you. It will also help me with assessing requests from Heralds for ranks as PE's or Pursuivants.
The end of reign reports are due by 13th December 1998.

Ynys Fawr seems to have a good pool of voice heralds, judging from the various people doing courts. The royal visit and baronial birthday lead to a number of awards being bestowed. Congratulations in particular to Lord Ciaran Faolchara for being made a member of the Order of the Azure Pennon for heraldry. Baron Gersholm is the proposed PE for Schoental. Having been baroness and Frett Rouge at the same time, I offer him my sympathy :).

Politarchopolis has has distributed the new submission forms in their newsletter. Cordon Rouge has been tracking down some lost souls from the recently published lists.

River Haven is in Baronial Investiture mode. I trust it all went well. Elanor of Abergaveny has been working on a series of heraldic training worksheets.

Innilgard will see Lord Armand handing over his office soon. They have a small but active pool of voice heralds. Both the Canton and College have been fairly quiet. Fret Rouge has a problem common to any Crux's home group. People are bypassing him and submitting straight to me. While this is not a bad thing, I thank him for pointing it out. I will remind submitters to give him a copy for his files.

Agaricus is working on a device resubmission for St Malachy. Thanks for the roster corrections.

Dismal Fogs has had three heraldic A&S meetings. This has resulted in several new submissions being worked on.

Stormhold has a "drop dead" deputy. Things seem to be going smoothly. Please remind new heralds that they must write to me with their contact details and get rostered. Ideally, the outgoing herald should write also, confirming their successor.

Master (Thorfinn) þorfinn is the Australian Agent for Free Trumpet Press. As the Australian dollar is plunging in value, I have not included a price list as it will already be out of date. Contact þorfinn directly for the latest prices. I also recommend that groups acquire some name resources, in particular Reaney, P.H. & Wilson, R.M. A dictionary of English Surnames and Withycombe ,E.G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names.

The Crux Australis web page at http://www.sca.org.au/herald contains useful information for heralds, and links to the SCA Heraldry page, and other general SCA pages. If you have web access, I recommend that you take a look. Many interesting heraldic links can be found through the SCA Heraldry web page at http://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).

Cost: $20 per name, and $20 per device or badge. No cost for resubmissions. Make cheques payable to "SCA Inc College of Heralds". Copies required for submissions:

• Names: 4 copies of Name form and ALL documentation, including title page of each book.
• Devices/Badges: 4 COLOUR copies and one BLACK & WHITE copy. The colour copies should be accurately coloured, preferably in felt tip pen. e.g.. Crayola Classic Colours. Faint colour printers or faint coloured pencil is not acceptable. The colours must be visible across a crowded Herald's meeting!

I will reject submissions without a black and white copy as I need to scan it to produce the Letter of Intent for Laurel. Please check that submitters have ALL documentation. Remember, they have to present their submission in a way that makes registration easy. Name documentation should be as accurate as possible, and copies supplies unless the reference is standard such as Reaney and Withycombe. Even then, the page and edition should be quoted. I know that some of you have few name resources. There is a lot of help available if you ask for it. I or someone overseas may well be able to help with that tricky name. If you cannot document a name well, you can still submit it, BUT submitters should be made aware that if they check the 'make no changes' box, their name will be returned even if ONE letter is incorrect.

1. Declan of Drogheda
Mundane name: Darren West
Consulting herald: self
Group: Hunters Isle

New name and device. Argent a phrygian cap purpure.

Declán appears in O'Corrian & Maguire p71. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland gives Declan as a monastic founder. I am not sure if the accent is required or not. The submitter will allow changes. Drogheda is an Irish placename that dates back to the Norse. Encyclopaedia Brittanica, v7 p697.

The device needed to be drawn nice and large to make it distinguishable.


2. Gawaine Tristram of Blackmoore
Mundane name: Duncan Gill
Consulting herald: Lysander the Reckless
Group: Agaricus

New name and device.Quarterly argent and azure a wyvern rampant to sinister gules.

Gawain and its variations appears in Withycombe p 127. Tristram appears in Reaney p355 and dates to at least 1207. Blackmoor and Blackmore appear in Eckwall p47. Blackmoore appears a reasonable variant. The submitter will accept minor changes.

The submitter originally documented the first two names from the Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory. This a work of fiction, and does not show that ordinary humans used the names in period. Fortunately, we were able to find better documentation.

3. Gryffyd gan Ruddlan
Mundane name: Gavin Pay
Consulting herald: Susan Hobb
Group: St Florian

New name. Gryffyd appears in Jones, p1. gan is of or from. Rhuddlan was a castle built by Edward I in Wales. The submitter will accept changes and wants to be authentic for 13th-14th Century Welsh.

4. Rathnat ni Chairealláin
Mundane name: Katja Hoad
Group: Stormhold
Consulting herald: Pedair

New name and device. Azure a pair of shears and on a chief Or three bobbins sable.

Rathnat is in O'Corrian & Maguire p154. Chairealláin is in MacLysaght under Carolan p38. The submitter will accept minor changes and wants to be authentic for 13th-14th Century Irish.

The device submission was beautifully painted with gold paint and a diapered background. While I appreciate the effort that went into it, I strongly discourage it. Or should be depicted as yellow, not gold. Gold does not show up clearly in a crowded meeting, and does not scan well for Laurel's CD ROM records. The diapered background makes it unclear whether some form of seme charge was in tended. Also, please instruct the submitter to draw the shears larger.

5. Raichbhe Walkman
Mundane name: Suzanne Rogers
Group: Innilgard
Consulting herald: name, Aislinn de Valence, device, Katerina da Brescia

New name and device. Per bend sinister gules and purpure a six spoked cartwheel argent.

Raichbe is in O'Corrian & Maguire p 154. Walkman is in Reaney p369. The Scots/English combination is not unlikely, and comes under lingua Anglica . The submitter will accept minor changes and wants to be authentic for "Scots Gypsy".

6. Wilfrid de Ackelonde
Mundane name:James Agland
Group: St Florians
Consulting herald: Steven Read

Resubmission of device to Crux. Name registered in August 98. Chequy sable and argent a dragon rampant gules.

Eleanor de Valence
The blazon should read: Per chevron inverted argent and Or a pall sable and overall a rose gules seeded Or.

1. Wilfred de Ackelonde
Mundane name: James Agland
Consulting herald: none
Group: Parvus Portus

Resubmission of device to Crux. Name registered August 1998. His previous device Chequy sable and argent on a bend gules three oak trees proper. His new submission is Chequy sable and argent a fess gules. This conflicts with the badge of Belarus (Dec 1994) Argent a fess gules.

Ekwall Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names. 4th ed.

MacLysaght, Edward, " The Surnames of Ireland" , Irish Academic Press, 1991, 6th Ed.

Ó Corráin, Donnchadh and Maguire, Fidelma, "Gaelic Personal names" , The Academy Press, Dublin, 1981

New Encyclopaedia Brittanica Vol 7 15th Ed.

Reaney P.H., 'A Dictionary of British Surnames', Routledge & Kegan Paul London, 1979.

Jones, Heather Rose, "A Simple Guide to Constructing 13th Century Welsh Names" (on the Net, at http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwysttl/welsh13.html)

Withycombe E.G., The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford University Press, UK, 1979

Registrations

André of Innilgard. Holding name and device. Azure, a natural seahorse, a bordure Or.
The armory was submitted under the name André Davignon, which was returned August 1998 for aural conflict.

André of Stormhold. Holding name and device. Argent, a whale naiant azure. The armory was submitted under the name Andre the Rorqual, which was returned April 1998. Nice whale!

Rufus Adycote of Mynheniot. Name and device. Gules, a quatrefoil knot, on a chief Or a catamount passant sable. Please instruct the submitter how to correctly draw a quatrefoil knot.

Ysabeau de Vezelay. Device. Purpure, an ape passant Or.

Returns

Aelfthryth of Saxony. Badge. (Fieldless) An ear of wheat and a straight trumpet in saltire argent. This is being returned for a redraw. The ear of wheat is not identifiable as an ear of wheat, or any other charge.

Other comments of interest

Mykhailo Zavadivskyi. Device. Per fess Or and gules, in chief a demi-arrow inverted sable conjoined in base to an eagle's tail grey. This was an attempt to use the regional style exemption of the rules, in order to use grey as a tincture. He provided two examples of Polish arms which he claims use grey as a tincture: Gules, an ass head caboshed grey, and Azure, a lion's head erased grey issuing flames gules. The LoI gave neither one a name nor date, though the submitter provided photocopies from Ian Heath's Armies of the Middle Ages which gave names and dates for the two blazons.

There are, however, several problems with this submission. First, two examples of armory do not meet the requirements for a specific regional style exemption. The rules state:
RfS VIII.6.b. - Regional Style - Alternatively, a proposed exceptional armorial design element may be documented as characteristic of a specific regional armorial style. In such cases the submitted armory may be registered provided that all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The submitter explicitly requests an exception to the other sections of Part VIII (Compatible Armorial Style) on the grounds that the submitted armory exemplifies a specific regional style.
(2) Documentation is adduced to show that exceptional design element was not uncommon in the regional style in question.
(3) Documentation is adduced to show that all elements of the submitted armory can be found in the regional style in question.

The situation is worsened because one of the two examples, according to the submitter's documentation, gives the blazon as Azure, a lion's head erased sable (or grey)...., therefore, it is not clear that the second example even demonstrates the use of grey in period armory. Furthermore, of the two examples given, both are of a plain field, with a beast's head on it as a sole primary. The submitted armory is of a divided field with a conjoined charge which is not readily identifiable, unlike a simple beast's head. Finally, the source the submitter used for his documentation is not a book of heraldry, but rather one produced for wargaming, so there is no way of knowing how reliable it is.

The submitter has failed to meet the standards of the regional style exemption, and this submission must be returned.

Thorhalla Carlsdottir Broberg. Badge. Purpure, a lur Or. This is being returned for several reasons. First, a lur is a bronze age horn, which means this conflicts with a badge of the Kingdom of the West, Purpure, a hunting horn Or. There is a CD for type of charge, but not complete difference of charge. Even if there had not been a conflict this would have been returned for lack of documentation. While a photocopy of a page of a book which contained this item was included, the title page of the book was not, nor was the name and author of the book included so Laurel and the College have no way to evaluate the source. Finally, doubts were raised as to whether a bronze age item is suitable for use in SCA heraldry. Because of the other problems, no decision is being made at this time, except to note that if this charge is resubmitted, documentation that it was used in our period would increase the likelihood of registration.

Herein are corrections to the Armorial.

Ann Christopher of Cheshire. Device. Argent, a goblet sable between two roses gules, barbed and seed proper and on a chief azure a decrescent moon, between the horns a mullet argent. The original blazon left out the fact that the decrescent had a human face on it, making it a decrescent moon.

Deorwulf se Deorc. Device. Or, a wolf's head erased, on a chief sable a stag's attires Or. The orginal blazon had on attire (singular).

Durvyn Wildermuth von Wiesbaden. Device. Vairy Or and azure, in saltire a sword inverted wavy argent, hilted gules, and a quill pen argent. The original blazon had the second charge as a quill, not a quill pen, which is a very different charge.

Francis Burnell Selkirk. Device. Vert, in saltire a hammer and a quill pen, and on a chief argent three mullets of six points gules. The original blazon had the second charge as a quill, not a quill pen, which is a very different charge.

Judith the Rose Device. Argent, a rose gules slipped and leaved proper. The rose was originally blazoned as a damask rose. The emblazon, however, shows it to be gules.

Phases of the Moon

The motif for this summer and fall seems to have been in fess a roundel between an increscent and a decrescent. It has caused a fair bit of commentary, partially because it is also a pagan symbol. While it is a religious symbol, that is not in and of itself grounds for return. It is also an example of modern symmetry. But that again, is not enough to return it. Therefore, we see no reason to ban this motif and have no intention of doing so.

Fictional Armory - what is important enough to protect

This month we returned a device for conflict against Batman Or, a reremouse sable, which is a registered trademark of DC Comics. Since it is trademarked the issue of whether or not Batman is important enough to protect was not relevant. However, until that was ascertained, there was much discussion at the Laurel meeting as to what our standards are in regards to fictional armory. Therefore, we are calling for commentary on this issue, no later than January 30, 1999 so we may formulate some guidelines.

Is it Regalia, is it a Badge?

There appears to be some confusion both in and out of the College as to what is registered as regalia. We are therefore directing Morselus to note in the A&O those pieces of regalia as badge/regalia to make it clearer. We are listing below the Society orders which were registered as regalia; we believe that some kingdom badges were also registered that way in the early 80's and will be investigating it. If so, they will be so designated in a cover letter as well. If any kingdom herald believes that his kingdom badge(s) may fall into this category, please contact us immediately with any available supporting evidence.

Note: these were all registered by Master Wilhelm, then Laurel, in June 1982. These were registered as Society Orders and are protected throughout the SCA.
(Fieldless) A chapeau. (For the Order of the Pelican)
(Fieldless) A circular chain. (For the Order of Knighthood)
(Fieldless) A coronet embattled. (For Counts, Earls and Countesses)
(Fieldless) A coronet with strawberry leaves. (For Dukes and Duchesses)
(Fieldless) A crown.
(Fieldless) A pelican in its piety. (For the Order of the Pelican)
(Fieldless) A pelican vulning itself. (For the Order of the Pelican)
(Fieldless) A white baldric. (For the Order of Mastery of Arms)
(Fieldless) A white belt. (For the Order of Knighthood)
(Fieldless) A wreath of roses. (For the Order of the Rose)

We also want to reiterate something a number of our predecessors said. Anyone in the SCA, of whatever rank or status, may wear a thin metal band such as the type that is used to hold hair in its place or to hold a veil in its place.

Books of Note

Two books which may be of interest to the College. (Information/review courtesy of Dragon.) I have just found out that a publishing house called the Clearfield Company has reprinted References to English Surnames in 1601 by F.K. and S. Hitching. This is an index of almost 20,000 surnames found in English parish registers recorded in 1601. The names are written as they appear in their original forms. This is an excellent reference for late-period English surnames. It is available directly from the publisher (info below) for $18.50 plus $3.50 s&h (that's about half what I paid for my copy).

Clearfield Company Inc.
200 E. Eager St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-625-9004

Barnes & Noble (1-800-THE-BOOK) has a new book written by the current Garter King of Arms (Great Britain), Peter Gwynn-Jones. It is titled The Art of Heraldry, Origins, Symbols, and Designs. This is not a reprint of either Fox-Davies' or Von Volborth's books of similar name. It is available through the Barnes & Noble web site for $12.98 + shipping.

This is a very good book, with lots of illustrations, including many pages from period rolls of arms and other period sources. Almost every illustration is dated, which is nice not only for identifying the period examples but also for identifying the post-period ones. The first chapter is especially interesting, drawing a development of heraldry from the 12th C. on, pointing out such notable occurrences as the introduction of crests, supporters, and the use of badges. Although the book is primarily focused on British usage, there is some information about the heraldry of continental Europe and even Japan.