ÆTHELMEARC COLLEGE OF HERALDS - commentary archive
Letter of Intent #90
Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon



Feast of St. Eligius
1 December SA XL
Greetings from Myfanwy!
Herein pray find commentary of Æ LoI #90. The armory was conflict checked up through the LoAR for August 2005 (the most recent published online).
I remain your servant and the Society’s.
Lady Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon
Ruth Morrisson
myfanwy@nauticom.net

1. Éadaoin inghean Chanagáin -- Or, two otters statant purpure in pale.
The ÓC&M docs for both name elements are more or less as given (note that in each case, these are header forms given after the colon, and that there is no specific documentation for the spellings).
According to the Krossa article “The Spelling of Lenited Consonants in Gaelic”[URL: http://medievalscotland.org/scotlang/lenition.shtml] <c> is indeed lenited to <ch> in post-1200 forms (but does not always appear as such -- some transcriptions give a dot over the letter, called a punctum delens [sic] in Latin. According to Krossa:

Since <f> and <s> are respectively silent and nearly silent in Gaelic when lenited,
the punctum delens [sic] convention was adapted into Gaelic writing to indicate
that these letters were lenited. Similarly, because Latin used the letter
combinations <ch>, <ph>, and <th> for sounds that were close to the lenited
consonants in question, they were adapted into Gaelic writing to indicated
lenited <c>, <p>, and <t>, respectively....
Because most modern computer fonts do not have an easy way to show a
dot over a letter, the punctum delens [sic] is sometimes represented in electronic
texts by using a period after the letter. So, for example, <m.> would represent
the letter <m> with a punctum delens [sic] over it, as in the lenited word <m.ór>.
A more common modern editorial convention is simply to use an <h> after the
letter even when the original manuscript used a punctum delens [sic] over the
letter.

I am unsure what the correct form of the patronymic indicator (whether <inghen>, <inghean, or <inghean uí>) would be. Hopefully, someone with a better understanding of Gaelic, or Old/Middle Irish will weigh in, either at this level or the Laurel level.
Reblazon: Or, in pale two otters statant purpure.
no conflicts found

2. Marguerite de Neufchâteau -- Azure, two chevronels, that to chief embattled, between three wolf [sic] heads erased argent.
I don’t have that edition of Dauzat. Dauzat and Rostaing [p. 435, sn Margerides] says:
Corr; Margerie-Chantagret, [sic], Loire (Margeriam [sic], 1250); Marguerittes, [sic]
cant. Gard (Margarita, [sic] 979. Nom de femme Marguerite [sic] (lat. margarita
[sic], perle), avec p.-ê. disparition de Sainte- [sic], comme dans Margerie-
Hancourt,
[sic] Marne (Sancta Margareta, [sic] 1119).
Morlet [p. 664, sn Marguerite, -itte] says:

n. de bapt. et matron. repré- [sic] sente le n. de personne d’origine grecque
Margari- [sic] ta [sic], ‹‹perle››. Ce nom a été popularisé par sainte Marguerite
d’Antioche, martyre (IIIe s.), honorée dès le VIe siècle en Occident, mais son culte
ne devint pupulaire qu’au XIIe s.

Various forms of the name are given, although none of them have dated citations. The online docs for the given name are as cited, but admission is made in the Introduction that the author is unsure as to whether or not the cited names have been normalized in the source document.
The Dauzat and Rostaing docs for the byname are as cited.
The chevronels seem somewhat small, as compared to the size of the secondary charges.
I checked to see if the upper chevron was blazoned correctly. Parker [p 222, sn Embattled] says: “When a fesse [sic] or bend [sic] or chevron [sic] is said to be embattled, it implies that it is so upon the upper side only, though sometimes this is mentioned....” Likewise, Brooke-Little [p. 158, sn Partitions, Lines of] says: “When an ordinary is described as ‘embattled’ [sic] only the top edge is crenellated.”
There is the question of whether it is good period practice to have one ordinary with a plain line and another with a complex line. A quick skim of Papworth [pp. 540-554], for two, three, four, five, and six chevrons -- as well as chevronelly -- shows very few complex line chevrons at all (mostly engrailed), and none with both plain and complex line chevrons together. The only one remotely close is: “Argent, three chevrons, the uppermost couped in the centre [sic] chief sable”, said to be a quartering of Goldesburgh, county York; it is not dated, but said to be found in Harl. MS 1487, fo. 125. There are a few pieces of armory that have chevrons of more than one tincture, a couple of which are dated: one has both azure and gules chevrons, and is dated to 1641 (which is grey area); the other, with the chevrons per pale azure and gules together with chevrons per pale gules and azure, is the arms of Merton College Oxford, and said to be from the arms of its founder, Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester 1274-7 (although it isn’t clear when the college’s arms were adopted). There is also some evidence in Foster for complex line cotises with plain ordinaries, as well as the reverse [notably p. 70, in which the arms of Hugo Dod has a plain gules fess with sable cotises that are wavy; and p. 91, in which the arms of Adam Fortescue have an engrailed argent bend with plain cotises that are Or], but this is not evidence of usage for full-sized ordinaries, nor for chevrons in particular. I recommend that this be sent up to Laurel with a request for further research of period armory style
Possible reblazon: Azure, two chevronels, that to chief embattled, between three wolf’s heads erased argent.
Possible reblazon: Azure, two chevronels, that to chief embattled, between three wolves’ heads erased argent.
Possible reblazon (based on looking at the color copy online [URL: http://www.
aeheralds.net/Letters/AE9-/iloi-CLR.html]): Azure, on a chevron embattled between three wolf’s heads erased argent, a chevron{el} azure.
no conflicts found

3. Michael Gladewyne -- Argent, two hawks rising, wings inverted and addorsed, in bend gules.
The Withycombe docs are as cited.
I don’t have Bardsley. Reaney and Wilson [p. 192, sn Gladwin] does not give the submitted spelling, but has other variants including <Glad(e)wine>, dated to about 1113, and <Gledewyne>, dated to 1317; this suggests that the submitted form is reasonable. The St. Gabriel Report #2960 is as cited [http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?2960+0].
Reblazon: Argent, in bend two hawks rising, wings inverted and addorsed, gules.
probably clear of: Hastini Chandra (badge, 8/83 Atenveldt) -- Argent, a Bharat peacock passant gules. [for Sikhijvala Gehe Candrasya]
There is a CD for changing the number of charges, and probably at least one for the type and posture of the bird.
possibly Karena del Falco (badge, 2.88 An Tir) -- Argent, a falcon close gules.
possibly clear of: John Milton (12/94 Laurel) -- Argent, a double-headed eagle displayed gules. [important non-SCA arms]
possibly clear of: Brandenberg (12/94 Laurel) -- Argent, an eagle displayed gules crowned Or. [important non-SCA arms]
In each case, there is a CD for changing the number of birds. There is probably also a CD for changing the wing position.
probably clear of: Malcolm MacRuairidh of Blackoak (3/87 West) -- Argent, a raven striking to sinister gules.
There is a CD for changing the number of birds, and probably also one for change of orientation (i.e., from dexter to sinister). There may not be one, otherwise, for the posture.

Bibliography:
Brooke-Little, John. An Heraldic Alphabet, Rev. Ed. London: Robson Books Ltd., 1975, 1985.

Dauzat, A. and Ch. Rostaing. Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieux en France, 2nd. Ed. Paris: Librairie Guénégaud, 1963, 1978.

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

http://oanda.sca.org

http://www.s-gabriel.org/

http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/precedents.html

http://www.sca.org/heraldry/loar

Morlet, Marie-Thérèse. Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de famille, nouvelle édition revue et augmentée. [??]: Librairie Académique Perrin, 1991, 1997.

Ó Corráin, Donnchadh, and Fidelma Maguire. Irish Names. Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1981. 1990.

Papworth, John W. Papworth's Ordinary of British Armorials. Bath: Five Barrows, 1977.

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

Reaney, P. H. and R. M. Wilson. A Dictionary of English Surnames, Rev. 3rd. Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Withycombe, E. G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 3rd. Ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.

other URLs as cited