Greetings unto Master Dafydd Blaidd, Dragon Principal Herald of the Midrealm, the Midrealm College of Heralds, and all to whom these letters come.

Here are the returns and acceptances for the Middle Kingdom for July, 2010. Those submissions accepted have been entered into the SCA OSCAR system and forwarded on to Laurel for commentary and possible registration. Questions can be sent directly to the Dragon Herald or myself.

Serving the Dragon Herald, College, and Kingdom, I remain

Barun Rory mac Feidhlimidh, OP
Rouge Scarpe Herald
Midlands Herald Extraordinary

The following items have been accepted and forwarded to Laurel:

1: Boldewyn Rhienholt - New Name & New Device
Argent, a bat displayed gules, a chief enarched rayonny sable.

2: Deirdre Thomson - New Name & New Device
Per bend vert and sable, two foxes courant argent

3: Francesca Ambrogini - Device Resubmission
Gules, a chalice fesswise top to dexter, a bordure Or

4: Isibél of Dunbegane - New Badge
Or, a frog tergiant vert within a bordure checky argent and azure

5: Jonet of Keyth - New Device
Per fess, per pale sable and gules, and argent, two dolphins haurient respectant argent and a pomegranate gules slipped and leaved vert.

6: Katherine Gervase - New Name & New Device
Per pale vert and azure, an owl to sinister argent.

7: Meave O'Curran - New Name & New Device
Per pall counter-ermine, Or, and azure, in fess a needle sable and an open book argent

8: Natasia the Mendicant - New Name Change & New Device
Argent, between a trillium inverted in chief and three trilliums inverted bendwise in base, upon a bend cotise sable five frets conjoined, argent.
Old Item: Anastasia von der Wilgenhalle, to be released.

9: Natasia the Mendicant - New Household Name & New Badge
House of the Black Sheep Fold (Fieldless) Three sheep courane conjoined in annulo sable.

The following items have been returned for further work:

1: Isibél of Dunbegane - New Device
Quarterly checky azure and argent, and Or, two frogs tergant vert.

Returned for the appearance of marshalling. Rfs.XI.3. Marshalling. - Armory that appears to marshal independent arms is considered presumptuous. Period marshalling combined two or more separate designs to indicate descent from noble parents and claim to inheritance. Since members of the Society are all required to earn their status on their own merits, apparent claims to inherited status are presumptuous. Divisions commonly used for marshalling, such as quarterly or per pale, may only be used in contexts that ensure marshalling is not suggested. b. Such fields may only be used when no single portion of the field may appear to be an independent piece of armory.”

[May 2007 LoAR, R-Meridies] “Elena de Toledo. Name and device. Quarterly checky gules and argent and sable, in bend sinister two sets of six lozenges in annulo, points to center, argent. This device must be returned as it appears to be marshalling. The Rules for Submission (RfS XI.3) state "Armory that appears to marshall independent arms is considered presumptuous....". The explanatory text of RfS XI.3.b states "No section of the field may contain an ordinary that terminates at the edge of that section or more than one charge unless those charges are part of a group over the whole field." Laurel has previously ruled:

After much soul-searching, I must agree with the commenters who saw an appearance of marshalling in the device. Rule XI.3.b states that quarterly may be used only "when no single portion of the field [appears] to be an independent piece of armory." In general, complexity in any of the quarters makes it look like independent armory; for example, XI.3.b explicitly cites the use of multiple charges in a quarter as unacceptable. The motif Quarterly X and Y, in bend two [charges] is allowable when the uncharged quarters are plain tinctures; we don't protect plain tinctures. But when the uncharged quarters are complex fields, we lose that rationale; and the complexity then begins to make it look like an independent coat. This, beneath all the subtext, is exactly what XI.3.b is meant to prevent. (Aric Thomas Percy Raven, October, 1992, pg. 30)

In this case, using a checky field in the uncharged quarters means that this submission must be considered marshalled arms. Uncharged quarters may only consist of plain tinctures and those must not be tinctures of protected important non-SCA arms (v. Murdoch Bayn, 08/2002).”

2: Jonet of Keyth - New Badge
(Fieldless) A pomegranate gules slipped and leaved vert.

Direct conflict with Conflict with Granada December 1994 (via Laurel): “Argent, a pomegranate seeded gules slipped and leaved vert.”

The following items have been pended for more research/documentation:

1: Hiordis Ragnarsddottir - New Device
Per pale vert and azure, a mullet of nine points Or, a chief invected argent.

The name for this device seems to have been on the December 2009 ILoI, which vanished. We are holding this device and contacting the client to get new name paperwork, and will send it forward at that time.