Unto Lord Dagonell Collingwood, Garnet Herald, does Lady Adeliza de Saviniaco send greetings.

The January meeting of the Myrkfaelinn Comment Group was held on Tuesday, January 23. Lord Bertran de Mellegwenn, Myrkfaelinn Pursuivant, and Lady Adeliza de Saviniaco were in attendance. Enclosed please find our comments on the AEthelmearc Internal Letter of Intent #AE 47.

Yours in Service,
Adeliza de Saviniaco

We can’t provide additional documentation for any of these elements; the O’C&M citation will probably suffice for <Aibell>, even if it is legendary. We also don’t know where the byname is coming from; the usual word for "blue/green" in descriptive bynames would seem to be <glass>. (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/obrien/)

"Or, a moose's head cabossed adumbrated sable, on a base sable a lightning bolt fesswise Or."

According to Brooke-Little, adumbrated means "of the same tincture as the field, being shown as a shadow or in outline. ... also refers to the shading used when simulating relief in the depiction of charges."

No adumbration as such is visible on the mini-emblazon; does the client intend to show only the outline of the moose’s head? (If so, it’s thin-line heraldry and thus illegal.) In addition, we probably ought to blazon the moose as an elk, since that’s what the species is called in Europe, where it is also found. ("Moose" is from an American Indian word.) (http://www.ultimateungulate.com/moose.html)

The use of a lightning bolt as an independent charge is considered a weirdness. (LoAR 4/99 p. 16)

We found no conflict.

"The names Morgana and Alana, as well as any other similarly feminized masculine names for which there is no evidence of period use (and which have not already been declared ‘SCA-compatible'), are not considered ‘SCA-compatible'. In other words, the argument based on the Latin/Romance practice of using inflectional endings to change the gender of a name is not automatically valid; it must be supported either by evidence of period use of the specific name or by evidence that the practice was in general use in the linguistic culture of that name. (CL 6/96)"

We weren’t able to check a 3rd ed. Withycombe; there are no feminized forms of <Alanus> in the first edition, and it seems unlikely that such documentation would have been overlooked in 1996.

[Check 3rd edition Withycombe]

The byname <MacLeland> is only suitable for a woman in a late-period English (or Scots) language context.

"Sable, a rapier between two shooting stars in chevron inverted, in base a mountain argent."

<Aldan> is found in Reaney and Wilson s.n. Alden and is dated to 1218 in that spelling. <Kerr> is found in ibid s.n. Carr, although not in that spelling; <Ker> is dated to 1231 and <Carre> to 1279.

The comets should probably be blazoned "in pile," since that’s the closest description of the angle.

We found no conflict.

Looks fine.

"Per bend gules and sable, a bend sinister between a sun in his splendor and a lion's head cabossed Or."

The bend sinister needs to be redrawn much wider. This is an odd combination of field division and ordinary, to say the least; did the client really draw a bend sinister on a per bend field? It’s impossible to tell from the mini. We found no conflict.

"Tierced per chevron wavy throughout argent, Or and azure, a garden rose gules slipped and leaved, a sprig of St. John's wort, and a heron rising argent."

The rather odd field is grandfathered to the submitter. As blazoned, this should be returned for using three different charge types in the same group (slot machine). Granted, so does her old device, but only that particular combination is grandfathered to her. This could potentially be reblazoned as "Per pale argent and Or, on a pile inverted wavy azure between a garden rose gules slipped and leaved and a sprig of St. John’s wort [tincture?], a heron rising argent" to avoid the problem.

"Argent, a fret within a bordure pean."

We aren’t sure whether this particular spelling is attested in the documentation given, but it seems to be within the range of variation.

Pretty armory. We weren’t sure about the orientations of the ermine spots on the fess; is this usual? We found no conflict.

Should the byname be <Andreasson>?

"Argent, three shamrocks and on a chief triangular vert; an annulet argent."

We found no conflict with the device.

"Azure, three lightning bolts bendwise in bend sinister Or."

As noted above, the use of a lightning bolt as an independent charge is considered a "weirdness."

We found no conflict.

"Gyronny argent and gules, a rhinoceros head couped sable."

Placing a central charge on a gyronny field is bad style but, of course, perfectly legal.

We found no conflict.

"Vert, on a bend gules fimbriated between two cats sejant guardant a rebec argent."

The name looks fine. The proportions of the device are awfully odd, and the cats are awfully cutesy, but we see no cause for return. We found no conflict.

"Sable, a sword inverted Or distilling a goutte argent between flaunches ermine."

The name looks fine. We found no conflict with the device.

Device: "Azure, three catamounts sejant guardant argent, and a bordure argent."

Badge: 'Azure, a catamount sejant guardant argent."

The device conflicts with:

Katja Davidova Orlova Khazarina
The following device associated with this name was registered in February of 1992 (via the East):
Azure, three catamounts sejant guardant argent and a bordure argent semy of stars of David azure.

There is one CD for adding the stars to the bordure.

The badge conflicts with:

Jordre Pargon of Windhover's Reach
The following badge associated with this name was registered in December of 1982 (via Atlantia):
Azure, a snow leopard sejant argent, spotted sable.

There is no CD for sejant vs. sejant guardant. There may be one for the spots.

"Argent a heart gules between two pallets azure."

The name looks fine. We found no conflict with the device. The pallets should be blazoned as wavy.

Documenting a name as that of a saint is usually sufficient at least to send it to Laurel.

"Azure, a chalice and on a chief argent, a natural dolphin naiant azure."

The name looks fine.

The device may conflict with

Dierdriana of the Misty Isles
Either the name or the following device associated it (or both) were registered in August of 1979:
Azure, a lotus goblet argent and on a chief argent three lotus blossoms inverted throughout gules.

Laurel will probably have to pull the file for the "lotus goblet." Otherwise, there is one CD only for cumulative changes to the tertiary charge group.

"Barry Or and azure, a cat sejant contourney sable."

We do allow mixed Gaelic/English spelling, but changing the given name to <Muirgel> (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/ocm/OCM-FemGivAlpha.html) or <Muirgheal> (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/scotgaelfem/), depending on the submitter’s preference, would be a substantial improvement.

We found no conflict with the device. It does not conflict with

Giuliana Margherita Bonaccolsi
The following device associated with this name was registered in January of 1997 (via Caid):
Per chevron throughout azure and Or, in base a domestic cat sejant contourny sable.

There is one CD for changing the field and a second for the unforced change of position.

"[Fieldiess], a cross cletchy Or."

Unfortunately, this almost certainly conflicts with

Ian Bruce MacRae
The following device associated with this name was registered in January of 1983 (via Caid):
Gyronny azure and gules, a key cross Or.

A key cross is almost identical to a cross clechy. The only difference is that the key cross has little ornamental "knobs" on the points.

Withycombe s.n. <Philippa> says that the name appears in "medieval Latin records." <Philippa> is also dated to 1195 in R&W, s.n. Philip and to 1383 at http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/brasses/women.html. We could find no support for the diminutive "Phillippia."

There’s a heck of a logical leap between taking the name of a Greek heroine (not screamingly uncommon, especially in the 12th century, when fanciful feminine names were in vogue) and taking the name of a Greek deity. Evander (or Cassandra, which is attested) was a Greek hero; Persephone was a goddess, albeit a minor one. For that matter, we could find no evidence that <Evander> is a registered name and would substitute the cover letter of February 1999, which gives some guidelines for the use of literature as documentation; <Persephone> does not qualify.

We did note that the name <Dionysius> is attested (Withycombe s.n. Denis); however, this was the name of several saints; St. Denys became the patron saint of France.

"Per fess azure and vert, on a fess argent three hunting horns sable and a canton Or."

This should be reblazoned so it doesn’t sound like the canton has somehow relocated to lie on the fess! Maybe "Per fess azure and vert, on a fess argent three hunting horns sable, a canton Or." Or "...a canton Or and on a fess ... ."

The name is unremarkable. We found no conflict with the device. The question was raised whether a fess and a canton could be used together, since they would be touching if each was drawn 1/3 the height of the shield.

"Or, a chevron inverted gules, in chief two hurts."

This is rather odd looking, isn’t it? We found no conflict. We noted that according to Parker, the term "hurt" does not appear to have been used before the 17th century.

24) Robert Marston - new name (M) and device

"Azure, a mullet of four between four lozenges and a bordure argent."

Nice name. The device isn’t bad either. We found no conflict.

"Argent, three trees eradicated sable."

Nice armory! We found no conflict.

What’s the genitive of <Ragnall>? I’d guess <Ragnaill>; <Mac Raghnaill> appears in MacLysaght s.n. Mac Rannall, but we aren’t sure that this is the same name.