[MR] [HERALDRY] Laurel RETURNS and PENDS for February, 2002

[Gorm Of Berra]

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

(Again, apologies for any potential formatting difficulties encountered here.  I receieved these files in badly formatted HTML, and I have stripped out as much of the ickiness as possible, but was unable to remove it all, I am sure)

The following items were RETURNED by Laurel in his February, 2002 meeting.  In all cases, the submitters have been notified, and will have one year from the date of that notification to submit revised submissions without additional charge:

Belphoebe de Givet. Name. 

The submitter requested authenticity for 14th–15th C France. Belphoebe is a name unique to Spenser's The Faerie Queen. This character, the Fairie Queen, was an allegory for Elizabeth I. Belphoebe is unregisterable for two reasons. First, as it is allegorical, rather than being the name of a regular human character, it is not registerable as a name from period literature. Additionally, since Belphoebe was the name of the Faerie Queen, this name violates RfS VI.2, "Names containing elements that allude to powers that the submitter does not possess are considered presumptuous .... Such claims include ... given names that were never used by humans".

Her armory has been registered under the holding name Laura de Givet.


Cassair Warwick. Name. 

O’Corrain & Maguire (p. 46 s.n. Cassair) gives this as the name of a holy virgin included in the legend of Saint Kevin. No evidence has been found that this name was used by humans in period. Names of saints are registerable, regardless of whether they are apocryphal or not. This policy is due to the practice in many cultures (though not in Gaelic) of naming children for saints. (For more details, see the Cover Letter for the September 2001 LoAR.) As Cassair was not herself a saint and the name has not been documented as having been otherwise used in period, it falls into the category of a legendary name and is not registerable.


Cynwrig Chwith. Device. Paly sable and argent, a unicorn rampant counterchanged. 

This is excessively counterchanged and non-period style. The unicorn is not identifiable when counterchanged over this multiply divided field. No documentation has been presented, nor could any be found, for the counterchanging of a complex-outlined charge over a multiply divided field.


Cile ingen Ceda. Name. 

No documentation was presented and none could be found that the name Cile was used outside of legend. Lacking such evidence, this name is not registerable.

Owen Sherard Trahern. Device. Or, a winged lance sable . 

Conflict with Angus Kerr, Or, a spear sable. There  is but one CD for adding the wings.


SEamus mac Inneirghe. Badge. Argent, on a roundel be tween three oak leaves one and two vert a stag's head cabossed argent attired Or. 

This was withdrawn on the February 2002 Atlantia LoI. 
Taira no Akiyo. Name. 

As no forms were  received for this submission, it must be returned. Additionally, though no is included in the spoken name in Japanese, it is not included in the written name.

Teofilia Karaszkiewicz. Name. 

This name is being returned for lack of documentation of Teofilia as a feminine given name. The name was documented from William F. Hoffman and George W. Helon, First Names of the Polish Commonwealth: Origins and Meanings. Nebuly says of documentation from this source:

The submit ted documentation from Hoffman & Helon is explicitly post-period. As th e authors themselves state on page 4, this book is designed for use by desc endants of Poles who emigrated to English-speaking countries, and a large p art of the work was based on First Names in Current Use in Poland. T he book is in no way, shape, or fashion intended to be used by medieval rec reationists and there are other far superior books for this purpose. The sa me criticism can be levelled at the use of Hoffman's Polish Surnames , which is another genealogical reference work. While both works are excell ent for their intended niche, they are of no value in documenting medieval  Polish practice.

Given this information, these sources s hould not be used for documentation of SCA name submissions.

The LoI  stated that "The Catholic Online Saint's Index http://saints.catholic.org/stsindext.html#T list 10 different saints by the name of Theofilus, ranging in dates from 181 to 1676." These articles do not give an indication of which languages used the form Theophilius to refer to these saints. We would need such information to determine if a hypothetical Theophilia would be registerable in combination with a Polish byname. Nebuly searched for Teofilia in Polish:

I have checked my various Polish sources for evid ence of Teofilia, and can find none. I do find the masculine name Theophilo as an ecclesiatical name in 15th century Poland (SSNO, s.n.  Teofil), but this does not justify Teofilia. Slavic cultures  did not form feminine names by tacking on feminine endings, as seems to hav e happened with some regularity in other parts of Europe.

Additionally, kingdom was unable to document the byname in Polish in period (though they found Russian variants) and requested the help of the CoA. Nebuly found documentation for the byname:

The byname is a patronym formed from a diminutive of the masculine b yname Kara{s'} (a carp). According to Rymut (p.145, s.n. Kara{s'} ), the byname is constructed as Karaszki + ewicz, where Karas zki is a diminutive and -ewicz is a patronymic suffix. The form  Karasz appears as early as 1401 (SSNO, s.n. Kara{s'}) and Cie {s'}likowa has at least the diminutive form Karasek dated to 1450. T his diminutive and the additional patronymic form Karaszowycz dated  to 1489 (SSNO, s.n. Karasiowic) are probably sufficient to justify < i>Karaszkiewicz. However, this is a masculine form of the byname and it would need to be altered to Karaszkiewicza for a feminine name.

 
Ulliam O’Raghailligh. Name. 

This name conflicts with William O'Reilly, a 20th C Australian cricketer who has his own entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Additionally, no documentation was presented for the spelling Ulliam rather than the normal Gaelic spelling Uilliam.


The following items were PENDED for further discussion.  They will automatically be considered again after the College has had time to discuss them:

Muirghen Ruadh. Badge. (Fieldless) A pheon argent within and conjoined to a mullet of eight points formed of two delfs voided and interlaced Or. 
The original blazon had no tinctures. This is being pended for further research. Note that the description of the mullet is taken from the blazon of the submitter's registered device.

Tahir the Mad. Device. Azure, a bow fesswise string to chief between three mullets of six points voided and interlaced Or. 
This submission did not provide the tincture of the charges. It must be pended for further research. The bow was originally blazoned as "recurved" and "strung". However, this is drawn as a default (strung) longbow, and thus those terms have been omitted from the blazon.

In Service,

Gorm of Berra
Golden Dolphin Herald