ÆTHELMEARC
COLLEGE OF HERALDS - commentary archive
Letter of Intent #108 Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon
Feast of St. Winifred 3 November, AS XLII
Greetings from Myfanwy!
Herein is the commentary on Æ LoI #108. Everything has been
conflict
checked through the July 2007 LoAR, and I did what I could with the
names.
I remain your servant and the Society’s.
Lady Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon
Ruth Morrisson
myfanwy@nauticom.net
1. Alexander MacDougall
The docs for the given name are as cited. Additionally, the submitted
spelling can be found in Krossa’s “Early 16th Century Scottish Lowland
Names: Men’s Given Names -- Alphabetical” [URL:
http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/lowland16/menalpha.shtml]
with three definitive instances in 1502, and over a hundred instances
of the name expanded from an abbreviated form in the manuscript, with
dates ranging from 1500 to 1550. This gets the name closer temporally
to the byname, even though the submitter has not asked for
authenticity.
The docs for the byname are as cited.
2. Alîme bint Yorgi
The docs for all name elements are as cited; additionally, looking at
the full list of names in the Whitcher article [URL:
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ursula/ottoman/turkishnames.html] it is
clear that the name formation can be found in Christian contexts, with
the name <Irini bint Yorgi>.
I don’t know if there is any temporal disparity between the name
elements; according to Wikipedia [URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire], the Ottoman empire
starts in 1299, and it isn’t entirely clear from the St. Gabriel
report if there is an actual dated citation for the given name. Since
the submitter has not requested authenticity (even while expressing a
desire for 16th century Turkish name), it’s probably not an issue.
3. Eilionóra Ghorm inghean Phaidín -- Per chevron
throughout argent
and azure, a decrescent argent and on a chief sable three triquetras
argent.
The docs for all name elements are as cited.
The submitter has requested authenticity for 16th century Ireland.
Although the submitted spelling is not documented, the dated citations
of the given name suggest that this spelling could be extrapolated for
a very late 15th century form (possibly for a very early 16th century
one).
I read through the commentary posted about the use of <Ghorm>.
While
the meaning does not appear to mean what the submitter thinks it does,
she has asked for authenticity, saying language and culture are most
important (rather than saying that the meaning is what is most
important). I don’t know whether this should be pended to give the
submitter a chance to decide whether meaning or language/culture is
what she really wants.
no conflicts found
4. Florian du Pompier (name change from Florian Dupommier)
I was unable to find any information about the original submission;
the online LoI archives for the East Kingdom [URL:
http://ech.eastkingdom.org/] don’t go back nearly that far (only to
2006) and my files only seem to go back to 1996 (and are sporadic at
best). If this goes out on external commentary, someone from the East
who’s on OSCAR may be able to track down the original submission
paperwork.
I presume that the given name would be grandfathered to the submitter.
The byname, as presented, makes no grammatical sense: <du> is a
variant of the preposition <de> which according to my
French/English
dictionary means “of” or “from”; <pompier> is a noun meaning
“fireman”, but that is its second meaning, the first being an
adjective meaning “pompous”, “pretentious” or “solemn”; IIRC,
<du> is a contraction of <de> + <le> but I don’t
remember in which
circumstances offhand). Neither the primary meaning (i.e., as an
adjective) or the secondary one (as a noun) would follow the
prepositions “of (the)” or “from (the)”; more likely they would follow
<le> (“the”): <Florian le Pompier> or <Florian le
pompier>.
Dauzat and Rostaing [p. 540, sn Pompierre] gives the 14th century form
<Pontepetra> and the 6th century <Pontem petreum>. Joshua
Mittleman’s article “French Names from Two Thirteen Century
Chronicles: Place Names used in Locative Surnames” [URL:
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/crusades/crusadesLieux.html]
gives the (normalized) place name <Pomponne >. I haven’t found
anything closer.
What changes, if any, does the submitter allow? If changes are
allowed, does the submitter care more about the meaning of
<Pompier>
as documented or more about the sound (in which case the name would
probably have to be changed to something like <Florian de
Pompierre>
or <Florian de Pontepetra>)? At any rate, the name as submitted
does
not seem to be registrable, and if the submitter doesn’t allow for any
changes this will probably have to be returned.
5. Grímkell Bogsveigir -- Per chevron sable and Or, an arrow
fesswise
point to sinister Or and a hammer sable.
The name docs for both elements are as cited; however, the name should
probably be changed to <Grímkell bogsveigir> (and I’m not
certain
whether, since the byname does not have any accent marks, whether they
should be added or the accent mark in the given name removed).
This is not “per chevron”. The line of division is entirely too
shallow, and also much too high on the field -- the field should be
divided more or less evenly between the two tinctures. Unfortunately,
it is not a field division such as chapé, either, since that
resembles
per chevron throughout, and the point of the field division here does
not reach the top of the field [c.f., PIC-DIC, fig. 101; Parker, p.
100, sn Chapé; and Woodward, Plate VI, figs. 8 and 10].
The hammer appears to be drawn somewhat like a sledgehammer [c.f.,
PIC-DIC, fig. 334b] except for the length (or, rather, lack thereof)
of the handle.
Let me know if you need this to be redrawn before it goes up to Laurel.
Possible reblazon: Per chevron (enhanced) sable and Or, an arrow
fesswise point to sinister Or and a sledgehammer sable.
no conflicts found
6. Isibel Thorgrimskona
The docs for both name elements are as cited (except that the cite for
<{TH}orgrímr> is *just* on page 16); note that in both of
the cited
previous registration the names were registered without any comment
about <-kona> as a name element.
7. Katherine Wert -- Vert, in bend three mascles bendwise Or.
The docs for the given name are as cited. Additionally, in Scott’s
article “Medieval German Give Names from Silesia: Women’s Names” [URL:
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/bahlow/bahlowFem.html], the
submitted spelling is found in one instance, dated to 1366.
Nice armory!
no conflicts found
8. Mariana Maria Pietrosanti -- Vert, a chief triangular and a
dragonfly Or.
I don’t have de Felice, but the other name docs are all as cited
(except the link from the St. Gabriel report for footnote #4 does not
appear to work -- I got an error message saying the website couldn’t
be found).
Hmm. Not really knowing Italian, I would have looked at the byname as
a form of <Saint Peter>. The given name <Pietro> is found
in Joshua
Mittleman’s “Fourteenth Century Venetian Personal Names” [URL:
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/venice14/venice14given.html#table],
and listed as one of the names “to especially common in studies of
Tuscan names”. I was not able to find the given name <Pietro> in
the
list of given names in the “Online Tratte of Office Holders 1282-1532”
[URL: http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/tratte/doc/name1.html]; I did
find the name <Piero>, with 3815 instances cited, and also a
number
of names in which <Pier-> is an element of what appears to be a
compound name, such as <Pierandrea>, <Pierfrances>,
<Piermaria> and
<Pierpaolo>. I also found, in the same source, the given name
<Santi>, with 47 instances cited; and (as a surname) in the list
of
surnames [URL:
http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/tratte/doc/SURNAM1.html], with four
instances cited.
This suggests that <Pietrosanti> could be a plausible Italian
masculine given name. Given that the submitter accepts all changes,
but would prefer to retain the submitted spellings, one suggestion
might be to change the name to <Marian(n)a Maria di Pietrosanti>.
Possible reblazon: Vert, a dragonfly and a chief
triangular Or.
possibly clear of: Nikolai Grigorevich Petrov (badge, 6/02
Middle) -- Vert, a dragonfly and in chief three mullets one and two Or.
There is at least one CD for changing the type and number of
secondaries; there may also be a visual CD for the arrangement of them
(i.e., from effectively a triangle pointed upwards to a triangle
pointed downwards.
clear of: Faoltighearna ní Dhuinn (12/99 Caid) -- Vert, a
dragonfly
and on a chief Or three pomegranates slipped and leaved vert.
There is a CD for adding the complex line to the chief and one for
removing the tertiaries.
9. Pavel Dudoladov
The docs for both name elements are as cited.
10. Rhiannon of Ravenglass -- Sable, a decrescent and on a chief
argent three mullets sable. (in-kingdom device resub)
clear of: Celestina Ambrosini (4/02 West) -- Purpure, a decrescent
and on a chief wavy argent three mullets of six points purpure.
There is a CD for changing the field and one for removing the complex
line on the chief; there may not be one for the tertiaries, however,
since there is only change of tincture and may not be a CD between
standard mullets (i.e., with five points) and mullets of six points.
clear of: Susanna Grey (5/88 Atlantia) -- Sable, a decrescent argent,
a chief vairy vert and Or.
There is a CD for changing the tincture of the chief, and one for
adding the tertiary charges.
clear of: Roland Silverdale (badge for House Silverdale, 3/93 Middle)
-- Sable, a decrescent within a bordure argent charged with an orle of
holly vert.
There is a CD for changing the bordure to a chief, and one for
cumulative changes to the tertiaries.
probably clear of: Lucrezia Isabella Fraccia (4/05 Drachenwald) --
Sable, an arrow fesswise surmounted by a decrescent argent and on a
chief Or three roses sable.
There is a CD for changing the tincture of the chief, and probably one
for removing the arrow; note that there is only change of type of
tertiaries.
clear of: Andrew of Dragon’s Mist (10/94 An Tir) -- Sable, a wolf’s
head erased Or between the horns of a crescent and on a chief argent
three mullets sable.
There is a CD for removing the head, and one for
the orientation of
the crescent.
11. Rígnach inghean uí Chonaill -- Per pale vert and
azure, a chevron
between three Thor’s hammers argent.
The name docs are all mostly as cited; the URL for the last cite is
[URL:
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/Conall.shtml],
and information about the spelling of lenited form of the byname can
be found in Krossa’s article “The Spelling of Lenited Consonants in
Gaelic” [URL: http://medievalscotland.org/
scotlang/lenition.shtml].
Additionally, the documentation for the clan affiliation byname format
gives <inghean Uí> (i.e., with the second word
capitalized) and I’m
not sure whether this makes a difference or not, given that the
submitter has not requested authenticity.
The chevron seems to be a bit too far down on the field (if not
*actually* abased) -- it should be more centered.
The detailing on the Thor’s hammers are frou-frou.
no conflicts found
12. Robert l’Etourdi (in-kingdom device resub) -- Vert, six bezants
one, two and three and on a chief Or three pellets.
The chief needs to be fed a bit -- it’s a little too high on the field.
no conflicts found
13. Thorgrim Varghosson -- Sable, two boar’s heads couped close and
addorsed and on a bordure Or three crosses crosslet fitchy sable.
The docs for the given name are as cited (except that it’s *just* page
16); the translation of Peterson by Gunnvöra Silfrahárr is
also as
cited (it’s a very large file, and the information is found on page 99
of the download).
The Geirr Bassi and Gunnvöra Silfrahárr docs for the byname
are also
as cited (for the latter, the reference is on page 106 of the
download).
I vaguely remembering drawing this one. The boar’s heads couped close
are from von Volborth [p. 31, fig. 228]. Incidentally, Parker [p.
69. sn Boar] does not appear to differentiate between “couped” and
“couped close”(at least in the case for boar’s heads); the margin
illustration for the armory for Cradock appears to be blazoned as the
former and emblazoned as the latter (whereas that of Cochrane,
blazoned in the text as “erased”, would be what I would have
considered to be erased close).
no conflicts found
Bibliography:
Atkins, Beryl T., Alain David, Hélène M. A. Lewis and
Rosemary
C. Milne. HarperCollinsRobertFrenchCollegeDictionary, 3rd Ed. New York:
HarperCollins, Publishers; and Paris: Dictionnaires Le Robert, 1993,
1997.
Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme [Bruce Miller] and Akagawa
Yoshio [Kevin Munday]. APictorialDictionaryofHeraldryAsUsedinTheSocietyforCreativeAnachronism,
2nd Ed., 1992.
Dauzat, A. and Ch. Rostaing. DictionnaireétymologiquedesnomsdelieuxenFrance,
2nd. Ed. Paris: Librairie Guénégaud, 1963, 1978.