Æthelmearc Letter of Report Æ116
March 23, 2009 (AS 43)


Greetings from Alheydis Garnet,
I would very much like to thank those who commented on this month's enormous letter: Fridrikr Tomasson  and Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon!
The items accepted on this letter have been forwarded to Laurel for further consideration, where we expect they will be decided on in July of 2009.

1: Æsileif Úlfrúnardóttir - New Name & New Device Accepted
Sable, on a mullet of eight points between in annulo eight Bowen knots in annulo Or a wolf's head erased sable, all within a bordure Or.

The blazon was revised to reflect current precedent on the blazoning of charges oriented "head to tail".

2: Æthelmearc, Kingdom of - New Order Name Accepted
Order of the Golden Thorn

3: Aíbell ingen Chernacháin - Resub Device Accepted
Argent, a dragon displayed sable maintaining a chalice and a needle Or threaded sable and on a chief triangular azure a decrescent argent.

The submitter has been made aware of the complexity issue and prefers the design as submitted here. Since the complexity count rule is a "rule of thumb," we can afford the submitter the benefit of the doubt and forward the device.

4: Boi Quickfoot - New Name & New Device Accepted
Argent, in pale two rapiers inverted in saltire and a lion rampant, a bordure sable.  

5: Caitilín Stedefast - New Name Changed & New Device Accepted
Purpure, a triskelion of unicorn heads reversed argent, a bordure argent mullety of six purpure.

Submitted as Cait lin, The given name was documented using Mari's articles on the Irish Annals for the Irish name Caitilín. Note the following precedent:

Submitted as Máire Caitlín Macleod, there were several issues with this name.

No documentation was provided and none was found that the form Caitlin was used in period, though evidence was found of Caitlín as a Modern Irish Gaelic (c. 1700 to present) form. Lacking evidence that Caitlin is a plausible period form of this name, it is not registerable. The Early Modern Irish Gaelic (c. 1200 to c. 1700) form of this name is Caitilín. ... [Mare Catrine Macleod, 03/2004, A-Calontir]

The given name has been changed to Caitilín to match the submitted documentation.

6: Desiderata Drake - Resub Device Accepted
Azure, in pale a duck's head and two rapiers in saltire, on a chief wavy argent three hearts gules enflamed proper.

We note the complexitycount of nine, counting the flames as a separate countable charge. Since the complexity count rule is a "rule of thumb," we can afford the submitter the benefit of the doubt and forward the device.

7: El{z.}bieta Traidenyt{e.} - New Name Accepted

8: Finnr jafnkollr - Resub Device Accepted
Gules, in bend a merlin rising contourny sustaining an axe bendwise sinister reversed Or.

The blazon was revised to reflect the orientation of the axe.

9: Gaius Sergius Vetus - New Name Changed & New Device Accepted
Per pale gules and argent, three fish hooks and in chief a lucy counterchanged. 

Submitted as Gaius Sergius Vettius, the cognomen was documented only as a nomen. We found no evidence of Vettius as a cognomen, nor that a nomen could be used unmodified as a cognomen. I have changed the cognomen to Vetus, the closest documentable cognomen found, as suggested by the herald of record.

10: Hrafna-Erlendr inn rauði - New Name & New Device Accepted
Per pale indented argent and gules, a raven maintaining a tankard counterchanged. 

11: Isabella of Sylvan Glen - New Name & New Device Accepted
Or, in saltire a rapier inverted and a rose gules slipped and leaved vert, a bordure purpure. 

12: Jacques of Sylvan Glen - New Name & New Device Accepted
Azure, two chevronels between four estoiles, those in chief one and two, Or. 

13: Leiðólfr grímr - New Device Accepted
Argent, a wolf rampant sable and in chief three bones gules.

Commenters questioned whether the bones needed to be blazoned as palewise. Note that bones are palewise by default.

14: Marcus Claudius Cincinnatus - New Name & New Device Accepted
Vert, a lotus blossom in profile within a bordure Or. 

15: Padraig Ua Céileachair - New Name Changed & New Device Accepted
Sable, a lightning bolt bendwise argent between two quinces slipped and leaved Or. 

There was some disagreement in kimgdom commentary as to whether the charges, as drawn, represent quinces, and whether quinces are indistinguishable from apples. Web Gallery of Art, "SANCHEZ COTÁN, Juan: Still-life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber" [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/s/sanchez/cotan/stillife.html], reproduces a still life from c. 1600 which shows a quince as drawn in the emblazon here submitted.

16: Phelan the Wayfarer - New Name & New Badge
Per chevron inverted azure and gules, an increscent, a decrescent and a wolf ululant argent.

Althoug the College failed to find a dated example of Phelan used as a given name in period, the name was registered without comment as recently as March 2001, based on the documentation in MacLysaght and OCM, as per Caid's "Minutes of the 15 October 2000 Meeting" [http://heralds.sca-caid.org/minutes/2000/min0010.html]. We defer to Pelican as to whether this documentation remains sufficient for registration.
Concern was raised that the badge voilated the "slot-machine" rule. In this case, the primary charge group consists of only two charge types. The increscent and decrescent are simply blazonable differences in orientation of the same charge.

17: Raven Whitehart - New Name & New Device Accepted
Argent, two ravens purpure and on a point pointed vert a stag salient argent.

The device was submitted under the blazon Per chevron embowed [sic] argent and vert, two ravens purpure and in base a stag salient argent. Note that the correct term is "ployé," not "enarched." "Enarched" would bow outward. We note that the "field division" does not divide the field into equally weighted sections, but that the vert section is possibly small enough to be considered a point pointed. We have revised the blazon accordingly and defer to Wreath as to whether the submitted emblazon blurrs the distinction between a point pointed and a field divided per chevron ployé.

18: Sampson Feldman - New Name & New Device Accepted
Per chevron throughout argent and sable, two mallets inverted sable and a lion's head cabossed Or. 

19: Suzanne Angelique Moscherosch - New Name Changed & New Device Accepted
Per bend sinister argent and chequy azure and argent, a fleur-de-lys azure.

The spelling of the byname was changed to match the submitted documentation.

This concludes our Letter of Report Æ 116 dated March 23, 2009.