ANSTEORRAN COLLEGE OF HERALDS
Collated Commentary on IloI 0998
Unto the Ansteorran College of Heralds does Perronnelle Charrette de La Tour du Pin, Retiarius Pursuivant, make most courteous greetings.
For information on commentary submission formats or to receive a copy of the collated commentary, you can contact me at:
Charlene Charette
15910 Valverde Drive, Houston, TX 77083
281/277-4055 (11am-10pm)
Commenters for this issue:
Breichiol map Lludd – Elfsea
Gawain of Miskbridge – Green Anchor Herald
Steppes – Attending and assisting with the commentary were: Da’ud ibn Auda (al-Jamal) and Borek Vitalievich Volkov (Eclipse). [Comments labeled as "I" are from Da’ud.]
Bryn Gwlad – Commenters this month were Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, Diarmuid mac Ruis, Daniel de Lincoln, Magdalena da Cadamosto, Pegasus Devona, and Gwenllian ferch Maredudd. Items for which we had no comments and found no conflicts have been omitted. Conflicts were checked against the 7th edition Ordinary. References used include O Corrain & Maguire’s Gaelic Personal Names; Black’s The Surnames of Scotland; Woulfe’s Irish Names and Surnames; Bardsley’s A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames; MacLysaght’s Surnames of Ireland; De Felice’s Dizionario dei Nomi Italiani; Bahlow’s Deutsches Namenlexicon (English trans); A Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry as Used in the SCA; and various Laurel precedents.
Talan Gwynek – Fause Lozenge
Falcon's Keep (Midrealm) – Commenters: Lady Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin and Odd Beeslayer Oddson (Border Downs deputy pursuivant). I had hope to research a few of the items a little more thoroughly, but time constraints caused by school and work prevented me from doing so.
1. Aislynn Blackhart (Wastelands)
New Name; New Device Proposed Blazon: Argent, a heart sable, on a chief doubly-enarched gules a sea axe fesswise reversed argent.
Gawain
[Name] "I" and "y" are not so freely interchangeable in Irish as they are in English. This variant needs to be documented.
[Device] The sword is not a "sea axe". Furthermore, it's conventionally drawn with the bite out of the back of the sword rather than out of the back of the point as emblazoned here.
Steppes
[Device] The charge on the chief is a seax, not a "sea axe". The latter would have a fish tail, scales, and probably smell of caviar.
Bryn Gwlad
[Name] Aislinn is listed in O Corrain & Maguire as cited in the documentation and also on p. 216 of Woulfe. However, both sources list it as the Gaelic spelling, and so it cannot be used with an English surname. The English variants given in O Corrain & Maguire are Elsha, Alice, and Esther. In addition, there is no support for the "i" to "y" switch in Gaelic as there would be in English. Bardsley, p. 106, lists Blackcow and Blacklamb, but suggests that they are not derived from black animals. Blacklamb, for example, he says means, "the naughty, the bad."
[Device] The charge on the chief is a seax, and it is inverted and reversed. No conflicts found.
Talan Gwynek
[Name] From a recent Academy of S. Gabriel Final Report:
Unfortunately, we have found no evidence for Aislinn, in any spelling, as a feminine Irish name in period. It was a fairly common name in Ireland in the 19th century [1], but we have no sources that say when the name was first used, or whether it was used at all before 1600. The name Aislinge or Aislingthe is a masculine name in early Irish literature, and so would not be appropriate as a woman's name [1,2].
Reference [1] is Ó Corráin & Maguire, and [2] is O’Brien’s Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae. (Note that her apparent belief that Aislynn is an Irish spelling is certainly incorrect, since Irish doesn’t use the y.) Even if the name was used, Aislynn is probably not possible as an English spelling, since it represents the wrong pronunciation. A late-period phonetic Englishing might have been Ashlin(n), Ashlyn(n), or the like, had the name been in use. There is, however, a very similar name that was in use in medieval England: Acelina, which can be found in my collection from Reaney & Wilson. Citations include Acelina 1195, Ascelina 1195, 1205, 1207, 1210, 1214, 1228, and Asselyna c.1230.
The Jönsjö citation doesn’t support Blackhart: it, like others of the same type, names a domestic or barnyard animal. Moreover, there are enough examples to make it very unlikely that this pattern is coincidental, so the generalization to
In short, the name as submitted is thoroughly inauthentic, but Asselyna Blakherte would be quite reasonable as a 13th c. English feminine name.
The charge on the chief is a seax reversed and inverted. (And the pronunciation is closer to that of sax than to that of sea axe!)
Falcon's Keep
[Name] Unfortunately, there is no evidence that
[Device] With the device, I did not find any conflicts on the on-line OandA. Looks good, but perhaps a little modern.
2. Isobel Grace Hadleigh (Bjornsborg)
New Device; Name Registered 04/98
Proposed Blazon: Azure, on a bend invected argent, a salamander queue-forche tergiant embowed counter-ermine enflamed proper.
Breichiol map Lludd
[Device] Nice device except for the queue-forche. Personally, I do not believe a salamander queue-forche is in a period style.
Gawain
[Device] This seems to be something in between the heraldic monster and the natural amphibian. 'Twere best if it were one or the other.
Steppes
[Device] The blazon says that the flames are "proper". Are they really? Flames "proper" have alternating tongues of red and yellow.
The salamander is not simply "embowed"; if we are going to be that specific about its posture (and I’m not certain that we really need to), it is embowed counter-embowed.
Blazon fu: Azure, on a bend invected argent a salamander tergiant queue-forchy counter- ermine enflamed [proper?].
Talan Gwynek
[Device] We have generally preferred the English spelling: queue-forchy. This is a minor feature, so it would normally follow the posture, and the embowing is an artistic detail that really needn’t be mentioned: Azure, on a bend invected argent a salamander tergiant queue-forchy counter- ermine enflamed proper.
Falcon's Keep
[Device] This bend is awfully wide. That’s nice! But I don’t think I could reproduce it from just the blazon.
3. James Parker (Wastelands)
New Name; New Device
Proposed Blazon: Per bend sinister argent and ermine, a bend sinister gules between a caravel proper and a sealion Or. Asterisk note: The caravel is solid brown.
Gawain
[Device] I'm a little dubious about parting a field of argent and ermine, but since the halves are separated by the bend sinister, it's probably okay. HOWEVER, the sea-lion is metal on metal by our rules, and the caravel is apparently drawn with brown sails, which doesn't sound really proper to me. Of course if it were drawn with white or yellowish sails, it couldn't be placed on the argent field.
Steppes
[Name] James Parker is, of course, the author of one of the better heraldic dictionaries, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry.
[Device] Umm, is the caravel all brown, including the sails? We’re not at all sure that such can be done. Generally, sails are argent, but they would disappear against the argent field here. Still, something like a caravel proper sailed azure would work just fine. We just don’t believe it can reasonably be a caravel proper sailed brown.
The sealion is metal on metal (Or on ermine). RfS VIII.2. specifically notes that: "Ermined furs or field treatments on a background of one of these tinctures are treated as colors for contrast in the Society. The metals are argent and Or (white or silver, and yellow or gold). Ermined furs or field treatments on a background of one of those tinctures are treated as metals for contrast in the Society." (If the sails of the caravel really are brown, perhaps he could be convinced to change them to an heraldic tincture while he’s changing the tincture of the sealion.)
Bryn Gwlad
[Name] Bardsley, p. 584, dates this spelling of Parker to 1570. [Device] The sea lion is metal on metal so the device must be returned. The bend needs to be much wider, and the caravel’s sails have to be of an heraldic tincture rather than brown.
Talan Gwynek
[Name] Bardsley s.n. Parker notes Hugh Parker 1570.
[Device] Somehow I don’t think that the James Parker of the Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry would be greatly impressed by this coat! I doubt that a caravel proper is really solid brown: this seems an unlikely tincture for the sails.
Falcon's Keep
[Name] Excellent name! Though it would be even better as
[Device] Looks good to me.
4. Jelyan of Linisfanre (Shadowlands)
New Decvce; Name appears on IloI 06/98
Proposed Blazon: Per saltire gules and vert, a cross of Calatrava and on a chief Or a dancers bell vert between two dancers bells gules.
Gawain
[Device] I have a problem with the soorted tinctures of bells. This makes me think of the "similar but different" stricture that forbids, say, swords and daggers together. I'd really like to see some period examples of idential tertiary charges of assorted tinctures.
Steppes
[Device] Umm, the only "dancer’s bell" we could find at all previously registered was an Oriental dancer’s bell, registered once in 1978. The charges on the chief here are defined as hawk’s bells (see Pictorial Dictionary, 2nd ed., #47). Having the center bell of a different tincture from its two mates is certainly a weirdness, but is probably not sufficient on its own to prevent registration.
Bryn Gwlad
[Device] The Pict-Dict gives says that a dancer’s bell is an alternative term for a hawk’s bell. The bells could be more succinctly blazoned as "a dancer’s bell vert between two more gules." No conflicts found.
Talan Gwynek
[Device] The charges on the chief are dancer’s bells: note the apostrophe. There’s an 8/78 blazon that uses the term oriental dancer’s bell, which may or may not be the same charge. Otherwise we have consistently registered this charge as a hawk’s bell.
5. Méabh ni Rósaich (Wastelands)
New Name; New Device
Proposed Blazon: Vert, a chevron and in base a triquetra argent.
Breichiol map Lludd
[Name] The name Rose in period derived from the same root as horse, the early forms are ROESE, ROHESE. Reference Withycombe entries on ROSE, ROSAMUND, ROSALIND, etc. Suggest that either ROESE be phonetically translated into Gaelic, or the form of the name be changed to be 'of the Rose(s)' without the suggestion of ROSE as a name. On the other hand, not all patronymics or matronymics were formed from proper names. Would a nickname be acceptable in this position in period Gaelic practice?
Gawain
[Name] O'C&M have been misquoted. What they say is that "Medb" was one of the twenty most popular names in later medieval Ireland, and that the submitted form is a Modern Irish spelling. My 6th edition of MacLysaght doesn't have the surname on p. 191, but does have "Rose" on p. 260, where it is said to be a surmane of English origin appearing in Ireland as early as the 14th C. He makes no reference to an Irish given name form for this to be a metronymic from. O'C&M, p. 156, say that "Róis" is an Irish version of "Rose", but I've no idea what the genitive form that would be used in a metronymic would be. BTW "ní" is a late Modern Irish form of "ingen".
Steppes
[Device] No conflicts found.
Bryn Gwlad
[Device] Close to, but clear of, Megan Silverstar, "Vert, a chevron throughout and in base a mullet of eight points argent," with a CD for a chevron vs. a chevron throughout and one for changing the type of the secondary.
Talan Gwynek
[Name] When the last headword for an article in Ó Corráin & Maguire is missing a consonant that appears in the first (early) form and also appears followed by h in the first form after the colon, you can be quite sure that the last form is modern, a result of the 20th c. spelling reform. This is the case with Méabh. Up to c.1200 the name typically appears as Medb; thereafter, Meadhbh is the standard spelling. (The transition of course is not so abrupt as this wording might suggest.) Depending on the rest of the name (and, ideally, on her persona, if any) she will want one or the other of these two forms.
The next problem is the use of a metronymic. S. Gabriel knows of only two possible examples of Gaelic metronymics, both of which are clearly special cases. The first is Donnchad m. ingeni Máel Choluim ‘Duncan, son of the daughter of Malcolm’ (O’Brien, 162 c 44); further examination of the genealogy shows that this is Duncan I, son of the daughter of Malcolm II of Scotland. Note that the daughter is not named, and the purpose of including her is to tie Duncan into the earlier Scottish royal genealogy. Thus, this example isn’t support for an actual metronymic byname in Gaelic.
The second is more interesting but not really any more useful to the submitter. Aldfrith, king of Northumbria from 685 to 705, was the son of Oswiu, king of Northumbria, and Fína, daughter of Colmán Rímid, an Irish high king. When Oswiu died in 670, Aldfrith was passed over in favor of his brother Ecgfrith. Unfortunately for him, he took an obvious interest in Northumbrian politics and according to William of Malmesbury was forced to seek exile in Ireland, where he appears in record as Flann Fína. (This is from Alfred P. Smyth, Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80 - 1000, The New History of Scotland, vol. 1, ed. Jenny Wormald (London: Edward Arnold, 1984), pp. 128-9.) This construction, with a forename followed by an apparently uninflected forename, is otherwise not attested in Gaelic. If Fína is in fact being used here as a metronymic, the intent is clearly to tie the man to what the Irish would have considered the important part of his ancestry. A possible motivation for the otherwise unexampled construction is the fact that Flann Fína can be construed as a meaningful phrase, ‘wine-red’.
In short, there’s no evidence for Gaelic metronymics in ordinary names. In the two available examples in which someone is described as the son of his mother, the reference clearly has princely dynastic implications. In one of them the mother isn’t even named, and in the other the byname is of an otherwise completely unexampled kind. Even by SCA standards this is not support for general use of Gaelic metronyms.
Moreover, there are no known family names of Ó based on feminine forenames, so Ó Rósaich is unjustified even if Rósaich proves to be the genitive of a period feminine name. Since ní Rósaich is a contraction of inghean uí Rósaich ‘daughter of Ó Rósaich’, this means that ní Rósaich is also unjustified. And ní is a post-period contraction at that.
Finally, there seem to be problems with Rósaich itself, starting with the fact that I can’t find it anywhere on p.191 of MacLysaght. (I checked the page in his Irish Families and More Irish Families as well as Surnames of Ireland.) I also couldn’t find it anywhere in Surnames of Ireland among the surnames beginning with R or in any of the reasonable places to look in Woulfe. Rósaich looks like a genitive from a hypothetical rósach, for which I can find no evidence in Irish Gaelic. Moreover, since the 13th c. or so, Irish Gaelic would turn a noun rósach into rósaigh in the genitive, not rósaich; the -aich form is Scots Gaelic. (Early Irish had both -aich and -aig, the latter an earlier spelling of -aigh, but the former was at some point discarded.) Dwelly does have ròsach in Scots Gaelic as an adjective meaning ‘rosy, red as a rose’, of which the genitive singular feminine form is ròsaiche, but an adjective makes no sense in context.
According to Ó Corráin & Maguire, the feminine Irish name usually associated with English Rose is Róis, Róisa, or Rós. (Woulfe gives the first two forms.) This is originally unrelated to the flower word, but the two came to be associated quite early. Ó Corráin & Maguire say that the name was in use among the O Kanes of Ulster in the 16th c. If one were to ignore the fact that the Irish didn’t use metronymics, one could in Irish describe a Maeve who was the daughter of a Rose as Meadhbh inghean Róis.
Falcon's Keep
[Name] Looks good.
6. Mór Cochrane (Shadowlands)
New Name Steppes
[Name] "This is being returned for combining a fully Gaelic name with an English name." (Jaelle of Armida, LoAR October 1996, p. 9) "Submitted as Adela Mac An Bhacstair it combines Gaelic and English in the same language. Therefore, we have made the entire name Gaelic." (Jaelle of Armida, LoAR December 1996, p. 3) "This name is being returned for mixing Gaelic and non- Gaelic spellings . This needs to have either an Anglicized form of the forename or a Gaelic form of the surname." (Jaelle of Armida, LoAR December 1996, p. 17) This name suffers from exactly the same difficulty.
Bryn Gwlad
[Name] Mór is also found on p. 213 of Woulfe, who gives the English spelling as More. Cochrane is found on p. 49 of MacLysaght with no date. Black, p. 158, dates Cochran to 1415 and de Cochrane to 1360.
Talan Gwynek
[Name] Cochrane is a Scottish locative surname referring to Cochrane in Renfrewshire. I can find no indication that it has a Gaelic origin. (Its origin might in any case be difficult to determine, since the name has changed form considerably. The earliest form shown by Black is de Coueran 1262, a form seen also in de Coweran 1346 and de Cowran’ 1369.) There is, so far as we know, no possibility of a non-Gaelic Cochrane being given a Gaelic forename in period. Even if we had a Gaelic form of the place-name, it would be an unlikely byname in Gaelic, since Gaelic rarely used locative bynames. And of course the Gaelic spelling Mór and the non-Gaelic spelling Cochrane would not have been combined in a period document, for which reason we disallow such combinations for registration.
Ó Corráin & Maguire s.n. Mór say that at some point before the 19th c. Mór was Latinized as Marina and Englished as Martha and Agnes. The Latinization is doubtless early and for all I know persisted throughout the Middle Ages. The Englishing as Martha is probably at best late- period: the earliest examples of the name that I can find in Great Britain are all from the second half of the 16th c. The Englishing to Agnes, on the other hand, would have been possible at an early date, since Agnes was common at least from the 12th c. An Agnes Cochrane would be fine, but I doubt that it’s what the lady had in mind!
To go with Cochrane she really needs a non-Gaelic name. One possibility that preserves part of the sound is Mary, which is well-evidenced in Scotland in a variety of forms. One is Mare; doubtless it was pronounced like Mary despite the appearance. It’s found dated to 1547 in Black s.n. Macphail.
7. Philippe L'Heureux (Tempio)
New Name; New Device
Proposed Blazon: Purpure semy of horseshoes inverted argent.
Breichiol map Lludd
[Name] I no longer have access to my source on period French, but if my memory serves me the period form would be "le Heureux" in spelling. Later period pronunciation would be the same as modern, but the spelling would still be le Heureux. Does this word have the same meaning in period times as in modern?
[Device] The only really period looking device this month, let us hope it passes.
Gawain
[Name] Don't see the epithet in Dauzat, for what that's worth.
Talan Gwynek
[Name] A book like Huizenga’s can pretty much be counted upon to modernize and standardize spellings, so it tells us only that some form of Philippe was in use in 14th c. France. In both France and England the vernacular form had e in the first syllable. For instance, the Paris Tax Roll of 1292 has Phelipe de Pontaise and Phelippe l’escremisseeur, not to mention the masculine diminutives Phelipot and Phelippot and the feminine Phelipote; there are no Phil- forms. For English examples see Reaney & Wilson s.n. Philip. Philippe may well have occurred as a medieval variant, however, and by the end of our period I’m sure that it can be found.
The byname
Falcon's Keep
[Device] Aryanhwy: I wonder if the connection between luck and horseshoes is period. I found no conflicts on the on-line OandA. Looks good.
8. Rolf the Dane (Bjornsborg)
Device - Appeal of Kingdom Return; Name Registered 05/95
Proposed Blazon: Argent, three roundels one and two purpure, azure, and vert.
Gawain
[Device] It's my opinion that it was Laurel that was in error on the cited registration, not the Ansteorran College in rejecting this one.
Steppes
[Device] Based on the February 1998 registration, it appears the submitter has good grounds for appeal.
Bryn Gwlad
[Device] Laurel’s conclusion on the device cited in the appeal is that the multi-colored roundels were one weirdness so this device is most likely registerable as well. No conflicts found.
Talan Gwynek [Device] The 2/98 registration mentioned in the ILoI certainly seems to be adequate precedent for this design. The Ansteorran CoH can either support the appeal, oppose it, or abstain. Given the examples that I cited when it came through the first time (and which I repeat below), and given further the very non-period armory that we register every month, I don’t think that it would be appropriate to oppose the appeal. If the roundels were two and one, I’d actively support it. As it is, I’d have to do a lot more research to decide whether to support it or to abstain, and I just don’t have the time.
The Dictionary of British Arms (I:264) has Geffray Saltenor, Or, two lions passant gardant the first azure the second gules and Gefrai Dabitot (Geoffrey Abitot), Or, two lions passant gardant the first gules the second azure. Ibid. (I:296) has Estudeley, Barry argent and gules, three wolves rampant the two in chief sable and the one in base azure.
Falcon's Keep
[Device] Given the recent registration cited, I would support this appeal. No way, no how. I believe that the College was not in error. How would someone know from the blazon which roundel was which color? {Retiarius Note: Falcon's Keep's commentary is from two commenters.}
9. Tanea de Verloren (Namron)
New Name; New Device
Proposed Blazon: Azure, on a bend sinister argent, three fleur-de-lys paleswise sable, between a compass rose inverted and a sun Or.
Breichiol map Lludd
[Name] Needs more documentation. Also please put the Dutch into a period form, if possible.
[Device] The difference between a compass rose and a compass rose inverted is within artistic interpretation. Not a good device, but registrable.
Gawain
[Name] I don't follow the reasoning here. She is citing a documented French name "Tane" and the existence of several names from miscellaneous languages to support the coining of this one? Variant spellings are different ways of representing the same sounds; the submitted form would almost certainly be pronounced differently in French from the authentic one, just as it would be in English. And then she is appending a (modern?) Dutch epithet. Hmm.
[Device] One of the distinguishing marks of a compass rose is the fleur-de-lys marking north. Inverting the charge makes it a good deal less recognizable, especially as it is doubtful whether it ever actually appears in period heraldry. The tertiary charges are normally blazoned last: "Azure, on a bend sinister argent between …, three fleurs-de-lys…"
Steppes
[Name] "The name is being returned because of the first 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. The submitter did not permit any changes that would drop the Arronious part, so we have had to return the name." (Jaelle of Armida, LoAR October 1996, p. 8) I believe "the Lost" suffers from the same basic problem. It is not a period-style epithetical byname, not even in Dutch. [Device] The plural of "fleur-de-lys" is fleurs-de-lys. The normal grammar of blazon places all of the charges lying directly on the field (save for peripheral charges) before the charges on charges. Azure, on a bend sinister argent between a compass rose and sun Or three fleurs-de-lys palewise sable.
[Device] Conflict with Michael Anwyl, Azure, on a bend sinister argent between two suns Or three pheons palewise inverted sable. There is a CD for the change to type of one half of the secondary charge group, but because this submission is not "simple armory" as defined in RfS X.4.j.ii., nothing for the change to type only of the tertiary charges.
Bryn Gwlad
[Name] De Felice, p. 340, lists Tania as a feminine give name. Bahlow, p. 579 (under Verlohr), dates the surname Verloren to 1396.
[Device] Reblazon as "Azure, on a bend sinister argent between a compass rose inverted and a sun Or, three fleur-de-lys palewise sable." With four tinctures and four types of charges, this device has a complexity count of eight, right at the edge of our rule-of-thumb limit. However, the arrangement is a standard one, and it is probably registerable. No conflicts found.
Talan Gwynek
[Name] Eh? Dulcinea and Idonea are attested forms, and Linnea was registered once, in 8/79. And her argument makes no sense anyway without a showing that Dulcine, Idone, and Linne are attested period names. The first and third aren’t, so far as I know. There is 1327 example of Idone, but it’s clear from the rest of the evidence that this is either a misreading or scribal error or a comparatively rare instance of final -e intended to be fully pronounced: the vernacular form of the name was Idony.
However, the lady has made another mistake that she might consider more important. The relevant names in Colm’s collection are Messire Tan le lombart and Tane le lombart. The compilers of the 1292 Paris Tax Roll seem to have been quite scrupulous in giving women feminine forms of bynames; compare, for instance, Jehanne la Normande, Marguerin la Lohorrainne, and Osane la Picarde, all women, with Thoma le Normant, Tierri le Loorrain, and Renaut le Picart, all men. If this Tane person had been a woman, the name would have been recorded as Tane la Lombarde or the like. Moreover, it’s very likely that Tane and Tan are the same name, and the latter is clearly masculine: Messire Tan. (Given their byname, I suspect an Italian origin for Tan(e). De Felice has a man’s name Tano; he says that it’s a short form of Gaetano, though I think that a direct Germanic origin is also possible As usual he has no dates, but the Florentine Catasto of 1427 has two instances of the name Tano, once for a head of household and once for the father of a head of household.)
The byname isn’t as bad as one might think. Bahlow s.n. Verlohr has Hans Verloren 1396 and Halbverloren 1429 ‘half lost’(!), and I shouldn’t be surprised to find the same construction in Dutch. (It should be noted, however, that according to Brechenmacher s.nn. Verlohr(en), Verlorensohn, the first of these may be locative or metronymic; in the latter case it’s a dialect form of ‘Frau Lore’.) However, it doesn’t mean what she thinks: it’s a byname for a foundling. I haven’t made much of a study of the matter, but in my experience the Dutch article is much more likely to be used with bynames that are nouns than with adjectival ones; since Dutch use of the byname is at this point conjectural to begin with, I’d be strongly inclined to drop the article.
The only remaining question is whether a French forename (or perhaps a French form of an Italian forename) can reasonably be combined with a Dutch byname. Walraven’s collection of names from the records of the archers’ guild of Bruges has a number of examples, e.g., Guillaume van den Busschette and Jaques van Hoogheweghe, in which the forename is identifiably a French form and the byname equally clearly Dutch. On this basis one could probably make a case for a man’s name Tane Verloren, though the Bruges data are rather later than those from Paris.
It should be noted that the same collection has the names Tanne Adornes Jacobs and Tanne Antone Damast, so Tanne Verloren might also be justified. It’s not clear quite what’s going on here; there are very few three-element names of just this type in the collection. Having got this far, though, I can’t resist speculating a bit. The others are Jan Lopez Gallo, Anthone Ville Francke, Cornelis Gerardus Vynaert, and Margareta Wylliers Candy. (I’ve excluded self- explanatory types like X Y de/van Z.) The last two I’m inclined to think are like Jan fs Boudins Jooris without an explicit f[iliu]s ‘son (of)’ or f[ili]a ‘daughter (of)’. The first appears to be foreign, the obvious guess being Spanish. And the remaining one of the four has every appearance of being improperly classified: Ville Francke is almost certainly not two unrelated elements but rather a single place-name, now usually spelled Villefranche in France. Dauzat & Rostaing have quite a few examples.
Tanne Antone Damast appears to be like Cornelis Gerardus Vynaert; I’d guess that Tanne’s father was Antone Damast. Tanne Adornes Jacobs is harder to interpret, since Adornes occurs in the collection only as a byname (in which function it occurs several times). It’s interesting to note, however, that De Felice has a forename Adorno, attested as early as the 13th c. in the Latinized form Adornus. It’s another example of the class of names intended to bring good fortune on the child, since it means ‘adorned’. I have no idea whether the Bruges byname Adornes has anything to do with the Italian name, but it’s worth noting that Adorno Giacobo or the like would in fact be a possible Italian name and that Antone could easily represent an Italian Antonio. I don’t for a moment claim that these names are in fact Dutch versions of Italian names, but if Tanne here has anything to do with the French Tan(e), they do nothing to reduce the possibility of some such connection. (In fact I think it at least as likely that an old Germanic hypocoristic is involved; such a name could show anywhere the Continental Germanic naming influence was strong, certainly including France, northern Italy, and the Low Countries.)
At any rate, the name is impossible in its present form. It’s probably registerable as Tan(n)e Verloren, but that is definitely a masculine name and shouldn’t be sent to Laurel without the lady’s explicit consent.
[Device] There’s a small spelling error and an extra pair of commas in the blazon, which in any case is out of order; it should read Azure, on a bend sinister argent between a compass rose inverted and a sun or three fleurs-de-lis palewise sable. I don’t think that the two secondary charges violate the precedent against using similar but distinct charges in the same group, though I don’t think that the contrary view is absurd. The compass rose apparently wasn’t used as an heraldic charge in period, and its inversion is definitely a bit odd. All in all the arms are a bit unfortunate but probably not out of SCA bounds stylistically.
Falcon's Keep [Name] As a Northshielder, I find the inverted compass rose rather offensive – it’s kind of like raising the American flag upside-down. I’m not sure if this is a big enough reason to do anything, but I’m sure that there are others in Northshield who feel the way I do. Agree. It looks affiliated with Northshield and could be mistaken for that.
10. Thorgrim Bjornson (Northkeep)
New Badge; Name Registered 09/90
Proposed Blazon: (Fieldless) A roundel quarterly gules and azure.
Breichiol map Lludd
[Badge] This has only 1 significant visual difference from "quarterly gules and azure, any charge any color". In any case I would strenuously argue that registering a field is not compatible with period style. Perhaps it could be fixed with a bordure or a tressure, or another charge or treatment.
Gawain
[Badge] This is functionally identical to "Quarterly gules and azure".
Steppes
[Badge] There is no heraldic difference between "a roundel quarterly gules and azure" and "quarterly gules and azure". Fortunately for the submitter, we found no conflict. On the other hand, the only quarterly roundel we found ever registered in the SCA was done so almost twenty years ago.
Bryn Gwlad
[Badge] In a 9/92 precedent, Bruce Draconarius wrote, "Fieldless badges consisting only of forms of armorial display, such as escutcheons, lozenges and delfs, are not acceptable since in use the "shield" shape does not appear to be a charge, but rather the field itself. This presents an entirely different armory for view." Roundels are a form of armorial display so this badge would normally be reblazoned as "Quarterly gules and azure." In that case it conflicts with Ulf of Sjaelland, "Quarterly gules and argent." Although field-primary armory can derive two CDs from changes to the field, this badge has only the one change of tincture to half the field.
Talan Gwynek
[Badge] Unless there’s been a fairly recent change in precedent, this can’t be registered as a badge: the roundel (with the exception of the fountain, which has independent heraldic existence) is considered a shield shape, and this is therefore considered to be the arms Quarterly gules and azure. As such it may conflict with Cathan the Tinker, Quarterly bendy sinister sable and argent and azure; there is a CD for tincture, but it’s not clear that the subsidiary partition in the first and fourth quarters gives a second. There is also the Panamanian flag, Quarterly 1 and 4 argent, 2 gules, and 3 azure, which definitely conflicts, since there is only a tincture CD. And it conflicts with Ulf of Sjaelland, Quarterly gules and argent, again with only a tincture CD.
Falcon's Keep [Badge] No conflicts found in the on-line OandA. However, since a "roundel" is a standard shape for heraldic display, this is not "[Fieldless] A roundel quarterly gules and azure," but simply "Quarterly gules and azure," and this conflicts with Ulf of Sjaelland (reg. 2-96 via Caid): "Quarterly gules and argent," with only one CD.
11. Ysfael Bryndu (Bjornsborg)
Resubmitted Device; Name Passed Kingdom 05/98
Proposed Blazon: Or, a wyvern displayed and on a chief triangular gules a Celtic cross Or.
Breichiol map Lludd
[Device] Nice example of a device for a persona that lies outside the times and areas of formal heraldry.
Gawain
[Device] The upper piece is now clearly a chief triangular, but the client has still failed to draw the wyvern to fill its space.