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
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"The CAMeL"
September 2000 (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…..
November Coronet | Kingdom Device Update | Reports | We have a new Canon! | Roster changes
Important addresses | Subscriptions and Resources | Submission requirements
Meeting schedule | Recent submissions | News of previous submissions
My apologies for the lateness of this issue. Various things conspired against me, the details of which I shall refrain from boring you with.
I am always looking for feedback and articles for this newsletter. Is there something you would like to see published here that isn’t? Are there sections that are superfluous? Does the format need a facelift? Your comments and articles will be most appreciated. After all, I don’t produce this for my own benefit.
Your servant,
VBERTVS
Baron Uberto Renaldi,
Crux Australis Herald
November Coronet
Sadly, I will be unable to attend the Coronet Tourney in November. The group hosting the event, the Shire of Boarders Crossing, is relatively new and does not have a rostered herald. Therefore any heraldic assistance will be greatly appreciated.
A lack of field heralds for a Coronet Tourney reflects badly on the College of Heralds and on Lochac as a whole, and makes the event less enjoyable for contestants, consorts, spectators and organisers. If you are attending, please volunteer your voice for a few bouts. Rostered heralds are reminded that it is their duty to assist whenever possible - remember to pack your tabard, pen and paper if you are going.
Progress is slowly being made, although the urgency is not as great as it was following advice from Laurel Queen of Arms that we will be able to retain Lochac’s current Arms as a Kingdom. Whether we should is a matter open to debate: just over 50% of the respondents to the questionnaire I distributed said ‘yes’ to keeping the current arms, but only 46 people responded. Whether the result is statistically meaningful or not depends on your point of view.
Regardless, I have been asked by Baron Stephen to present to him, Their Highnesses and the Lochac Seneschal several designs for them to make the decision on which one(s) to present in a poll. These will be published in the next CAMeL and probably in November’s Pegasus as well.
The only quarterly reports I received were from Innilgard, Mordenvale, River Haven, Saint Florians and Ynys Fawr. I shouldn’t have to keep reminding local heralds to report - it is a basic duty of your job, and only takes up a few hours every three months.
Part of the transition to Kingdom is showing that we have an active and capable College of Heralds. That is rather difficult to prove if no-one tells me what is happening in their group! If you were supposed to report but did not, consider your wrist slapped.
End-of-reign reports are due by 17 December 2000, subject to change once the date of Twefth Night is published.
I am pleased to announce that Lady Morag Fraser is the new Canon Pursuivant. Her contact details are below. Please amend any Court Herald’s Award Forms you may have to reflect the change in office holder.
Mungo of the Rock [Anthony Birchill] is the new Goutte d’Eau Pursuivant for Stormhold. As a ‘cornet’ he has been initially rostered as Acting in that position (or rather, will be as soon as he returns a signed roster letter to me).
After completing the PE book heraldry test and fulfilling the other requirements for advancement, Nicolette de Colours has shown herself more than capable of being rostered as a Pursuivant Extraordinary At Large.
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. Parker’s Glossary can be found at http://www04.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/ta2/saitou/ie401
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 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 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 15th October and the one after that will probably be on the 19th November.
If you can’t make it to the meetings but would like to participate in commentary via email, drop me a line and I will add you to the ‘blazons’ mailing list.
Present at the Crux Australis meeting held on Sunday 17th September 2000 was Baron Uberto Renaldi, Crux Australis Herald, Lord William Forester de Blacwode, Frette Rouge Pursuivant; Lady Nicolette de Colours, PE At Large; cornet Lady Katherine Parry; and visitor Baroness Selfran the Singer.
The following items were SUBMITTED to Laurel Queen of Arms for registering:
Device Resubmisison to Laurel
Per chevron ermine and purpure, a compass star argent.
The submittor’s name was forwarded to the College of Arms for registration in January 2000, but was pended by Laurel for a lack of documentation in April. A device, Per saltire purpure and sable, a legless dragon tergiant head to sinister and in chief three mullets argent, submitted in March, has also been pended so as to be considered along with the name. However the submittor has decided to withdraw that device and submit this one instead.
We believe this to be clear of Tierced in pall azure gules and sable, in chief a compass start argent (registered to Ulrich Drachendonner in Feb 1986) - only one CD can be counted for the changes to the field, but another should be counted for the change in position of the compass star. Changes in position can only be counted for difference if the charges are not forced to be where they are by the design (eg to avoid placing metal on metal). In this case, Artemisia’s compass star must be in base, but Ulrich’s is not forced to be in chief (even though it looks most aesthetically pleasing there). As this is a somewhat borderline case the submission is being forwarded to Laurel to make a decision.
Name Resubmisison to Laurel
The submittor desires a female English or French name and will accept major changes, the important elements being the sound and the language/culture.
Her previous submission of ‘Johan d’Avignon’ was returned by Laurel in June for conflict with ‘Jehanne d’Avignon’.
‘Johan’ is listed by Withycombe under Joan (pp 176-177), with this spelling dated to 1379.
‘Patris’ is on a list by Elliot of 16th century Norman surnames, the list derived from Jonathon Dewald’s ‘The Formation of a Provincial Nobility: Magistrates of the Parlement of Rouen, 1499-1610’ (Princeton University Press, 1980).
Change of Device
Azure, five horseshoes inverted in cross Or.
If registered, the submittor’s current device of Azure, a chevron cotised to chief Or, overall a horseshoe, inverted and winged argent will be released.
References
Elliot, Triste ‘Sixteenth Century Norman Names’, http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/cateline/norman16.html.
Withycombe, E.G. ‘The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names’. 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 1959.
From Laurel Queen of Arms’ July 2000 Letter of Acceptances and Returns:
ACCEPTANCES
Caitrìona inghean mhic Leod na Iae. Name.
Submitted as Catrìona MacLeòid Na Iona, the submitter asked for an authentic Scots name. We have changed the patronymic to the proper feminine form and the locative to an attested period spelling. The name would be much better without the locative byname, as these were vanishingly rare in period; however, she does not allow major changes.
Gwir ferch Madog. Device. Azure, in chief three rustres Or.
Nice armory!
Jan Antheunis van Ghent. Name change from Lyssandre le Téméraire.
His old name is released.
Osanna Katzgraw von der Tann. Name and device. Purpure, a winged cat sejant wings close licking its sinister forepaw, on a chief wavy argent three roses proper.
Submitted as Osanna Katzgbraw von der Tann, we have corrected a spelling mistake in the LoI and changed the name back to the form originally submitted.
Ulvar MacVanis. Name (see RETURNS for device).
Submitted as lfarr MacVanis, he requested an authentic Norse/Scots name. The combination of an Old Norse given name and an Anglicized Scots patronymic had too severe a temporal disparity. We have therefore changed the spelling of the given name to medieval Norwegian.
RETURNS
Ulvar MacVanis. Device. Per pale purpure and vert, a wolf’s head couped and on a chief wavy argent three roses proper.
While we have been generally lenient about the way animal heads are couped, this particular rendition is too far from known period practices. In period heraldry, couping was generally drawn as a straight horizontal line, although there are some examples where the line is tilted. In this case the line was very carefully drawn to follow the shoulder line; it is bendwise at the top and palewise at the bottom. Therefore, we are returning this for violating RfS VIII.4.c, Natural Depiction.
PENDS
Artemisia da Quieto d’Arzenta. Device. Per saltire purpure and sable, a legless dragon tergiant head to sinister and in chief three mullets argent.
The name was pended until October 2000; therefore, the device is also pended until that date. Please ask the submitter to draw the dragon flatter and less three-dimensional. [Note from Crux - this submission has been withdrawn by the submittor]