[MR] [HERALDRY] Laurel RETURNS for May, 2002

[Gorm of Berra]

Unto the Crown, Peers, and Populace of Atlantia does Gorm of Berra, Golden 
Dolphin Herald, send greetings:

At his meeting in May of 2002, Laurel considered the following items from 
Atlantia.  They were submitted on the January, 2002 Letter of Intent, from 
submissions received in December, 2001.  Unfortunately, Laurel was unable 
to register them under the rules for submission, and therefore RETURNED 
them.  The submitters have been or will soon be receiving letters 
explaining the reasons for the return, and will have one year from the date 
of those letters to resubmit a revised item at no further charge.

(Note, these were copied directly from the LoAR text, with as little 
formatting as possible, weirdness in spellings may occur)

ATLANTIA
Erik the Bear. Household name Bear Clan.
The submitter requested authenticity for a 10th C Norse Clan and allowed 
minor changes. The submission form gave the submitted household name as 
"Bear Clan (Bjarn Aett in Old Norse)". The LoI presented Bear Clan as the 
submitted household name, based on a Lingua Anglica equivalent of a Norse 
Bjarn Aett. In order to determine both registerable and authentic forms of 
this name, there are several steps that need to be addressed:
* Did "clan" type structures exist in Old Norse culture?
* If they did exist, what were the names used for these groups?
* Assuming they existed and we know what the names of these groups were, 
how would an SCA household name be based on this model?
The vast majority of the documentation for this submission came from two 
sources: Mark Harrison and Gerry Embleton, Viking Hersir, 793-1066AD, 
volume 3 of Osprey Military Warrior Series; and Nurmann, Schulze, & 
Verhlsdonk, The Vikings, "Europa Militaria Special No. 6". These are 
tertiary sources at best and their purpose is not onomastics. Therefore, 
they must be used with care when used as documentation for name 
submissions. A number of Norse sagas were mentioned in the LoI, but no 
photocopies of any of them were provided. As none of them are included in 
the Admin Handbook under Appendix H, "Name Books That Do Not Require 
Photocopies to Laurel", these mentions may not be considered documentation. 
Additionally, no sections of those sagas were cited with specific 
references to "Norse clans". Such references would be necessary as part of 
documentation from these sagas. Viking Hersir (p. 6) defines an aett as an 
"extended family group". However, no documentation was provided that aett 
would be included as part of the name of such a family group. The Vikings 
(p. 53) defines the term Vikinge-lag as "brotherhoods of mercenaries". On 
the same page, it specifically mentions a particular group whose name 
includes this term:
Jomsvikinge-lag or Jomsvikings, who were probably established in the 
fortified camp and harbour of Jomsburg. ... The Jomsvikings were the 
subject of their own saga, which was written down in Iceland in about 1200. 
They are also mentioned in other sagas: that of King Olaf Tryggvasson 
states that hiring them was a question of prestige (although they seem to 
have been on the losing side in a number of important battles). The 
brotherhood was fading away by about 1010, and the remnant was destroyed by 
King Magnus of Norway in 1043.
Based on this example, vikinge-lag (as in Jomsvikinge-lag) is an acceptable 
designator for an SCA household based on the model of the Jomsvikings. The 
Lingua Anglica equivalent for this designator would be the suffix -vikings, 
as in the example Jomsvikings. The submitted documentation implies that 
Jomsvikinge-lag is a reference to the location Jomsburg. Geirr Bassi (p. 
20) lists the descriptive byname Bjarneyja- meaning 'Bear Island-', which 
documents this location in Old Norse, and so dates it to period. A 
household name referring to this island, based on the Jomsvikings example, 
would be Bjarnavikinge-lag in Old Norse. Lingua Anglica equivalents for 
placenames are based on their English rendering, not on a literal 
translation of the meaning of the placename. For example, the Lingua 
Anglica form of Tokyo (which means 'Eastern Capital') is Tokyo, not Eastern 
Capital. The submitter's documentation shows Bjarn Isle as the English form 
of the place referred to in the byname Bjarneyja-. Therefore, a Lingua 
Anglica form of Bjarnavikinge-lag would be Bjarnavikings, not Bearvikings 
or Bear Clan.
A question was raised during commentary regarding whether Bear Clan was 
registerable using the model of a Scottish clan as cited in the Rules for 
Submission (RfS III.2.b.iv). In this model, Clan precedes the clan name 
(Clan [Surname]) rather than follows it ([Surname] Clan). Also, clan is a 
Scots word derived from the Gaelic word clann, meaning 'children'. (Scots 
is a language closely related to English.) The name of the clan is a Scots 
surname. While some of these surnames are also found in English, not all 
English surnames are found in Scots. Therefore, to comply with RfS III.1.a, 
which requires linguistic consistency within a name phrase, the clan name 
must be documented as a Scots surname. Occasionally, a locative may be 
included in the clan name, taking the form Clan [Surname] of [Location].
There is also a clan name model found in Ireland. However, in Ireland, the 
model that includes the word Clann in Gaelic (Clan in Anglicized Irish) is 
based on a given name found in Gaelic. Examples are found that include both 
Gaelic given names and Anglo-Norman given names that migrated into Gaelic.
The Rules for Submission were most recently updated on July 20, 2001. 
Previous to that, the most recent update was November 1, 1995. All 
household names, except one, registered since that date that use some form 
of clan as a designator follow either the Scottish or Irish models 
described above. The single exception is Clann an Chullaich Bhain 
(registered February 1996) which was submitted as a "sign name" meaning 
'the white boar'. As our knowledge of naming practices has expanded, doubt 
has been shed on the theory that Scottish or Irish clan names would be 
based on the English sign name model. Lacking evidence of such a 
construction, they are no longer registerable. Several registrations of 
clan names were specifically mentioned during commentary. Clan Baldwin 
(registered June 1996) follows the Scottish model since Baldwin is a 
plausible Scots surname. (Black, s.n. Baldwin, gives only dated examples of 
forms of Baldwin as a given name, but it could easily have followed the 
pattern of other Anglo-Norman given names that became surnames in 
Scotland.) Clan Hubert (registered February 1999) follows the Irish model 
since Hubert was among the Anglo-Norman given names that appear in Ireland. 
Clan Gara (registered September 1996) and Clan Gillemore (registered March 
1998) also follow the Irish model as Gara and Gillemore are Anglicized 
forms of the Irish Gaelic masculine given names Gadra and Gilla Muire.
Since Bear Clan does not follow either the Scottish clan name model or the 
Irish clan name model, it is not registerable as either a Scottish or an 
Irish clan name.

Niobe the Forgetful. Name.
This name is being returned for issues with both Niobe and with the Forgetful.
The only previous registration of Niobe was in December of 1989. Metron 
Ariston provided information regarding references to Niobe in period 
literature and art:
Niobe was major character in Greek myth, and appeared commonly in classical 
art and literature as early as Homer's Iliad. She had six or seven sons and 
the same number of daughters (the precise number depends on the author). 
When she boasted that she was at least equal to Leto who had borne only 
Apollo and Artemis, Leto's children killed all her children. The motif of 
her grief and the story of Niobe herself being turned to stone appear in a 
number of classical authors familiar in period (Homer, Apollodorus, Ovid, 
etc.) and it was a very popular motif in classical and Renaissance art. For 
instance, Anna Comnena uses her as a symbol of sorrow in book XV of the 
Alexiad. Dante mentions her in Canto XI of the Purgatorio. Chaucer 
similarly uses her ("To walwe and wepe as Niobe the quene, Whos teres yet 
in marbel been y-sene.") in ll. 699 700 of Troilus and Criseyde.
The character of Niobe has an unusual status in period literature. She was 
a human character in Greek myth. However, the references to her in medieval 
and Renaissance art and literature cited by Metron Ariston specifically use 
Niobe as a symbolic reference. So, the name Niobe had taken on a 
significantly well known allegorical meaning by the medieval and 
Renaissance periods. The guidelines for using names from literature set 
down in the Cover Letter for the February 1999 LoAR require that the name 
reference a human character. They also caution that allegorical names may 
not be registerable. Niobe falls into both of these categories. Names found 
only as an allegorical reference have been previously returned (Belphoebe 
de Givet, February 2002 LoAR). So, the question is whether Niobe is a name 
that would plausibly have been used by parents naming their child in the 
Middle Ages or Renaissance. At that time, the allegorical meanings 
associated with Niobe are more significant than her position as a human 
character in literature. Therefore, lacking evidence that Niobe was more 
well known in the Middle Ages and Renaissance as a human character rather 
than as a symbol, or that the name Niobe was used by humans in period, this 
name is not registerable.
The byname the Forgetful has been registered a total of seven times, most 
recently in May 1994. Since that time, there have been several rulings 
regarding abstract descriptive bynames, including:
[returning the nickname the Arronious] Period nicknames tend to be 
straightforward and to use common words: Thynnewyt "thin [of] wit, stupid", 
le Wis "the wise", Badinteheved "bad in the head", le Wilfulle, le Proude 
"the proud", le Hardy "the courageous", le Sour, le Cursede, le Deuyle "the 
devil", Blaksoule "black-soul". The learned erroneous simply doesn't belong 
in this company. Although the adjective in question is not a past 
participle, we do not consider this case to be significantly different from 
those of Adam the Unexpected (East, returned 2/96) and Deirdre the 
Distracted (Ansteorra, returned 4/94), whose bynames were returned partly 
for being too abstract. Similarly, erroneous is too far from the common 
tongue to be at all believable as a period byname. (Aurelius the Arronious 
of Bikeleswade, 10/96 p. 8)
Given this ruling, the byname the Forgetful is unregisterable if forgetful 
is "too far from the common tongue to be at all believable as a period 
byname". The only documentation provided for the byname the Forgetful in 
the LoI was "Forgetful has been registered a handful of times, most 
recently in 1994." Citing previous registration of a name element is not 
documentation for a submission. Therefore, no evidence was provided with 
the submission showing that forgetful is a period word, much less whether 
or not it was a common term applied to people in period. The College found 
evidence of forgetful as a word derived from Old English, but presented no 
support in commentary for forgetful not being "too far from the common 
tongue to be at all believable as a period byname". Lacking such evidence, 
this byname is not registerable.
Her armory has been registered under the holding name Robin of Atlantia.

Rory Daughton. Device. Per fess purpure and argent, a sword and a drop 
spindle in saltire counterchanged.
The College was unanimous in its opinion that the armory appears to be two 
swords in saltire, until detailed inspection is performed. The lack of 
identifiability of the spindle in this group is reason for return. The 
threading of the drop spindle does not remove the visual implication of a 
second sword. The problems with the identifiability are exacerbated by the 
fact that the drop spindle in this submission is extremely attenuated, with 
sword-like proportions. A drop spindle generally has a much wider spindle 
whorl in proportion to the length of the spindle (see, for example, the 
picture in the Pictorial Dictionary). A drop spindle with a wider spindle 
whorl, when loaded with thread, would have a roughly triangular outline 
rather than a sword-like outline.

In Service,

Gorm of Berra
Golden Dolphin Herald