ÆTHELMEARC COLLEGE OF HERALDS - commentary archive
Letter of Intent #86
Alheydis von Körckhingen

Greetings most noble cousins from Lady Alheydis von Körckhingen!
This is my first attempt at commenting on an ILoI. I'm only attempting the armory in this letter. I welcome correction!!!

Æthelmearc, Kingdom of
Badge: Per bend gules and sable, an escarbuncle argent and an escallop Or.
Simply armory? Yes
Conflict? Clear

Angels Keep, Canton of
Device: Argent, a tower within a laurel wreath and on a chief azure, three vols argent.
Simple armory? (I'm not sure if the laurel wreath prevents this from being simple)
Conflict?
Argent, a tower azure within a laurel wreath vert and in chief a wolf courant sable. (Laurel wreaths are transparent per X.3)
1 CD - change of type of secondary (wolf vs. chief)
1 CD - addition of tertiaries (vols)
Argent, a triple-towered castle, on a chief azure an eagle displayed argent.
No CD - change in number only of tertieries
1 CD - additional of laurel wreath
1 CD? - change in type of tertiaries (eagle displayed vs vols?)
1 CD? - change in type of castle from triple-towered to a single tower?

Bjorn Wulfricson
Device: Per pale Or and azure, a bear rampant maintaining a spear, a bordure counterchanged
Simple armory? Yes
Conflict? Clear

Johanna Dorlandt
Device: Gules, gouty d'eaux, a fess nebulae argent
Simple armory? Yes
Conflict? Clear

John Michael Thorpe
Device: Quarterly barry wavy argent and azure and argent, on a bend sinister sable between two roses Or, a rapier argent
Simple armory? no
Conflict? clear
Comment: This has three charges and four tinctures for a complexity count of seven.

Katari no Tashi
Device: Argent, a triquetra within and conjoined to an annulet vert
Simple? Yes
Conflict?
(Fieldless) A triquetra vert.
1 CD - fieldless vs fielded
1 CD - addition of annulet
(Fieldless) A triquetra within and conjoined to an annulet argent.
1 CD - fieldless vs fielded
1 CD - change of color of primary charge

Mattea di Luna
Device: Azure, in cross a moon in her plenitude ragent and three cinquefoils Or.
Simple? Yes
Conflict?
Per chevron argent and vert, three cinquefoils pierced one and two sable and a beehive Or.
1 CD - changes to the field
1 CD - change of color to three out of four components of the primary charge group
Azure, five roses in saltire argent, barbed and seeded proper, within a bordure Or.
No CD - for change from four to five primary charges
1 CD - change in tincture to more than half the primary charge group
1 CD - addition of bordure
Azure, six roses, two, two and two, Or.
1 CD - change in number of primary charge group from four to six
1 CD - change in arrangement of primary charge group
Gyronny argent and sable, in cross four roses proper.
1 CD - change to field
1 CD - change in color of primary charge group
Paly wavy argent and azure, four roses two and two Or.
1 CD - change to field
1 CD - change in arrangement of primary charges
Per saltire Or and gules, four roses counterchanged.
1 CD - change to field
1 CD - change of tincture to half the primary charge group
Per saltire purpure ermined argent and argent, four roses counterchanged Or and purpure.
1 CD - change to field
1 CD - change of tincture to three-fourths of the primary charge group
Azure, four quatrefoils in cross Or, each charged with a cross couped gules.
1 CD - change from quatrefoils to cinquefoils
"[Per chevron sable and vert, a quatrefoil Or] This is clear of conflict with a badge of the Kingdom of Caid, (Fieldless) A rose Or barbed and seeded vert. Quatrefoils and roses do not appear to have been considered equivalent charges in our period" (LoAR February 1996). [Celestine de Chatham, 07/02,A-Meridies]"
Since a quatrefoil gets a CD from a rose, I would expect a quatrefoil tobe 1 CD from a cinquefoil
1 CD - addition of tertiary charges

Mugain ingen ui Bhraonain
Device: Sable, in canton a decrescent argent and a demi-sun issuant from base Or.
Simple? Yes
Conflict?
Gules, issuant from base a demi-sun Or and in chief a decrescent and an increscent argent.
1 CD - change to field
1 CD - addition of increscent (change in number of primary charge group)
Per fess indented azure and gules, a decrescent argent and a demi-sun Or.
1 CD - change to field
1 CD - unforced change in position of decrescent

Niamh ingen Maolan
Device: Per bend vert and sable, on a bend argent, three sea-horses
purpure.
Simple? Yes
Comment: The blazon does not specify that the sea-horses are palewise, although they are emblazoned that way. Since charges on a bend are, by default, bendwise, we should specifically blazon them as palewise.
Conflict?
Per bend vert and sable, on a bend between two domestic cats salient guardant argent, a strung bow, string to base, sable.
1 CD - removing the secondaries
1 CD - change in type of entire tertiary charge group
Per bend vert and sable, on a bend between two wolves statant argent, three roses gules between two bendlets gules.
1 CD - removing the secondaries
1 CD - change in type of entire tertiary charge group
Azure, on a bend sinister argent between two lymphads Or, three sea-horses palewise gules.
1 CD - change to field
1 CD - addition of secondaries
No CD - change in tincture only to the sea-horses
Note: this blazon specifies that the sea-horses are palewise.

Niamh ingen Maolan
Badge: Per bend vert and sable, on a bend argent, three natural sea-horsespurpure.
Simple? Yes
Comment: The blazon does not specify that the sea-horses are palewise, although they are emblazoned that way. Since charges on a bend are, by default, bendwise, we should specifically blazon them as palewise.
Conflict? Clear

William fitz William
Quarterly gules and argent, semy-de-lys counterchanged argent and sable.
Simple? Yes
Conflict?
Barry of four per bend sinister Or and vert, semy-de-lis counterchanged.
1 CD - changes to field
1 CD - change of tincture to the entire primary charge group
Bendy and per bend sinister engrailed floretty at the points argent andvert, semé-de-lis bendwise counterchanged.
1 CD - changes to field
1 CD - change of tincture to half the primary charge group
1 CD - orientation of the primary charges
Per chevron argent and azure, semy-de-lys counterchanged.
1 CD - changes to field
1 CD - change of tincture to half the primary charge group
Per pale embattled argent, seme-de-lys sable, and azure, seme-de-lysargent.
1 CD - changes to field
1 CD - change of tincture to half the primary charge group (in quarters1 and 2)

I needed a nice distraction from RealLife(tm)...
Alheydis

Bjorn Wulfricson - name

I don't have Scandinavian resource books but from the St. Gabriel's Names
Archive, I find:

Bjorn - "Viking Names found in the Landnámabók" by Aryanhwy merch Catmael
(Sara L. Friedemann) gives the name as Björn (with two dots over the
<-o->). The Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn gives various spellings, the
earliest being <Biorn> (without the dots over the <o>). This source doesn'
t seem to differentiate between <i> and <j>.

Wulfricson - again, I don't have Scandinavian recourses, but <Wulfric> strikes me as Anglo-Saxon or Germanic, rather than Norse. "A Brief History of Barton-under-Needwood" at  http://www.barton-under-needwood.org.uk/history.html cites the name of one Wulfric Spot, King's Thegn and Earl of Mercia, founder of Burton Abbey (c1004).

Also, _Anglo-Saxon Charters_, compiled by Sean Miller (also from the Saint Gabriel's site) yields hits for the name Wulfric in the 10th century.

Laurel precedent (Ethelfleda Daviðsdottir, 12/01) calls the combination of Norse and Old English as one step from period practice.

Norse patronymics are formed from the genitive form of a name, plus <-son>, which would yield <Wulfricsson> (assuming the Anglo-Saxon genitive of <Wulfric> to be <Wulfrics>). I don't know if Old English patronymics used the genitive, or how Old English genitives were formed. I guess the question is whether a person with a Norse given name would form a patronymic from an Old English name using Norse or Old English practice.

Johanna Dorlandt

Found the website referenced in the Aesh at:
http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/netherlands_substates.htm

The Academy of Saint Gabriel links yield:

"Dutch Names 1358-1361" and "Dutch Names 1393-96", both by Aryanhwy merch Catmael (Sara L. Friedemann) cite Johanna

"Vlaamse Vrouwennamen (Dutch Women's Names)", by Guntram von Wolkenstein cites Johanna for around 5% of the sample, although spellings are normalized

Googling on <Dorlandt> yields numerous references to persons in the 17th century. It seems as reasonable late period byname.

Katari no Tashi

Please note that the submitter accepts all changes and is not requesting authenticity, but notes her interest for 1100-1300 Japan (at least on my copies of the forms.)

The submitter is very deliberate to allow major changes. This is because the given name (submitted as <Tashi>) represents one of two possible readings of the kanji used to record the name in documents. <Tashi> is the Chinese reading. The Japanese reading is <Masaruko>. According to Edward Effingham's "Japanese Miscellany," Chinese pronunciations of names were fashionable at court, especially for names ending in (Chinese)<-shi>/(Japanese)<-ko>. The submitter prefers <Tashi>, if registerable, but will accept (but does not request) a change to <Masaruko> if <Tashi> is not registerable.

Michael Gladewyne

Please note that the submitted form is <Gladewyne>, not <Gladwyne>. The Academy of Saint Gabriel report cited documents <Gladewyne> to 1273, 1279x1290 and 1327.

Mugain ingen uí Bhraonáin

I'm not attempting Gaelic names yet. :-)

Ragnar Brychenson

Viking Names found in the Landnámabók by Aryanhwy merch Catmael (Sara L. Friedemann) from the St. Gabriel's site cites <Ragnarr>

Nordiskt runnamnslexikon (The Dictionary of Norse Runic Names), by Lena Peterson (linked from St. Gabriels) gives s.n. Ragn-: Sms.: -arr, -biôrn, -borg, -fastr, -fríðr, -hildr, -þrúðr, -valdr, -ví, -v
iðr, -væig, -vôr, -ælfR.
If these are suffixes, this would yield <Ragnarr>

Brychen:

_A Welsh Miscellany_, by Heather Rose Jones cites <Brychan> p. 10. This, in turn, is citing _Welsh Names for Children_, Heini Gruffudd, p. 17, which cites <Brychan Brycheiniog> as a 5th c. prince.

Catholic Online at http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1849 lists Brychan as a saint. While I'd like to see some documentation that this name was used by people in period, I think Laurel precedent has ruled that Saints names are registerable if the Saint was known to the culture under consideration. St. Brychan would likely have been familiar to Cumbrians.

If Laurel decides that a Norse-Welsh combination is registerable, although one step from period practice, then I suppose this name would be registerable, but perhaps as <Ragnarr Brychansson> (following the <-nn> to <-ns> genitive) or <Ragnarr Brychanarson> (Following the <-unn> or <-dan> pattern which takes on <-ar> before the <-son>). I'm taking this genitive suffix stuff from the St. Gabriel site. I'm no expert on Scandinavian names!
Also possible would be <Ragnarr ap Brychan>.

Note that the Lingual Weirdness Rulings table at: http://home.earthlink.net/~mranc/sca/weirdness_table.html gives the combination of Norse and Gaelic as a weirdness, but the combination of
Gaelic and Welsh as not registerable. The table gives no rulings for Norse and Welsh.

It should be noted that the submitter is aiming for 8th c. Cumbria. My understanding is that Viking raids in Britain began with the Danish sacking of Lindisfarne just before 800CE. A bit of Googling seems to indicate that the Norwegian Viking influx into Cumbria came from Ireland beginning c. 900. It might be better to suggest 9th or 10th c. Cumbria, in order to justify Norse influence.

William fitz William

Note the AEsh has a typo in the header. The submitted name is <fitz>, not <fiz>

I think that does it! Now my head hurts...