November 15, 2000

Greetings unto THL Clarissa Wykeham, Dragon; Lady Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Rouge Scarpe; and the commenting members of the Midrealm College of Heralds; from THL Paul Wickenden of Thanet, Escutcheon.

Here are the October 2000 submissions for your consideration and commenting. All commentary should be sent to the Rouge Scarpe Herald, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, early enough to arrive by January 1, 2001, with copies to Dragon and myself. Unless otherwise stated, all name submissions will accept minor and major changes to grammar and/or spelling.

Please note that Dragon is moving! The new address at the bottom of this LoI is effective November 30th.

This month there were several submissions that included large quantities of documentation but no summary (simply saying "see attached"). Please advise your clients that this is NOT an acceptable practice. It creates a very unfair burden on me to provide a summary of documentation that is frequently difficult to correctly explain. I have long threatened to REFUSE to process such submissions in the past and am seriously considering pending them in the future.

1) Anna Donnelly. New Device. Per chevron argent and gules, two roses and a unicorn's head couped counterchanged.

{Name submitted on 6/00 MK ELoI}

(Vilku Urvas)

2) Brendoken, Barony of. New Group Name and Device. Per pale vert and sable, a compass star within a laurel wreath Or.

(Akron OH)

Rather detailed documentation is supplied, but as it was not summarized (despite a direct request that it should be), I will attempt to digest it here (my apologies in advance for any errors). The name is a hypothesized compound English place name. The first element (brende) means "burnt" and is found in such examples as Brendewode (dated to 1274) and found in Ekwall (no page number provided) under "Brentwood." The second element (oken) means "oak" and is found in ibid (again, no page number provided) under "Oake" and dated to 1327. The combination of these two elements seems plausible enough and the example of Brendewode follows a similar pattern.

A petition of support for the name and device are enclosed. The forms blazon the mullet as a "mullet of eight" but it is apparent in the large emblazon that the rays are long-short-long-short and not evenly-lengthed.

3) Catalana Di Neri. New Name.

(Würm Wald)

The client attaches a letter from Saint Gabriel (#1737) but provides no summary (again, my apologies for any error in summarizing the contents). The name (spelled Catalana di Neri) is described as "typical" of late 15th century Italy. Catalana is documented from Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/arval/ catasto) and in Lyth, "Italian Renaissance Women's Names" (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/rhian/italian. html). Neri is a man's name and documented as a short form of Raneri or Guarnieri. Those names [including the short form??] are found in laVolpe, "Men's Names from Florence" (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ferrante/catast o) and in De Felici, Nomi (no page number provided) under "Neri." The client desires a period late 15th century Italian name and cares most about having an Italian name.

We should probably remove the capitalization of the middle element to match the documentation.

4) Gabriel Chance. New Name and Device. Sable, an armored archangel displayed, maintaining a sword and shield argent.

(Shattered Crystal)

Multiple references for Gabriel are provided by (appropriately!) the Academy of St Gabriel (report #1400) (again, no summary, so again, I must summarize). Gabriel is one of the three archangels in the Bible. It is dated to 1212 in England according to Black (no page number provided). It is found in many other countries. It is documented to the 16th century on an unspecified enclosed web page from a University of Hull website. The surname is dated to 1209 and 1310 in Reaney and Wilson (no page number provided) according to an unnumbered Gabriel letter from November 3, 1988.

The posture of the angel in the large emblazon is in trian aspect and needs to be redrawn in a more heraldic posture.

5) Gabriella de' Milano. New Name and Device. Per pale Or and azure, a heraldic rose counterchanged.

(Rockhaven)

No summary of the documentation is included (as before, I will attempt to determine what the client intends). Gabriella is documented from Whittier, the Great Beginnings Baby Name Book (161). According to Maclagan, Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe (225), the kingdom of Sicily was founded by the de Hauteville family in the late eleventh century. According to ibid (246), Tancred de Hauteville was a notable Norman in the 11th century [there is no indication given as to why any of this is relevant to the submission]. Lambert and Pei, Our Names (83) note that Jews in Italy sometimes used locative bynames and ibid (84) notes that non- Jews in Italy sometimes did the same thing. No documentation for Milano or the "de'" is provided at all.

As near as I can tell, this name needs to be completely documented anew. The given name's documentation is an unacceptable source, the grammar of the middle element is suspect, and the last element is undocumented altogether. I would suspect that Gabriella di Milano would probably work however.

De Felice, Nomi (178) has Gabrièlla [note the accent] as a feminine variant of Gabrièle. De Felice, Cognomi (170) discusses the toponym Milano (under "Milani") and it seems plausible enough. Can someone provide a founding date for Milan?

6) Johann von Magdeburg. New Name and Device. Argent chausse embattled sable, a heart gules maintained by a pair of gauntlets inverted sable.

(Rudivale)

Johann (von Würzburg) is the name of a poet who wrote in 1314, according to the ACLS, Dictionary of the Middle Ages (117). Magdeburg was founded in 805, according to the Encyclopedia Americana (Vol ??: 80). The client cares most about having a German name and would like an authentic 13th-14th century German name. He will NOT permit MAJOR changes.

7) Juliana de Pardieu. New Device. Purpure ermined three unicorns passant argent.

{Name reg'd ??/??}

(Mcleansboro IL)

I could find no reference to the registration of this client's name in the RS database or the on-line armorial.

8) Leifr Holtameistari Olafsson. New Name and Device. Per pale purpure and vert, three pheons inverted argent.

(Vilku Urvas)

Leifr is in Geirr Bassi (13). Holta is in ibid (23) and Meistari is in ibid. Olafsson is meant to mean "son of Olafr" as per ibid (17). The client wants an authentic 9th-11th century Norse name.

9) Nikolai of Trakai. New Badge. (Fieldless) A cross doubled sable fimbriated argent.

{Name reg'd 9/93}

(Vilku Urvas)

This badge is to be jointly owned with Tatiana of Varena (reg'd 1/97).

10) Rachelle Dominique De Brienne. New Name.

(Castel Rouge)

The only documentation is a map of France in 1360 from the Hammond Historical Atlas (H-18) which shows the city of Brienne. No documentation is provided for the given names. The client cares most about having a French name. She would like her name to be authentic for the late 14th century. She will NOT permit MAJOR changes.

Dauzat (206) discusses the medieval roots of the name Dominique but does not have an entry for Rachelle. The "De" should probably be lower case.

11) Rochl bas Gershom Sternenkiker. New Name and Device. Azure mullety, an owl, and on a chief argent, a recorder fesswise reversed azure.

(Jararvellir)

Rachel is documented to the 11th century in Stampitzky, "Names from Hebrew Chronicles of the 10th to 13th Centuries" (http://www.yucs.org/~jules/names/ crusades.html). It is also Biblical. The client writes: "I have chosen a different spelling to dissuade SCA folk from using the modern pronunciation of 'Rachel.' Since the name is transliterated from the Hebrew, the spelling doesn't matter too much, if the College of Heralds wishes to change it." Gershom is a masculine name that is dated to the 11th century in ibid. bas Gershom is a patronymic and examples of the construction are found in ibid and dated to the 11th century. Sternenkiker is a occupational byname meaning "stargazer" and is found in Gottschald, Deutsche Namenkunde (474). It is dated to 1482 in an unpublished dissertation by Karl Carstens and referenced in an email correspondence with a reference librarian at the Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Bremen. The client cares most about meaning and language/culture. She would like to have an authentic 15th-16th century German Jewish name. She will NOT permit MAJOR changes.

12) Thalia Baroncelli. New Device. Or vetu ployé, in fess three wyverns erect gules.

{Name reg'd 9/98}

(Fairfield OH)

Yours In Service,

Paul Wickenden of Thanet

c/o SCA -- MK College of Heralds
P.O. Box 44623
Madison WI 53744-4623
submissions@midrealm.org

Dragon:

Rouge Scarpe: