Feast of St. Valentine
14 February, AS XXXV
Greetings from Myfanwy!
Herein pray find commentary on AE 48. There is considerably less that had to be done on this letter than the last one!
As usual, I'm leaving actual conflict checking to those more competent and know the rules better. In theory I had more time before the deadline, but I also have other commitments working on making someone a banner; doing a subtlety for the up-coming event this weekend and helping with the feast shopping; reviewing notes from my French 1 class; raking my yard..... :-)
I remain your servant and the Society's.
Lady Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon
mka Ruth Morrisson
RMorrisson@aol.com
PS -- Please let me know what formatting does and does not come through -- I tried to limit it this time to some italics that were in the original stuff quoted, and to a few weird characters such as the asch and the umlauts.
Note -- Silver Buccle sent out email saying that this was submitted as "Company of the Sylvan Hound" and is actually a household name, not an order. Is it still a Kingdom badge?
This is not a heraldic greyhound, as the ears are incorrectly drawn -- c.f. PIC-DIC (fig. 241); von Volborth (p. 31, fig. 224); and Parker (p. 205).
{This is Anubis, our god of quality control....}
Possible reblazon [Fieldless] A demi-[grey]hound rampant contourny, sustaining on a torteau an escarbuncle argent.
Name cites look good. I wish I had seen the docs for "Alana" when I was doing commentary on the last LoI.
I see that Cadell managed to talk the submitter out of having the acorn "proper." This is a pretty nice device.
The cite for Aminah is as given; however, it is unclear which names on the list are from the 10th c. source and which are not.
According to the St. Gabriel letter cited, "al-Raqqasah" means "the dancer".
Possible reblazon Purpure, a plate between in fess an increscent and a decrescent argent.
Nice armory!
Withycombe (p. 25) gives "Angus" as a header form, saying it "is identical with the Irish Aonghus, from Old Irish Aengus [sic], '1one choice'. It was the name of a 9th-C saint, Bishop of Clonenagh, as well as of a legendary hero."
Reaney & Wilson (p. 71), under the header form "Bull" gives Ralph le Bulle [sic], dated to 1288.
Is there some strange reason why the submitter didn't try to use canting arms (i.e., a bull's head erased instead of a goat's head erased)?
The Withycombe documentation is as cited (p. 29).
I don't have Black. Reaney and Wilson (p. 292) gives "McGrath, McGraw" as header forms and a variant of "Macrae" (which is a header form on the next page) but doesn't give the submitted spelling under either header. The closest is Macrath [sic] ap Molegan, dated to 1296.
Withycombe (p. 77) gives "Cynthia" as a header form, and also (p. 263) as a medieval variant spelling, dated to the 13th century, of "Sanchia", the name of the wife of Richard, Earl of Cornwall.
The Reaney and Wilson doc. is as cited.
I think that the epithet is a bit specious. "Cynthia Tower" by itself would be a fine name.
Possible reblazon Gules, on a tower argent within an orle of chamomile flowers argent seeded Or, a heart gules.
The cite for Diederic is as given. I was hoping that the bynames list would have "van Flandres" but it doesn't.
The cite for "van Flandres" is more or less as given; however, the "F" is in lower case (i.e., "van flandres"). I don't know if this makes a difference, if there is a typo, or what.
Does the name get hit with the presumption rule? Flanders is an important enough geographic entity in period, although I don't remember at what level -- duchy? Any ruling nobles named Diederic?
The compass stars are not drawn correctly (c.f., PIC-DIC, figure 517).
The St. Gabriel cite is as given.
The lymphad is taken from von Volborth (p. 56, fig. 461). The sails are furled; does this need to be blazoned?
The moneybags are as shown in the PIC-DIC (fig. 30).
11. Honorée d'Avallon -- Purpure, two horses rampant addorsed argent.
Both cites are as given. The relevant URL s for the articles cited are
Note, however that there is a warning by Master Arval, the author of the second, that the names he lists are normalized (i.e., modern forms).
I believe that the correct posture is actually erect (c.f., PIC-DIC, figs. 631, under "SEA-HORSE" and 633, under "SEA-LION"). Woodward (p. 299) does give the blazon for the arms of Eckfoord as being "Argent, in a sea vert, a sea-[sic] horse rampant issuant proper", but this sounds as if it may be a demi-creature.
Possible reblazon [Fieldless] On a quatrefoil erminois, a sea-lion erect maintaining a bow gules.
This of course would be nicer with three crescents on the chief, rather than the four increscents.
Gregory of Tours (pp. 162; 392, and family tree p. 18) cites several kings and sons of kings in the Merovingian dynasty named Lothar Lothar I (died 561) was the son of King Clovis; and one of his (Lothar's) grandsons was Lothar II (died 629).
I couldn't find my old German dictionary in the house. I also couldn't get the translation of "Hügelvolk" to work on either AltaVista (http//babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn) or Intertran (http//www.tranexp.com2000/InterTran?)
There has been some discussion that this may be some character on "Saturday Night Live". Personally first thought was "A Tuchux?" and my second was "Lothar and the Hand People" but from the confused looks I got from the rest of the Laurel staff I could tell that I was dating myself rather badly! :-)
By saying "Roswitha is her real name" does that mean proof such as a driver's license is included in the submission? If so, then it should say so. That being said, I did a search on google.com and found a site called "Medieval Sourcebook The Plays of Roswitha" (http//www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/roswitha-toc.html). It is the introduction to some 10th liturgical dramas, written in Latin by a Benedictine nun from Gandesheim in Saxony, known as Hrotsvitha or Roswitha (ca. 935-ca. 975). [The plays were translated into English by Christopher St. John and published in 1923.]
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001 (http//www.bartleby.com/65/pi/Pirmasen.html) says that the city of Pirmasens was founded in the 8th century.
Are you serious? Is this *really* how this was blazoned?
The chevron is way too shallow. The tower should be bigger, and maybe the heart as well.
Reblazon Per chevron azure and sable, a chevron between in dexter chief a heart, and [in base] a tower Or.
The Withycombe doc. is as cited (pp. 293-94). In addition, Reaney and Wilson (p. 493), under the header "Williams, Willems, Welliam, Fitzwilliam, Fitz-[sic] williams" gives Henry Fitz William [sic], dated to 1300.
Reaney and Wilson (p. 174), under the header form "Forester, Foresier, Forrester, Forrestor" gives Robert le Forestier [sic], dated to 1322.
Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme and Akagawa Yoshio [Kevin Munday and Bruce Miller]. A Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry, 2nd ed., 1992.
Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks (trans. by Lewis Thorpe). Harmondsworth, Middlesex Penguin Books, 1974, 1983.
Parker, James. A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry. Rutland, VT Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1970.
Reaney, P. H., and R. M. Wilson. A Dictionary of British Surnames, 3rd ed. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1995, 1997.
von Volborth, Carl-Alexander. Heraldry Customs, Rules and Styles. Poole, Dorset Blandford Press, 1981.
Withycombe, E. G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 3rd ed. Oxford and New York Oxford University Press; 1977, 1988.
Woodward, John, and George Burnett. A Treatise on Heraldry British and Foreign. Rutland, VT Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1969.
URLs and Academy of St. Gabriel letters as cited.