February 24, 1981 XV

TO: The Members of the College of Arms

FROM: Master Wilhelm von Schlüssel, Laurel King of Arms

Greetings:

Enclosed is the Letter of Acceptances and Rejections for February. I am now caught up through the middle of December 1980. My next meeting will be on Sunday, March 8, 1981, at which time I will consider those Letters of Intent dated from the middle of December to the middle of January. Please get your comments on those letters in to me before that date. Enclosed also is a copy of the questionnaire I will be sending out to all known heralds.

For the new members of the College, let me review the submission procedure. Each Principal Herald processes the submissions from that kingdom for that month. The forms and fees for those submissions found acceptable are then sent on to Laurel. The Principal Herald is responsible for seeing to it that the information sheet is filled out legibly, that the picture sheet is colored in, and that all necessary information is on the information sheet. The Principal Herald types a Letter of Intent listing the Society name and blazon for each submission. These are alphabetized by Society name. If a household or group badge is being registered to a Society member, the submission should be listed under the member's Society name. Example: John of Trent, badge for House Firetree. Do not list it under House Firetree.

Along with the name and blazon are the data on the language, translation, and sources of the words in the name as well as further explanation or documentation of unusual charges in the blazon. The Principal Herald then sends copies of this Letter of Intent to everyone on the College of Arms mailing list.

Those receiving these letters then have 30 days to check out the names and blazons for conflicts and rule violations. All comments are collected in a Letter of Comment. This should refer to the kingdom and the date of the Letter of Intent. Each commend should mention the name of the submission being talked about. Any general comments or proposals to the College should be placed at the head of the letter, not buried in the individual comments. When commenting on more than one Letter of Intent, list them in chronological order by the dates on the Letters of Intent. Copies of the Letters of Comment are then sent to Laurel and the Principal Heralds whose submissions were commented on, and to any others you can afford to send them to. Principal Heralds send copies of Letters of Comment to all members of the mailing list. The Principal Heralds who receive these Letters of Comment then have another 30 days to reply to those comments. Then the submissions are processed by the Laurel King of Arms.

I attended the West/Caid/Atenveldt War on the 14th and 15th, as did many other members of the College, including Crescent, Vesper, Aten and Green Staff, as well as several Principality Heralds. We held a College of Arms meeting to discuss the state of the College and came up with several decisions.

Virgule has stated correctly that the use of initials of orders following one's name is Victorian and therefore is out of period. It is not possible to avoid the use of initials in an Order of Precedence, due to space problems, and so we will still do so for these. However, it was the consensus of the meeting that we should try to avoid using initials in personal correspondence and that we should inform the populace of the fact that the practice is out of period so that they themselves may decide if they wish to stop using initials in the name of authenticity. The period practice is to simply use one's main title or rank, plus one's office, as I have done at the top of this letter. If a full rendering of honors and positions is desired, then the proper practice is to list all of them. I would thus list myself as:

Master Wilhelm von Schlüssel, Laurel King of Arms, Master of the Order of the Laurel, Master of the Order of the Pelican, Companion of the Order of the Leaf of Merit, Companion of the Queen's Order of Grace. Grants and awards are not listed if one holds a higher rank, in this case a patent. We did not feel that it would be a good idea to try to impose this change upon the populace but rather than we should set a proper example for the populace.

Lord Virgule also tells us correctly that we have been using initials incorrectly. Since the use of initials came about in Victorian England, it is reasonable for us to use the British system of initials for memberships in orders. A member of an order is a Companion of that order, or a Master or Mistress or Knight of that order. When converting from the written-out form to the initialled form, the word Order is dropped and thus there is no capital O in the initials. Therefore, the correct initials for a member of the Order of the Leaf of Merit is C.L.M., not O.L.M. or C.O.L.M. The only use of a capital O is for Officer of an order. Therefore, the correct initials for

the Laurel and Pelican are M.L. and M.P., respectively. K.S.C.A. and M.S.C.A. are still correct. A member of the Order of the Rose is a Lady of the Rose, L.R. Grants and Awards of Arms are still G.A. and A.A. All other orders should use a capital C instead of an O for the first letter, to represent Companion, unless a different word is used for some special reason. The initials of the orders themselves are not changed when referring to the whole order. Thus, if abbreviating the Order of the Silver Crescent is necessary on the Eastern Order of Precedence to act as a heading for the list of its members, the initials are still O.S.C., but each member would have C.S.C. after his/her name. The meeting felt that it might be a good idea for kingdoms to change their Orders of Precedence and other official documents to conform to correct usage the next time they issue these (there being no need for special editions of the OP's) and to include an explanatory page listing the changes and the reasons. The reason for this change is to set a good example for the populace. If the heralds use the correct forms enough, the populace will eventually catch on. A note to the populace in the kingdom newsletters would also be a good idea. Please note that I am not requiring this, but I am saying that this is the correct practice that I would like to see everybody follow. In some cases you will have to consult with your King or Prince to amend the charter of an order which specifies the initials to be used by its members. In any case, you will have to consult with your King, since the King authorizes the Order of Precedence.

The mailing list for the College of Arms has grown dramatically with the addition of all principality and regional heralds and is now a burden on the kingdom Principal Heralds' funds. To alleviate this burden that I have caused (admittedly for a worthy purpose), I hereby give back to the kingdoms one dollar of each device and badge submission as of March 1, 1981 XV. From now on until I tell you differently, the fee for submitting anything to the Laurel Office is one dollar. Those submissions which were free before are of course still free. The Kingdom Colleges should use the extra dollar to pay for the costs of mailings to the College of Arms. In this way, the money is still going to College of Arms business. However, don't bother to keep separate accounts. Just lump the money into your account. If anyone sends me a letter dated on or after March 1 which includes fees at the old rate, I will refund the difference.

In the matter of avoiding conflicts between honors and orders, it was the consensus of the meeting that it is impossible to avoid conflicts between the initials of orders of all of the kingdoms. We do recommend that each kingdom prevent conflicts within its own borders and that nobody use the initials M.L., M.P., K.S.C.A., M.S.C.A., L.R., G.A., or A.A., as these are Society-wide. Where possible, try to avoid any conflicts with the major orders of the various kingdoms. I will be sending out a compiled listing soon of all such orders. However, as the period practice is to worry about the actual name, it is not worth the effort to try to avoid conflicts between baronial orders in different kingdoms.

With regard to conflicts between the names of orders and between heraldic titles, the feeling was that the addition of an adjective was too close. Thus, the Order of the Green Tree would conflict with the Order of the Tree, and Golden Trumpet Herald would conflict with Trumpet Herald. The difference of an adjective was marginally acceptable depending on the case involved. Therefore, the Order of the Rowan Tree and the Order of the Madrone Tree are not in conflict, but the Order of the Red Tree and the Order of the Madrone Tree would conflict, as they refer to the same thing under two different names. One method of avoiding conflicts between similar but not identical orders is to add the name of the branch. Thus, the Order of the Tree of Allyshia (O.T.A.) would be sufficiently different from the Order of the Black Tree (O.B.T.), assuming its full name was always used.

With regard to approval of heraldic titles and names of orders, all such names and titles must be sent to the College of Arms for comment, but my approval shall be considered automatic unless I object to a specific case. I am not registering these so much as I am trying to inform people early on of a conflict. If a king is adamant that the name of an order shall be as he wants, then generally we will have to go along with it. I probably have the authority to overrule a king on such a matter, but I would really rather not have to find out.

When you are writing your Letter of Intent, please put the information on the name on the Letter of Intent. When you do so, be sure to tell us what the person had in mind. If you do not know, then say so. Do not try to come up with a translation and then list it as if it were what the person had put on the form. If the person does not give a translation, then say so, and then say the best translation you can come up with is so-and-so. Better still, hold it until you get a translation from the person. Suppose a person wants a name that means John the Hunter of the Blue Lake in Estonian, and he has listed his best effort at a translation, which is in fact wrong. If you tell us what he was trying to do, then somebody who knows Estonian can provide a correct translation. Otherwise, it may not be obvious what to do. If a name is made up, then say so. If a name has a source, give it.

We decided that, if a name is in use today or if any source can be found of its use in the real world at some time, then it may be used and assumed allowable unless we can find something wrong with it or prove that it is out of period. Most, but not all, names in use today are in fact period names. Therefore, if you can cite a source for a name, you get the benefit of the doubt on that name. If somebody shows that such a name violates one of our rules, then it shall not be allowed. If it is shown that such a name is out of period, then it shall not be allowed unless it has been previously used and registered by the College more than once. I feel that if a name is otherwise acceptable and is only inadmissible because it is first cited in the late 1600's and if it has been previously registered several times, that we should go on using it. Registered use in the SCA is therefore almost as good as use in period. We would have a real uproar on our hands if we decided to suddenly disallow a name which had been in common use in the SCA. If we were starting from scratch, then I would vote for complete authenticity, but we aren't.

On the other hand, if a person submits a name for which no source is given or can be found, then it is up to that person to convince us that the name is in period or is compatible with period usage if it is a modified name. If somebody created a name by translating something in English, then the burden is on them to show that their translation is correct and that the form of the name is period usage. It is quite acceptable to mutate an existing name if you can convince us that the mutation is proper to our period. Some changes were done and some were not. Changes in spelling that do not change the pronunciation are acceptable, as names were a verbal tradition and were spelled phonetically during much of our period. Changes in spelling that change the pronunciation of the name are different. Here one must demonstrate that this sort of change could have been done in our period.

This leads us to the question of totally made-up names. Names that are made-up to be in-period variations, mutations, or combinations of existing words can be defended or attacked on the grounds of their compatibility with period usage. Names which are made up out of whole cloth are outside our rules and cannot be so checked. Many of us dislike allowing these names, as they are inauthentic and because they provide a great way of getting around the rules. The College has, however, allowed such things for its entire history, and to change now would be a major change that would have to be widely told to the populace. Many would welcome such a change, and many would argue against it. It is time for us to consider the matter. I put it to a vote of the College:

Shall we continue to allow the registration of made-up names? (A made-up name is a name that was not used in our period.) If so, shall we allow any combination of letters to constitute a name, or shall we require that created names be acceptable alterations, combinations, or mutations of known period names or words? Our current practice is to allow any combination of letters to be a name, subject to the other rules on names.

My personal feeling is that we should stop allowing nonsense names. We should only allow created names which are proper combinations or mutations of existing names or words. This still gives a vast number of possibilities, but does get us closer to a historical recreation society by stressing greater authenticity. However, to change a 15-year-old practice will cause quite a stir. Even if we decide we want to change the rule, we will still have to give the populace a chance to comment before adopting the change. We do not want to give them the opinion that we are constantly imposing changes on them without any input on those changes.

In the past I have changed names when they were incorrectly spelled or had a wrong order. I have dropped illegal names and passed the rest of the name in order to be able to register the device. There has been some discontent about this. I will henceforth only make small corrections to names that I register, such as a change of de to d', and will reject any name that requires a major change, such as the deletion of a word or its replacement. I will tell you what I think should be done and leave it up to you to decide what to do.

The question has been brought up about alternates to a device. It is a standard practice to ask a submitter if s/he has any alterations in mind that s/he would accept to avoid conflict. These can be used at the kingdom level to avoid a conflict without having to take the time to get in touch with the submitter. These forms arrive at my office still bearing these alternatives. The question has been raised as to whether or not I should make use of these alternatives to avoid conflicts discovered by the College of Arms. To do so would indeed save the submittor several months' time waiting for resubmission to go through the process again. On the other hand, the College has not had a chance to comment on these alternatives, and therefore I might pass an alternative that takes care of the known conflict, but which also itself conflicts with something else that I do not know about which a member of the College could have told me about. My decision is that I will not act upon alternates that have not been commented on by the College.

The question then arises about whether the alternates can be put on the Letters of Intent so they can all be commented on. The problem here is that this would triple or quadruple the workload of everybody who has to check out these submissions in order to aid the minority of persons who would be helped by such a measure. My decision here is that I do not want to see everybody listing alternates on the Letters of Intent. A simple statement that a change of color of field from vert to azure is acceptable would be all right, but not a list of alternates. If the Principal Herald does have a list of alternates, then the preferred alternate can be sent out in the Letter of Intent immediately following the letter of rejection, causing an added delay of at most three months.

It has been brought to my attention that given names and place names may be used as surnames, with or without prepositions or patronymics. However, place names and surnames may not be used as given names. There are some cases where a name is both a given name and a surname, and so may be used as either one. When a name is known to be a surname or a place name and is not known to also be a given name, then it may not be used as a given name unless the submittor proves that it was actually used as a given name in our period. This is one case where the use of the name as a given name in modern times is not sufficient, since we have period evidence of its usage as a non-given name.

I would like to remind everybody that there are still copies of the Ordinary and Armorial available for $6.00 from Master Renfield. Book rate postage is $1.03. Please tell all of your local heralds of the existence of the Ordinary. I would like to suggest to each of you that you periodically run copies of the submission forms through your local newsletters as pull-outs so the populace has access to the forms.

At the war, we decided that, with regard to the Ordinary, we would change over to the English system of names for words such as semé, goutée, patté, etc. The é and ée will be replaced by y. This is only for the College records. You are free to use whichever form you wish in your area. Both are correct. Similarly, the individual names for roundels and goutts are optional. Use them or not, as you please. We decided that the College will not register a badge without a field that has a division of the field or an ordinary or subordinary that depends on the shape of the field for its own shape. This means you cannot register a fieldless badge with a pale, because if a pale is on a lozenge it is pointed at both ends, while on a heater it is straight at both ends. A badge with a field has the field in the shape of a roundel. A badge without a field is just the charge(s) it contains. If you want just a mullet on a pale for a badge, blazon it as a mullet on a billet.

I wish to remind everybody that no official scroll should even be assigned to a scribe, let alone completed, signed, sealed, or presented, until the name, blazon, and emblazon are registered with the College of Arms. Promissories are quite acceptable as a substitute until the registration is complete. For a non-armigerous award, only the name need be registered, as no blazon or emblazon appears on the scroll. Each Principal Herald is responsible for seeing to this, and is responsible for the texts of the scrolls. The heralds write the texts and the scribes calligraph them. The kings just sign the scrolls, although they should be consulted about the texts.

The list of translations of titles is for you to look at and then tell me if you spot any errors. When I am convinced that they are all correct, then I will make a formal listing and put it in TI so the populace can know what all of the alternate titles are, in accordance with the Corpora. Here are some more translations of titles to consider:

Czech Irish

King Král rí/rígh (pl. rithe)

Queen Královna banríon/bean-rígh

Duke Vévoda diúc

Count/Earl Hrabě cunta/iarla

Viscount Vikomt bíocúnta

Viscountess Vikomtka bíocuntaois

Master Pán máistir

Mistress Paní máistreás

Knight Rytíř ridire

Master of ArmsMistr Výzbroj máistir arm/máistir nan-arm/máistir de armaibh

(various forms w/gen., dat.; please comment)

Baron Baron barún

Baroness Baronka banbharún

Lord Lord tiarna (pl. tiarnaí)

Lady Dáma bantiarna

Forms of Address (Irish)

His Majesty a mhorgacht Noble, highborn = vasal

Her Majesty a morgacht Feudal lord tiarna feodach

Your Grace a shoilse Sea lord = tiarna cabhlaigh

Your Excellency a shoilse

Sir sior/an ridire

My Lord a thiarna

My Lady a bhantiarna

Brigantia brings up the question of household heralds. Any household may have a member which it designates as its herald. Such a herald would naturally wear the arms of the household. The herald need not be associated with the College of Heralds of the kingdom. However, if s/he is not so associated, s/he may not enter the field to perform any heraldic functions, as that is reserved to the kingdom heralds. S/he may not accept submission fees, although, like anybody, s/he can give advice on submissions. If a Principal Herald chooses to do so, a household herald could be warranted as a Pursuivant Extraordinary to recognize the competence of the herald and to allow the herald to accept submission fees from household members. In this case, when acting solely as a household herald, s/he would wear the household device or badge and, when acting as a kingdom herald, would wear the crossed trumpets. I would not want to see any such household herald raised above this level unless s/he earned it by also being a kingdom herald. I would not want to see an official title given to the household herald, although there is nothing to stop the household from giving an unofficial title to be used only in the household. My feeling is that any form of heraldic activity should be encouraged so long as it does not interfere with the operations of the kingdom College of Heralds. It is up to each Principal Herald to handle household heralds in each kingdom. You are each in charge of heraldic matters in your kingdom, and so it is your right and responsibility to rule on such matters.

Brigantia also brings up the matter of distinguishing heralds of different branches. At the Pennsic War there seems to have been a problem in knowing who was an Eastern herald and who was a Middle herald and, specifically, who was Dragon and who was Brigantia. If the herald wears a tabard, then the proper method is to put the arms of the kingdom on the right sleeve of the tabard and the arms of the branch the herald is responsible for on the left sleeve. This doesn't work when the herald wears a cloak, so I would suggest the herald wearing a surcoat with the arms of the branch, over which is worn the herald's cloak. This requires the permission of the ruling noble or seneschal of the branch in question, as well as the permission of the kingdom Principal Herald. If they all agree that it is an acceptable form, then I hereby authorize it. Other suggestions have been made, such as impaling the heralds' badge with the branch arms, or quartering them. These are possibilities, although I don't really like them. What do you think? I prefer to keep things simple, but I am open to suggestions and requests.

The College of Arms is missing the files for Caprus va Seaghde (Atlantia), the Guild for the Appreciation of the Alcoholic Arts (Ansteorra), Rodric the Sly's badge (Atenveldt), and Saguaro Herald (Atenveldt, Rio Salado). Please send these files. If any of you knows of a submission that was sent in before last December that has not been acted on, let me know about it.

I wish to ask your comments on a proposed badge for the SCA Chronicler's Office for use by the TI editors as a logo: Gules, a sun Or, overall on two piles conjoined in fess azure two spears conjoined in fess throughout Or. I will process this in April. Any comments? It is not color on color, as the piles are overall.

Pray believe, my Lords and Ladies, that I remain

Your servant,

Master Wilhelm von Schlüssel,

Laurel King of Arms

WvS:cfc

Enclosures: Letter of Acceptances and Rejections

Questionnaire