Society for Creative Anachronism
College of Arms
2212 S. 64th Plaza, #418
Omaha, NE, 68106
+1 952 412 4112
laurel@heraldry.sca.org
For the March 2014 meetings, printed May 1, 2014
To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from Gabriel Laurel, Lillia Pelican, and Emma Wreath, 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 Pelican meeting held on Sunday, March 23, 2014 and the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, March 8, 2014. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Ansteorra (02 Dec, 2013), Laurel LoPaD (05 Dec, 2013), Lochac (05 Dec, 2013), Caid (14 Dec, 2013), East (19 Dec, 2013), Outlands (20 Dec, 2013), Middle (21 Dec, 2013), Northshield (27 Dec, 2013), Meridies (28 Dec, 2013), Calontir (29 Dec, 2013), Drachenwald (29 Dec, 2013), Artemisia (30 Dec, 2013), Atenveldt (30 Dec, 2013), Ealdormere (30 Dec, 2013), Æthelmearc (31 Dec, 2013), Atlantia (31 Dec, 2013), Trimaris (31 Dec, 2013).  All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Friday, February 28, 2014.
The April Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, April 27, 2014 and the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, April 12, 2014. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Laurel LoPaD (02 Jan, 2014), Lochac (06 Jan, 2014), Caid (19 Jan, 2014), Atlantia (20 Jan, 2014), Outlands (22 Jan, 2014), East (25 Jan, 2014), Trimaris (26 Jan, 2014), Drachenwald (27 Jan, 2014), Ealdormere (28 Jan, 2014), Calontir (29 Jan, 2014), Gleann Abhann (29 Jan, 2014), Atenveldt (30 Jan, 2014), Northshield (30 Jan, 2014), An Tir (31 Jan, 2014), Meridies (31 Jan, 2014).  All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Monday, March 31, 2014.
The May Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, May 18, 2014 and the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, May 10, 2014. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: West (30 Jan, 2014) (pushed due to lack of packet overdue) , Laurel LoPaD (05 Feb, 2014), [Caid (07 Feb, 2014)], Northshield (08 Feb, 2014), Lochac (12 Feb, 2014), [Ansteorra (20 Feb, 2014)], [Atenveldt (20 Feb, 2014)], Atlantia (20 Feb, 2014), [Artemisia (23 Feb, 2014)], East (23 Feb, 2014), [Middle (23 Feb, 2014)], Ealdormere (26 Feb, 2014), [Drachenwald (27 Feb, 2014)], Æthelmearc (28 Feb, 2014), [Gleann Abhann (28 Feb, 2014)], [Meridies (28 Feb, 2014)], [Outlands (28 Feb, 2014)], [Trimaris (28 Feb, 2014)].  All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Wednesday, April 30, 2014.
The June Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican and Wreath meetings held in June 2014. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: [Calontir (02 Mar, 2014)], [An Tir (04 Mar, 2014)], Northshield (04 Mar, 2014), [Lochac (16 Mar, 2014)], [Outlands (21 Mar, 2014)], [Ealdormere (23 Mar, 2014)], [Atenveldt (25 Mar, 2014)], [Drachenwald (26 Mar, 2014)], [East (27 Mar, 2014)], [Laurel Other Letter (27 Mar, 2014)], [Middle (29 Mar, 2014)], [Ansteorra (30 Mar, 2014)], [West (30 Mar, 2014)], [Atenveldt (31 Mar, 2014)], [Atlantia (31 Mar, 2014)], [Caid (31 Mar, 2014)], Laurel LoPaD (31 Mar, 2014), [Meridies (31 Mar, 2014)].  All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should be entered into OSCAR by Saturday, May 31, 2014.
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.
From Laurel: Regarding Commentary
Laurel commenters are tasked with assisting Wreath, Pelican, and Laurel in making good decisions on approval or return of devices, based on SENA. Commentary that is secondary to the point at hand risks readers (including the aforementioned) losing the point - a signal-to-noise ratio problem. Sorting through long tangential discussions does take time, and if the point is mixed in there somewhere we spend additional time editing the discussion for clarity's sake. In the days of paper, comments were limited by necessity; while the monetary cost of commentary is now negligible, the time cost as it impacts the length of decision meetings has greatly increased.
I recently addressed this with the Principal Heralds, and it bears repeating here. While I have often said that you can use OSCAR for education, what I mean is that you can use it to review what people are saying and learn from that on both how to comment and how senior heralds are seeing things.Questions not specifically related to the registerability of the submission at hand should be taken offline from OSCAR - approach the person privately, or ask another herald for more information or clarification. This is more respectful of everyone's time.
From Laurel: Translations of Documentation
The Admin Handbook states that, "translations must be provided for any sources not in English". In a name submission this month a translation was not provided, and the question was raised whether the documentation needed to be provided in English in order to consider the item.
The answer is that it depends on the source and the nature of the documentation. Rarely do we need to translate entire documents. Usually, we just need the critical information, with enough context to interpret it - this could just be a sentence or two, or up to a few paragraphs, depending on the complexity of the information. For example, we might need just a sentence of a legal document showing a name in context, or a paragraph from a museum description of an extant piece being used to document a heraldic charge. An obvious list of names generally doesn't need a translation.
We understand that submitters, consulting heralds, and kingdom heralds may not have the expertise to provide translations of every language we encounter, and that automated translation systems do not always provide good results. If this is the case, please state this in the Letter of Intent, and provide the text in question (and even a partial translation, if possible) so that the information can be discussed in commentary.
From Laurel: Silent Herald Deputy Applications Sought
In order to encourage and promote the use and equality of Silent Heraldry at all courts and events in which the entire populace attends, and to assist the silent heralds in their dealings with the Crown, the Silent Heraldry Deputy of Laurel Sovereign of Arms coordinates efforts and communication throughout the SCA. Silent Heralds in the Society are heralds who express auditory information into visual and/or tactile information used by deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
This deputy is tasked with the following duties, plus other such tasks as assigned by Laurel:
Working with Kingdoms to improve the organization of silent heraldry and its integration with other court and event heralds.
Working with Kingdoms and Laurel to improve education regarding silent heraldry, both for silent heralds themselves and the general populace.
Acting as a resource for silent herald programs.
Preparing quarterly reports to Laurel on the status of such programs.
Please email your resume (SCA and modern if appropriate) as well as a short description of your experience related to this job to Laurel at laurel@heraldry.sca.org. The application period ends on May 15, 2014, with the decision being made immediately thereafter.
From Pelican: Legion XXIV and Acceptable Sources for Roman Names
In January, we made the following ruling:
Due to the number of mistakes in the Legion XXIV "Roman Names" article, it should not be used as the sole documentation for a name element. We recommend instead that submitters use the articles on Roman names found at http://heraldry.sca.org/names.html#roman, such as the recently released "A Simple Guide to Imperial Roman Names" by Ursula Georges. [Quintus Artorius Mica, 01/2014, A-Caid]
This should have also been placed on a Cover Letter. I am correcting this omission.
Additional resources can be found at the Academy of Saint Gabriel site (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/otherearly.shtml#roman). Please note that these sources are not no-photocopy, with the exception of the client reports and articles also on the Laurel website.
From Pelican: More Name Resources (Not Quite a Series)
Pelican Emeritus is a hard act to follow. Her name resources series lasted the length of her tenure and covered a wide range of languages. I plan to spotlight some of our lesser-known, but very useful sources from time to time.
I'm kicking it off with a source for Scandinavian names: Diplomatarium Norvegicum. This is a 22 volume-and-growing set of transcribed documents and letters relating to Norway from c.1050 until 1590. These documents are mostly written in Middle Norwegian, with some Latin and Danish. If you are referring to a source for medieval Norwegian names, like Lind's Norsk-Isländska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn från Medeltiden, the names from Diplomatarium Norvegicum are generally listed with the standard abbreviation DN.
The University of Oslo extracted the information in the first 21 volumes, and made the database freely available.
In the advanced search form (http://www.dokpro.uio.no/dipl_norv/diplom_felt.html), the name element that you want to find goes in the text box labelled "Brevteksten". Wildcards are inserted using % (for parts of words) or an underscore (single character), which is extremely useful if you are looking for names that are parts of patronymics. If you wish to focus on a specific time period, you can set upper and lower limits with the "Fra og med år" (from, and including year) and "til og med år" (to, and including year) boxes. If you are not feeling particularly adventurous, an English version of the search form is also available (http://www.dokpro.uio.no/dipl_norv/diplom_field_eng.html). The "Text" box is under the section heading "Regesta and transcribed text of the diploma".
It is important to note that names in this source may be inflected forms (modified according to the grammar). In addition, the online version contains some typographical errors. If you are in doubt over a particular spelling, most of the print volumes have also been digitized and are available for free through the National Library of Norway (http://www.nb.no/nbsok/search.nbdigital). In addition, links to most of the print volumes can be found in Þora Sumarliðadóttir, "Diplomatarium Norvegicum" (http://www.morethancod.net/norwegian-onomastic-sources-diplomatarium-norvegicum), along with a short, but very useful guide to this source.
Next month, I will cover a similar source for Danish names, Diplomatarium Danicum.
From Wreath and Pelican: Check your URLs!
Submission heralds are cautioned to doublecheck your URLs and other citations for documentation. It's quite easy for a typo to sneak in and break a URL irreversibly. Documentation which is not viewable could negatively affect a submission, for obvious reasons.
Society Pages
On March 29, at Donnan Party in Ballachlagan, Kameshima Zentarou Umakai, Silver Buccle Principal Herald of Æthelmearc, was made a Companion of the Order of the Pelican.
On April 12, at Noisemakers Schola in the Bailiwick of Ivyeinrust, Lillia de Vaux, Pelican Queen of Arms, was served a writ from Their Eastern Majesties Brennan and Caoilfhionn to contemplate accepting elevation to the Order of the Pelican. The vigil will take place at Pennsic War, on the Tuesday night of War Week, with a small vigil also to be held at KWHSS for those who cannot attend Pennsic.
Please send information about happenings to major heralds and major happenings to all heralds to Laurel, so that it can be published here.
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. All submission forms plus documentation, including petitions, must be posted to the OSCAR online system.
Cheques or money orders for submissions, payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms" are to be sent to John C. Sandstrom, New Mexico State University, PO Box 30006/MSC 3475, Las Cruces, NM 88003.
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,
Gabriel Kjotvason
Laurel Principal King of Arms