Copyright © 1997 Society
for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
SCA College of Arms
600 Cedar Street, NW
Washington, DC 20012
(202) 7264396
herald@sca.org
http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel
September 17, 1997
Unto the members of the College of Arms
and all others who may read this missive do Mistress Jaelle of
Armida, Laurel Queen of Arms, and Mistress Sionyn Muirgen ní
Dhomnall, Pelican Queen of Arms, send Greetings!
The September Laurel meeting was held
on Saturday, September 6, with a road show in the Middle and considered
the following letters of intent: An Tir (April 25), Outlands (April
28), Atenveldt (dated April 25, postmarked May 3, redated by Laurel
to May 3), Artemisia (no date on the letter, dated by Laurel to
May 6 based on postmark), Atlantia (May 4), Caid (May 4), Lochac
(May 7), Drachenwald (May 7), Caid (May 19), Trimaris (May 25),
AEthelmark (May 29), East (May 29), West (May 29), Meridies (May
29), Laurel (May 30), and Ansteorra (May 31). Original commentary
on these LoIs must be in the College's hands no later than July
31, 1997. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the
College's hands no later than August 31, 1997.
The October Laurel meeting has been
rescheduled to Saturday, October 4, with a road show in Calontir
and will consider the following letters of intent: An Tir (May
30), Calontir (June 1), Drachenwald (June 7), Atlantia (June 8),
Lochac (June 17), West (June 18), Meridies (June 27), Ansteorra
(June 28), Middle (June 30) and Trimaris (June 30). Original
commentary on these LoIs must be in the College's hands no later
than August 31, 1997. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must
be in the College's hands no later than September 30, 1997.
The November Laurel meeting is scheduled
for Saturday, November 8, 1997, and will consider the following
letters of intent: AEthelmearc (July 3), Lochac (July 7), Drachenwald
(July 14), Caid (July 17), Atlantia (July 19), Ansteorra (July
26), Meridies (July 27), East (July 28), West (July 29), AEthelmearc
(July 30), and Middle (July 31). Original commentary on
these LoIs must be in the College's hands no later than September
30, 1997. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the
College's hands no later than October 31, 1997.
The December Laurel meeting is scheduled
for Saturday, December 13, 1997, and will consider the following
letters of intent: Caid (August 5), Lochac (August 20), Drachenwald
(August 23), Atlantia (August 24) Meridies (August 24), Trimaris
(August 25) and West (August 28 ) Original commentary on
these LoIs must be in the College's hands no later than October
31, 1997. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the
College's hands no later than November 31, 1997.
The January Laurel meeting is tentatively
scheduled for scheduled for Saturday, January 3, 1998.
Not all Letters of Intent may be
considered when they are originally scheduled on this Cover Letter.
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, not all Letters of Intent received have
been scheduled because the administrative requirements (receipt
of the forms packet, receipt of the necessary fees, etc.) have
not yet been met.
REMINDER: due to problems with receipt
of Laurel packets, until the packet containing the paperwork is
received, the letter may not be scheduled.
Timing of Letters of Comment
There have been a number of letters
of comment coming out extremely late. Unless the letter
of comment is postmarked (or emailed to commenters that
accept email commentary), by the last day of the end of
the original commentary period (for original commentary), or the
last day of the month of the period for responses/rebuttals.
Laurel/Pelican as of July 1998
Pelican and I have decided to ask the
Board to renew our warrants as Laurel and Pelican Sovereigns of
Arms. We have decided to do this for many reasons. However, one
of the chief reasons is that the scanning project is taking a
lot longer than we anticipated, and we would prefer not to
leave it half done for our successor(s), who may or may not have
the manpower and resources it takes, to finish. However, this
does not mean that someone(s) may be interested in the job.
Therefore, if anyone is interested in
applying for the Laurel job, they should send an application with
an heraldic resume to the Corporate office and Laurel by November
1, 1997, so it can be decided at the January Board meeting. We
need the application by then in order to circulate it to the College
for commentary to the Board.
If anyone has any questions about the
Laurel office, the workload, what it entails, etc., feel free
to contact either or both or us. If you want any further information
on the workings of the Laurel office, the last three Laurel Sovereigns
(Da'ud, Bruce and Alisoun) and the last Pelican Sovereign of Arms
(Talan) are all members of the College of Arms, and their addresses
and phone numbers can be found in the roster.
All comments to the Board on any applications
will be due to them by December 20, 1997.
Responses to Questions on the New
Forms
There have been a number of questions
raised on the new forms. While we cannot answer them all here,
there are a few points that we feel we need to address.
Several commenters mentioned a concern
with confusion over negative checkboxes on the name questions.
They felt that our submitters and/or local heralds might find
this confusing. We would like to reassure the college by informing
you that there are kingdoms that have been using the negative
check box system for a long time, with no problems.
Some questions were raised about were the kingdoms really not in compliance with the administrative handbook with the design of their forms. We went through recent submissions, and measured three escutcheons per kingdom (to make sure that we were really measuring the "standard" escutcheon). The administrative handbook says: "The emblazon of any armory must be depicted in a size adequate for complete rendition of details of the armory and for equitable application of the "across the field test". In general, this means that the field for an escutcheon should be approximately six inches in height and five inches wide at its widest point"
We took that to mean that the escutcheon
had to be between 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 inches at its widest point, and
between 5 1/2 and 6/16 inches high to meet the standards in the
administrative handbook.
The escutcheons measured between 3 inches
wide by 4 inches tall, to 6 and 1/4 inches wide by 7 1/2 inches
tall. The only kingdoms that had escutcheons that meant the standards
of the administrative handbook were: Ansteorra, Atlantia, Meridies
and Trimaris. If any Principal herald or submissions herald wishes
to know what figures we got for their kingdom, if they contact
us directly we will give them their information.
This shows us that most of the kingdoms
do not seem to be able to do this one, simple thing.
Questions were also raised as to why
Laurel, instead of the kingdom herald, is the contact person when
people are looking to get letters of permission to conflict. We
asked several of the people who had contacted us, and we were
told it was because it was much easier to get Laurel's contact
information than that of a principal herald from another kingdom.
This is especially true when you realize that a lot of the kingdoms
have split off submissions from the Principal Herald, so that
reaching the principal herald does not mean reaching the files;
in some kingdoms the files are with the submissions herald.
Questions were also raised on holding names. Holding names were first instituted by Wilhelm von Schlüssel as Laurel. Below you will find a quote from the August 1, 1984 rules which were issued by him.
Just as the Society name may be registered
alone if the device is found to be unacceptable, so a good device
or badge may be registered under a holding name when the submitted
Society name is found unacceptable. The submitter has the right
to a free namechange submission to replace the holding name
with an acceptable Society name of his or her choice. The holding
name shall be the submittor's official Society name until such
time as another Society name submitted by the applicant is registered
to replace it. A device or badge will only be registered to a
holding name if it does not incorporate any discouraged practice.
. . . v) If a submittor does not wish
a holding name to be used in the case of an acceptable device
and an unacceptable name, then this should be indicated on the
submission forms and the submission will be returned.
Forms implementation
While we are still trying to resolve
one last legal issue dealing with the forms, we are extending
the mandatory implementation date from March 1, 1998 to June 1,
1998. We are still planning to have the forms out to the College
in October. We came up with the original implementation date
because we would prefer to tell you March and change it to June,
then say June and change it to March.
Roster Changes
A new roster is included with this mailing.
Reminder, roster changes, corrections, additions, deletions, etc.,
should be send directly to Pelican in a separate letter, and not
just in the body of an LoI or LoC.
It is our policy that if we are informed
of heraldic office going empty, it gets removed from the roster
and will not be added back until they write Pelican with the new
information.
E-mail lists for SCA Heralds
SCAHRLDS is an electronic mailing list
for discussion of Medieval and SCA Heraldry, Heralds and related
areas. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to listserv@listserv.aol.com
with a body of:
subscribe SCAHRLDS Firstname Lastname
where the names may be your SCA name
or not. You will receive a reply with instructions on how to leave
the list, how to get help and how to post to the list. Messages
to the list should be sent to scahrlds@listserv.aol.com. Messages
are archived and available on the web.
Books of note
Back in print is George D. Squibb's
The High Court of Chivalry. It is available from AMS Press,
56 Thirteenth St., NY, NY 10003 ISBN 0404171575
for $37.50. This deals with the history of heraldic courts of
chivalry in England.
LoAR Subscriptions and Roster changes:
Send roster changes, additions, subtractions,
subscriptions to the LoAR and address changes in a separate letter,
not in the body of a LoI or LoC to: Mistress Sionyn Muirgen ní
Dhomnall, Pelican Queen of Arms, Jackie Watkins, 3532 Winding
Wind Cove, Bartlett, TN, 381353044. Please make all checks
or money orders payable to "SCA Inc. College of Arms".
The cost is currently $25.00 a year.
Also, remember all administrative
issues (requests for warrants, quarterly reports, etc.) need to
be sent to Pelican.
Certified mail.
I cannot accept certified mail at home.
If you need to send me mail return receipt requested, contact
me privately, and I will send you my work address.
Miscellany:
"THE LION QUADRI CORPORATE: this
ungainly and monstrous creature makes but one appearance, on the
seal of Sicilie de Heworthia, in the 13th century, and we can
put it from our minds."
Rodney Dennys The Heraldic Imagination.
Until next month, pray believe that
I am, and remain,
Your faithful servant,
Jaelle of Armida
Laurel Queen of Arms