Minutes of the 1 October 1995 Meeting

[Note: These submissions appear on the Feb 1996 LoAR]

Notes and Announcements

DISCLAIMER: The original electronic version of these minutes was imperfectly translated into ASCII when it was distributed via email. This resulted in a number of side effects, particularly including the mutation of accented letters. I [the person who did the original HTML] have attempted to correct these mutations as part of the HTML markup process, but am unlikely to have been completely successful. As a result, this copy should not be considered authoritative.

Present were: Marie Elaine de Wombwell; Eadwynne of Runedun; Christopher, James of the Lake, Jasper, Bruce, Catrin; Eirikr; Kathryn; Wilhelm RFL; Hrorek; Tonwen; Dietmar; Elizabetta; Daragh; and Sean Mac.

Scribes/Heralds symposium on 3/23/96 in Heatherwyne (two weeks after Collegium next). Solicitation of classes, instructors, and students (the last via the heralds' exhortations of the populace). Beginner and intermediate tracks. Send class ideas, volunteers' names in ASAP to Astriðr, you can find her address under Dolphin Herald in the Regnum. Details next month.

The COH now has more stuff.

• Copies of videotapes of Basic Court Heraldary, Basic Blazon, and Field Heraldry from various past Collegium heraldic classes, available for rent from Aurum Pursuivant.
• A photocopier, purchased (on credit) from Tonwen.

Laurel Hath Spoken (yet again).

• (Modern) Gwendolyn must now be spelled Guendolen or Gwendolen. (Other spellings will be considered on request.) (It isn't actually a period name, but the given spellings are acceptably period compatible.)
• The "Escape Clause" (inspired by a submission of a green trimount on blue).If you want something which violates the rules of style, you gotta document it as a widespread period practice, the closer to your submission, the better. However, even with documentation, it may be returned anyway.
• Escape Clause, Part II: Regional Style. If you want to get something which violates the rules of style, but is used only in particular region, you can appeal the return on the grounds of regional style. As with Part I, you must document the practice, and your submission must conform as a whole to the style of the region in question. (Also as with Part I, you may still not get it.)
• The arms of Bavaria are once again a legal field, this time on the basis of being insufficiently important to protect. (This has changed many times in the past. Future Laurels may change this yet again.)

Altavia, Barony of

Gwendolen White Dragon (name resub/Laurel)

NAME:

Gwendolen is found on page 140 of Withycombe (under Guendolen), undated. Harpy cites its apparent origin as the Historia Regnum Britaniae, written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th C., and Laurel has ruled in his 9/5/95 cover letter that Gwendolen (in that spelling) is SCA-compatible. (The submitter originally requested Gwendolynn; per the aforementioned cover letter, we have changed the spelling to the nearest acceptable form.)

White Dragon is a double surname. White appears on page 395 of Reaney DBS (undated in that form, but various other spellings appear back to 1066), and Dragon on page 107, dated as a surname (as Dragun) to 1166.

(The submitter requested atte White Dragon [per Pelican's commentary from the previous return]. That commentary raised considerable doubt that atte White Dragon would be approved. We have therefore deleted the atte to cast the name into a documentable form.)

The previous submission, Gwendolyn of the White Dragon, was returned by Laurel in the 6/95 LoAR.

NAME APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Dreiburgen, Barony of

Constance O'Keeley (resub Caid/device)

Purpure, a heart transfixed by a sword inverted argent.

NAME:

approved by Laurel, Apr. 1995

DEVICE:

no conflicts found

DEVICE APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Gallavally, Canton of (Dreiburgen)

Casia Thessalonica apo Constantinopolios (resub Caid/badge)

Purpure, two eaglets heads erased, addorsed and conjoined, Or.

NAME:

approved by Laurel, Feb. 1990

BADGE:

her previous submission of Aug. 1995, (Fieldless) a double-headed eagle erased Or, was returned for visual conflict with (Fieldless) a dragon's head and an eagle's head erased, addorsed and conjoined at the neck Or (Jamal Damien Marcus for House Drake's Mark, SCA, Aug. 1992). The current submission corrects this by adding the field for one CD, and the change in one of the heads provides a second CD.

BADGE APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Edwinna of Hawk's Bluff, for House Foggy Towers (household name and badge resub/??)

Barry wavy azure and argent, three towers Or.

NAME:

Foggy is dated by the Compact OED (on page 1040) to 1544, within our grey area, with the current meaning. However, we cannot document "Foggy" as a period naming practice. Towers are well-known period structures.

BADGE:

No conflicts found. The submitter will be told that "wavy" should be drawn with much deeper waves.

NAME RETURNED FOR LACK OF DOCUMENTATION
BADGE APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Eadwynne Iren Dracan Rune-Deniga (name change resub/Caid)

NAME:

Overall: First, would a period Anglo-Saxon name have two epithets? Most of those with an opinion thought not. Second, we have virtually no evidence for the use iron metaphorically. Third, Rune-Deniga is said by the submitter to be a kenning, but we have no support for the use of kennings in names.

After discussion with the submitter (who was present), it was decided to submit each epithet as a separate name (one as primary name, one as alternate name).

His previous submission, Eadwynn Iren Draca Rundeniga, was returned by Caid at the 9/95 meeting for lack of documentation.

NAME RETURNED FOR LACK OF DOCUMENTATION

Eadwine Rune-Deniga (name change resub/Caid)

(immediate re-submission)

NAME:

Eadwine is on page 191 of Searle. Rune-Deniga is said by the submitter to be a kenning, meaning "rune- Dane". The submitter has documented the use of "sword- Danes" and "spear-Danes". Given these, "rune-danes" are not implausible. We know too little Anglo-Saxon to know whether kennings were used in names in this fashion. Also, we suspect that the spelling is incorrect, because correct Ango-Saxon may have caused the name to be declined.

This is a resubmission of Eadwynne Iren Dracan Rune-Deniga (from earlier today).

NAME APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Eadwine Rune-Deniga, name of Eadwynne Iren-Dracan (new alternate name)

NAME:

Iren is Anglo-Saxon for "iron", and dracan for "dragon". Our Anglo-Saxon dictionary lists several examples of iron-somethings: [insert examples]. The submitter's documentation also includes a metaphorical use: "iron-fast men". This seems enough to justify sending it on, and letting the real Anglo-Saxon experts have at it. (The name was submitted as Iren Dracan; we have added the hyphen we believe it needs).

NAME APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Fionnuala ingen Fh el n na Seilach Abainne (resub Caid/name and device)

Azure, three trees Or, on a chief wavy argent a wolf courant sable.

NAME:

the submitterts previous submission of Fionnuala net Madadh-allaidh na Seileach Abhainn for pretension (she cannot be the daughter of a wolf). The current submission originally was Fionnuala Li F elan na Seilach Abainne, but we have changed the Li to ingen to correct the gender and meaning, which adds aspiration to F elan, and we have added the accent to the second "a" of Fh el n, following the spelling in C&M.

Fionnuala is under Finnguala on pg. 103 of C&M.

Fh elan is the aspirated form of a saint martyred in 656 according to 'C&M under F el n on pg. 92.

The submitter contends that Seilach Abainne means "willow river". While we did find abhainn which means "river" in an English-Irish/Irish-English dictionary, we could not find seilach. We will ask the submitter to send documentation of seilach and, if possible, of the form of "tree geographic-place".

DEVICE:

her previous submission of Aug. 1995, Azure, three willow trees Or, on a chief wavy sable a wolf courant argent was returned for style. The current submission corrects this. We did not find any conflicts, but we must return this for lack of name.

NAME RETURNED FOR LACK OF DOCUMENTATION DEVICE RETURNED FOR LACK OF NAME

Dun Or, Barony of

Corwin Shieldbreaker (New name and device)

Purpure, a unicorn rampant contourney regardant and in chief sinister a mullet of four points argent, a bordure indented Or.

NAME:

Corwin was ruled as tso much a part of SCA culture as to be acceptable, even if it is recent coinaget (Baldwin of Erebor, LoAR, Apr 1985, pg. 4). It also may be constructed from Corbinus found in Morlet vol. 2. p. 37 as in Corbinus to Corvinus to Corwinus.

We consider Shieldbreaker a reasonable construction. We can find several examples of 'break-thing' from Studies on Middle English Nicknames by J.ns. on pp. 63-4 (brekbalk = "break beam," brekdore = "break door," brekewall = "break wall"). We also have an example of "shield-maker" in Reaney under shield ("Geoffrey le Seldmakere 1285" on pg. 317).

DEVICE:

it is clear of Sarah MacColin, Purpure, a unicorn rampant to sinister argent, and in sinister chief a mullet Or, with a CD for change in tincture of the mullet, and another for the addition of the bordure.

In the LoAR of Nov. 1978, pg. 1, Karina of the Far West ruled that the name "Corwin" and unicorns could not be combined. We question whether that precedent is still valid. We no longer even protect the arms of Amber; allusions to the Amber series are even farther removed from protection. And given that Laurel recently declined to protect armory from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (citing their unfamiliarity to the current SCA generation), the symbols of the House of Amber should be considered equally unfamiliar and thus not protected from direct conflict or allusion. We ask that Laurel overturn the Precedent of Nov. 1978 and permit the use of unicorns with the name "Corwin".

NAME AND DEVICE APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Ecgan CL Chaille (device resub/West)

Vert, a compass star within an annulet, and on a chief Or three shamrocks vert.

DEVICE:

No conflicts found. The submitter's previous submission was returned by the West on 1/16/94 for redrawing. This is a complete redesign.

DEVICE APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Ecgan CL Chaille, for Snorri Karlsson (new badge)

(fieldless) A shamrock vert, overall a compass star within an annulet Or.

NAME:

the alternate name Snorri Karlsson is in submission, from the Caidan 6/11/95 meeting.

BADGE:

No conflicts found. The main question that was raised was, are the various charges recognizable, separately and in combination (especially with the somewhat-overall design)? The consensus seemed to be that the design is acceptable.

BADGE APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Gyldenholt, Barony of

Maximilian von Konigsburg (resub Caid/device)

Vert, a chevron Or between three skulls (missing the tops and jaws), overall a dexter gauntlet clenched aversant argent sustaining a wooden spoon proper.

NAME:

approved by Laurel, Mar. 1995

DEVICE:

his previous submission of Oct. 1994, Gyronny Or and vert, in pale a clenched gauntlent aversant issuant from the broken top of a death's head argent, the gauntlet holding a wooden spoon proper, was returned for combining three charges in the same group. The current submission correct this.

We have used "sustaining" rather than "maintaining" since the spoon is about the same size as the gauntlet.

We are returning the device for style. The skulls missing their tops and jaws, plus being drawn with much detail and reduced in size (in comparision to the previous submission) makes them rather unidentifiable. We will suggest that the skulls be drawn whole at the very least. The placement of the spoon is mostly on the green background which makes it difficult to identify. We will suggest that the submitter might remove the chevron and color the spoon yellow. Finally, the clenched gauntlet aversant is the least identifiable position. While we would not return for this reason alone, we will suggest that the gauntlet might be turned palm forward to give it more detail.

We did not check for conflicts.

DEVICE RETURNED FOR STYLE

Lyondemere, Barony of

Stephen de Huyn (new badge)

(fieldless) A cross of Santiago argent.

BADGE:

No conflicts found.

(Alternately, "a tent-peg of Calatrava". The top is dented after long use, and the side-pieces clearly keep it from going into the ground too far, provide handles which make removal easy, and also serve as anchors for the guy lines).

BADGE APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Western Seas, Barony of

Alexandria Elizabeth Vallandigham of Cambria (device resub/Laurel)

Argent, on a mullet of seven points vert a gryphon couchant winges folded, Or, in chief two fleurs-de-lys purpure and a bordure compony purpure and Or.

NAME:

approved by Laurel 2/94

DEVICE:

This has a complexity count of 8 (which is borderline overcomplex), but should be acceptable.

No conflicts found.

DEVICE APPROVED AND SENT TO LAUREL

Aftermeeting

The name/device portion of the meeting ended at 3:07 pm. A meeting discussing the ranking system in the College followed. The minutes were taken by Jasper and Christopher, and were edited by Catrin. (Who got smart and delegated the LoI to Dolphin this month.)

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