Minutes of February 2006 Meeting * Caid College of Heralds

In attendance were: Lachlan Crescent, Su Dolphin, Illuminada Silver Trumpet, Hrorek Chevron, Altan Gal exchequer, Catherine de Winter, Cassandre Nicole Loustaunau, Maela Caimbeul, Thomas Quatrefoil, Cei Myghchaell and Marion FitzThomas.

It is the desire of the kingdom chancellor of the exchequer to move the bank accounts of all Caidan branches to Wells Fargo. We may be doing this in the near future.

Society Pages: Lady Santin Westmerland of Ravenstonedale was created Gold Forest Pursuivant by the Baron & Baroness of Gyldenholt, and was admitted to the Order of the Dolphin at Unbelted tournament. Master Thomas Brownwell has accepted the staff title Quatrefoil Pursuivant for his service as a typist, researcher, consultant, etc.

Those who are going to Estrella this month are entreated to volunteer at herald's point or with other volunteer duties, and to log your hours. Your hours earn the group of your choice a share in the war's profits (the Caid CoH will gladly accept the donation if you don't have another preference).

Unless otherwise noted, all submitters will accept the creation of a holding name, if appropriate. Approved submissions will be forwarded on the March 22, 2006 Letter of Intent.

al-Sahid, Shire of

Blase di Angelo. New device. Checky argent and gules, a legless dragon displayed and a chief sable.

[Armory] "Legless dragon" and "legless wyvern" are essentially both valid terms for the same charge. Therefore we will stick with the term proposed by the submitter (or his consulting herald), "legless dragon".

We believe this is clear of Or, a wyvern erect maintaining a trident, a chief sable (Duncan of Seareach, 01/99) with one CD via X.4.a for changes to the field, and a second CD via X.4.h for changes to the posture.

Caid, Kingdom of

Caid, Kingdom of. New household name, Caidan Royal Artillery Corps and badge. Azure, a tower between two sets of four crescents conjoined in saltire horns outward argent.

[Name] Kingdom name was registered 02/75. The submitting group will accept all changes and if changes must be made, they care most about the meaning and the acronym, CRAC. The submitting group also notes that they will accept "Caid" instead of "Caidan" if necessary to register the name and will accept "Company" instead of "Corps" if necessary to register the name.

Caidan is the adjectival form of "Caid". The word "Caidan" is not grandfathered to the kingdom, but we feel it is a reasonable extrapolation from the registered kingdom name.

Royal an adjective meaning "Founded or established by, under the patronage of, a sovereign or royal person". The Oxford English Dictionary (Compact OED Vol. 2, p. 2591, s.n. Royal, def 6) dates this definition to 1509. "Royall" is the typical spelling in our period, but at least one citation, dated to 1594 uses the modern spelling (this is under definition 9, "Of Persons: Having the character proper to a king...".

Artillery is a noun meaning "Engines for discharging missiles...Formerly including catapults, slings, arbalests, bows, etc." This meaning was in use as early as 1476 and this spelling is dated to 1601 "...Brakes, slings and other engines of artillery..." (Compact OED Vol. 1, p. 119, s.n. Artillery, definition 2.a).

Corps is a noun meaning, "A division of an army, forming a tactical unit" (Compact OED Vol. 1, p. 563, s.n. Corps) This particular meaning is, admittedly problematic. The OED goes on to state, "As short for corps d'armée, it is fond in French before 1700 and appears to have come up in English during Marlborough's campaigns." So clearly this meaning is post-period (at least in English). The OED also has an entry for "Corps de garde" (Compact OED Vol. 1, p. 563) with the definition, "The small body of soldiers stationed on guard or as sentinels". This definition is dated to 1590 and 1598. This at least suggests the word "corps" was used in the English language to describe a group of soldiers late in our period.

Company, meaning, "A body of soldiers; a host, a troop," is dated to as early as 1380 (Compact OED, Vol. 1, p. 487). This spelling is dated to 1450, "...a company of hors." If Corps cannot be justified then Company would be an acceptable alternative.

The name is too generic to be registered, though it may be used as a reference for the badge. Precedent states (in the 03/00 return of "Royal University of Meridies" submitted by Meridies, Kingdom of). "With the exception of the University of Atlantia, registered in 1982, and the Royal University of Ithra all examples of universities are listed as references, not registered names. Therefore, we consider the name to be generic and thus not needing registering." We feel that this submission is similarly generic and so it must be returned for the same reasons.

[Armory] We believe the submitter's intention may be a "ruined tower". This tower has only small "dents" in sinister chief and dexter base of the tower. This damage barely alters the outline of the charge, so we do not believe it is substantial enough to blazon.

This conflicts with Azure, a chess rook between two compass stars in fess argent (Diaz de la Mancha, 04/98). While technically clear with CD's for type and number of secondaries (there is no difference for type between a tower and a chess rook), the overall effect of the design is a white tower between two charges (vaguely star-like) on a blue field. RfS X.5 reads, "If the tinctures, shapes, or arrangement of the charges in a submission create an overwhelming visual resemblance to a piece of protected armory, the submission may be held to conflict even if sufficient theoretical difference can be counted between them." This rule was written to cover cases such as this.

We believe there should be a CD for type (though not a substantial difference) between a chess rook and a ruined tower. If a resubmission is made with a notably ruined tower, we believe this additional difference would reduce the visual similarity enough for us to forward to Laurel.

[General] At this time, we do not have a petition of support for this registration. We recommend the submitter provide this letter upon resubmission.

Name returned for being too generic to protect. Device returned for conflict.

Calafia, Barony of

Cynthia de Wickersham. New badge. Azure, semy of mittens couped at the wrist and a pearled coronet argent.

Those present at the meeting admitted some difficulty in identifying the mittens. Guesses included hearts and animals, though generally everyone would decide, in the end, that they must be mittens. The goal of armory is to be immediately recognizable, and this emblazon is not quite clear enough. Therefore, this must be returned under RfS VII.7.a. We feel that, if the mittens were drawn with a bit more "cuff", they might be easier to recognize. Mittens have not previously been registered by the SCA College of Arms, though we are confident that they should be registerable as a "period artifact". " RfS VII.3 states, "Artifacts that were known in the period and domain of the Society may be registered in armory, provided they are depicted in their period forms." The "defining registration" of new period artifacts must be accompanied by documentation that the charge qualifies according to the above description. A few photographs of surviving, period mittens should be sufficient. This must be returned for the lack of this documentation as well.

Talitha de Barde. Kingdom resub device. Argent, a chevron sable between two thistles proper and a chalice gules.

[Armory] This was returned by Crescent 12/11/05 for various drawing issues -- "Argent has been represented by either dark gray or silver marker that has then been color photocopied. It is not an acceptable shade (for argent, it is best to leave the area paper white), and makes it very difficult to discern the thistles. Also, the color photocopier used was not very accurate, as colored bands streak across the blazon." The current submission addresses these problems.

Dreiburgen, Barony of

[Name] The submitter is interested in a masculine name authentic for "1100-1300 Scot." He will accept minor but not major changes and if changes must be made he cares most about the sound.

Chad is in R & W (p.89 s.n. Chadd) dated to 1524. It is also found in Withycombe (p. 62, header) as a masculine given name dated to 672 a.d.

MacBean is found in Black (pg. 457, header). This spelling is not dated, but the given name Bean (pg. 62, header) is dated in this spelling to 1428 .

We are unable to date the submitted spelling to 1300, so we are uncertain whether this name is authentic according to the submitter's wishes. It is, however, documented well enough to forward to Laurel.

Franchesca MacBeth. Resub kingdom device. Vert, a Gothic capital letter M Or and a base embattled argent masoned sable.

[Armory] This design was previously returned by Crescent 10/04 for a redraw. The form was undersized and the argent portion of the device was drawn too high, blurring the line between a base and per fess line of division. This emblazon fixes these problems. We would encourage the submitter to draw the crenellations taller (make them squares).

Over one year has passed since the previous return, so this is not a free resubmission.

Order of Precedence Notes

Bibliography

Black, George F. The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning, and History. New York: The New York Public Library, 1946. Ninth printing, 1989. [Black]

Oxford University. The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971. [OED]

Reaney, P. H., and Wilson, R. M. A Dictionary of English Surnames Oxford: Oxford Uni. Press, 3rd ed. 1995. [R&W]