Society for Creative Anachronism College of Arms 1702 Sea Ventures Ln Hampton, VA 23665-2429 +1-757-848-5813 laurel@heraldry.sca.org For the November 2010 meetings, printed Friday, December 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 November Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, November 6, 2010 and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, November 7, 2010. These meetings considered 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 have been entered into OSCAR by Sunday, October 31, 2010.* The December Laurel decisions were made at the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, December 4, 2010 and the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, December 5, 2010. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Northshield (31 Aug, 2010) (pushed due to OSCAR posting date), {AE}thelmearc (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), Atenveldt (30 Sep, 2010), Daniel de Lincoln LoItUP (30 Sep, 2010), Lochac (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 have been entered into OSCAR by Tuesday, November 30, 2010.* The January Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, January 16, 2010 and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, January 17, 2010. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Artemisia (30 Sep 2010) (pushed due to lack of packet), Meridies (30 Sep, 2010) (pushed due to lack of packet), {AE}thelmearc (02 Oct, 2010), Caid (05 Oct, 2010), Laurel LoPaD (06 Oct, 2010), Atenveldt (15 Oct, 2010), Ansteorra (18 Oct, 2010), Calontir (23 Oct, 2010), Lochac (25 Oct, 2010), Gleann Abhann (26 Oct, 2010), Meridies (28 Oct, 2010), An Tir (29 Oct, 2010), Northshield (30 Oct, 2010), Atlantia (31 Oct, 2010), Drachenwald (31 Oct, 2010), East (31 Oct, 2010), Laurel LoPaD (31 Oct, 2010), Middle (31 Oct, 2010), and Outlands (31 Oct, 2010). *All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should be entered into OSCAR by Friday, December 31, 2010.* The February Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican and Wreath meetings held in February 2011. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Middle (12 Nov, 2010), {AE}thelmearc (16 Nov, 2010), Laurel LoItP (16 Nov, 2010), West (17 Nov, 2010), [Atenveldt (20 Nov, 2010)], Ansteorra (21 Nov, 2010), Caid (21 Nov, 2010), Artemisia (25 Nov, 2010), Outlands (27 Nov, 2010), Lochac (28 Nov, 2010), Atlantia (29 Nov, 2010), Gleann Abhann (29 Nov, 2010), Meridies (29 Nov, 2010), Northshield (29 Nov, 2010), [Trimaris (29 Nov, 2010)], Drachenwald (30 Nov, 2010), East (30 Nov, 2010), and the Laurel LoPaD (30 Nov, 2010). *All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should be entered into OSCAR by Monday, January 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. **** From Laurel: Deadline Reminder **** We would like to remind all interested parties that the deadline for applications for the position of Laurel, Pelican, and Wreath Sovereign of Arms is March 1, 2011. All interested parties should see the August 2010 Cover Letter for details on how to apply. We would also like to remind everyone that Laurel is accepting applications for a replacement Ragged Staff Herald. Details are also on the August 2010 Cover Letter. **** From Laurel - Submissions Delays and You **** With the advent of the new, shorter commentary period and the LoARs being released on a shorter schedule, we were curious as to how long it takes a submission to move through the process from start to finish. Investigations of this month's LoAR found several submissions which had been received at kingdom after July 1, 2010. In one case, the submission was received in mid August. Since this letter has been released on 12/31/2010, this means that these submissions have spent less than six months in submission before the Laurel decision was published. While these submissions are unusually fast, they indicate that submissions received near the monthly cut-off in kingdoms with short in-kingdom processing times can traverse the complete process in under six months. This is an amazing development. We would like to thank all submissions heralds, all commenters at all levels, and Laurel-level staff and proofreaders for their hard work and assistance in getting to this point. We hope to keep to this schedule, and do everything we can to ensure that submissions are processed quickly, but with careful consideration. **** From Pelican: Some Name Resources (a series) **** Names in some languages spoken in Asia (Japanese, Arabic) are quite well documented by Society scholars, making names in those languages relatively easy to construct. Other Asian cultures are less well documented, making the lives of submitters and heralds quite difficult. This section will help you to figure out how to document an Asian name, first by pointing you toward some sources for documenting names, then explaining some of the standards used by the College of Arms and how to meet them for those other languages. Before you get started on a difficult project, take a look at what others have done. I start with the Academy of Saint Gabriel library (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/), which has sections on "Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Islamic Names," "Central Asian Names," "Ancient Iranian Names," "Mongol Names," "Indian Names," "Chinese Names," and "Japanese Names." The one important print source I use for Asian names is Solveig Throndardottir's _Name Construction in Medieval Japan_, which can be bought from Potboiler Press (http://potboilerpress.com/). It has large numbers of historical names of various sorts; in another month, I'll discuss how to use it most efficiently. One of the first tricks is figuring out what language(s) you're dealing with. In India, for example, there were (and are) dozens of languages spoken. I often depend on online scholarship to answer these questions. Two useful sources are Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org), which has surprisingly extensive articles on the history of individual languages, and Ethnologue (http://www.ethnologue.com/), which is an online version of the standard reference on the modern distribution of the languages of the world (But don't forget: Wikipedia is not acceptable as the sole documentation for a name or name element). Between them, you can generally figure out what language(s) you might find in an area. This is important, because if you propose to mix names elements from two different times and/or languages, you need to be able to address whether they are compatible with one another. Even in a single time and place, there can be multiple languages represented; for example, Japanese names use both Japanese and Chinese readings of kanji, though generally not in a single name. To register a personal name from a non-European culture, you need to present evidence that the culture in question had contact with Europe and Europeans before 1600. But before you get too concerned about presenting that evidence, take a look through LoARs to see if we've registered other names from that culture. If we've registered a name from that culture recently, don't worry too much about proving that contact again. However, there are many cultures that have not been shown to be registerable. A discussion of the kinds of evidence one might present is given in the January 2003 Cover Letter, dealing with Tibetan names. Note that second-hand contact (contact with a group of people who had contact with Europe) is not sufficient. In the case of India, we often look to the late-period Portuguese coastal possessions as evidence for contact. History books are generally necessary to argue for these points, as websites created by private individuals often include poorly sourced information and cannot be trusted. You must then present evidence that the names are properly constructed and were used before 1600. For the first part, modern books of names and surnames may help, but they rarely help for the second. With the rise of Google Books and other internet sources, searching to see if a modern name was used before 1600 is often pretty simple. However, that very simplicity means that we are far less likely to give benefit of the doubt to a name element that appears only as a modern name. Finally, you must present evidence that the name as a whole is appropriately constructed. We require all names to consist of at least two elements: a given name (or something that functions like one) and a byname (or something that functions like one). That can be difficult for some poorly documented Asian languages, but presenting names that seem to follow the pattern is the best way. If you can't find appropriate patterns for bynames, one solution is to construct a Lingua Anglica form of a byname. The use of the Lingua Anglica allowance was discussed at great length in the January 2009 Cover Letter. For Asian names, locative bynames are often a good candidate. Remember that the Lingua Anglica allowance requires the use of the standard modern English form of the name. For this reason, _of Bangalore_ or _of Beijing_ are registerable under this allowance, while _of Bengalooru_ or _of Daidu_ are not (although these other names have also been used for those cities). **** 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 2010-12-31T00:25:57