Society for Creative Anachronism

College of Arms

1731A 10th St

Hampton, VA 23665

+1-757-848-5813

laurel@heraldry.sca.org

For the August 2009 meetings, printed November 18, 2009

To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from Olwynn 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 August Laurel decisions were made at the joint Pennsic road show held on Monday, August 03, 2009, the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, August 08, 2009, and the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, August 15, 2009. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Laurel LoPaD (07 Apr, 2009), Ealdormere (13 Apr, 2009), East (18 Apr, 2009), Laurel LoPaD (20 Apr, 2009), Calontir (22 Apr, 2009), Northshield (22 Apr, 2009), Atlantia (27 Apr, 2009), Meridies (28 Apr, 2009), An Tir (30 Apr, 2009), Drachenwald (30 Apr, 2009), and West (30 Apr, 2009). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Friday, July 31, 2009.

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 will consider 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 will be made at the Pelican and Wreath meetings held on Saturday, November 07, 2009. These meetings will consider 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 be entered into OSCAR by Saturday, October 31, 2009.

The December Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican and Wreath meetings held in December 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 and Wreath meetings held in January 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 in February, 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 Wreath: Artistic Variation in Submitted Emblazons

For many years, Laurel has returned armory when the black-and-white outline drawing on the Letter of Intent did not match the submission forms. Extremely minor variations of line and style have been considered reason for return. The situation has become complicated with the advent of OSCAR, which allows both a black-and-white and a color emblazon, resulting in twice as many chances for difference between emblazons on the LoI and the submissions forms. We do not feel that it is good customer service to force clients to wait an extra year before their armory is registered merely because their kingdom submission heralds make a mistake.

Starting immediately, as long as the emblazon on the submission form and the emblazons provided on OSCAR are very minor variants of each other and no other issues arise due to the variations, we will not return submissions because the forms do not exactly match the emblazons on OSCAR, nor will we penalize artistic variations between the color and black-and-white emblazons provided on OSCAR. Differences that would cause changes in the blazon, that use obviously different though unblazoned artistic variants of a charge, or which rise to a level where commentary is different based on which emblazon is chosen, will cause the submission to be returned.

From Pelican: Lingual and Temporal Disparities and Steps From Period Practice

Over the years a large body of precedent has built up concerning steps from period practice in names. The two most common types of onomastic steps from period practice are ones generated by lingual disparities and temporal disparities. While our rulings concerning these have been for the most part consistent and uniform, a clear articulation of the philosophy behind why these disparities are counted as steps from period practice has not always been made explicit. We offer the following comments to help people, both heralds and submitters, to understand the philosophy behind the counting of steps from period practice for both lingual and temporal disparities.

There are a number of reasons why the combination of a pair of languages is declared a step from period practice. These reasons include differences in orthography and grammar, and differences in time and place where the language was spoken. Temporal disparities of greater than 300 years, on the other hand, have been ruled a step from period practice to reflect both the change in the name pool and the change in the types of name patterns that were used in various cultures. This is explained in precedent:

Not only did languages change over time, the pool of names that were in use changed over time as well. Therefore, when one element in a name is only dated early and another is only dated late, it is unlikely that these two elements would have been appeared in the same name. The greater the temporal disparity, the less likely these name elements would have appeared together. RfS III.1 states in part that "Each name as a whole should be compatible with the culture of a single time and place." Currently, there is no weirdness for elements that are dated within 300 years of one another, but there is a weirdness for elements dated between 300 and 1000 years apart. Elements that are dated more than 1000 years apart are not registerable, due to the significant temporal disparity. [Sáerlaith an Einigh, November 2002 LoAR, A-Æthelmearc]

An Old English given name which cannot be dated after 750 combined with a Middle English byname which cannot be dated before 1100 counts as two steps from period practice. The first comes from the combination of the two languages, Old English and Middle English. This lingual combination is a step from period practice because of the differences in the grammar and orthography of the two languages, as well as the fact that there is only a very brief period of time where it makes sense to speak of both languages being used at the same time. The second step from period practice is because of the temporal disparity of the elements; this step from period practice would be present regardless of the language of the two elements, because temporal disparities account for changes in the name pool and in the available name patterns, not for changes in the language.

Compare this with the case of an Old English given name which is dated to 950 combined with a Middle English byname which cannot be dated before 1100. This combination is just one step from period practice, for the lingual disparity. Compare it also with the case of a Middle English given name which cannot be dated after 1125 and a Middle English byname which cannot be dated before 1450. This combination is also just one step from period practice, for the temporal disparity.

From Pelican: Saint's Names and Temporal Disparity

A number of recent submissions involving Irish saint's names have argued that the combination of a saint's name in Middle Irish with a byname in Early Modern Irish counts as two steps from period practice, one for the lingual combination and another for temporal disparity. This is not how we count lingual and temporal disparities, and how these are connected to the saint's name allowance.

The definitive ruling on the use of saint's names is on the September 2001 Cover Letter. The ruling says in part:

The theory behind the registerability of saints' names has been that parents could use the given name of a saint when choosing a given name for their child. However, this practice was not the case in all cultures. For example, in medieval Ireland, the names of many saints were considered too holy to use by regular people. Instead of naming a child Míchél ("Michael"), parents would name their sons Máel Míchél ("devotee [of Saint] Michael") or Gilla Míchél ("servant [of Saint] Michael") if they wanted their child's name to refer to the saint.

Regardless, it seems unreasonable at this time to change our current policy by limiting the registerability of saints' names only to cultures where this practice can be solidly documentable. Therefore, if a saint can be documented to period, their given name may be used as a given name in an SCA name.

...

So, in summary, given names which can be documented as the given name of a saint may be registered as a given name. The use of a name documented as a saint's name carries no weirdness in and of itself. The only weirdnesses that derive from using that name come from the lingual mix of the submitted form of the saint's name with the rest of the submitted name.

A caveat to this summary is that the saint must be documented as being known and venerated in the culture and time-period of the rest of the name.

In keeping with the theoretical grounding of the original ruling, for purposes of calculating temporal disparities, we treat saint's names as if they were a part of the available naming pool in the time period(s) for which the saint was known and venerated. Thus, for example, the name of an early Irish saint who was still venerated in the 16th century can be registered in conjunction with a byname dated to 16th century without generating any temporal disparity, so long as the linguistic disparity of the two elements is not more than a single step from period practice.

As discussed above in the previous section, arguing that the combination of a Middle Irish form of a name of a saint known in the Early Modern era with an Early Modern Irish byname dated to the late-period is two steps from period practice, one for lingual disparity and another for temporal disparity, since Middle Irish fell out of use around c.1200, is essentially double jeopardy: It penalizes the name twice for the same thing. The fact that Middle Irish fell out of use around c.1200, and Early Modern Irish arose around c.1200, is part of why combining these two languages is a step from period practice. It is unfair to levy a second step from period practice for temporal disparity when the differing times that the languages were in use is already accounted for in the fact that the lingual disparity is a step from period practice. If, however, there was no evidence that the saint was known to and venerated by speakers of Early Modern Irish, then the name would not be considered part of the available Early Modern Irish naming pool, and combining a Middle Irish form of the name with an Early Modern Irish byname dated to the end of our period would count as two steps from period practice, one for the lingual disparity and one for the temporal disparity.

Society Pages

On Saturday, November 7, 2009, William of Castille, a former Crux Australias Principal Herald of Lochac was elevated to the order of the Pelican.

Also on Saturday, November 7, 2009, Gabriel andvaka Kjotvason, current Society president and a former Keythong Herald of Northshield, was issued a writ to present himself for induction to the Pelican on Saturday, December 5, 2009.

Our congratulations to these two gentlemen on their well deserved achievements!

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 be sent 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". For subscriptions to the electronic copy of the LoAR, which is available free of charge, please see http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/lists.html#lists for more information.

For all administrative matters, please contact Laurel.

Pray know that I remain,

In service,

Olwynn ni Chinnedigh

Laurel Principal Queen of Arms