Society for Creative Anachronism

College of Arms

1731A 10th St

Hampton, VA 23665

+1-757-848-5813

laurel@heraldry.sca.org

For the September 2009 meetings, printed November 29, 2009

To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from Olwyn Laurel, Istvan Wreath, and Aryanhwy Pelican, greetings.

Items listed below in square brackets have not been scheduled yet. For information about future scheduling, please review the status table located on the Web at http://oscar.sca.org/index.php?action=137.

The September Laurel decisions were made at the Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium road show on Sunday, September 06, 2009, at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, 12 September, 2009, and at the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, September 19, 2009. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Caid (19 Apr, 2009)(pushed due to lack of packet), Atenveldt (20 Apr, 2009)(pushed due to lack of packet), Æthelmearc (29 Apr, 2009)(pushed due to lack of payment), Lochac (30 Apr, 2009)(pushed due to lack of packet), Middle (30 Apr, 2009)(pushed due to lack of payment), Outlands (30 Apr, 2009)(pushed due to lack of packet), Gleann Abhann (09 May, 2009), Atenveldt (15 May, 2009), East (16 May, 2009), Gleann Abhann (19 May, 2009), Calontir (21 May, 2009), Æthelmearc (23 May, 2009), Ansteorra (28 May, 2009), Northshield (29 May, 2009), Atlantia (31 May, 2009), Caid (31 May, 2009), Drachenwald (31 May, 2009), Lochac (31 May, 2009), Meridies (31 May, 2009), Middle (31 May, 2009), Trimaris (31 May, 2009), and West (31 May, 2009). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Monday, August 31, 2009.

The October Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, October 03, 2009 and the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, October 24, 2009. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: An Tir (31 May, 2009)(pushed due to lack of payment), Loyall (03 Jun, 2009), Laurel LoPaD (08 Jun, 2009), Outlands (18 Jun, 2009), Atenveldt (20 Jun, 2009), East (22 Jun, 2009), Laurel LoItP (25 Jun, 2009), Meridies (25 Jun, 2009), Northshield (25 Jun, 2009), An Tir (26 Jun, 2009), Drachenwald (28 Jun, 2009), Ansteorra (29 Jun, 2009), Atlantia (29 Jun, 2009), Gleann Abhann (29 Jun, 2009), Calontir (30 Jun, 2009), and West (30 Jun, 2009). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Wednesday, September 30, 2009.

The November Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican and Wreath meetings held on Saturday, November 07, 2009. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Ealdormere (12 May, 2009)(pushed due to lack of packet), Artemisia (31 May, 2009)(pushed due to lack of payment), Caid (15 Jun, 2009)(pushed due to lack of packet), Caid (25 Jun, 2009)(pushed due to lack of packet), Gleann Abhann (14 Jul, 2009), Atenveldt (15 Jul, 2009), Æthelmearc (19 Jul, 2009), An Tir (19 Jul, 2009), Atlantia (24 Jul, 2009), Outlands (24 Jul, 2009), Calontir (26 Jul, 2009), Ansteorra (28 Jul, 2009), Meridies (29 Jul, 2009), Trimaris (30 Jul, 2009), Artemisia (31 Jul, 2009), East (31 Jul, 2009), Lochac (31 Jul, 2009), and Middle (31 Jul, 2009). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Saturday, October 31, 2009.

The December Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, December 05, 2009 and the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, December 19, 2009. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Northshield (09 Aug, 2009), An Tir (17 Aug, 2009), Atenveldt (20 Aug, 2009), Æthelmearc (21 Aug, 2009), Atlantia (26 Aug, 2009), Caid (26 Aug, 2009), Meridies (28 Aug, 2009), Calontir (29 Aug, 2009), Drachenwald (30 Aug, 2009), Gleann Abhann (30 Aug, 2009), Middle (30 Aug, 2009), Ansteorra (31 Aug, 2009), Drachenwald (31 Aug, 2009), Ealdormere (31 Aug, 2009), Lochac (31 Aug, 2009), and West (31 Aug, 2009). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should be entered into OSCAR by Monday, November 30, 2009.

The January Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, January 16, 2010 and the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, January 30, 2010. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Outlands (07 Sep, 2009), Atenveldt (15 Sep, 2009), Palimpsest Rules Letter (18 Sep, 2009), An Tir (21 Sep, 2009), [Caid (21 Sep, 2009)], East (25 Sep, 2009), Drachenwald (26 Sep, 2009), Gleann Abhann (28 Sep, 2009), Meridies (29 Sep, 2009), [Middle (29 Sep, 2009)], Outlands (29 Sep, 2009), Ansteorra (30 Sep, 2009), Artemisia (30 Sep, 2009), Atlantia (30 Sep, 2009), Northshield (30 Sep, 2009), Trimaris (30 Sep, 2009), West (30 Sep, 2009). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should be entered into OSCAR by Thursday, December 31, 2009.

The February Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican and Wreath meetings held on Saturday, February 6, 2010. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: [Atenveldt (15 Oct, 2009)], East (24 Oct, 2009), Æthelmearc (25 Oct, 2009), Northshield (26 Oct, 2009), [Ansteorra (28 Oct, 2009)], Meridies (28 Oct, 2009), Gleann Abhann (29 Oct, 2009), Laurel LoPaD (29 Oct, 2009), [Middle (30 Oct, 2009)], [An Tir (31 Oct, 2009)], [Artemisia (31 Oct, 2009)], [Atlantia (31 Oct, 2009)], [Ealdormere (31 Oct, 2009)], [Lochac (31 Oct, 2009)], [Outlands (31 Oct, 2009)], Palimpsest Rules Letter (31 Oct, 2009), and [West (31 Oct, 2009)]. All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should be entered into OSCAR by Sunday January 31, 2010.

Not all letters of intent may be considered when they are originally scheduled on this cover letter. The date of mailing of the LoI, date of receipt of the Laurel packet, or other factors may delay consideration of certain letters of intent. Additionally, some letters of intent received may not have been scheduled because the administrative requirements (receipt of the forms packet, receipt of the necessary fees, et cetera) have not yet been met.

REMINDER: Until all administrative requirements are met, the letter may not be scheduled.

From Pelican: Corrections to the Alternate Titles List

On the November 2008 Cover Letter we introduced some changes to the Russian titles on the Alternate Titles List. Unfortunately, a few of these changes included some typos. We are making the following corrections:

-	Velikaia Kniaginia (Queen) - This replaces the misspelled Velikaia Kniagina on the November 2008 Cover Letter. The misspelling was present on the LoI and propagated onto the Cover Letter.

-	Kniaginia (Princess) - This replaces the misspelled Kniagina on the November 2008 Cover Letter. This was correctly spelled on the LoI, but was changed to match the spelling of the title for Queen.

From Wreath: More Changes to the Alternate Titles List

(Note: this is from Wreath, not Pelican, since this decision was an appeal of an earlier return by Pelican.)

Over the years, there have been multiple proposals to add Boiarin (masculine) and Boiarynia (feminine) as Russian equivalents of some of our titles, most recently on the May 1997 and November 2008 Cover Letters. Consensus has never been attained about what rank these titles correspond to, so they have been left off the list of approved alternate titles.

This month we considered a proposal to add Boiarin and Boiarynia to the Alternate Titles list as approved Russian alternates for baron/baroness, knight, and master/mistress. The proposal is an appeal of the decision on the November 2008 Cover Letter, and supplied some additional information on the relative ranks of various Russian social classes. The Boiarin appear to have been higher orders of nobility who are lesser than the princes, but greater than the gentry.

In our opinion, this rank best maps to all bestowed ranks in the Society: we are all assumed to be noble, but only some of us have had nobility bestowed. Therefore, we will adopt these titles for anyone with an Award of Arms, Grant of Arms, or Patent of Arms. Properly, these titles should not be applied to those with Royal peerages, since the Boiarin had lesser status than that.

The appeal also asked that we add Masteritsa as an alternate for mistress. No evidence was provided that this word was ever used as a title. The use of the term as a term of high rank does not appear to be period. In our period, it seems to mean something akin to master seamstress. However, the SCA allows women to hold the same high rank as men, and this gender-equality needs to carry over to our titles. Thus we will adopt Masteritsa as the accepted Russian alternate title for Mistress.

From Pelican: Hungarian Names With the Given Name First

Two submissions on one of the Gleann Abhann LoIs considered this month raised the question of whether a Hungarian given name and a Hungarian byname could be registered with the given name first, as opposed to the standard practice of having the byname precede the given name. Concerning one of the names, Blue Tyger comments:

In period recods [sic], he'd be either Johannes Hideg (in Latin) or Hideg Janos (in Hungarian). The submitted order is basically a language combination, of Hungarian (for the elements) and Latin (for the order of elements). These languages had substantial and extended contact in period, so I believe the combination should be registerable, but because of the lack of evidence for combining them in this way, I believe there should be a step from period practice. My Proceedings article has 1449 Irisko Sarga [1] and 1584 Catalin papfalwy as examples of [Hungarian given] + [surname last] -- and I've since found out that the second is actually somewhat unclear: Catalin papfalwy Jllies Ianosnak a' fogolnak edes leania vallia..., which I would parse as "Catalin, daughter of the prisoner John Illies of Papfalva, testifies...", but which Kázmér apparently interprets as "Catalin of Papfalva, daughter of the prisoner John Illies, testifies..." [2]. There's also 1574 Borbolya Zent Egedy Myhalne "Barbara Mrs. Michael of Szentegyed" and many more like it in late-period Transylvanian court records, which can be interpreted as Hungarian elements used in a not-particularly-Hungarian arrangement.

It's also not unheard-of to find an occupation following a given name in Hungarian context. I haven't found any examples in Kazmer, probably because he was looking specifically for family names, and a construction like Gabor pap implies that the occupation (pap 'priest') is to be taken literally -- i.e., it's not a family name (nor even technically really a name). Some examples from placenames: 1475 Peterdeaklaka 'Peter scribe's home', 1510 Gyerghdeakasasa 'George scribe's diggings', 1525 Janosdeakmolna 'John scribe's mill' [3].

[1] This is in Kázmér s.n. Sárga 'yellow', so Irisko is clearly the given name. It looks like Iris-ko, where -ko is a Hungarian diminutive suffix (compare Dorko for Dorothea, for example), but I've found no other example of Iris in period.

[2] Szabó T. Attila: Erdélyi Magyar szótörténeti tár, vol. IV, p. 83 s.v. fertelmeskedik. (Kriterion Könyvkiadó, Bukarest, 1984.)

[3] Szamota István & Zolnai Gyula: Magyar oklevél-szótár (Budapest, 1902), s.v. deák.

These examples are sufficient to give the benefit of the doubt to allow the names considered this month to be registered, but we rule that, barring clearer evidence for this practice in period, the use of a Hungarian given name and a Hungarian byname in the order <given name> + <byname> is a step from period practice.

From Wreath: Vair Bells

This month, we registered a vair bell, a single tile of the repeating pattern which forms the tincture vair. While the charge has been registered 10 times in the SCA, it does not appear to be a period charge. Since it does not appear to be a very popular charge, unless documented to period as a charge, vair bells will no longer be registerable after the April 2010 Laurel Meetings.

Society Pages

On November 14, Lord Robert of Canterbury was made a member of the Order of the Pelican by the King and Queen of Drachenwald. His heraldic service, particularly his court heraldry, was explicitly noted.

The heraldic service of Lady Eleyne de Comnocke, Rocket Herald and acting Crux Australis Herald of Lochac, was recognized with an Award of the Golden Tear on November 21.

Send What to Whom

Letters of Intent, Comment, Response, Correction, et cetera are to be posted to the OSCAR online system. No paper copies need be sent.

Submission packets (one copy of each name form plus documentation, including petitions; two colored copies of each armory form plus two copies of any associated documentation, including petitions) to the SCA College of Arms, PO Box 31755, Billings, MT 59107-1755.

Cheques or money orders for submissions, payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms" are to: David Duggar, ATTN: Laurel Chancellor of Exchequer, 1705 Holiday Pl, Bossier City, LA 71112.

Send roster changes and corrections to Laurel. College of Arms members may also request a copy of the current roster from Laurel.

For a paper copy of a LoAR, please contact Laurel, at the address above. The cost for one LoAR is $3. Please make all checks or money orders payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms". The electronic copy of the LoAR is available free of charge. To subscribe to the mailings of the electronic copy, please see the bottom of http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/lists.html#lists for more instructions.

For all administrative matters, please contact Laurel.

Pray know that I remain,

In service,

Olwynn ni Chinnedigh

Laurel Principal Queen of Arms