Crux Australis Herald
Baron Uberto Renaldi [mka Nigel Castle]
GPO Box 2719, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia
phone: (08) 8336 6791 or intl +618 8336 6791
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Crux Australis Herald Baron Uberto Renaldi [mka Nigel Castle] GPO Box 2719, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia phone: (08) 8336 6791 or intl +618 8336 6791 |
"The CAMeL"
April 2000 (A.S. XXXIV)
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…..
Rowany Festival | Reports | Roster changes
Important addresses | Subscriptions and Resources | Submission requirements
Meeting schedule | Recent submissions | News of previous submissions
Apologies for the lateness of this issue, caused by Rowany Festival and illness. Rowany festival also meant that I could not produce a Letter of Intent for April, so any submissions that I have received since my meeting in March will not be sent to Laurel Queen of Arms and the SCA College of Arms until late May. If you were consulting herald for any of these submissions (or know the submitters) please inform them of this and pass on my apologies for the delay.
Your servant,
VBERTVS
Baron Uberto Renaldi,
Crux Australis Herald
A great big thank you to all those who assisted, especially Declan of Drogheda who did such an excellent job of organising a duty roster on the spot, and Baryl and Mortar Pursuivants for doing most of the 8am announcements.
Thank you also to those who attended the heralds’ meeting or caught up with me at some point — it was good to finally put faces to names and get some feedback from the College. One result of this feedback is that the next couple of issues of the CAMeL will contain articles on Courts, as there seems to be a severe lack of information available regarding how to run them. If you have any articles or ideas relating to this which you think are worth including here, please forward them to me.
Although I did not manage to set up a formal consultation table, I nonetheless spent a reasonable amount of time answering queries about submissions and giving what advice I could, which I hope was helpful to those who asked.
Thank you to Kyrii (Aquarius Pursuivant), William (Frette Rouge Pursuivant), Sir Kane (Blackwing Pursuivant) and Idris (PE for Saint Monica) for your recent reports.
The original deadline for quarterly reports was the 6th of May. However, as May Coronet Tourney and Midwinter Investiture are so close together I am willing to accept just one report covering the first six months of this calendar year. I have set the deadline for these end-of-reign reports for the 3rd June.
A reminder on reporting: All group heralds must report at least every quarter (ie every three months). Barony and Shire Heralds report directly to me, Canton heralds to their local Barony or Shire heralds, while College heralds have the choice of whom they report to. In all cases, a copy should be sent to the group’s Seneschal.
Deadlines for reporting to me are published here in The CAMeL. If reporting via a Barony or Shire herald, I recommend you send your report to them two weeks before the date published.
I will remove people from office for failing to report without good reason. You have been warned!
Congratulations to William Forestor de Blackwode (Frette Rouge Pursuivant), who at Rowany Festival was elevated in the presence of King Fabian to the personal rank of Pursuivant.
Well done also to Snorri Blóddrekr ór Ódinslundi (Acting Cordon Rouge Pursuivant) and Sabine de Bourbonnais (PE for Saint Florian-de-la-Riviere), both elevated to the personal rank of Pursuivant Extraordinary.
On a sadder note, Minna [mka Shelby Armour] has been removed from the roster as Acting PE for Saint Aldhelm for failing to return a signed copy of his roster letter.
Important addresses
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".
Master Thorfinn is the person to talk to about heraldic publications. Possibly the most useful item that he stocks is the ‘Heraldic Pictorial Dictionary for the SCA’ (affectionately known as the PicDic), which will cost you $A8.50 for the first edition or $A12.50 for the second edition. Alternatively, order it directly from the USA via Free Trumpet Press for $US15 (details of their web site are below — and they now take credit cards).
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’.
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 or email klconlin@ilstu.edu
Cost: $20 per new submission (name, device or badge). No cost for resubmissions or branch submissions. Make cheques payable to "SCA Inc College of Heralds".
Copies required:
Please check that submittors have ALL necessary documentation to support each submission. It is up to the submittor to present their submission in a way that makes registration easy. Name documentation should be as accurate as possible, photocopies supplied (even if the reference is a standard one such as Reaney or Withycombe) and page number(s) and edition should also be quoted.
Crux Australis Herald holds a meeting at least once a month to consider submissions, which are then either forwarded to the College of Arms for commentary (and hopefully registration), returned if we find a conflict or a stylistic problem, or occasionally pended awaiting clarification from the submittor. If we have the time and enthusiasm, we may also look at and comment on submissions from other Kingdoms.
Crux meetings are usually held at 36 Rosella Street, Payneham SA, starting at 2pm. Please call (08) 8336 6791 or Email herald@sca.org.au beforehand if you intend to bring submissions for processing. The next meeting is scheduled for the 21st May and the one after that will probably be on the 18th June.
Master Thorfinn Hrolfsson, Hund Herald, also holds regular commentary meetings in Melbourne. Please call him for details on (03) 9885 6348.
Present at the Crux Australis meeting held on Sunday 23rd April 2000 were Lord Uberto Renaldi, Crux Australis Herald; Lord Thomas Flamanc de Kelsale, Baryl Pursuivant; Master Gwynfor Lwyd, Mortar Pursuivant; Sir Robert Gordon, Acting Cinquefoil Pursuivant; Lord Yassim Habib, Acting Goutte d’Eau Pursuivant, Master Snorri Blóddrekr ór Ódinslundi, Acting Cordon Rouge Pursuivant; Lord Hrólfr Hreggvidarson, Pursuivant for Castellum Montanum; Lord Philip of Richmond, Acting PE for Torlyon; Sabina de Bourbonnais, PE for Saint Florian-de-la-Riviere; Lord Declan of Drogheda, Acting PE for Hunter’s Isle; Lorelei dell'Isola, Acting PE for Saint Augustine; Pursuivants-At-Large Viscount Reynardine de Clifford and Lady Morag Freyser; cornets Salaberge de Granson and Karl Faustas von Aachen, and probably others as I forgot to write any names down at the time <duh!>. My apologies if you were there but I haven’t listed you due to memory failure.
The following items were SUBMITTED to Laurel Queen of Arms for registering:
Name resubmission to Laurel (see Returns for device resubmission)
This gentle’s previous name submission, Constanzia Maria Morales Enzina d’Zamora, was returned by Laurel in October 1997 for being badly formed (being in the form of <given name> <given name> <locative> <given name> <locative>). No period Spanish names could be found by Laurel with 5 elements, and those with 4 were in the form <given name> <patronymic> <compound locative> or <given name> <locative> <compound locative>.
The submitter has opted to follow Laurel’s advice, and has therefore submitted one of the names suggested by Laurel in the Letter of Return.
Explanatory note: a locative is a name element denoting ‘from or of a place’, so in the names ‘William Chester’, ‘William of Chester’, William de Chester’ and ‘William atte Chester’, ‘Chester’ is the locative whilst ‘William’ is a given name. A compound locative consists of two or more locatives used as one phrase, such as ‘Chester upon Tyne’, or may occur where a locative has become an hereditary surname, as in ‘William de Chester of York’. Of course, I could be wrong, onomastics not being my greatest strength…
New Name (see Returns for device)
The submittor desires a female name, presumably Italian, and will accept major changes.
‘Contarina’ is one of the submitter’s legal given names, and is mentioned by Franzoi on p.21 but, as it is in Italian and no translation has been provided, the documentation provided is of little use.
‘Bianca’ is modern Italian for ‘white’. Fucilla lists the surname ‘Bianco’ on pages 186 and 211. The preposition ‘la’ may possibly be dropped to fit period form.
New Name (see returns for Device)
The submitter desires a male name and will accept only minor changes.
‘Gabriel’ is shown by O’Brien as a masculine given name from 1599. Withycombe also lists it (pp.123-124) as occurring from the late 12th century.
A ‘Robert de Beaumont’ was, according to the documentation supplied, amongst those fighting alongside William at the Battle of Hastings, but Reaney & Wilson (pp.28-29) do not use this particular spelling in any of their citations (instead citing Belmont, Belmunt, Beumund, Beaumond and Beament, amongst others) but do derive the name "from one of the five places in Normandy named Beaumont’. In my opinion, this is good enough.
New Name and Device
Per pale embattled sable and gules, in dexter chief a cross formy Or.
The submitter desires a male name that would have been borne by a ‘Welshman in C15 Burgundy’, and cares most about the meaning. They will accept major changes.
Passing comment: my guess is that such a person would more probably have been known as ‘Glyn de Galles’ (‘Glyn of Wales’) rather than ‘Glyn from Artois’, on the basis that persona stories alone do not make for good documentation.
‘Glyn’ is the submitter’s legal given name. ‘Artois’ was a County in northern France, at one point in the control of the dukes of Burgundy.
The Rules for Submissions state that elements of a submitter’s legal name can be used without documentation so long as they ‘are not excessively obtrusive and do not violate other sections of these rules’. One particular section, III.1, states that "Names should generally combine elements that are all from a single linguistic culture, but a name may be registered that combines languages. As a rule of thumb, languages should be used together only if there was substantial contact between the cultures that spoke those languages…’. I will leave the decision as to whether Wales and France had ‘substantial contact’ up to the commenting members of the College of Arms.
The device, although a tad unbalanced, appears otherwise fine.
Device resubmission to Crux Australis
Or, a salamander couchant reguardant azure and a chief rayonny gules.
This gentle’s previous submission, Or, semy of flames inverted gules, a salamander couchant reguardant azure, was returned by me in December 1999 for a redraw of the salamander and for the lack of identifiability of the inverted flames. The submitter has provided documentation from various sources showing what she has drawn to be closer to a period heraldic salamander than my research had shown (so I now eat my words), although there should be more flames, especially from its mouth. Replacing the semy of flames with a chief rayonny is a clever design improvement.
The following items have been RETURNED for further work:
Snowflakes are no longer allowed. From the cover letter to Laurel’s August 1994 Letter of Acceptances and Returns:
ROSES AND SNOWFLAKES REVISITED
There was very little commentary on the issue of snowflakes, and only a small portion of that was in favour of retaining snowflakes as charges acceptable for registration in armory in the SCA. As a consequence, we will cease registering snowflakes in the future. (As always, people who already have registered snowflakes may apply the grandfather clause to future submissions.) If someone desires a snowflake, please try to steer them to an escarbuncle.
<stuff about roses omitted>
The submitter will be therefore be advised to redraw using an escarbuncle.
This is being returned as the charges drawn do not sufficiently resemble wings. There is also the problem of the device resembling marshalled arms. The submitter will be advised to draw a pair of wings conjoined in lure as they appear in the PicDic or another reputable heraldry text such as Parker’s ‘A Glossary of Terms used in Heraldry’.
The following items have been PENDED:
This is being pended awaiting a redraw. The cross drawn is not a cross clechy (consult your PicDic or other reference) but rather a cross of four lozenges, two of which are too small. Charges should be drawn so as to fill the space available for them as much as possible, and in this case the horizontal "arms" of the cross should be as large as the vertical ones. Furthermore, charges should be balanced with all parts in proportion but in this case the bottom "arm" (or lozenge) is significantly larger than the top one — a difference which is not forced by the design of the device. This results in a very unbalanced looking cross which cannot really be called heraldic.
Looking at previous submission forms (returned by Laurel along with the original Name submission) it is fairly clear that the submitter desires a cross clechy rather than a cross of four lozenges. Once I have new forms with correctly drawn crosses I will submit this the Laurel, as no conflicts were found.
This is a good example of poor period style. Submitted as Argent, a heart gules and in chief a jester’s hat vert, purpure and sable, the hat is not in chief, but rather the two charges are conjoined and in pale — something I have never seen done with two charges of the same ‘visual weight’ in period arms. More importantly, the jester’s hat is coloured in a way that is difficult to blazon. The blazon above was the best I could come up with, and its clumsiness highlights the non-heraldic nature of the design.
So what would be a good period design featuring these charges and tinctures? I would recommend Argent, a jester’s hat per pale vert and purpure between three hearts gules.
Several gentles at the meeting commented that they knew the submitter personally and were at a loss to understand why he had submitted this when they know he was ‘capable of something better’. It was on their advice that this be pended. If I do not receive anything from the submitter by my May meeting, however, I will be forced to forward this to Laurel as there is nothing legally wrong with it.
References
Franzoi, Umberto. ‘Palazzi e Chiese Lungo il Canal Grande a Venezia’. Edizioni Storti [no date].
Fucilla, Joseph G. ‘Our Italian Surnames’. Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., 1987.
O’Brien, Kathleen M. ‘Masculine Given Names in Chesham, 1538-1600/1’, www.panix.com/~mittle/names/mari/chesham/chesham-masculine.html. September 1999.
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’. 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 1959.
From Laurel Queen of Arms’ February 2000 Letter of Acceptances and Returns:
ACCEPTANCES
Idris Blaidd. Name.
Vera Lupa. Name.
Submitted as Vèra Lupo, the accent was used in De Felice, Dizionario dei Nomi Italiani, only as a pronunciation guide. Furthermore, a descriptive byname needs to agree in gender with the given name.
RETURNS
Kassandra Gatto Ammiratore. Device.
Argent, a cat statant within a bordure sable.
Conflict with Sibyl of Dragon's Eyrie, Argent a catamount triply queued statant guardant and a chief dovetailed sable, with only one CD for the change of peripheral charge from a chief to a bordure. It is also in conflict with Moshe Pantera del Fuego Negro, Argent, a natural panther salient incensed of flame, all within a bordure sable, with only one CD for the posture of the feline. Had there not been a conflict, the device would still be returned because the name was returned in June 1999, well before the date of the Letter of Intent.
Parvus Portus, Canton of. Badge.
(Fieldless) A tower sable masoned argent within and conjoined to a laurel wreath gules.
Only group devices can have laurel wreaths. [Note from Crux — OOPS! Should have spotted that one!]