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
Crux Australis Herald |
"The CAMeL"
July 2001 (Anno Societatis XXXVI)
Unto the College of Heralds of the Principality ofLochac, and all others who may read this missive, from Baron Uberto Renaldi, CruxAustralis Herald, greetings!
In this issue…..
Roll of Arms competition |
A proposed change to the rosteringsystem | Reports | Roster changes
Important addresses |
Meeting schedule |
Midwinter thanks
My thanks to those who assisted in the heraldry at MidwinterInvestiture, especially Viscountess Ælfled, Lord Karl, Lord Loyola and LadyNicolette for the field work at the tourney on the Sunday.
If you haven’t already heard, Lochac’s first Crown Tournament will beheld on the Saturday of Rowany Festival next year (30 March 2002) hosted byMordenvale. Many heralds will be required, as I imagine it will be the biggest listsLochac has ever seen. I would like to think that we can have at least one herald fromevery group volunteering their voices, so now might be a good time to startpracticing or training others in field.
Your servant,
Baron Uberto Renaldi,
Crux Australis Herald
I have been asked by a few people what exactly is required for theRoll of Arms competition (deadline for entries is 30 March 2002). I apologise forperhaps not making this clearer beforehand.
The minimal requirement is a list of people of your group accompanied by theemblazons (drawn or painted) of their devices, in the style of a medieval roll ofarms. It can be on any medium known to our period (parchment, paper, cloth, etc– even gouache on plaster, so long as it’s transportable). Other details,such as awards held or badges used, can also be incorporated.
My reasons for this competition are threefold: to create a visual record of armoryin Lochac, to get the heralds and the scribes & illuminators in Lochac workingtogether, and to encourage research into the uses of armory in the middle ages so wecan emulate them better.
New West Kingdom heralds’ website
If you have World Wide Web access (if you are reading this there is agood chance you do), take a look at
A proposed change to the rosteringsystem
Although it is still a year before we become a kingdom, there aresome issues that are worth discussing beforehand so that, if the consensus is infavour, they may be implemented as soon as the opportunity arises.
One thing I would like to change is the system of ranks and titles used within theLochac College of Heralds.
Under the current system, inherited form the West College of Heralds, the twopersonal ranks are "Pursuivant Extraordinary" and "Pursuivant". Heraldic officers aretitled "Pursuivant [Extraordinary] for Branch-Name" (based on their personal rank) or"Title Pursuivant" for Baronial heralds or Crux deputies. Members of the College whoare not heraldic officers are titled "Pursuivant [Extraordinary] At Large", againbased on their personal rank.
Under the system I am proposing, which is based more on period examples and hasbeen adopted by some other kingdoms, the two personal ranks will be "Pursuivant" and"Herald", and "Extraordinary" will be used in place of "At Large". The followingtable shows some current titles and their equivalent under the proposed system:
| Current heraldic title | Title under proposed system |
| Pursuivant Extraordinary At Large | Pursuivant Extraordinary |
| Pursuivant At Large | Herald Extraordinary |
| Pursuivant Extraordinary for the Shire of Hirshe | Pursuivant for the Shire of Hirshe (or Hirshe Pursuivant) |
| Pursuivant for the Canton of Notnac | Herald for the Canton of Notnac (or Notnac Herald) |
| Bon Ray Pursuivant (for Barony of The Dawn) | Bon Ray Herald |
| Crux Australis Herald | Crux Australis King of Arms (just kidding, but it is period!) |
Obviously, no changes will be made until we go kingdom and unless there is supportfrom the College. If I hear nothing by First Crown I will assume nobody objects andwill implement this system following First Coronation.
Following the Pegasus Chronicler’s recent change of address, anew version of this in PDF format can be downloaded from
The next quarterly reports are due on 10 September 2001.
The office of Aquarius Pursuivant in the Barony of River Haven haschanged hands. After almost 4 years of devoted service, Mistress Siona of theEagle’s Nest (aka Kyrii Windstrider) has passed the office on to Lord WilliamCastille. William, who has a personal rank of PE, has been rostered as ActingAquarius Pursuivant, whilst Kyrii remains on the roster as a Pursuivant At-Large.
Lady Massaria di Cortona, having fulfilled all the requirements (and scoring anexcellent 93% in the book heraldry test) has been added to the roster as a PursuivantExtraordinary.
Crux Australis Herald: Uberto Renaldi [Nigel Castle] GPO Box 2719,Adelaide SA 5001. Ph (08) 8336 6791. Email
Hund Herald (West Kingdom external commentary) and BombardPursuivant (Ceremonies deputy): Thorfinn Hrolfsson [Steven Roylance] 1592 MalvernRoad, Glen Iris VIC 3146. Ph (03) 9885 6348. Email
Canon Pursuivant (Precedence and Gentry list): ): Morag Freyser [HelenBrinsmead] PO Box 455, Woden ACT 2606. Email
Mortar Pursuivant (Field and Voice deputy): Gwynfor Lwyd [Peter Ryan] 6Merton Street, Springvale VIC 3171. Email
Rocket Pursuivant (New PE test): Aislinn de Valence [Megan Dansie] POBox 526, Unley SA 5061. Ph (08) 8293 6635. Email
Baryl Pursuivant (External commentary): Thomas Flamanc of Kelsale [JohnSawyer] PO Box 222, Flinders Lane Post Offices VIC 8009. Email
Subscriptions andResources
"The CAMeL" is available from Crux Australis at $20 peryear. Make cheques payable to "SCA Inc. College of Heralds".
Laurel's Letter of Acceptance and Return is available from the SCA College ofArms. 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’ in the USA. Their address is‘1613 N. School St., Normal IL 61761-1240’. They also sell the‘Heraldic Pictorial Dictionary for the SCA’, proceedings of Known WorldHeraldic Symposia and Compilations of Precedents by past Laurel Sovereigns of Arms.Contact me or see details of their web site below.
I also recommend that groups acquire some name resources, inparticular P.H. Reaney & R.M. Wilson’s ‘A Dictionary of EnglishSurnames’ and E.G. Withycombe’s ‘The Oxford Dictionary of EnglishChristian Names’. The latter is out of print, so if you spot it at a second-handbook sale, buy it!
Useful or interesting links:
The SCA Heraldry web page -
The Academy of St. Gabriel (an heraldic consultation service) -
West Kingdom Heralds' Handbook -
Free Trumpet Press West (SCA heraldic publications) -
Parker’s Glossary of Heraldry -
Cost: $20 per new submission (name, device or badge). Note: a newname and device costs a total of $40. No cost for resubmissions or branchsubmissions. Make cheques payable to "SCA Inc. College of Heralds".
Copies required:
Please include ALL necessary documentation to support eachsubmission. It is the responsibility of the submittor to present their submission ina way that makes registration easy. Name documentation should be as accurate aspossible: remember to include photocopies of the title page as well as the releventpage(s) of any source used.
Crux Australis submission meetings are held once a month, usually at36 Rosella Street, Payneham SA, starting at 2pm. Please call beforehand if you intendto bring submissions for processing. The next meeting is scheduled for the 8th July2001 and the one after that is scheduled for the 12th August and the one after thatis scheduled for the 9th September.
Present at the Crux Australis Submissions Meeting held on Sunday 8th July 2001 at 36 Rosella Street, Payneham SA were: Baron Uberto Renaldi, Crux Australis Herald; Lady Massaria di Cortona, Pursuivant Extraordinary At-Large; and a very helpful Wakeline de Foxley.
The following submissions were FORWARDED to the College of Arms forregistration:
New Name and Device
Argent, on a cross cotised gules between four crosses of four lozenges purpurea sword inverted proper.
The submittor desires a male 12th century English name and will accept majorchanges.
Gerald: Withycombe cites this as being used regularly from the Norman conquestuntil the end of the 13th century. This spelling is not listed by Whithycombe, butReaney lists a ‘Robertus filius Geraldi’ from 1086 and a ‘RichardGerald’ from 1277.
York: Reaney also lists a ‘John de York’ from 1324. An authentic 12thcentury name would appear to be either ‘de Eboraco’ (from Reaney, under‘York’) or ‘de 3ork’ (from Ekwall), with ‘3’ signifyingan uppercase yogh. However, when I checked with the submittor I discovered that theywould be happy with the later ‘of York’.
The device scores an 8 on the complexity count but nonetheless manages to appearalmost medieval in style.
New Badge (Pended from May)
(Fieldless) A pomegranate argent slipped, leaved and seeded Or.
There are three possible conflicts that require citing:
(Fieldless) A pomegranate slipped and leaved Or [badge, Allaine deBeaumont of Glastonbury, June 1995 via Caid];
(Fieldless) A pomegranate sable slipped, leaved, and seeded Or [badge,Cathlin Sommerfield, Sept. 1999 via Ansteorra];
Per bend sinister rompu argent and gules, in sinister base a pomegranateslipped and leaved argent, seeded gules [device, Katherine Lynten of CaerLeon,August 1987 via Caid].
In each case, it would have to be determined that the pomegranate has had at leasthalf of its tincture changed and that there is enough stylistic difference in the waythe pomegranates are drawn to achieve a complete CD (the other coming from the lackof a field). Having seen emblazons of Allaine’s and Katherine’s armory (anda verbal description of Cathlin’s) I am prepared to give the submittor thebenefit of the doubt and pass this up for a visual comparison by Laurel.
New Name and Device
Sable, estencely argent, a continental panther rampant to sinister vomitingflames gules.
The submittor desires a female 12th-16th century Italian name and will acceptminor changes only.
Massaria: found in ‘Feminine Given Names from 13th Century Perugia’ onthe Saint Gabriel website.Cortona: a Tuscan town cited in ‘Mercator Place Names of Italy in 1554’compiled by Andrea Hicks.
This version of a continental panther has been based on the one appearing on page39 of Carl-Alexander von Volborth’s ‘The Art of Heraldry’, whilstexamples of similar designs have been provided from
New Name
The submittor desires an 11th-12th century male name of no fixed culture, and willaccept minor changes only.
Niall: listed by Withycombe (under ‘Nigel, Niall, Neil’) as a nameoriginating in Ireland and established in England amongst the Danes and Norsemen, thelatter also introducing it into France in the form ‘Nel’ or‘Nele’. Withycombe shows only the Latinised version ‘Nigellus’for examples before the 13th century. ‘Niall’ is also cited by Corráin and Maguire (under it’s own heading) with three examples dated778, 846 and 919.
Marseilles: a coastal town in Provence which Muir shows in this spelling in allmaps from ‘Europe c. 526’ onwards (prior to which he uses the Latin name‘Massilia’).
If there was evidence of ‘Niall’ being only an Irish Gaelic name then Iwould have been tempted to return this, but as there is evidence that it was alsoused in England (and possibly parts of France as well) it seems worthwhile forwardingit to the College for comment.
Crux rant of the month
Please note that persona stories, although they may be a source of light relief atheralds’ meetings, are not useful as documentation for a name. The above gentleprovided a fascinating story of how his English father "decided to relocate to Francebecause of his disenchantment with English rule relocating to the French city ofMarseilles [in] the late 11th century".
Unfortunately for our submittor, Marseilles was not part of the Kingdom of Franceuntil 1482, when King Louis XI took possession of Provence which had been ruled bythe House of Anjou from 1246. Before that it was claimed (if not ruled) by the Kingof Aragon (from 1112) and before that was pretty well independent, although nominallyruled at various times by Ostrogoths, Franks, Carolingians and Burgundians, to namebut a few. Saying that Marseilles was a French city in the 11th or 12th century isnot only historically inaccurate, it also fails to show that ‘deMarseilles’ was a period byname or could have been one.
As part of his persona’s history, the submittor has also stated that he chose‘Niall’ because ‘it was not that common a name in those times’– which seems to be a strange (and counter-productive) way to document that aname was used in our period.
In case you’re worried, my aim here is not to have a go at the submittor (whoprobably thought that the more information given to the heralds, the better) nor attheir consulting herald (name research is an arcane area that requires lots ofdedication and which is not for everyone). What this does highlight is that there isa greater need for educating heralds and general populace on what is good namedocumentation and what should be avoided. If you have knowledge in this area that isworth sharing, please consider writing something for this newsletter. Soon. End ofrant.
The following submission was RETURNED for further work:
New Branch Name and Branch Device
Azure, two bendlets enhanced Or and in base a laurel wreath argent.
According to the documentation supplied, lios is a Gaelic word meaning‘garden’ (presumably of the enclosed kind) and ‘fortifiedpalace’. Alexander McBain, in his ‘An Etymological Dictionary of the GaelicLanguage’ (Gairm Publications, 1982), lists the Irish word lios alongwith the following variants: Early Irish: liss, less; Welsh:llys; Breton: les and Old Breton: lis.
Unfortunately, the form lyos is not listed, and the group chose to acceptno changes to their submission. With no evidence that ‘lyos’ is a periodword or that ‘y’ and ‘i’ are interchangeable in Irish I wasforced to return the name.
The device also has some problems. Firstly, the bendlets are too‘enhanced’ – that is, shifted up too far towards the top of theshield. This amount of enhancing was unknown to medieval heraldry and has previouslybeen grounds for return by Laurel.
Secondly, the laurel wreath requires more foliage, and should be drawn larger soas to fill the space available to it. There should be no need to blazon it as inbase, as the bendlets (when drawn correctly) will force it into the lower part of theshield anyway.
References cited
‘Feminine Given Names from 13th Century Perugia’.http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/perugiaFemAlpha.html.
Hicks, Andrea. ‘Mercator Place Names of Italy in 1554’.http://www.maridonna.com/onomastics/mercator_place.htm.
Muir, Ramsay. ‘Muir’s Atlas of Medieval and Modern History’.George Philip and Son, Hong Kong, 1982.
Corrain, Donnchadh and Maguire, Fidelma. ‘Gaelic Personal Names’. TheAcademy Press, 1981
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.
None – I have yet to receive the decisions from Laurel’sJune 2001 meeting.