Unto Lord Dagonell Collingwood, Garnet Herald, as well as all other Heralds of Æthelmearc, does Lord Cadell Blaidd du, Comet Pursuivant, send greetings.

Enclosed, please find my comments on ILoI Æ48. I have tried to keep comments on my own submissions to a minimum, excepting where I realized in hindsight that my documentation was insufficient, or where an important detail (such as the precedent for Alana's device) needed to be pointed out.

-Device: Mistress Jaelle, as Laurel, upheld an earlier precedent granting a CD for "difference in the tincture of the wings of a flying monster;" therefore, Alana's griffin gains one CD for tincture from Or and argent griffins, thus clearing all found conflicts.

The submitter has been advised to draw the wings large enough to count as half the charge. She commented, however, that the wings would then be honkin' huge, but so be it.

-Name:

• "Aminah" is on the web page as cited; however, the header of the list states "About half of them come from the Fihrist of al-Nadim, a 10th-century source... If you're interested in a specific name, contact us for information on that name." The documentation provided never states that the submitter knows whether "Aminah" is one of the names from the Fihrist; I fear that without further documentation, the name will be returned by Pelican.
• "al-Raqqasah," while cited in the letter from St. Gabriel, is never given a dated citation. The letter states that "[The Academy] believe[s] this byname is appropriate for [a different submitter's] persona;" however, no dates are given for the persona in question. Pelican and, I believe, Laurel, have stated that simply stating that a name is documented by St. Gabriel is insufficient documentation.

-Device: Sigh. Will someone please explain to me why an Arabic dancing girl wants to announce to the world that she is a Celtic pagan?

-Name:

• Black (s.n. Angus) cites "Angus son of Somerled" from 1150.
• OC&M's reference to Damán is as a personal name, not a byname. As I do not have either of the other references, I cannot speak to whether they are personal names or bynames. Regardless, a dated citation will need to be found.

The statement from Black about "Macgrath" is correct. Under further scrutiny of Black (s.n. "Macrae"), "Alexander Macrad" is cited to 1225. According to Clan MacRae Online's history of the name MacGrath (http://www.clanmacrae.org/documents/namehist.htm), the byname Macgrath derives from the personal name "MacRaith," and cites that Magrath O'Hagan, Lord of Cinel Fergus, was slain in 1081.

-Device: Reblazon: "Gules, on a tower within an orle of chamomile flowers argent seeded Or, a heart gules." Or possibly "Gules, on a tower argent a heart gules, an orle of chamomile flowers argent seeded Or." As blazoned, it sounds like the flowers are on the tower around the heart.

The submitter was told that this device might well conflict with Mathias Sicco von Hagen "Argent, a pall voided sable." His response was "Send it up and let's see what happens."

This conflicts with Dieter des Schwarzen EichkStchens (Jun'85 Middle) "Per pale gules and argent, a squirrel sejant erect sable maintaining a sword inverted argent." There is one CD for changing the tincture of the field, but nothing for the change in maintained charges.

The submitter wants to be "Lothar of the Hill People" (A "Saturday Night Live" reference). This does not strike me as obtrusive modernity, therefore in my opinion the Toyota clause ("You want it, you got it") applies.

-Name: Although I would be aghast to see this kind of documentation on an external LoI, Lady Myfanwy's documentation seems more than reasonable for the name; therefore I feel no desire to repeat it.

-Device: Again, I refer you to Lady Myfanwy's commentary and reblazon suggestion.

-Cadell

Bibliography

Black, George F. The Surnames of Scotland. The New York Public Library, New York, 1962.

O'Corrain, Donnchadh and Maguire, Fidelma. Irish Names. The Lilliput Press, Dublin, 1990.

Reaney, P. H., and R. M. Wilson. A Dictionary of British Surnames, 3rd ed. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1995, 1997.

URLs and St. Gabriel letters as cited.