Laurel Letter of Pends and Discussion (LoPaD): October 7, 2005
Society for Creative Anachronism
College of Arms
16308 SE 165th St
Renton, WA 98058-8221
+1-425-277-0763
herald@sca.org
For the July 2005 meetings, printed October 7, 2005
To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from Elisabeth Laurel, Jeanne Marie Wreath, and Margaret Pelican, greetings.
This letter contains the issues raised in the July 2005 LoAR for CoA discussion. The text in this letter is copied verbatim from that LoAR; it is provided here for convenience. As with an October 2005 LoI, these matters are currently scheduled for the Pelican and Wreath meetings in February 2005. Original commentary must be in the College's hands no later than December 31, 2005. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than January 31, 2006.
1. Adelheit Schwarzenkatze. Device. Or, two cats sejant addorsed regardant, tails entwined, sable and a chief engrailed gules. 
Blazoned on the LoI as Or, two cats sejant addorsed regardant and a chief engrailed gules, the cats are sable, not gules. This is pended to allow the College to conflict check with the correct tinctures. There was some question as to the identifiability of the cats. While not the best drawing of cats, they are sufficiently identifiable to allow registration (barring conflict).
This was item 2 on the Caid letter of March 28, 2005.
2. Ansteorra, Kingdom of. Order name Arc d'Or of Ansteorra, Order of. 
No documentation was included with this submission except for a statement that the documentation would be sent in the following month. Even though the documentation was supplied a month later, such a statement and action on an LoI is unacceptable. The Admin Handbook V.b.2.d says
Summary of Supporting Evidence - A summary of all supporting evidence provided for the submission must be included on the letter of intent. Such evidence includes documentation, permissions to conflict, proofs for entitlement, statements of support for transferred items, and evidence for support in the case of branch submissions. In the case of resubmissions or appeals, a history of previous submissions to the College of Arms, including the dates and grounds for previous returns must be included. Where possible, the letter should include specific references (including page numbers) to all supporting documentation. Omission of this documentation may make registration impossible.
Furthermore, the Admin Handbook says of the provisions for creating a letter of intent that "These procedures apply to all kingdoms. Requests for variance must be approved in advance and in writing by the Laurel Sovereign of Arms." This was not an "oops"; it was a deliberate disregard to the rules spelled out in the Admin Handbook, and the submissions herald stated such in the summary for this submission.
Furthermore, a timely letter of correction was not issued. Instead, the documentation for this submission was included in a Letter of Comment from a commenting herald from Ansteorra. 
Because the rules for a valid Letter of Intent were flouted, because no variance was requested, and because no letter of correction was ever issued, we would be well within the letter of the rules to return this submission. However, because of other circumstances (such as the change of kingdom submissions heralds in Ansteorra around that time) in this case, we will pend this submission to allow extra time for commentary.
This item appeared on the March 24, 2005 Ansteorran Letter of Intent. The documentation for this item appeared in Orle's letter of commentary dated April 20, 2005. Orle's documentation:
(name: Ansteorra, Kingdom of)
Arc d'Or of Ansteorra, Order of
[Order Name] As requested by Bordure and Star I present the documentation for this order name. Branch name registration: Ansteorra, Kingdom of- This branch-name was registered at some point. The enclosed treaty with Trimaris deals with the conflict issues.
I will open by citing the original ruling by Laurel on this order.
[August 1992 Laurel Letter Trimaris-A] "Trimaris, Kingdom of. Name for the Order of the Arc d'Or. This is the Kingdom award for archers. The name was submitted as Arque d'Or, and was intended to mean "Golden Bow". But the word for "bow" is arc, in both modern and medieval French; we have corrected the spelling. Note that, though now correctly spelled, it means "Bow made of Gold" (i.e. the metal); the correct French idiom for "Golden Bow" (the coloration) would be Arc Doré."
Arc d'Or is intended to mean Bow of Gold but my French expert assures me it can also be taken as Golden Bow, at least in modern French.
First the pattern of the name for a period order:
Examples of names that use Golden + thing:
Project Ordensnamen By Meradudd Cethin www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/order/
Golden Rose 1096
Golden Spur 1314
Golden Buckle 1355
Gold Escutcheon 1369
Golden Apple 1394
Golden Fleece 1429
Examples of military items in order names:
Golden Spur 1314
Sword Bearers 1197
Tower and Sword 1459
Sword 1523
Hatchet 1149
Green Shield with the White Lady 1399
History of Orders of Chivalry: a Survey http://heraldica.org/topics/orders/ordhist.htm
Golden Shield, founded by Louis de Bourbon (1367-1410?),
Thus we can have a Order of Golden Bow. Now to translate this into period French. Since this is a treaty order with Trimaris, Ansteorra has kept the original registered designator of Order.
Arc: 
We have a French dictionary from 1606 which references arc with the meaning of bow. The full text is included for those interested.
The ARTFL project. University of Chicago.
http://portail.atilf.fr/cgi-bin/getobject_?p.0:44./var/artfla/dicos/TLF_NICOT/IMAGE/
Jean Nicot (1606) THRESOR DE LA LANGUE FRANCOYSE,
header "arche" "m. acut. Est un mot derivé de ce mot arc, et signifie un qui tire et use de l'arc, soit en la guerre ou ailleurs, selon ce on dit, L'homme d'armes avoir tant d'archers. Et parce que les Rois et Princes souverains, et les prevosts de leurs hostels, pour la garde de leurs personnes, ou autrement, se servoient de gens portans arcs, on dit encores aujourd'huy, Archers de la garde, et Archers du Prevost de l'hostel, et Archers de telle ville, jaçoit qu'ils ne portent plus d'arcs, ains des 
Page 42 hallebardes au lieu d'iceux. Et partant au lieu qu'anciennement ils eussent peu raisonnablement estre dits en Latin Sagittarij ou Arcubalistarij, on les pourroit à present appeler hastati, car quant à ce mot Spiculatores, il convient aux seuls cent gentils-hommes de la maison du Roy portans l'Espieu, et de les dire Laterones, ne Satellites, ne custodes, comme aucuns veulent, le premier d'iceux mots n'exprime l'energie du François Archer, le second ne le represente aucunement, et le tiers ne satisfait qu'à ceste adjection de la garde, quand on dit Archer de la garde, voyez Arc." 
The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd ed., Volume 1 s.n. arc gives its origin as Old French 'arc' meaning bow or arch. In 1563 in English arke has the meaning of arch. The earliest use in English was 1386 by Chaucer "to describe the part of a circle through which a heavenly body appears to pass through above the horizon."  This would make the original 'arc' in Old French even older.
d'Or:
History of Orders of Chivalry: a Survey
http://heraldica.org/topics/orders/ordhist.htm
"Ourdre de la Pomme d'Or founded by 14 knights in Auvergne in 1394,"
This gives us construction for Golden Apple in period French.
Kuhn, Sherman M., Middle English Dictionary, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1980. Page 245 s.n. Or comes from Old French meaning gold and is dated in Middle English to 1437.
This was item 1 on the Ansteorra letter of March 24, 2005.
3. Sanchia de Illora. Device change. Argent, a pomegranate gules, in chief five lozenges conjoined in fess sable each charged with a bee Or marked sable. 
Blazoned on the Letter of Intent as Argent, a pomegranate gules, in chief five lozenges conjoined in fess each charged with a bee Or marked sable, the tincture of the lozenges was omitted. We have pended this device to allow the College to research potential conflicts using the correct tinctures.
This was item 30 on the Caid letter of March 28, 2005.
4. Uilliam Ó Cléirigh. Device. Argent, a bend sinister wavy azure, in dexter chief a brown otter statant guardant proper. 
The LoI blazoned the otter as proper. As there is no proper defined for an otter, this is pended to allow the College to conflict check with the otter's tincture - brown - identified.
This was item 83 on the Atenveldt letter of March 30, 2005.
Pray know that I remain,
In service,
Elisabeth de Rossignol
Laurel Principal Queen of Arms