Society for Creative Anachronism
College of Arms

1702 Sea Ventures Ln
Hampton, VA 23665-2429
+1-757-848-5813
[email protected]

For the August 2010 meetings, printed Sunday, October 31, 2010

To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from Olwyn 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 August Laurel decisions were made at the Wreath meeting held on Wednesday, August 4, 2010, at the Pennsic Road Show held on Monday, August 9, 2010, and at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, August 21, 2010. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Ęthelmearc (01 May, 2010), An Tir (12 May, 2010), East (14 May, 2010), Northshield (16 May, 2010), Atenveldt (20 May, 2010), Ansteorra (26 May, 2010), Atlantia (28 May, 2010), West (30 May, 2010), Caid (31 May, 2010), Drachenwald (31 May, 2010), Gleann Abhann (31 May, 2010), Meridies (31 May, 2010), Middle (31 May, 2010), Outlands (31 May, 2010), Trimaris (31 May, 2010), and West (31 May, 2010). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Saturday, July 31, 2010.

The September Laurel decisions were made at the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, September 4, 2010 and at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, September 24, 2010. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Laurel LoPaD (15 May, 2010), Ęthelmearc (31 May, 2010), Northshield (20 Jun, 2010), Laurel LoPaD (21 Jun, 2010), Gleann Abhann (23 Jun, 2010), Atenveldt (25 Jun, 2010), Artemisia (26 Jun, 2010), East (26 Jun, 2010), An Tir (27 Jun, 2010), Atlantia (28 Jun, 2010), Calontir (28 Jun, 2010), Ansteorra (29 Jun, 2010), Drachenwald (29 Jun, 2010), Outlands (29 Jun, 2010), and Meridies (30 Jun, 2010). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Tuesday, August 31, 2010.

The October Laurel decisions were made at the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, October 11, 2010 and the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, October 17, 2010. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Ęthelmearc (09 Jul, 2010), Meridies (21 Jul, 2010), Gleann Abhann (22 Jul, 2010), East (26 Jul, 2010), Meridies (26 Jul, 2010), Ansteorra (27 Jul, 2010), An Tir (28 Jul, 2010), Atlantia (28 Jul, 2010), Trimaris (29 Jul, 2010), West (29 Jul, 2010), Atenveldt (30 Jul, 2010), Laurel LoPaD (30 Jul, 2010), Drachenwald (31 Jul, 2010), Middle (31 Jul, 2010), and Outlands (31 Jul, 2010). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Thursday, September 30, 2010.

The November Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, November 6, 2010 and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, November 7, 2010. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Caid (29 Jun, 2010) (pushed due to lack of payment and packet), Caid (31 Jul, 2010) (pushed due to lack of packet), Lochac (31 Jul, 2010) (pushed due to lack of packet), Ansteorra (17 Aug, 2010), Gleann Abhann (17 Aug, 2010), Atenveldt (20 Aug, 2010), Lochac (29 Aug, 2010), [Artemisia (30 Aug, 2010)], Atlantia (30 Aug, 2010), An Tir (31 Aug, 2010), East (31 Aug, 2010), Meridies (31 Aug, 2010), Middle (31 Aug, 2010), and West (31 Aug, 2010). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should be entered into OSCAR by Sunday, October 31, 2010.

The December Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on 2010-12-04 and the Wreath meeting held on 2010-12-04. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Northshield (31 Aug, 2010) (pushed due to lack of OSCAR posting date) , Ęthelmearc (04 Sep, 2010), [Ealdormere (06 Sep, 2010)], Laurel LoPaD (07 Sep, 2010), Calontir (17 Sep, 2010), Gleann Abhann (23 Sep, 2010), Laurel LoPaD (23 Sep, 2010), Lochac (26 Sep, 2010), [Ansteorra (28 Sep, 2010)], Atlantia (29 Sep, 2010), Drachenwald (29 Sep, 2010), [An Tir (30 Sep, 2010)], [Artemisia (30 Sep, 2010)], [Atenveldt (30 Sep, 2010)], Daniel de Lincoln LoItUP (30 Sep, 2010), Lochac (30 Sep, 2010), [Meridies (30 Sep, 2010)], Northshield (30 Sep, 2010), Outlands (30 Sep, 2010), Trimaris (30 Sep, 2010), and West (30 Sep, 2010). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should be entered into OSCAR by Tuesday, November 30, 2010.

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 The Sovereigns: Call for Applications

Laurel Principal Sovereign of Arms

The Laurel Principal Sovereign of Arms (Laurel) is the principal heraldic officer of the Society and the head of the College of Arms. Laurel is responsible for fostering the study and practice of heraldry, supervising the processing of submissions, and overseeing the heraldic activities of the Known World.

Laurel is an unpaid position, currently requiring approximately 20 hours a week. The position requires considerable tact and patience, armory and onomastic knowledge, supervisory ability, the ability to work within tight deadlines and coordinate closely with Wreath, Pelican and other staff to produce a Laurel Letter of Acceptance and Return monthly, computer literacy and word processing skills, reliable e-mail and telephone access, and time and ability to travel.

Resumes must be sent in both hard copy to Laurel Resume, SCA Inc., Box 360789, Milpitas CA 95036 and electronically to [email protected]. The electronic applications will be posted on OSCAR with addresses, other contact information, and legal names stripped from them. Resumes must be received by March 1, 2011. The present Laurel's warrant expires in June 2011.

Wreath Sovereign of Arms

The Wreath Sovereign of Arms is an educational deputy of the Laurel Principal Sovereign of Arms, responsible for the consideration of and decisions concerning armory submitted for registration by the College of Arms.

Wreath is an unpaid position, currently requiring approximately 20 hours a week. Some knowledge of period heraldry is useful; knowledge of SCA heraldry is essential. The position requires considerable tact and patience, research and reasoning ability, a clear understanding of the Rules for Submission and past Laurel rulings, the ability to write clearly and succinctly, the ability to work within tight deadlines and coordinate closely with Pelican, Laurel and other staff to produce a Laurel Letter of Acceptance and Return monthly, computer literacy and word processing skills, reliable e-mail and telephone access, and time and ability to travel. Given the current structure of the office, a high-speed internet connection is useful but it is not required.

Resumes must be sent in both hard copy to Laurel Resume, SCA Inc., Box 360789, Milpitas CA 95036 and electronically to [email protected]. The electronic applications will be posted on OSCAR with addresses, other contact information, and legal names stripped from them. Resumes must be received by March 1, 2011. The present Wreath's warrant expires with the present Laurel's warrant in June 2011.

Pelican Sovereign of Arms

The Pelican Sovereign of Arms is an educational deputy of the Laurel Principal Sovereign of Arms, responsible for the consideration of and decisions concerning names submitted for registration by the College of Arms.

Pelican is an unpaid position, currently requiring approximately 20 hours a week. The position requires considerable tact and patience, onomastic knowledge, research and reasoning ability, a clear understanding of the Rules for Submission and past Laurel rulings, the ability to write clearly and succinctly, the ability to work within tight deadlines and coordinate closely with Wreath, Laurel and other staff to produce a Laurel Letter of Acceptance and Return monthly, computer literacy and word processing skills, reliable e-mail and telephone access, and time and ability to travel. Access to a good research library is desirable but not required. Given the current structure of the office, a high-speed internet connection is useful but it is not required.

While the current Pelican intends to apply for her warrant to be renewed (having just stepped up in June of 2010), all applications are welcome. Resumes must be sent in both hard copy to Laurel Resume, SCA Inc., Box 360789, Milpitas CA 95036 and electronically to [email protected]. The electronic applications will be posted on OSCAR with addresses and other contact information stripped from them. Resumes must be received by March 1, 2011. The present Pelican's warrant expires with the present Laurel's warrant in June 2011.

From Laurel: New Ragged Staff Wanted

Ragged Staff is the file clerk for the Laurel office. Ragged Staff receives all submission paperwork from each kingdom's submissions herald (both paper and electronic), sends electronic copies to Pelican and Wreath, and files the paper copies. Ragged Staff also manages inactive files both to ensure that they are available as necessary as well as to determine which can be scanned and archived.

Shauna Ragged Staff has given notice that she wishes to retire after the current tenure is over, subject to some limitations: she wants to finish the current file pull that is in process, and she is willing to keep the job for a few months until the new Laurel team is in place and shakes things down. We are, therefore, looking for a replacement.

Ragged Staff is an unpaid Laurel staff position. The job requires approximately 20 hours of work per week, computer literacy, an attention to detail, administrative expertise, and ability to handle multiple independent processes on separate schedules. Reliable high speed internet access is required, for uploading scans. The job requires the ability to store a large number of file cabinets, currently around 20, plus some other administrative paperwork.

Interested parties may contact the incumbent, Shauna of Carrick Point, at [email protected] for a more complete list of what the job currently entails. Applications for the job should be sent to Laurel at [email protected]

From Pelican: Some Name Resources (a series)

There are an enormous (and growing) number of resources online that can be useful to heralds and to submitters. Each month, I'm going to post information about some that I think might be useful. If I miss some interesting ones, let me know, because I don't know everything.

This month's topic is documenting Anglo-Saxon names. The traditional main source for Anglo-Saxon names was Searle's Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum. However, in August 2008, Searle was ruled unreliable, making three main criticisms:

First, all of the headwords that Searle uses have been standardized to a normalized Old English form... Second, and connected to the first issue, Searle included many non-Old English names, including Continental Germanic and Old Norse names that were found in the English documents that he was using as sources, even when the bearer is known not to have been English... Third, Searle gives many variant spellings of the individual themes, and these variant spellings should be used with care. Some of the variants that he lists are very rare, perhaps even scribal errors... Given these issues, Searle in general should not be relied upon as the sole source of documentation for an Old English name.

So, given this ruling, what should you use? First, note that while the spellings of the names in Searle aren't necessarily appropriate, the people really did exist. So sending a name up to Laurel with documentation from Searle is not cause for return; it just means we have to search to determine if the spelling is appropriate. Here's how I do it.

I start with PASE, the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (http://www.pase.ac.uk/index.html). It's recently been revamped, which has added all the data I'd been missing (like names from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). But it's just a little harder to use. Click on "Database" and then click on the little plus sign on the "Persons" bar at the left. That will give you a list of options; click on the plus next to "Name." This will bring up a list of the names starting with A. You can select another letter or search for a name. The standardized names are registerable, as are documentary forms. To find documentary forms, as well as determine the dates associated with the individuals, click on the name of the individual. In the central window, all individuals with that name are listed. Click on one to open a window to the right with more data about that individual. The documentary forms are listed under "Recorded Name." To look at another individual with the same name, just click on their name. To bring up another name, close the center window by clicking on the X or on "Reset Constraints."

Tengvik's Old English Bynames has significant numbers of given names and bynames. Ekwall's The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names has some Anglo-Saxon placenames as well as later placenames. A few additional articles are found at the Academy of Saint Gabriel library (the relevant page is http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/engoldenglish.shtml).

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 71112-3706.

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,

Olwynn ni Chinnedigh
Laurel Principal Queen of Arms


Created at 2010-11-01T00:39:24