To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from François Laurel, Zenobia Wreath, and Mari Pelican, health and good friendship.

NOTE: due to schedule conflicts, the tentative August Pelican meeting date is August 3. The tentative September meeting dates are: Pelican, September 7; Wreath, September 7 or 28. With early meetings, the commentary deadlines are therefore tentatively advanced for those two months: the July deadline for responses to commentary will tentatively be Wednesday, July 24, and the August deadline for responses to commentary will tentatively be Wednesday, August 28.

The following is a table showing the status of Letters of Intent, Laurel Letters of Pend and Discussion, and Letters of Intent to Protect. The header rows are the dates of the meetings that will consider them, the dates when primary commentary is due, and the dates when responses to primary commentary is due. The key follows.

Month day: the date on the Letter of Intent, Letter of Pend and Discussion, or Letter of Intent to Protect. The Trimaris March letter had no date, so the postmark date of March 30 is being used.(Month day): for administrative reasons, this LoI has not yet been scheduled.Month day P: postponed due to postmark."-": no LoI is scheduled for that meeting from that kingdom.?: tentative.

Mar: the Wreath meeting was on March 16, with a March 24 road show at An Tir Heraldic Symposium; the Pelican meeting was March 23, with a March 13 road show at Gulf Wars.

Jun: the Wreath and Pelican meetings will be on June 15. The sovereigns plan the traditional road show on Sunday morning of Known World Heraldic Symposium, June 23.

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, etc.) have not yet been met.

REMINDER: Until all administrative requirements are met, the letter may not be scheduled.

From Pelican: Regarding the Name Kathleen

Two submissions this month raised discussion regarding whether or not Kathleen is a period name.

Kathleen is an Anglicized Irish form of the Gaelic name Caitilín, which itself derives from the Old French Cateline. Forms of Caitilín have been found in Gaelic dating to the early 15th C and later. This leaves a limited amount of time for Caitilín to become firmly established enough to generate the Anglicized form Kathleen. At this time, no documentation has been found that Kathleen was used in period.

Kathleen has been registered 45 times in the last two decades with at least one registration in every year except two. This demonstrates consistent popularity of the name. Regarding recent popularity of the name, there are two submissions this month that include Kathleen as a given name. Additionally, it was registered once in 2001, once in 1999, and four times in 1998. Given this level of popularity, it is reasonable to consider Kathleen SCA compatible.

From Pelican: Updating Information on Submission Forms

There was a submission this month that had sections of the form filled out in pencil. At some point, the submitted spelling of the byname was erased and a new spelling was written in its place. (This change matched changes noted in the LoI as being made at Kingdom.)

Submissions heralds, please note: when you update forms to match the LoI, make all changes so that the changes you made are obvious and the original information is still discernable. For example, one way to make such a change is to draw a line through the originally submitted name element and write the updated form beside it or above it. In any case, please do not erase, Wite-Out(tm), or scratch out the original information to the point that it is not readable. It is important that we can tell what the submitter's original choices were when the form was submitted.

From Wreath: Concerning Brown

We asked some questions concerning "brown proper" in the August 2001 Cover Letter ("In a Brown Study"). There was a surprisingly small amount of commentary on this issue tied directly to the cover letter request for commentary. There was some additional pertinent commentary on submissions which used brown proper charges. Thanks to all who commented, and particularly to those who provided further research on the issue from period armorial sources.

There was general agreement that correctly drawn brown charges proper should be given tincture difference from any heraldic tincture, and so shall it be. Please remember that if the brown is drawn in a shade close to a heraldic tincture, it will either be reblazoned to the heraldic tincture or returned for redrawing, as appropriate.

Commentary on the question of our general policies for brown proper was more mixed. Some commenters explicitly supported the policy which has applied since the cover letter for the October 1995 LoAR. The support was generally on the grounds that (quoting Palimpsest's closing paragraph on the topic in his July 2001 LoC): "What is clear is that brown is used in period heraldry and that the range of uses which the SCA will allow is roughly comparable to the range of uses found in period. That ain't that bad for a status quo."

Other commenters expressed concern that this policy might be leading to an overuse of brown proper charges in SCA armory. To determine whether this was the case, a tally was made of new registrations made in the nineteen months between June 1999 and December 2000 of armory using "brown proper" or selected armorial elements which were either extremely rare in period, or not found in period but allowed by the SCA. The tally did not include cases where the armory was a change to existing armory already using the armorial feature in question. The results: bordure counterchanged over an ordinary throughout: 1; brown proper, 3; masoned field treatment used to tincture something other than an architectural charge: 5; pall inverted (as a charge only, not including the field division), 5; natural dolphin, 9; and Per bend sinister A and B, a bend sinister C (accompanied by other charges), 9. The tally indicates that brown proper is not being registered very frequently, and it is not being registered more frequently than very uncommon period elements or non-period but SCA-acceptable elements.

As a result, we are re-affirming the precedent from the Cover Letter for the October 1995 LoAR:

PRECEDENT: Henceforward, and more in line with period heraldic practice, animals which are normally brown may be registered simply as an {X} proper (e. g., boar proper, hare proper). Animals which are frequently found as brown but also commonly appear in other tinctures in the natural world may be registered as a brown {X} proper (e. g., brown hound proper, brown horse proper).

This precedent does not, however, loosen the ban on "Linnaean proper" (Cover Letter, May 13, 1991); proper tinctures for flora and fauna which require the Linnaean genus and species to know how to color them. For example, a falcon proper will be considered to be all brown, not brown head, wings and back, buff breast with darker spots, and a tail striped with black; a hare proper will be considered to be all brown, not brown with white underbelly and tail and pink ears. This also appears to be more in keeping with period heraldic practice.

From Free Trumpet Press West: New Editions

Free Trumpet Press West, the official publications office of the SCA College of Arms, now has in stock the Tenth Edition of the Ordinary and Armorial, covering registrations through December 2001. They also have O&A Update 29, covering July through December 2001. They also have Combined Updates 26-29, covering the Ninth through the Tenth Edition. Name Construction in Medieval Japan by Solveig Throndardottir is temporarily out of print. Enclosed is the latest FTPW price list.

Roster Changes

There is a new Star Principal Herald (Ansteorra). The new Star is Rosalia O Brogan (Monica Riney), 504B Oakwood Ln, Arlington, TX 76012-3618, 817-459-3553, email: herald@ansteorra.org.

Borek Vitalievich Volkov (Brent Ryder), previously Star Principal Herald (Ansteorra), is removed from the mailing list but remains on the roster as Sable Roundel Herald. His e-mail address is changed to borekvv@hotmail.com.

There is a new Asterisk Herald (Ansteorra): Cahira of Bonwicke (Traci Thompson), 444 E Medical Center Blvd Apt 1412, Webster, TX 77598-4344, 281-990-8557, e-mail: cahira_of_bonwicke@yahoo.com. The previous Asterisk, Griffin ap Rhys (Samuel Moon), is removed from the mailing list and roster.

Aryanhwy merch Catmael (Sara L. Friedemann) is stepping down as Rouge Scarpe Herald (Middle). She remains on the roster and mailing list. Her phone number is now 608-294-5783.

The new Rouge Scarpe Herald (Middle) is Paul Wickendon of Thanet (Paul Goldschmidt), who was already on the roster as Escutcheon Herald (Middle) but is now added to the mailing list. His contact information: 3071 Cimarron Trl, Madison, WI 53719-2407, 608-288-0255, e-mail: goldschp@yahoo.com.

The new Escutcheon Herald (Middle) is Angharad Rhos Tewdwr of Pembroke (Anne Krone), 3846 S Wayne Dr, La Porte, IN 46350-9251, 219-393-1780, e-mail ladyfiresilk@yahoo.com.

Schwarzdrachen Principal Herald (Drachenwald), Theobald Vechinchusen (Chris Swanson), has a U. S. Post Office address that can be used to reduce postage costs when mailing from the United States or Canada. The address is CMR 470 Box 9804, APO AE 09165.

Palmer Herald (Outlands), Naitan de Yerdeburc (Scott Petty), has a new e-mail address: naitan039@yahoo.com.

Black Lion Prinipal Herald (An Tir), Marco Valentino (Jeremy Tate), has a new email address: marcoval@attbi.com.

Triskele Principal Herald (Trimaris), Sebastian Halyburton (Donald Rhodes), has a new phone number: 904-945-0872.

Palimpsest Herald (Laurel staff), Rouland Carre (Richard R Hershberger), has a new e-mail address: rrhershberger@earthlink.net.

Send What to Whom

For all Letters of Intent, Comment, Response, Correction, &c, send one paper copy to each of Laurel PKoA and Wreath QoA at their mailing addresses as shown on the College of Arms Mailing List.

Send Laurel office copies of all submissions-related paper, including

• Letters of Intent, Comment, Response, Correction, &c (note: such copies are in addition to the personal copies for Laurel and Wreath mentioned above)
• Submission packets
• Cheques or money orders for submissions, payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms"

to Kathleen M. O'Brien, 7323 Potters Trl, Austin, TX 78729-7777.

Send Laurel office copies of all submissions-related electronic files to submissions@sca.org . This includes electronic copies of LoIs, LoCs, LoRs, &c.

Send roster changes and corrections to Lord Symond Bayard le Gris, Bruce R. Nevins, 2527 E. 3rd St., Tucson, AZ, 85716-4114, 520-795-6000, 520-795-0158 (fax), bnevins@nexiliscom.com. College of Arms members can also request a copy of the current roster from Symond.

For subscriptions to the paper copy of the LoAR, please contact Symond, above. The cost for an LoAR subscription is $25 a year. Please make all checks or money orders payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms". For subscriptions to the electronic copy of the LoAR, please contact Laurel at herald@sca.org. The electronic copy is available free of charge.

For all administrative matters, or for questions about whom to send to, please contact Laurel Principal King of Arms, whose contact information heads this letter.

Pray know that I remain

In service

François la Flamme
Laurel Principal King of Arms

Created at 2002-06-11T22:42:48