Society for Creative Anachronism
College of Arms
For the March 2011 meetings, printed Friday, April 29, 2011
To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from Elisabeth Laurel, Istvan Wreath, and Juliana 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 March Laurel decisions were made at the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, March 5, 2011, the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, March 13, 2011, and at the Gulf Wars roadshow on Wednesday, March 16, 2011. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: An Tir (30 Nov, 2010) (pushed due to date finalized) , Calontir (02 Dec, 2010), Ęthelmearc (15 Dec, 2010), Atenveldt (15 Dec, 2010), An Tir (18 Dec, 2010), Ansteorra (19 Dec, 2010), Gleann Abhann (19 Dec, 2010), Lochac (19 Dec, 2010), Ęthelmearc (21 Dec, 2010), West (21 Dec, 2010), Middle (22 Dec, 2010), Caid (26 Dec, 2010), Meridies (30 Dec, 2010), Atlantia (31 Dec, 2010), Drachenwald (31 Dec, 2010), East (31 Dec, 2010), Laurel LoPaD (31 Dec, 2010), Lochac (31 Dec, 2010), Outlands (31 Dec, 2010), and Trimaris (31 Dec, 2010). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Monday, February 28, 2011.
The April Laurel decisions were made at the Wreath roadshow at Ęthelmearc Heralds & Scribes on Saturday, April 2, 2011, at the Wreath meeting on Saturday, April 9, 2010, and at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, April 10, 2011. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Middle (16 Jan, 2011), Middle (17 Jan, 2011), Ęthelmearc (19 Jan, 2011), Atenveldt (20 Jan, 2011), Calontir (21 Jan, 2011), Ęthelmearc (27 Jan, 2011), Ansteorra (28 Jan, 2011), Drachenwald (28 Jan, 2011), Lochac (28 Jan, 2011), An Tir (31 Jan, 2011), Artemisia (31 Jan, 2011), Ealdormere (31 Jan, 2011), Gleann Abhann (31 Jan, 2011), Meridies (31 Jan, 2011), Northshield (31 Jan, 2011), and West (31 Jan, 2011). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Thursday, March 31, 2011.
The May Laurel decisions will be made at the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, May 14, 2011 and at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, May 22, 2011. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Caid (27 Jan, 2011) (pushed due to lack of packet) , Laurel LoPaD (08 Feb, 2011), East (09 Feb, 2011), Atenveldt (15 Feb, 2011), Middle (22 Feb, 2011), Caid (27 Feb, 2011), Lochac (27 Feb, 2011), An Tir (28 Feb, 2011), Ansteorra (28 Feb, 2011), Drachenwald (28 Feb, 2011), Gleann Abhann (28 Feb, 2011), Outlands (28 Feb, 2011), Trimaris (28 Feb, 2011), and West (28 Feb, 2011). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Saturday, April 30, 2011.
The June Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican and Wreath meetings held in June 2010, and at the Known World Heraldic & Scribal Symposium roadshow on Sunday, June 26, 2011. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Meridies (28 Feb, 2011) (pushed due to lack of packet), Laurel LoPaD (10 Mar, 2011), West (15 Mar, 2011), [Atenveldt (20 Mar, 2011)], Ęthelmearc (21 Mar, 2011), Atlantia (23 Mar, 2011), Atlantia (24 Mar, 2011), East (24 Mar, 2011), Ansteorra (26 Mar, 2011), [Calontir (27 Mar, 2011)], Lochac (28 Mar, 2011), [Caid (29 Mar, 2011)], [An Tir (31 Mar, 2011)], [Artemisia (31 Mar, 2011)], and Outlands (31 Mar, 2011). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should be entered into OSCAR by Tuesday, May 31, 2011.
Not all letters of intent may be considered when they are originally scheduled on this cover letter. The date of posting 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.
This month, the issue of undated header forms has come up a couple of times. It's often true that header forms in important resources for naming are undated. One reason is that those books tend to focus on early citations of the name. Therefore, all is not lost if a header form is not dated. But at the same time, you have to demonstrate that the header form is compatible with period spellings (and at a time when the name was in use).
There are several ways to go about doing this. If it's a language that has dictionaries that deal with period forms, especially with the kinds of collections we see in English (the Middle English Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary) or in Spanish (CORDE), then you're in luck. Searching on the preferred spelling is likely to get you somewhere.
Google Books is probably your next best option. You must be careful here, because many books replace period forms with standard modern ones. What you're looking for is a source that includes your desired spelling as well as other spellings for the same name element, or at least a variety of spellings for very similar elements. You have to be careful, because some sources standardize only given names or only placenames. A strategy that I often use is to search on both the form I'm looking for (usually the standard modern form) and a spelling I know dates to period. Once you have found it, be sure that it's a dated form, and not one used only in comments about the document.
Finally, don't be afraid to ask the experts. It's often better to ask before a submission gets to Laurel, as it's easier to engage in a back and forth discussion with the submitter about spellings. But, if all else fails, send it up! There's no guarantee that we'll be able to find the header spelling, but if you don't ask, we won't know. Please, if you do this, be clear about what the submitter wants and what the submitter will accept in the Letter of Intent item. But don't forget: in some languages, commenters have been working miracles.
For several months we have seen a large number of submissions which attempt to use minuscule tertiary charges and depend on those charges to generate difference. We remind submitters and submissions heralds, that section VIII.3 of the Rules for Submissions says that all charges must remain identifiable and can be rendered unidentifiable by significant reduction in size. The standard for identifiability is whether or not a majority of viewers can identify the charge drawn on a standard-sized submission form at ten feet (about three meters for our metric-enabled folk). If the type of the charge is not recognizable and identifiable at that distance, the submission will be returned for lack of identifiability.
This past month, it was again brought to our attention that a number of heralds are using OSCAR in ways for which it was not originally designed, but which may be highly useful for other heralds.
The first way that it's being used is for documentation. Many heralds, especially newer heralds, do not have the extensive resources of others in the College of Arms. However, a trend is that the same name is frequently popular among multiple submitters. Looking for documentation from sources that appear in Appendix H can be as simple as searching OSCAR for the desired name. This feature should be used with care: check the LoAR to ensure that the documentation was actually acceptable and the name was registered using that documentation. Those with commenting privileges should also check the comments for submissions which have not yet been decided.
Another feature which is enabled by the search function is conflict checking armory which does not yet appear in the Ordinary and Armorial. While this must be done with care, due to misspellings and blazonable variants of the same charge (think: sword, dagger, poinard, rapier, falchion, scimitar, seax, broadsword, greatsword, katana, claymore, etc...), it can be a powerful tool to catch conflicts with recently registered items.
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 71112-3706.
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". The electronic copy of the LoAR is available free of charge. To subscribe to the mailings of the electronic copy, please see the bottom of http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/lists.html#lists for more instructions.
For all administrative matters, please contact Laurel.
Pray know that I remain,
In service,
Elisabeth de Rossignol
Laurel Principal Queen of Arms
Created at 2011-04-29T00:05:55