Ansteorran Letter of Intent Postmarked 30 June 1998

Submissions:

1. Allyson Tymmes. 2. Andrew Talbot. 3. Cormac McLachlan McKinnon. 4. David Cade. 5. Diego de Valor. 6. Dub Essa ingen uí Briain. 7. Gavin MacKay. 8. Guillaume de Troyes. 9. Averial Thorhalla and Sören Thurlin. 10. Juliana Vertue. 11. Michael Talon. 12. Philip Hohl. 13. Rhiannon Rædwulf. 14. Tabitha Talon. 15. Vaclav Slovaczek. 16. Wolfger von Sibenbürgen.

By Timothy McDaniel (SCA: Daniel de Lincolia)

Daniel de Lincolia Bordure Herald greets Mistress Jaelle of Armida Laurel Queen of Arms as well as Dame Sionyn Muirgen ni Dhomnall Pelican Queen of Arms and all the College of Arms.

Below, "Talan Gwynek:" means that he wrote the rest of the paragraph.

It is the intent of the Ansteorran College of Heralds to register the following and armory:

1. Allyson Tymmes. and device. Per pale gules and argent, a wyvern statant wings elevated and addorsed Or maintaining in its tail a shepherd's crook, in chief an increscent and a decrescent argent.

New name, new device. Any changes acceptable, and the sound of the name is most important.

Allyson is an English feminine . Spelling variants Alyson dated to 1450 and Allison dated to 1604 under Alison on p. 16 of Withycombe (3rd ed.).

Tymmes is an English dated to 1332 under Timmes on p. 448 of Reaney & Wilson (3rd ed.).

Bryn Gwlad wonders whether "Sejant might be a better description of the monster s position". Should we tell the submitter to draw things (crescents, crook) larger?

2. Andrew Talbot. Name.

New name. Minor changes to grammar / spelling only, and the sound of the name is most important.

Andrew is an English masculine given name dated from the 12th century onwards on p. 23 of Withycombe (3rd ed.) s. n. itself. Though she doesn't date this exact spelling, Reaney & Wilson (3rd ed.) do in 1317 as a surname, s. n. itself, p. 11. Talbot: English surname dated to 1332 in this spelling s. n. itself, p. 439 of Reaney & Wilson (3rd ed.).

3. Cormac McLachlan McKinnon. Name and device. Per chevron dovetailed argent and purpure, three equal-armed Celtic crosses couped plain counterchanged.

New name, new device. Any changes acceptable, and the sound of the name is most important. Submitted as Cormac Lachlan MacKinnon, we made the "" a .

Cormac and Lachlan are both listed in Withycombe on pp. 74 and 190, but no dates are given. O Corrain & Maguire give Cormac as the modern Irish form of Cormacc and date the name to 713, 908, and 1138. Black dates the Lachlann and Lachlin to 1431 and 1436 on p. 410 (under Lachlan). MacKinnon is listed on p. 531 of Black with no date. The variant spelling Makkynnon is dated to 1536, Mackiynnan to 1545, and McKynnand to 1586.

Talan Gwynek: the submitted name is clearly an attempt (intentional or not) at an Englished version of a Gaelic name, and no such Gaelic name could have existed in period. Fortunately, the name can easily be fixed: Cormac M'Lachlan VcKinnon (meaning Cormac son of Lachlann son of Fingon) is a type well-evidenced from the 16th and 17th c. (Black, xlii). One even finds occasional less accurate Englishings of the type represented by John McDonald McMurquhe 1568 (Black s. n. Macmurchie). (This is less accurate because for grammatical reasons the second "mac" is lenited to "mhic", pronounced roughly //vick//, and this lenition isn't represented in McMurquhe.) Thus, Cormac McLachlan McKinnon is possible, though less likely. [He actually used backslashes, but I can't represent them in my text processor, so I use "//" instead.]

4. David Cade. Name and device. Or, on a bend sinister vert, a rose argent.

New name, new device. Any changes acceptable.

David: English masculine given name dated in this spelling (s. n. itself) to 1196 on p. 80 of Withycombe (3rd ed.). Cade: English surname dated in this form to 1140 s. n. Cadd on p. 79 of Reaney & Wilson (3rd ed.).

5. Diego de Valor. Device. Gules, in pale a caravel under full sail reversed and two swords in saltire Or.

New device.

6. Dub Essa ingen uí Briain. Name. Minor changes to grammar and spelling only, and drop a part if necessary to register name. Submitted as Dub Essa ni Bhriain, we used Talan Gwynek's early-period suggestion.

Dub Essa: Gaelic feminine given name common in the 13th and 14th centuries, found on p. 78 of O Corrain & Maguire (2nd ed.).

"ni Bhrian" is a "Gaelic patronymic byname constructed using the masculine name Brian. Variants found in MacLysaght (6th ed.) and on p. 442 of Woulfe (special ed. [?]) Construction of name supported by e-mail from Tangwystyl dated 23 Feb 1998." However, Asterisk Herald notes, "Tangwystyl's documentation for this name actually uses the early modern Irish form of the given name, Du[i?]bheasa, while the submitter has replaced this with the early Irish form from O Corrain and Maguire.".

Talan Gwynek: I could be wrong, but I find it hard to believe that Tangwystyl gave her approval to this name in exactly this form. Dub Essa is an early spelling, from no later than about the 12th c. Like the one in Bhriain, the "b" in Dub is actually lenited, as may be seen by the later spellings, Dubh Easa and Duibheasa, also given by O Corrain & Maguire. After c. 1200 this lenition came to be indicated in the spelling. Here, though, we see it indicated in the patronymic but not in the forename. Middle Irish and Common Classical Gaelic spelling weren't perfectly consistent, of course, but the examples that I've seen were certainly more consistent than this.

Cont.: There is also a problem with "ní": despite numerous registrations, mostly before any of us knew better, it isn't a period Irish word. It's a contraction of "inghean uí", "daughter of Ó ..."; and though there's some evidence in the form of late-period phonetic Englishings that "inghean uí" was often being pronounced //nee// by c. 1600, it appears that in writing the full form was still used. (In English documents of 1603--4 we find the phrase spelled phonetically as "ny" and "ne" (Ewen, 210).) A reasonable late-period Irish form of the name is Duibheasa inghean uí Bhriain, pronounced more or less //DIV-ya-sa nee VREE-ahn//, or possibly Dubh Easa inghean uí Bhriain. A couple of centuries earlier the name would have been written about the same way, but "inghean uí" would have been pronounced in full, roughly //IN-yen ee//.

Cont.: If she wants to keep Dub Essa in that form, she needs to the patronymic: Dub Essa ingen uí Briain. Despite the spelling changes, the patronymic is still approximately //IN- yen ee VREE-ahn//.

He actually used backslashes, but I can't represent them in my text processor, so I use "//" instead.

7. Gavin MacKay. Name and device. Argent, a falcon contourny vert, on a chief embattled sable a sword reversed Or.

New name, new device. Any changes acceptable.

Gavin: English masculine given name dated to 1604 on p. 127 (s. n. Gawain) of Withycombe (3rd ed.). Black s. n. Rait, Rais has examples of it from 1477 and 1577.

McCay is dated to 1506 on p. 292 of Reaney & Wilson, 3rd ed. (s. n. Mackay); Black has it too. Talan Gwynek: In combination with Mackai 1619 this is sufficient to justify the submitted form, though the latter is not at all typical of late-period Englishings. Gavin MacKay is at least possible as a 16th c. form.

8. Guillaume de Troyes. Name.

New name. Make no changes at all of any kind.

Guillaume: French masculine given name listed s. n. William on pp. 293--4 of Withycombe (3rd ed.), though dated neither there nor in Dauzat. Troyes: Encyclopaedia Brittanica, copyright 1943, vol. 22, p. 505 dates it 426 A. D. to present. Bryn Gwlad says "Chretien de Troyes was a famous 13th century troubadour.". Reaney & Wilson, p. 455 (s. n. Troy), date "de Troys" to 1276 and "de Troie" to 1200. So to me it looks like at least a standard modern form.

9. Averial Thorhalla and Sören Thurlin. Household name, House Norwald.

New household name. Minor changes to grammar / spelling only. "Norwald: Possible later form of Old English place-name meaning `north wood'. E-mail from Talan Gwynek cites period examples of the loss of `th' before a second element beginning with `w' and of the variant spellings of the element `wald', all derived from Ekwall." Johnson's Place Names of England and Wales, p. 383 (under Northwold), dates Nordwolde to 1200, Norwolde to 1220, and Northwaude to 1225.

10. Juliana Vertue. Name.

New name. Any changes acceptable. Submitted as Julianna Vertue, we dropped the extra "n" to get a documented spelling per Talan.

Juliana is an English feminine given name dated in this spelling to 1196 s. n. Julian(a) on p. 184 of Withycombe (3rd ed.). Vertue: English surname dated to 1674 as Vertue and 1510 as Vertu under Virtue on p. 468 of Reaney & Wilson (3rd ed.). Talan Gwynek: Bardsley s. n. Virtue has Christopher Vertue 1617--18, which at least brings the desired spelling well back into the Grey Area.

11. Michael Talon. Name.

New name. Any changes acceptable.

Michael: English masculine given name dated in this spelling to 1196--1215 s. n. itself on pp. 218--9 of Withycombe (3rd ed.) Talon: English surname dated in this spelling to 1160 s. n. Tallon on p. 439 of Reaney & Wilson (3rd ed.)

12. Philip Hohl. Name and device. Azure, a still Or.

New name, new device. Minor changes to grammar / spelling.

Talan Gwynek's collection from Bahlow's Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch (available at Laurel's web page) includes Philip dated to 1362. Hohl is a German surname cited on pp. 781 and 420 of Georg Olms, Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch (Verlagsbuchandlung Hildesheim: 1966).

No armory had been registered as of 4/98 using the term "still". Da'ud ibn Auda writes, "For those who are unfamiliar with the primary charge, it appears in Elvin's A Dictionary of Heraldry, Plate 39, item 30.1. It may also be found in Parker's A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, p. 204, cf. Distillatory, where he notes that it appears in the crest of Wynington, London. The drawing for this one was taken directly from Elvin."

("Fill Hole"? Just be glad he didn't try for Philip Stiller!)

13. Rhiannon Rædwulf. Name and device. Argent, a wolf's pawprint gules within a bordure embattled purpure.

New name, new device. Minor changes to grammar / spelling only. Submitted as Rhiannon Redwolf, we at least tried to get the byname into period.

Rhiannon: you know. Searle, p. 394, dates Rædwulf to 556, 792, and 884.

Talan Gwynek: The case made for Redwolf [the original form] is essentially non- existent: the fact that there are forenames that use cognates of English "wolf" is altogether irrelevant to the acceptability of Redwolf as a byname. In fact I see no real case to be made here: though either element individually would make a fine byname, the compound Redwolf is thoroughly implausible on semantic grounds. (Note that it isn't enough to find bynames of the form "color" + "animal", since all such combinations are by no means equally plausible.)

I gather that Rædwulf is our attempt to at least get something that looks close to the original. Wouldn't it "mean" "wise wolf" (as much as any name "means" anything)? Did Anglo-Saxon do unnmarked ? The "Font-names as Bynames" section of Reaney & Wilson 3rd ed. (p. xxi-xxii) shows examples from Suffolk c. 1095, all English.

I think the "red wolf" is a North American subspecies. If so, that's not productive of such a byname. --You may wish to know that the submitter chose this surname because she owns a red-and-white husky whose persona, she explains, is a wolf. Or you may not wish.

14. Tabitha Talon. Name.

New name. Minor changes to grammar / spelling only, and the sound of the name is most important.

Withycombe dates Tabitha only to the 17th Century. Talon, er, Talan Gwynek: Brooke, J. M. S., and A. W. C. Hallen, The Transcript of the Registers of the United Parishes of S. Mary Woolnoth and S. Mary Woolchurch Haw, in the City of London, from their Commencement 1538 to 1760 (London: Bowles & Sons, 1886) have Tabytha 1547 from S. Mary Woolnoth. (Mind you, this makes the 1160 date for the surname pretty useless; indeed, I'd be a bit surprised to find that this specific form actually survived into the 16th c.)

Talon is an English surname dated in this spelling to 1160 s. n. Tallon on p. 439 of Reaney & Wilson (3rd ed.)

15. Vaclav Slovaczek. Name.

New name. Any changes acceptable, and the meaning of the name is most important. Submitted as Vaclav Slova Czek, documented just like it looks: a Czech name for a Slovak plus a tribal name of Czechy (meaning Czech?). This seemed nonsensical to us, the concept of "Czechoslovakia" dating only from the 19th Century, and we thought he was claiming to be both a Czeck and a Slovak. I gather we used the licence of "any changes" to change to the documentable surname above, per Talan Gwynek's idea.

Vaclav: Czech masculine given name dated to the 10th century under Wenceslaus on p. 339 of Donald Attwater, The Avenal Dictionary of Saints (New York: Avenal Books, 1965) and p. 584 of John Delaney, Dictionary of Saints (New York: Doubleday, 1980).

Talan Gwynek: Hanks & Hodges [Talan!] (Surnames s. n. Slovák) give Slová{cv}ek as a of Slovák, which is a term for someone from Slovakia. Here {cv} stands for "c" with a hachek, or inverted circumflex, over it. I believe that before Jan Hus reformed Czech spelling in the 16th c. this was written "cz" (as it still is in Polish). I can't guarantee that it s period, but Slovák in some form is: Taszyckiego s. n. S{l/}owak has Slowak 1426, Stanislaus Slowak 1478, etc. (Here {l/} represents the Polish slashed-L, and the reference is to Witolda Taszyckiego, S{l/}ownik Staropolskich Nazw Osobowych, 6 vols. (Wroc{l/}aw: Zaklad Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich Wydawnictwo Polskeij Akademii Nauk, 1965--1982). I suspect that the diminutive is also period, in which case it should be registerable as Slovaczek.

Cont.: Taszyckiego s. n. Wi{e,}ces{l/}aw has citations showing that a Polish form of Vaclav is also period: Waczslaw 1305 and many times thereafter, Vaczlaw 1491. (Here "cz" has the sound /ts/.) While I'd obviously like better evidence, I see no reason to think that Vaclav Slovaczek isn't a possible late-period Eastern European name.

16. Wolfger von Sibenbürgen. Name and badge. Vert, a winged wolf rampant contourny argent sustaining a quill pen Or.

New name, new badge. Minor changes to grammar / spelling only and the sound of the name is most important.

Wolfger: German masculine given name. Wolfger was Bishop of Passau from 1191 to 1204. Found on p. 105 under Pilgerin in George T. Gillespie, A Catalogue of Persons Named in German Heroic Literature (700--1600) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973). Wolfgêr also appears in an 8th century German document cited on p. 151 of Gillespie. Bahlow, Deutsches Namenlexicon, p. 621, lists Wolfger as a rare Old German with no date.

von Sibenbürgen: German locative byname found in a German document c. 1300 under Marholt on p. 92 of Gillespie.

There were 22 paid items and no free submissions, for a total of 22 items. A cheque for $88 will be sent separately. Written this xxxth day of June 1998, at Bryn Gwlad. By your most humble and obedient,