Æthelmearc Letter of Intent Æ95
June 22, 2006 (AS 41)

It is the intent of the Æthelmearc College of Heralds to register the following devices. Unless otherwise noted, submitters will accept any changes and will allow holding names.

1.  Æthelmearc, Kingdom of – New Badge

Argent, on a chevron engrailed gules between three cauldrons sable five escarbuncles argent.

The kingdom name was registered in January 1998. The badge is intended to be associated with The Most Worshipful Company of Æthelmearc Cooks and Bakers.

2.  Aíbell ingen Diarmata – New Name, New Device

Or, flaunches gules, in fess three snails counterchanged.

The name is intended to be feminine. The submitter will accept minor changes only and cares most about the language/culture of Ireland c. 1200. The submitter is not requesting authenticity.

Aíbell – OCM, p. 15, s.n. Aíbell lists <Aíbell> as the earlier form, <Aoibheall> as the later form, and gives the name as that of an old Irish goddess. The entry also mentions two persons from Irish stories: Aíbell, daughter of an Ulster warrior; and Aíbell Grúadsolus, daughter of a king of Munster. The entry does not make clear to us whether these are historical or literary figures.

ingen – early form of the Gaelic meaning “daughter”

Diarmata - Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, “100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland” (WWW: Heather Rose Jones, 1998) [URL: http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/irish100.html] lists the masculine name <Diarmait> and gives the genitive as <Diarmata>.

OCM, p. 73, s.n. Diarmait, describes this masculine name as one of the twenty or so most popular names in early Ireland, and gives <Diarmait> as the early form; <Diarmaid> as the later.

The submission forms used the spelling <Dairmata>, but the accompanying name documentation gave the spelling as <Diarmata>. We have presumed the forms to be in error and we have corrected them to match the submitted documentation.

3.  Ardan Scot – New Name

The name is intended to be masculine. The submitter will accept minor changes only and states no preference among meaning, sound, or language/culture. The submitter is not requesting authenticity.

Ardan - Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, “Index of Names in Irish Annals: Descriptive Bynames: Bán” (WWW: Kathleen M. O'Brien, 2003) [URL: http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/DescriptiveBynames/Ban.shtml] lists <Ardan mac Maini meic Murchada Bain h. Fergail> as the documented spelling of an individual who died in 1398.

Scot – Black, p. 714, s.n. Scott, lists:

4.  Grímólfr Ormulfsson – New Name, New Device

Argent, on a chevron azure between three wolf’s heads erased gules three annulets argent.

The name is intended to be masculine. The submitter will accept any changes and cares most about language/culture. The submitter is not requesting authenticity.

Grímólfr - Geirr Bassi Haraldsson, p. 10, counts 5 occurences in the Landnamabok

Ormulfsson - Gunnvôr silfrahárr, "Names of Scandinavians in the Byzantine Varangian Guard and in Russia" [URL: http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ gunnvor/varangian/], s.n. Norse Names from Runic Inscriptions for Men Who Went To Byzantium, lists <Ormulfr>, Uppland Sweden, 990-1010.

Also, Gunnvôr silfrahárr, "Old Norse Men's Names" [URL: http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ ONMensNames.shtml], s.n. OrmulfR, cites listings of the name in the following:

Fellows-Jensen, Gillian. Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. (Copenhagen. Akademisk Forlag, 1968), p. 351 s.n. -ulfr;

Cleasby, Richard and Guðbrandr Vigfusson. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1957), pp. 468-469 s.v. ormr; and,

Lena Peterson. Nordiskt runnamnslexikon. (Dictionary of Names from Old Norse Runic Inscriptions). Språk- och folkminnes-institutet (Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research), s.n. OrmR, Ormi.

Per pale azure and argent, in fess an increscent, a crescent and a decrescent counterchanged.

The name is intended to be feminine. The submitter will accept any changes and cares most about language/culture. The submitter is not requesting authenticity.

Hrefna – Geirr Bassi Haraldsson, p. 11, counts 1 occurrence in the Landnamabok.

Úlfvarinsdóttir – Geirr Bassi Haraldsson, p. 15, counts 1 occurrence of < Úlfvarinn> in the Landnamabok.

6.  Siobhan Challánach – New Name, New Device

Azure, a griffin dormant between three barrels fesswise argent.

The name is intended to be feminine. The submitter will accept any changes and cares most about language/culture. The submitter is requesting authenticity for Irish language/culture.

Siobhan - Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, “Index of Names in Irish Annals: Siobhán” (WWW: Kathleen M. O'Brien, 2004) [URL: http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/Siban.shtml] gives this spelling as the standard Early Modern Irish Gaelic and cites 22 occurrences from 1310 – 1600.

Challánach – The website “Irish Dictionary online” [URL: www.englishirishdictionary.com] lists the Irish word <callánach> with the following definition: loud, noisy; adj. rowdy,  raucous,  vociferous. We have added the lenition.

Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasfryn, “Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's ‘Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae’” (WWW: SCA, 2006) [URL: http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/irish-obrien.html] lists several descriptive bynames describing personality or behavior including:

Of these, <U'athach> is among those found with women’s names.

This concludes the Æthelmearc External Letter of Intent dated June 22, 2006.

We count 5 new primary names, 4 new devices, and 1 new badge for a total of 10 payable items. We count 10 items in total.  A check for $40 will be forwarded to Laurel separately.