Greetings from Myfanwy!

Herein pray find commentary on the Internal LoI #Æ 49. I tried to be as thorough as possible in double-checking documentation submitted, and providing additional/better documentation where necessary.

Lady Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon
mka Ruth Morrisson
RMorrisson@aol.com

Æthelmearc LoI #Æ49

The O' C & M docs. are as cited. Additionally, it says (p. 20): "There was also an early Leinster St [sic] A'ine but little is known of her." [sorry -- I can't do capitalized letters with accent marks in this format]

The other docs (http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.shtml) and (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/irish100/) are as cited. Artist's comment -- this is not a standard depiction of triskeles (c.f., PIC-DIC, fig. 756) but it is what the submitter wanted.

I don't have either Black or MacLysaught. Since Black is a surnames book, does the citation specify this as a given name, or just as a surname? O' C & M (p. 57) gives the spellings "Conchobar: Conchobhar, ConhÓr" as header forms. Jones, 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/irish100/) gives "Conchobor", with the genitive forms "Conchobuir, Conchobair".

Withycombe (p. 27) gives "Antoinette, Antonia" as header forms, although undated, and says: "these are re-[sic] spectively the French (diminutive) [sic] and the Italian f. forms of Antony (q.v.) [sic]." In addition, I found the following on the St. Gabriel's Archive (http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?415):

"We found an example of the name "Anthoinette" [sic] dated in the 16th century [1] [sic]. You will note that it is spelled slightly differently from the modern form "Antoinette" [sic], but this a minor variation. "T" [sic] and "th" [sic] were largely interchangable [sic] in late-period French.

"We did not find an earlier example of the name, but we note that the masculine name "Antoine" [sic] was used in Paris in 1292. We think that the feminine diminutive "Antoine\te" (e\ represents an 'e' with an accent grave) [sic] was probably in use [sic] at the same time, since we find analogous pairs of names Colet (m) Cole\te (f); Franque (m), Franqueite (f); Giles, Gilet (m), Gile\te (f); Guillemet (m), Guillemete (f) [2] [sic]. We do not have many references on French names between 1300 and 1500, but we think it is reasonable to assume that "Antoinette" was in use through this period in one spelling or another. If you want to set your persona around 1300, then we suggest your spell your name "Antoine\te" [sic] . If you want to set your persona in the 16th century, then we suggest "Anthoinette"[sic]. In between, your guess is as good as ours."

The Withycombe docs. are as given. It does not date the submitted form, however.

A quick web search on Google (http://www.google.com) turned up this encyclopedia reference (http://infoplease.lycos.com/ce6/people/ A0806651.html):

"Beaumanoir, Philippe de Remi, sire de , c. 1250-1296, French poet and jurist, a writer of medieval law texts. He was a judicial officer at Clermont and Senlis. His Coutumes de Beauvoisis [sic] [customary laws of the region of Beauvais] is an important source for medieval French law and social customs."

Not having access to the documentation, I will have assume that the emblazon of the tennis racquets is as depicted in the documentation.

The bordure needs feeding. It is also very oddly drawn, especially at the top center.

I think that this probably should have been drawn so that there is a more obvious distinction between the chevron and the bordure. The bordure could be a tad larger, but this is a minor quibble.

Artist's note -- the trillium is as depicted in the PIC-DIC, fig. 753.

The Withycombe docs. (pp. 99-100) are as given, and dates this spelling to 1205.

The Academy of St. Gabriel Archive website (http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/ public-bin/showfinal.cgi?1397) dates the submitted spelling of the surname to 1586.

Artist's note -- the stirrups are in the standard SCA depiction, i.e., without the straps (cf. PIC-DIC, fig. 706).

There doesn't seem to be any name conflicts, unless I really slipped up in checking the online Armorial (http://www.farreaches.org/heraldry/OandA/).

The St. Gabriel Report docs are as cited (http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?481). Here is some additional stuff:

Reaney & Wilson (p. 174) gives "Fordwin, Fordwyn" as header forms, and cites Richard filius Fortwin [sic], dated to 1221.

Reaney & Wilson (p. 298) gives "Marchand" as one of the header forms of "Marchant" and cites Roger Marcand (Marchand ) [sic], dated to 1202.

This is a rather poor emblazon. The mallet is very poorly drawn, the annulets are awfully thin-line, and the line of division on the bordure has very shallow indents (they also seem quite uneven).

I searched online for the date of this name registration (both in the online Armorial and in the online LOAR from May to November 2000). The only registration I found was for Geoffrey Maynard of York -- Per fess engrailed Or and azure, in chief a tortoise tergiant vert. [name and device registered December of 1985 (via Trimaris)] Is this the same person? If not, then the submitter does *not* have a registered name that I can find.

Withycombe (p. 191) gives "Laura, Lauretta" as header forms; while it doesn't give the submitted spelling, it does date "Lauretta" to 1203-15. In addition, Lauretta is one of the storytellers in The Decameron.

According to a website I found while doing a Google web search (http://genpc.com/gen/files/d0036/f0000023.html), Laurette de LOTHRINGEN (about 1075-about 1175) was the wife of Raoul I Count VERMANDOIS (about 1073-1152).

Hanks and Hodges is considered to be very poor documentation. I can't find any similar saint's name in Attwater. However, Gregory of Tours (pp. 311, 323-23) cites Saint Salvius, the Bishop of Albi (c. 571-84), a contemporary of Gregory's.

I suspect that a better construction for the byname might be Mont-St. Salvy [Salvius?] (as in the documentable Mont-St-Michel (Poole, pp. 107, 248, 384, and map p. 320) or Montagne Ste.-Genevi=E8ve (Hermann, Chronicle of Salimbene degli Adami, p. 209)

The chief is not invected -- it is engrailed. Is there any documentation provided for the trefoily points? The closest I can find is a weird field division in Woodward (pp. 320-21, and Plate XXIX, figure 11) called "trefly":

"A curious example of the trefoil in [p. 321] conjunction with a partition line may here be given a pendant to the somewhat similar coat of ORTLIEB [sic] already referred to. It is that of the extinct family of HILINGER of Bavaria...."

[The other arms being "referred to" is that of linden leaves (Plate XXIX, figure 9).] It is unclear if these types of complex lines were used on charges, or only for field divisions. In addition, the trefoils seem to alternate between "upright" and "inverted" as it were, and are not shown as in the submission.

I'm not sure the wings are actually addorsed. My take on addorsed would be that they would be much closer together (you would only see a bit of the back one -- c.f. Parker (p. 626), and the illustration of "Endorsed [sic]" wings).

The docs are as cited for "Lyon" (http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names /paris.html).

The Reaney & Wilson docs. are as cited (p. 498); there is also a cite for Alice Wolfroun [sic], dated to 1332.

Artist's note -- the critters should probably be more elongated to fill up the space, but resisted all my best efforts.

(badge) -- A unicorn vairy pean and Or.

While this is one step away from period practice (i.e., by having pean as one of the tinctures) there is an example in Foster (p. 98) showing vairy of a color with ermine: Vaire ermine and gules. [arms of Geffray and Sir Piers Gresley].

Snarky herald's note -- Documentation? Well, I survived the Saturday night storm after Great Court at Pennsic 13 -- does that count? Hey, I had only finished my sophomore year in high school in the year of Pennsic Puddle and hadn't even *heard* of the SCA back then! [Truthfully, I hadn't remembered that verse -- I just thought that this tincture combo would be wicked cool.] So, just how many Dagonell points does one need to get in order to get all the nifty free stuff from the catalog? [I think I'll start saving up for a copy of Early Blazon!] :-) :-)

The O' C & M docs are as cited (p. 157). Note that the submitted form is post-1200. BTW -- it's the monastery of "Lorrha" (not "Lorrhan").

The Reaney & Wilson cite for the given name is found (p. 374) under the header form "Reading" et. al.

Withycombe (pp. 263-64) gives "Sara(h)" as a header form, and dates this spelling to 1379.

The Reaney & Wilson docs. for the byname are as cited (p. 280).

The Withycombe docs. are as cited. In addition, I also found the following from the St. Gabriel archives (http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/publicbin/ showfinal.cgi?2253+0):

"The name is found in France from the 12th century onward [1] [sic]. In particular, we found recorded in Paris during the 13th century [2] [sic] and in Bordeaux c.1500 [3] [sic]."

A search of he St. Gabriel archives (http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/ showfinal.cgi?423+0) found the following:

"There is a place called "Ravenscroft" [sic] in Chesire. The references we found don't say how old it is, but we found a citation of "Ravenescroft" [sic] which is typical for around 1200."

I suppose that if one could find documentation for "-crest" as a name element that this would be acceptable, since Reaney & Wilson have several "Raven(s)-" names as header forms (pp. 372-73). The nearest I can find, without doing a massive search, is "Gilcreest", which is one of the header forms under "Gilchrist" (Reaney & Wilson, p. 190), although the derivation is different (i.e., "Gillacrist =91servant of Christ' [sic]". The closest I can find to "Croft" (p. 117) -- under the header "Croft, Crofts, Cruft"-- is "Craft"; and vice versa (p. 114) under the header "Craft, Crafts".

The blazon is rather muddled and the charges should be larger; these, however, are academic, since I believe this might be considered marshalled arms (there are more than one charge in the argent sections). The specific precedent I found was during Master Bruce's tenure as Laurel:

"FIELD DIVISION -- Quarterly

"[Quarterly counter-ermine and argent, in bend sinister two pairs of annulets interlaced bendwise sinister gules ] sic] The quarterly field division must be used carefully, to avoid the appearance of marshalled armory. Rule XI.3 sets out what designs will appear to be marshalled: the use of more than one charge per quarter is unacceptable in this context. This must be returned. If he used a single annulet in each argent quarter, or a group of two linked annulets overlying the line of division, it would be acceptable (assuming no conflicts). (Tristan of Landhelm, September, 1993, pg. 21)."

Attwater, Donald. The Avenel Dictionary of Saints. New York: Avenel Books, 1981. [formerly published as: The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. Penguin Books; 1965, 1979.]

Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron (trans. by Mark Musa and Peter Bondanella). New York and Scarborough, Ontario: New American Library, 1982.

Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme and Akagawa Yoshio [Kevin Munday and Bruce Miller]. A Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry, 2nd ed., 1992.

Foster, Joseph. The Dictionary of Heraldry: Feudal Coats of Arms and Pedigrees. London, Studio Editions Ltd., 1992. [formerly published as: Some Feudal Coats of Arms. (London: ?): James Parker and Company, 1902.]

Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks (trans. by Lewis Thorpe). Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1974, 1983.

Hermann, Placid (trans.) Thirteenth Century Chronicles [chronicles of Jordan of Giano, Thomas of Eccleston and Salimbene degli Adami]. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1961.

O' Corráin, Donnchadh, and Fidelma Maguire. Irish Names. Dublin: the Lilliput Press; 1981, 1990.

Parker, James. A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1970.

Poole, A. L. Domesday Book to Magna Carta: 1087-1216, 2nd. ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955, 1993.

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

URLs and Academy of St. Gabriel letters as cited.

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.