November 1991
Dallas, TX 75221-1646
Unto the members of the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive does Da'ud ibn Auda, Laurel King of Arms, send Greetings!
The November Laurel meeting was held on Saturday, November 30, and considered the following Letters of Intent: East (8/1), Ansteorra (8/1), West (8/9), Atenveldt (8/16), Outlands (8/18), Ansteorra (8/20), An Tir (8/20), Atlantia (8/21), Middle (8/26), and Meridies (8/29).
The December Laurel meeting is scheduled for Saturday, December 28, and will consider the following Letters of Intent: Trimaris (9/15), West (9/21), Atlantia (9/22), Middle (9/23), East (9/23), Ansteorra (9/24), Outlands (9/28), Meridies (9/29), and Calontir (9/30).
The January 1992 Laurel meeting is scheduled for Saturday, January;18, 1992, and will consider the following Letters of Intent dated in October, 1991: Caid (10/2), Atlantia (10/22), Ansteorra (10/25), Atenveldt (10/25), East (10/31), Meridies (10/31), and Calontir (10/31).
The February 1992 Laurel meeting is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, February;22, 1992, and will consider the following Letters of Intent dated November, 1991: Outlands (11/10), East (11/12), Atenveldt (11/14), Trimaris (11/15), Caid (11/22), Ansteorra (11/23), Caid (11/25), Atlantia (11/26), and Calontir (11/30).
No Laurel packets have yet been received for the following letters as of this date, and they cannot be scheduled until the packets arrive: Middle (10/22), An Tir (11/9), West (11/14), Middle (11/24), and West (11/27).
ROSTER CHANGES AND CORRECTIONS
Lady Brachet has a new address. It is: Mistress Kathrine of Bristol (Kaye Boatwright), 1844 Camino Pablo, Moraga, CA 94336-2611
Lord Ottar Eriksson, formerly Yale Pursuivant in the East Kingdom, now has the title Keel Pursuivant. He will continue commenting on an occasional basis, and will remain in charge of the Alternate Titles Review project.
The new Pantheon Herald (East) is Duchess Katherine Stanhope (Karen Tatro), 83 Old Stage Rd. #2, Williston, VT 05495; (802) 879-3237. She will not be commenting at this time.
The new Silver Buccle Herald (East) is Juliana Richenda Trevain (Bonnie Foreman), 102 Ellen Street, Syracuse, NY 13208; (315) 455-6361. She will not be commenting at this time.
The new Eastern Crown Herald (East) is Reynard des Montaignes (R. William Card), 24 Kenwood Street, Dorchester, MA 02124. He will not be commenting at this time. His predecessor as Eastern Crown, Alison MacDermot, should be retained on your mailing lists (she will be succeeding as Badger Herald in January).
The new Schwarzdrachen Herald (East) is Adelaide de Beaumont (Lisa Theriot, 10 SUPS, PSC 47, Box 2431, APO AE 09470. She will not be commenting at this time.
ISSUES ("Get Your Red-Hot Issues!")
There were several issues which were considered at this Laurel meeting. They were: (1) whether to consider charges lying on either side of a line of division as one-half the group for purposes of difference, regardless of their number or type; (2) whether to ban from further registration charged gores and gussets, and whether to ban uncharged, gores, gussets and tierces; and (last, but not least) (3) what the appropriate application of the alternate forms of address "Don" and "Doña" is to be considered in the SCA. Here are the results of the deliberations.
Group Theory.
While commentary was somewhat split on this issue, the general feeling was that to modify the Rules to define half of a group by line of division or as those charges on either side of an ordinary would only serve to encourage unbalanced armory. On the other hand, there are times when the visual impact of changes to charges which amount to "less than half the group" should be granted more difference. As a consequence, we are adopting Lady Dolphin's (now Lady Crescent) suggestion of allowing two changes to the minority of a group (i.e., the "lesser" half of a group of charges lying on either side of a line of field division or an ordinary) being sufficient for a Clear Difference. For example, "Per bend sinister sable and Or, a decrescent moon Or and three fir trees proper" would be allowed two CDs from "Per bend sinister azure and argent, a bear's head argent and three fir trees vert" with one CD for the field and another for the two changes to the charge in dexter chief.
Gores, Gussets, and Tierces (Oh, my!)
Based on the consensus of those commenting on this issue, the College will ban the use of charged gores and charged gussets, matching the ban on charged tierces. Uncharged gores, gussets, and tierces will continue to be registrable. Any charged gores or gussets currently pending at Laurel will be processed as having been "in the pipeline" before the ban went into effect. Therefore, after March 1, 1992, we will no longer register charged gores or gussets.
The "D" Word
The consideration of this issue is one that was much more complex than it at first appeared to be. Not only were the traditions of more than one kingdom at stake, but also some basic questions regarding alternate titles in the Society as a whole had to be addressed. For those of you whose primary interest is in the decision itself and not in the background and related issues, please feel free to skip down to the next to last paragraph in this section.
[A side issue here: "Don" and "Doña" are not titles; they are forms of address, just as "Sir" is not a title but a form of address. One speaks of a knight as a knight; s/he is addressed as "Sir", "Sir [given name]", or "Sir Knight". The usage in at least two kingdoms of calling the advanced rapier fighters "the Dons" is as incorrect as would be calling the members of the chivalry "the Sirs" or the members of the other peerages "the Masters" or "the Mistresses". A minor, probably particularly picky point, but one that I thought ought to be addressed.]
A question of philosophy which had to be addressed before making this ruling was how the College of Arms was going to determine "equivalency" in the Alternate Titles List. Were we going to use dictionary definitions, apply the Society's (admittedly inverted) system on a translation basis, or apply historical usage as our yardstick? There is precedent under Master Baldwin of Erebor's tenure that historical usage would be the primary guideline in the development of the Arabic alternate titles list. The basic philosophy in developing that list was to take the perceived Society rank and try to find period equivalents to that rank, looking at both dictionary definitions and historical usage. Some titles from the standard (English) list promulgated by the Board of Directors were easy to find equivalences for: Malîk and Sultan are both translated as "king", and their historical usage matched that. Harder was "shayk" (or "sheik") for Baron, which was based on historical usage: the leader of a tribe or clan which claimed a certain territory, but without a corresponding dictionary equivalence. Others, like "cadi", were even tougher still, as no direct equivalent existed historically. ("Cadi" translates as judge, and was historically a very high ranking city official. It seemed to be the closest equivalent to what the SCA considers a "count" which was available.) Easier was "Mu'allim" for "Master", which was historically a title of respect and carried the connotation of "teacher", which better fits the ideals of the Orders of the Laurel and Pelican than do the dictionary definitions of the English forms of address "Master" and "Mistress". As a consequence, I believe that a judicious use of (1) historical equivalence supplemented by (2) dictionary equivalence will be our best guideline in determining the applicability of alternate titles to SCA usage.
Another question was whether or not we could consider one or two titles without considering the entire alternate titles list. In the broadest sense, I believe that we have to. We do not have the resources and knowledgeable people available to redo the entire Alternate Titles List in one fell swoop, which is probably the ideal way to deal with the Alternate Titles review. At best I believe that we can review a single language at a time (much as Mistress Keridwen has done recently for Welsh titles), which is probably our second best choice. However, there is precedent for considering a single title, as when the Board directed Mistress Alisoun to rule on two proposed alternate titles, one Mongol and the other German. I believe that if someone has done the research and makes a proposal on a single title and/or requests a specific ruling, that we have the obligation to consider that request and establish a ruling (keeping in mind always how that single title fits into the overall scheme of the Alternate Titles List). As a consequence, I do not believe that Lord Yale's (now Lord Keel's) request for a ruling on this particular form of address must wait until we can find someone to review the entire Spanish and Italian alternate titles lists for us.
Based on the historical usage in the sometimes voluminous historical documentation presented by the commenters, I believe that the restriction of the forms of address "Don" and "Doña" to the chivalry is inappropriate. While there was some feeling that these forms of address could (and should) be restricted to the SCA peerages, the bulk of the historical evidence indicates that "Don" and "Doña" were throughout (but more especially in later) our period of study the actual equivalents of "Lord" and "Lady". As a consequence, I am opening the use of the alternate forms of address "Don" and "Doña" to anyone in the SCA with an AoA (or higher rank), as Spanish equivalents to Lord and Lady along with the already permissible Señor and Señora.
(The correct form of address for Knights, based on the historical documentation presented, would appear to be "Caballero" or "Don Caballero" (this last would be similar, but not exactly equivalent, to the English form of address "Sir Knight"). I am recommending these forms of address be added to the Spanish Alterate Titles List as equivalents for "Sir".)
DEMONS/TROLLS (or, A "Devil" of a Charge)
In the September 1991 LoAR we registered a charge blazoned "a devil decapitated statant affronty, his head affronty on his chest". It has been pointed out to me that I should have made some comment about it, especially as regards its acceptablility in the SCA. The weight of the research and commentary lead me to believe that this monster is compatible with period-style armory (based on period citations of the Acephali, a mythical people who had their faces in their chests) and other documentation which indicated that this particular charge is probably period. It is thus allowable for registration in the SCA.
MISCELLANY
Heraldic Teaser
Q.Why was the crest granted on 10 September 1760 to Tetlow of Houghton, Lancashire, particularly suited for the 'Guiness Book of Records'?A.The crest recalls the grantee's feat of writing the Lord's Prayer on a silver penny with a quill pen and required the Herald Painter to repeat this achievement!
From "The Heraldry Gazette", September 1991, pp. 4 & 11Until next month, I remain, as ever,
Your servant,
Last Updated: $Date: 2004/05/20 21:01:21 $GMT
