December 29, 1980 XV

TO: The Members of the College of Arms

FROM: Wilhelm von Schlüssel, Laurel King of Arms, O.L., Pel., O.L.M., Q.O.G

Greetings and Happy New Year!

Enclosed is the December Letter of Acceptances and Rejections. Due to the length of the Letters of Intent from the East and Middle, the backlog remains at the end of September. I will try to catch up next month. Next month's meeting will be on January 18, 1981. At that time I will draft the Principal Herald Questionnaire to be sent out in the local heralds. Let me know before then what questions you want on this questionnaire. It's for your benefit as well as mine.

There are some new additions to the Mailing List:

Torin of Arcania, Polaris Herald for the Region of Northshield, Kingdom of the Middle, Norman Howe, 293 Winchester Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3J 2E7 CANADA

Peregrynne Wyndryder, Brigantia Deputy, East Kingdom

Melissa Williamson, 6974 Weatham Street, Philadelphia, PA 19119

Salaamallah the Corpulent, Easterncrown Herald, Northern East Kingdom

Jeffrey DeLuca, 265 Prospect Street, Willimantic, CT 06226

Svidir Einarsson, Sycamore Herald, Western East Kingdom

Christopher Thue, McClenathan 92, East Main Road, Fredonia, NY 14063

At the January meeting I will be reassessing the Mailing List to see if everyone who is on it is commenting often enough. Get your comments in soon if you have not been doing so. A question has been raised by Clarion. For the purposes of the Ordinary, do we want to standardize our terms, such as always using semy instead of semée or semé? We would like to use the English usage throughout (the y ending) so as to not have to worry about case or gender. What do you think?

In October 3 redefined the intent of the College to be that of recreating medieval heraldry as it should have been. This means starting with 1600 heraldry and tossing out those Tudor inventions and practices we do not want while retaining those we do. We are basing our practices on English heraldry, with usages from the simplicity and style of 15th-century heraldry while also making use of worthwhile Tudor creations. Until now, the lack of time and the lack of references have made it very difficult for me to attempt to be consistent in holding to this style. What I do know about this earlier period is mostly due to the noble efforts of the Kraken Pursuivant, Lady Styrbjørg Ulfhedhnar. I am now trying to obtain the list of references she has sent me through Inter-library Loan. I hope later in the year to review our practices after reading these references. For the Heraldic Symposium in Denver I will try to compile a complete listing of our differences from modern and period heraldry. Kraken has already made a good beginning on this. I wouldn't be surprised if she beat me to it. I would like to thank her for her efforts and I invite her to continue to correct me when I err.

The new Brigantia Principal Herald, Lord Stephen of Silverwing, has sent his first letter to me. He is trying to get the office caught up and seems to be doing well. He has sent in his list of heralds’ titles. As soon as I get the rest, I can issue a complete listing of armigerous awards and orders and heraldic titles in the SCA. Does anybody have any other projects they would like to propose for the New Year.

On the matter of titles. I propose to match the following Japanese titles to English equivalents. Shogun shall be an alternate to King. Daimyo shall be an alternate for Prince, and Hatamato shall be an alternate for Baron. AS there are no other Japanese titles, I feel we should use the three for the ruling nobles. There are no female forms, as there never were any female rulers in Japan. Does anybody know how to add a female ending to these? Armigerous persons with Japanese personae can indicate their nobility by adding the suffix –san or –sama in the given name. At this time I do not wish to formalize this, but I include it for possible use.

Here are some more translations of SCA titles for your review:

Pray believe, my lords and ladies, that I remain

Your servant

Wilhelm von Schlüssel

O.L, &c.

Laurel King of Arms

WvS:cfc