Society for Creative Anachronism
College of Arms
For the August 2024 meetings, printed October 3, 2024
To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from Birgitta Laurel, Elisabetta outgoing-Pelican, Sara incoming-Pelican, and Iago Wreath, greetings.
This month sees the retirement of Lilie Dubh inghean uí Mórdha as Ragged Staff: starting in September and packet checks for the August letters, the changeover to Ollivier Le Floch is complete. To Lilie, happy retirement; and to Ollivier, welcome to the office!
Morsulus is an unpaid Laurel Staff position for maintaining the database of registered items and the online search tools at oanda.sca.org.
Specific duties:
Process the LoAR each month into the database, including indexing armory.
Publish an updated database to oanda.sca.org after processing the LoAR
Make corrections to the database as needed. Some are ad hoc; some are more systemic.
Make note of new charges and blazon terms as cross references in my.cat and related reference files. These are used by oanda.gigo.com to produce ePub versions of the Ordinary and Armorial.
Publish the LoAR files to the LoAR archive.
Good things to do:
Proof the LoARs to catch errors that would impede processing it. This also allows you to index the armory in advance, saving time down the road.
Participate in Wreath and Pelican meetings as able to help spot issues that would affect the LoAR.
Comment in OSCAR on issues that would affect Morsulus.
The existing tool chain is all written in Perl. Familiarity with Perl is essential.
Applications should be sent electronically to Laurel at [email protected] by December 1, 2024, with an expected start date in spring 2025, to be determined with the Laurel staff.
In the July 1981 Letter of Acceptances and Returns, Wilhelm Laurel wrote:
The rank of Herald Extraordinary shall be permanent so long as the holder continues to remain active in SCA heraldry. - - This rank is reserved for those heralds who have greatly served the College of Heralds and/or the College of Arms and have achieved the highest level of competence in heraldry.
Since then, this rank has been awarded as circumstances warrant by Principal Heralds and more rarely by Laurel. There are two heralds who merit this distinction at this time.
Lilie Dubh inghean uí Mórdha has served the College of Arms in several roles over the years, until the end of August as Ragged Staff Herald making sure the submissions process works smoothly and has through that time shown extraordinary competence both in office and as a herald in general.
Elisabetta Tommaso di Carduci has at the end of September completed her term as Pelican Queen of Arms making decisions on name submissions, serving an extra year beyond the three originally projected. Her performance in that office and competence as a herald are nothing but extraordinary.
Both of these Heralds Extraordinary are directed to devise and submit suitable permanent titles for themselves.
During the process of registering a badge for the new peerage order, it came up that SENA currently allows tinctureless badges to be registered only as seals of principal heralds. While Society-wide orders are registered even more rarely than seals of principal heralds, their badges and some of their reglia are also traditionally tinctureless. To correct this, the last sentence of section A3A2 which currently reads as
These designs may only be registered as seals for the use of principal heralds of kingdoms, although some earlier registrations to individuals exist.
is changed to
These designs may only be registered as seals for the use of principal heralds of kingdoms or as badges and regalia of Society-wide orders, although some earlier registrations to individuals exist.
This month marks the second of a three-month transition in Pelican decisions. This month's name decisions for the kingdoms of Atenveldt, Atlantia, Drachenwald, Middle, Outland, Trimaris and West were made by Sara. Decisions for An Tir and Ansteorra were split between Sara and Elisabetta. All of the other decisions were made by Elisabetta.
Based on the Palimpsest May 9, 2024 Rules Letter and commentary on the letter, SENA PN1B2d2 is updated to treat the names of characters from the life stories of saints (like the parents and siblings of saints) and the names of characters from stories that take place in legendary times in the same manner as other literary names. The updated wording will be available at https://heraldry.sca.org/sena.html#PN1B2d2 within a few days.
Table 3 of the Glossary of Terms currently restricts the use of the symbols of Red Cross, Red Crescent, and Red Crystal - the cross couped, decrescent, and mascle respectively - as "A single gules [symbol] on any argent background or in any way that could be displayed on an argent background (such as a fieldless badge)". Precedent has been mixed about whether "single" in this case means that the charge is the only charge in its charge group [Faolan Ó Lacháin of Galway, 08/2013, A-Outlands], or includes any charge group containing a single element of this type [María Lopeitza de Luna, 01/2020, R-Atlantia]. Precedent also indicates that multiple iterations of the same charge in a charge group are registerable as long as they are not "arranged in a line as would be expected of trim or armband style decorations" [Madrun Gwehyddes, 03/2011, A-An Tir]. Based on this wide range of interpretations, we feel it is time for additional clarity.
These charges are generally not restricted when part of a charge group containing other, non-restricted, elements. There will be exceptions to this. For example, in the hypothetical Per bend argent and gules, a roundel within a mascle gules, the roundel and mascle are part of the same charge group, but charges within mascles are explicitly included in the treaty protections given the Red Crystal, so this would not be registerable.
A charge group containing multiples of these charges will be considered on a case-by-case basis. When these items were protected, the decisions included a statement that "The use of multiple gules [charges] may be returned on a case-by-case basis if their placement or usage appears too evocative of the symbol of the [organization name]." We believe this is an important consideration and worth including in the Glossary.
We therefore direct Palimpsest to update Table 3 of the Glossary of Terms for these organizations with the following wording:
A charge group consisting solely of a single gules [charge] on any argent background or in any way that could be displayed on an argent background (such as a fieldless badge), or
A charge group containing a single [charge] combined with other types of charges or a charge group containing multiple gules [charges], if their placement or usage appears too evocative of the symbol of the [organization name], on any argent background or in any way that could be displayed on an argent background (such as a fieldless badge)
[For the Red Crystal] The motif of a charge or charges within a gules mascle is specifically protected by treaty.
A submission this month caused us to consider how we treat combinations of a chief and a bordure. A review of period examples of armory which includes both a chief and a bordure has provided some interesting data. There are three main arrangements that can be found in period, all of which we will allow in Society armory:
A chief entirely within a bordure, which we will blazon as a chief and a bordure
A bordure where the top edge is visible below the chief, which we will blazon as a bordure and a chief
A bordure where the top edge is obscured by the chief, which we will blazon as a bordure, overall a chief
This final arrangement is an exception to the requirement in SENA Appendix I4 that overall charges be in the center of the design and surmount a primary charge. This exception applies only to the combination of these two peripheral ordinaries, and does not extend to other combinations of peripheral ordinaries. We direct Palimpsest to update SENA Appendix I4 with this information.
There are period examples of all three styles being used interchangeably, so we will not grant difference between these depictions despite them being blazoned differently.
Based on Palimpsest's May 9, 2024 Rules Letter and commentary on the letter, Table 8, Default Charge Types, is added to the Glossary of Terms. Additionally, the definition of Default is modified to include type of charge and a reference to Table 8. The updated Glossary of Terms will be available at https://heraldry.sca.org/coagloss.html in a few days.
A few recent submissions have been pended to redraw martlets. In the February 2018 return of the device of Martin Bildner, we wrote, "Submitted as martlets, the birds have long split tails like swallows that are almost half the length of the charges as a whole. While modern depictions of martlets frequently have swallow's tails, period artwork shows them with rather normal-looking tails." Unless and until evidence of martlets with split tails is found in period armory, we will continue to return or pend martlets drawn in this way.
During the Known World Heralds Party at Pennsic, jorundr Silver Buccle elevated Mistress Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon to the rank and style of Herald Extraordinary for her decades of service as a heraldic artist at Heralds Point at Pennsic, as well as her work training heraldic artists.
On August 24, Their Majesties Robert and Magge of Calontir elevated Saito Takauji, Gold Falcon Emeritus, to the Order of the Laurel.
At Purgatorio Coronation, August 24, 2024, Their Majesties Connor and Isa of the West created a new recognition, the Order of the Cardinals of the Crown, to be given once per reign, and named Domamir Vlatko syn, Green Crown Herald, as its first member. At the same event, the office of Vesper Principal Herald was handed off by Eilis O'Boirne to Domamir Vlatko syn.
On August 31, at An Tir's September Crown Tournament, Ana de la Sara, Dexter Gauntlet Emeritus (Order of Precedence), became Crown Princess of An Tir.
Also on that date, at Trial by Fire in the Barony of Bright Hills in Atlantia, Their Excellencies Freydis and Graham recognized Fiordelisia de Torrente with the Award of the Silver Oak Leaf, for her dedicated service as greeter at Pennsic Heralds' Point. The Silver Oak Leaf is the Barony's youth award.
On September 7, at the Ansteorran Heraldic and Scribal Symposium, Annais de Montgomerie, Star Principal Herald, granted Alden Drake, former Star, the rank and style of Herald Extraordinary.
On September 14, at Northshield Fall Coronation, Their Majesties Hans and Genvieve entered Calamus Schreiber, Keythong Emeritus (Submissions), into the Order of the Hand of Tyr for his service to the heraldic and scribal communities. The Hand of Tyr is Northshield's grant-level award for service.
On September 15, the College lost one of its long-time members, as Mistress Marta as-tu Mika-Mysliwy, Brickbat Herald Extraordinary, passed away. She was active in the College of Arms for longer than most of us can remember and served Atenveldt in nearly every heraldic capacity, in recent times mostly as submissions herald, from which office she resigned unexpectedly at the start of August. Her contribution to both the College of Arms and the Atenveldt College of Heralds has been enormous, and she will be missed.
And in still more somber news, on September 16, 2024, James Llewellyn ap Gruffyd passed from this world to the next. A long-time voice herald, his presence will be deeply missed in the Kingdom of An Tir.
Please send information about happenings to major heralds and major happenings to all heralds to Laurel, so that it can be published here.
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 https://oscar.sca.org/index.php?action=137.
The August Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican meeting held on Monday, August 5, 2024 and the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, August 17, 2024. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Ansteorra (01 May, 2024), Atlantia (03 May, 2024), Calontir (03 May, 2024), Caid (04 May, 2024), Meridies (06 May, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (09 May, 2024), Artemisia (10 May, 2024), An Tir (24 May, 2024), Atenveldt (25 May, 2024), Drachenwald (25 May, 2024), An Tir (27 May, 2024), Ealdormere (28 May, 2024), Ansteorra (29 May, 2024), Lochac (29 May, 2024), Trimaris (30 May, 2024), Avacal (31 May, 2024), East (31 May, 2024), Middle (31 May, 2024), Outlands (31 May, 2024), West (31 May, 2024), Laurel LoPfR (12 Jul, 2024). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Wednesday, July 31, 2024.
The September Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, September 15, 2024 and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, September 8, 2024. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Calontir (03 Jun, 2024), Meridies (05 Jun, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (06 Jun, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (07 Jun, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (09 Jun, 2024), Caid (14 Jun, 2024), Gleann Abhann (16 Jun, 2024), Laurel LoPaD (16 Jun, 2024), Middle (17 Jun, 2024), Æthelmearc (20 Jun, 2024), Avacal (21 Jun, 2024), An Tir (25 Jun, 2024), Atenveldt (25 Jun, 2024), Ealdormere (27 Jun, 2024), East (28 Jun, 2024), Lochac (28 Jun, 2024), Ansteorra (29 Jun, 2024), An Tir (30 Jun, 2024), Drachenwald (30 Jun, 2024). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Saturday, August 31, 2024.
The October Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, October 13, 2024 and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, October 6, 2024. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Atlantia (02 Jul, 2024), Calontir (05 Jul, 2024), Meridies (08 Jul, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (09 Jul, 2024), Laurel LoPaD (10 Jul, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (10 Jul, 2024), Laurel LoPaD (13 Jul, 2024), Trimaris (18 Jul, 2024), Avacal (19 Jul, 2024), Ansteorra (26 Jul, 2024), Caid (26 Jul, 2024), East (26 Jul, 2024), An Tir (28 Jul, 2024), Lochac (28 Jul, 2024), West (28 Jul, 2024), Atlantia (29 Jul, 2024), Æthelmearc (31 Jul, 2024), Drachenwald (31 Jul, 2024), Ealdormere (31 Jul, 2024), Middle (31 Jul, 2024), Outlands (31 Jul, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (31 Jul, 2024), Laurel LoPfR (24 Aug, 2024). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Monday, September 30, 2024.
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.
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 uploaded to the OSCAR packet for that letter. For armory, only colored forms are required.
Cheques or money orders for submissions, payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms" are to be sent to Trent Le Clair, 928 Frazier Dr, Walla Walla, WA 99362.
Send roster changes and corrections to Laurel. College of Arms members may also request a copy of the current roster from Laurel.
To subscribe to the mailings of the LoAR, please see the bottom of https://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/lists.html#lists for more instructions.
For all administrative matters, please contact Laurel.
Be assured that I remain
In service
Birgitta Lulli
Laurel Queen of Arms
Created at 2024-10-03T22:13:39