ÆTHELMEARC
COLLEGE OF HERALDS - commentary archive
Letter of Intent #100 Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon
Greetings from Myfanwy!
Enclosed pray find commentary on Æ #100, Everything has been
conflict-checked through the July ‘06 LoAR (the LoARs from December
2005 though June 2006 have been inter-filed, but I had to check the
individual letters since I had already done checking the O&A before
that happened, which was mid-month).
I had hoped to get this letter out before the last minute, but was
somewhat sidelined by an injury -- I threw my back out right after
getting back from Thanksgiving in Connecticut.
I remain your servant and the Society’s.
Lady Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon
Ruth Morrisson
myfanwy@nauticom.net
1. Alianor de Ravenglas -- Argent, a bend azure between two ravens
sable.
These are not ravens [c.f. PIC-DIC sn Crow, and fig. 223; and Parker,
pp. 489-90, sn Raven]; in the submission the beaks are way too long,
and the birds do not sit as upright. I did a Google search on various
birds, using the synoptical table in Parker [p. xix] as a starting
point for types of birds, and then trying to think of other birds with
that shaped beak. The closest I got was a picture of a red-billed
hornbill [URL:
http://www.dongettyphoto.com/kenya/images/Red-billed-Hornbill.jpg] but
even that isn’t quite right. Somewhat similar (but again not quite
specific enough) is a cormorant [c.f. von Volborth, p. 41, fig. 317].
conflict: Rakel Hrafnsdottir (5/05 Æthelmearc) -- Argent, on a
bend
azure between two ravens sable three oak trees argent.
There is only a single CD, for adding the tertiary charges to the bend.
possibly clear of: Constance MacCallum of Houghton (9/83 Atenveldt)
-- Argent, a bend azure between a jester’s hat per pale gules and
purpure, and a brimmed beret bendwise sinister sable, plumed purpure.
There is a CD for changing the type of secondaries, and possibly
another one for changing the tincture of half of them.
possibly clear of: Alacya Daveraugh (8/79 Caid) -- Agent, a bend
azure between a ruby-throated hummingbird countervolant and a sprig of
three red cherries proper. [Archilocus colubris]
There is a CD for changing the tinctures of the secondaries, and at
least one for changing the type of one of them (and changing the
posture and orientation of the other.
possibly clear of: Honor of Restormel (11/97 Drachenwald) -- Argent,
a bend azure between two lozenges sable.
There is a CD for changing the type of secondaries, but these are both
simple armory, with only two types of charges on the field.
2. Alicia von Hennenberg (resub) -- Per pale sable and vert, two
peacocks pavonated addorsed argent.
The birds do not fill their respective spaces well. If they were
drawn more vertically (i.e., with their bodies more upright and their
tails hanging down more straight, instead of at an angle) they could
be larger --thus both filling the spaces better and being more
identifiable as peacocks.
possibly clear of: Brennan O Loughran (9/00 An Tir) -- Azure, two
herons addorsed argent.
There is a CD for changing the field; there may by a CD for the type
of bird, considering that the peacocks are more or less fesswise
(i.e., horizontal), while the herons are more or less palewise (i.e.,
upright).
3. Artán Bécc -- Gyronny purpure and sable, two griffins
in bend
rampant within a bordure argent.
The docs for all name elements are as cited. Additionally,
ÓC&M [p.
30, sn Becc: Beag] give the byname as a masculine and feminine given
name, giving an example, although undated, for each gender.
Note that in none of the documentation, the vowel in the byname is
accented; I presume that dropping the accent mark and changing the
byname to <Becc> is only a minor change.
no conflicts found
4. Connor M’Eleam (device change) -- Per fess dovetailed azure and
argent, in pale two greyhounds courant argent collared Or, and a
portcullis sable.
This is not particularly medieval in style -- it would have been
better had the charges been in the standard 2 & 1 arrangement
(i.e.,
something like “Per fess dovetailed azure and argent, two greyhounds
courant argent collared Or and a portcullis sable.”) although I don’t
know if that would have had a conflict.
I didn’t know Ethiopia *had* a College of Heraldry. I looked at the
website cited in the submission documentation. It says in part: For persons requesting a Grant of Arms, each must
request, in writing over the
Internet, that the College authorize such a Grant. After the initial
request, an application must be sent to the Office of the Solomonic
King of Arms with the
appropriate fees. A Warrant for a Grant shall be issued from the
College and assigned to the appropriate Office within the College.
Persons requesting a Registration of Arms must provide
the College with
proof of a Grant from a competent Heraldic Authority or must submit
to the
College a request providing the date of assumption of the said Arms.
Assumed
Arms will be reviewed and adjudicated within the constructs of the
Laws of Heraldry and, while registration may result, a Grant of
Arms may instead be
required.
It isn’t clear to me by what authority the submitter is claiming such
“proof of a Grant from a competent Heraldic Authority” (since in the
great scheme of things the SCA is a game). Nor is it clear whether or
not the Imperial Ethiopian College of Heraldry is the heraldic version
of a diploma mill, as the “College” -- which is headquartered in
Maryland -- has only been in existence since 2001 (and admits in its
own FAQ page that Ethiopia had no “traditional heraldic tradition”
comparable to that of most European nations).
I did a Google search [http://www.google.com] and found an article by
Dr. Patrick M. O’Shea (who is, according to the bio at the end of the
article, a member of the Board of Governors of the The American
College of Heraldry) in “The Armiger’s News”, dated October 2004
[http://www.americancollegeofheraldry.org/TANOCT04.htm]. The article
says in part:
it may be suggested that an Ethiopian College of Arms could
be created under
authority of the Imperial Crown, provided that it remained clear
that such grants of arms were not ‘honors’ in the same sense as the
Imperial Ethiopian Orders. The key point here, however, is that such
a step would have to be made under authority of the Ethiopian Crown.
In accordance with the reconstitution of the Crown Council by HIH
Emperor (in exile) Amha Selassie I in 1993, the
prerogatives of the Ethiopian Crown following Amha Selassie’s death
in 1997 appear to reside not with any single member of the Imperial
Family, but rather corporately with the Ethiopian leaders and
members of the Imperial Family named in that document. Thus, were an
Ethiopian College of Arms to be
established post-1997, its establishment would have to be agreed
upon by these
corporate custodians of the Imperial prerogatives.
This view is supported by
Article 70 of the 1955 Imperial Ethiopian
Constitution:
This view is
supported by Article 70 of the 1955 Imperial Ethiopian
Constitution:
•ARTICLE 70 • The Emperor may in such instances as He deems
appropriate, convene the Crown Council which shall consist of the
Patriarch, such Princes, Ministers, and Dignitaries as
may be designated by Him, and the President of the Senate. The Crown
Council shall be
presided over by the Emperor or by a member designated by Him.
[sic]
Rationale [sic]
A further consideration, were
the legal obstacles outlined above to be
overcome by the sponsorship of the present collective custodians of
the Imperial
prerogative, would be the advisability of establishing an Ethiopian
College of
Arms. As demonstrated, the use of European-style heraldry was
unknown to
Ethiopia before the 20th century, and in the case of Eritrea, was a
by-product of
colonial subjugation. ...
Conclusion [sic]
Based on the history of personal identifying symbols within the
Ethiopian
cultural milieu, there is little to recommend the establishment of
an Ethiopian
heraldic authority operating purely according to European practices.
It is, quite
simply, not relevant to the history and culture of the peoples of
Ethiopia. Rather,
it calls to mind the colonial pretensions of Italy so heroically
resisted in famed
actions such as the Battle of Adwa. The Crown Council and members of
the
Imperial Family have ample cultural responsibilities, including the
administration
of the Imperial Orders, charitable organizations, and other
significant activities.
Adding to this burden a culturally irrelevant heraldic appendage
seems
inadvisable at best.
If the Ethiopian Crown in Exile were to establish a
registry for personal
seals, particularly those devised in line with long-standing
Ethiopian tradition,
one might view this as a worthwhile additional cultural
contribution, but such a registry would not “grant” seals, but
rather would record seals assumed by individuals of their own
accord, as has always seemingly been the practice in Ethiopia. In
addition, such seals are not hereditary in nature, and therefore cannot
function as arms within a line of descent, but rather only as
a personal form of identification for a single individual.
Ultimately, it is within the prerogative of Crown Authority to
establish a
College of Arms that imitates European offices of arms. However,
such an
exercise in clearly non-Ethiopian symbology is, at best, a
distraction from the
more important, and far more relevant, cultural and traditional
roles filled by the
custodians of the Imperial Crown during the present interregnum.
Further searching yielded a link
to rec.heraldry:
[http://groups.google.pl/group/rec.heraldry/tree/browse_frm/month/
2001-03/122b1a5b28867478?rnum=31&hl=pl&_done=%2Fgroup%2Frec.heraldry%2Fbrowse_frm%2Fmonth%2F2001-03%3Fhl%3Dpl%26#doc_e5797bdccefeb184],
and the discussion about the “College”, includes the wording --
apparently in full -- of its articles of incorporation in the state of
Maryland (complete with information on the the issuance of stock).
Looking at the color html, there may be a coloring problem: recently,
there have been a number of Laurel/Wreath returns for issues with
colored-in forms not having accurate and true representations of the
blazoned tincture (for reference, see, the color html emblazon for #7
on the same LoI, in which the field tincture is obviously azure). The
standard is (for lack of a better definition) “Crayola marker blue”).
From the mini-emblazon on the LoI, it isn’t clear whether this is
azure or sable.
That being said, however, the submitted armory may not meet the spirit
(and may not in fact meet the letter) of the rule about mundane
personal arms -- it is *not* in fact sufficiently different from what
is registered through the Ethiopian College. There is in fact a
conflict with those arms, as there is not a CD between them: a
Precedent from François’ tenure states:
There is no difference for changing the type of the bordure as
there is
"nothing for dovetailed vs. embattled" (LoAR of July 1999). [
Jenet Froste [sic], 02/04 , R-Atlantia]
Complexity count of 6 (four tinctures, two types of charges); possibly
7 if the complex line of division is considered.
clear of: Pierre de Montereau (badge, 7/06 Middle) -- Per fess
embattled grady azure and argent, a tun and a portcullis
counterchanged.
There is a CD for changing the tincture of the portcullis, and at
least one for changing the type and number of the other charges. There
is probably also one for changing the line of division from
embattled grady to a normal (i.e., horizontal) complex line of
division (although nothing for the change from embattled to dovetailed)
5. Helena Lyncoln
The docs for the given name appear to be as cited; note that one must
read the introduction in order to follow the meaning of the fields in
the raw data: in this instance, each name listed in the data are
listed (in order) by place, record number, year of birth, raw given
name, and standardized given name. The name <Helena> appears as a
raw given name dated to 1562, 1563, 1564, 1566 and 1603 (note that the
standardized form for all five instances is <Helen>).
Additionally,
Withycombe [p. 148, sn Helen(a)] says:
The wide diffusion of the name is not due to the fame of the fateful
queen of
Menelaus, but the St. Helena [sic] (died A.D. 338),
mother of the Emperor
Constantine. Many legends were early attached to her name, such as
that of her
discovery of the true cross. There are 135 churches dedicated to
her in Great Britain.... It was not used in England in the Old
English period, but is found
(Elena) [sic] soon after the Conquest. The common
English form of the name has
always been Ellen [sic] (q.v.), but
Helen [sic] and Helena [sic] came in
at the
Renaissance.
The docs for the byname are also as given.
6. Isabele of Dunbar
The docs for both name elements are as cited.
Nice name!
7. Nikolai Bearslayer -- Azure, on a pale between two bears
combattant argent, two swords inverted in saltire crossed with a spear
palewise sable.
The docs for the given name are as cited.
All that work to document <Medved> (and its variants) as a
byname,
and then he doesn’t want it? Sigh. The docs from Wickenden and from
the occupational byname article are as cited; however, I am not
convinced that “bear slayer” and “bear hunter” are equivalent. One
could as readily say “bear catcher” since a hunter could be trapping a
live animal rather than killing it -- especially given the previous
definition of <Medvednikov> as “bear keeper”, as well the
definition
in the same part of the article of <Bobrovnikov> with the meaning
of
“beaver breeder” (not “beaver hunter” or “beaver killer”).
The bears should be somewhat larger, in order to fill the space around
the pale better (for that matter, the pale and its tertiary charges
could also be larger).
These are not particularly identifiable as bears -- at least on the
color mini-emblazon (the B&W is somewhat -- but not entirely --
better).
Complexity count of seven (three tinctures, four types of charges);
eight if the oddness of the sheaf of weapons not all being of the same
type.
conflict: Angrim the Unreasonable (10/00 Artemisia) -- Azure, on a
pale between two bears combattant each maintaining a battle axe argent
a tower azure.
There is only a CD for changing the type and tincture of the tertiary
charge group; there is nothing for the axes, as they are maintained
charges.
possibly clear of: Jean Claude de Calais (4/01 Atlantia) -- Azure, on
a pale between two sharks urinant addorsed argent a trident sable.
There is at least one CD for type and orientation of secondaries;
there may or may not be a CD for changes to the tertiaries -- it would
have to be a visual call.
possibly clear of: James Adare MacCarthaigh of Derrybawn (8/91 An
Tir) -- Azure, on a pale between in chief two compass stars elongated
to base argent, a compass star elongated to base sable.
There is a CD for changing the type of secondaries, but may or may not
be one for significant changes to the tertiaries -- again, it would
have to be a visual call.
8. Rashid al-Tayyib (resub) -- Argent, in chief two gophers courant
to sinister, in base a gopher courant to dexter proper.
Not especially good style -- it would be better if all the gophers
were running the same direction. They could all be a bit larger.
Other than changing the bottom half of the field. this appears
identical to his old submission. The original return was #73, not #93
and the return was for contrast problems.
I did some Google searches [URL: http://www.google.com] for
information about (and images of) gophers. Gophers are New World
mammals: [URL: http://www.
4to40.com/earth/geography/htm/mammalsindex.asp?counter=65] says in
part:
Gophers are burrowing rodents of North and Central America that
belong to
the family Geomyidae. They are sometimes called pocket gophers
because they
have cheek pouches for carrying food. There are 8 genera and about
30 species.
Gophers do look somewhat like the emblazon but appear to have longer,
thinner (possibly hairless) tails [URL:
http://www.m-w.com/mw/art/gopher.gif]; [URL:
http://home.earthlink.net/~gmorton47/images/gopher.jpg] and [URL:
http://www.
turtletrack.org/Issues04/Co01102004/Art/Gopher.jpg]
I just *had* to say it... “Been to Gopher Wars, ain’tcha?” [okay, I
admit it -- I’m old :-) ]
probably clear of: Friedrich von Waffen (12/80 Middle) -- Argent,
three ferrets statant guardant in pale sable.
There is a CD for changing the arrangement of the charges, and
probably one for changing their type. There may be one for changing
the orientation of one of the charges as well.
possibly clear of: Esa mac Duf (10/02 East) -- Argent, three badgers
statant azure.
There is a CD for changing the tincture of the charges, and possibly
one for changing their type. There may be one for changing the
orientation of one of them.
9. Uesugi Kutarou Ietoyo (revision of device) -- Vert, three
dragonflies in pall inverted tails to center argent.
Sigh, the old one was SO much nicer....
probably clear of: Marion Forester (4/05 Middle) -- Vert, semy of
dragonflies argent.
There is a CD for changing the number of charges; there should also be
one for change of position/arrangement of at least half of them
probably clear of: Jennifer of the East (badge, 11/04 East)
--(Fieldless) Three butterflies conjoined in pall inverted heads
outward argent marked sable.
There is a CD for field vs. fieldless, and probably one for change of
type. There is probably also one for the partial tincture change.
10. Veronica d’Artusio
I don’t have de Felice. However, the given name can be found
in Joshua Mittleman’s “Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of
Florence of 1427” [URL: http://
www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/catasto/] with three instances cited and
also in his “Feminine Given Names from Thirteenth Century Perugia”
[URL:
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/perugia/perugiaFemAlpha.html].
The docs for the byname are as cited.
Bibliography:
Black, George F. TheSurnamesofScotland:TheirOrigin,Meaning,andHistory.
Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd., 1999, 2004 [copyright: The New York Public
Library, 1946].
Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme [Bruce Miller] and Akagawa Yoshio
[Kevin Munday]. APictorialDictionaryofHeraldryAsUsedinTheSocietyforCreativeAnachronism,
2nd Ed., 1992.