MIDDLE KINGDOM
LETTER OF ACCEPTANCES AND RETURNS

Middle Kingdom - Internal Letter of Acceptances & Returns – April 2002 This is the Middle Kingdom Letter of Acceptances and Returns for the February 2002 letters of Escutcheon and Keythong. Comments in braces {} were removed from the Letter of Intent sent to Laurel and the College of Arms. Names, devices, or badges in braces have been returned or pended; general comments or replies to commentary are also placed in braces. Thanks to Knute, Caitríona inghean Uí Bhraonáin, Gabriel Ximenez de Malaga, Kevin Ambrozijwski with Phebe Bonadeci, Aine ingen Maol Patraic, Helene Gabrielle du Lac, Deirdre nan Damh, Ælfreda æt Æthelwealda and Mikhail of Lubelska, Rory mac Feidhlimidh with Dugan MacLeod, and Thorvald Redhair with Percival ap Gwylim Trefynwy for their commentary this month. It is with more sorrow than happiness that I must say this is my last ILoAR as Rouge Scarpe. I have thoroughly enjoyed this office, and if I had only known a month or two earlier that I was going to be staying in the kingdom for a few more years yet, I would have petitioned for at least another year extension to my tenure. However, I pass on this office to Paul with great confidence in his ability - you can’t be Escutcheon for six years without learning something. J All I ask is that everyone give him as good a support as you have given me. But rest assured, I won’t be wholly disappearing any time soon, even with grad school on the horizon. Note to Northshield Heralds: I have not received commentary on any Northshield LoI from a Northshield herald for three months now. Consider this your gentle push to repair this ill when Paul steps up: there is no way that Northshield can consider becoming a kingdom if we do not have the heraldic ballast to give submitters the service that they are paying for. Commenting is one of the most vital portions of the entire submissions process, and as a consequence of not receiving commentary on most Northshield submissions, I have had to return a higher proportion than I would have liked. Northshield LoIs are available on the web at http://www.oocities.org/keythong/letters.html.

1) Alienor de Bathe - Device resubmission

Name reg. 12/01

The client’s previous submission, which was identical to this, was returned by Rouge Scarpe on the 08/01 ILoAR for redrawing. This resubmission corrects the previous problems.

Knute: Per chevron argent and gules, two suns and an eagle's head erased CONTOURNEY counterchanged. This is not an unshaded drawing. Clear.

Kevin & crew: OK.

Rory & Dugan: The blazon should indicate "...an eagle's head erased to sinister counterchanged......."

Thorvald & Percival: The eagle’s head is contourney.

2) Anna Mailander - Release of badge Sable, a feather fracted in chevron argent

Name reg. 9/95

The client has requested that this badge (reg. 9/96) be released. {To Rory & Dugan: Thank you! I always relay on Paul to get these things right and so don’t check them myself. You saved me from looking really stupid in front of the CoA. J)

Device commentary
Gabriel: I don’t see any conflicts...oh...wait...released...nevermind. :) No commentary needed. :)

Rory & Dugan: According to the Armorial and Ordinary, this is her BADGE being released, not her device.

{*) Avery Thornvald of Rolling Waters - New name & device Vairy Or and sable, three squirrels rampant in bend gules

Name commentary

Caitríona: I would assume that with a surname like Thornvald, the client is looking for a name of Scandanavian origin, of which I found nothing. As the client is concerned about sound, I did find [Andry] in Paris in 1423. http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~sfriedemann/names/paris1423.htm

Gabriel: The Academy of St. Gabriel, in an early, uncorrected report, has documented the name [Avery] as a first name. (Report #838 http://www.www.s-gabriel.org/838 ) They date it to 1273, England, and the citation given is Bardsley, Charles, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames. I don’t have easy access to this book, so for this purpose, I am assuming that it is correct.
[of Rolling Waters] is the usual SCA convention for [of the SCA group] and that is reasonable in this case, given the English first name. It is also allowed, albeit circuitously, in the following precedent:
[Wolfgang of Flame] The byname does not seem to be acceptable style. The submitter is from the Barony of the Flame; Wolfgang of the Flame would thus be acceptable. Following the example of his Baron and Baroness, he could also be Wolfgang Flame. But just as those nobles do not style themselves Baron and Baroness of Flame, so is his submitted byname incorrect. As he forbade any changes to his name, this must be returned. (Wolfgang of Flame, January, 1993, pg. 31)
This precedent seems to say that [of the SCA group] is permitted.
ADDENDUM: As I review this, I am not sure that there is a current Midrealm group CALLED Rolling Waters. If there is, my statements above and below are accurate. If not, then this analysis is worthless in this case, and the name should not be registered for due to a lack of documentation of the surname "of Rolling Waters".
[Thornvald] is a bit tricky. I have not been able to find [Thornvald] as a surname. There is of course, anglicized, [Thorvald], which is a Norse first name. I cannot figure out a way to convert [Thorvald] into an English surname.
I believe that, assuming the Academy is correct on [Avery] and noting the Addendum above, that [Avery of Rolling Waters] is registerable.

Kevin & crew: Avery is found in Withycombe p.9. However, no date is given. It just says it was used in the "Middle Ages." We could not find documentation for Thornvald. We looked in Reaney & Wilson; Apeellidos Castellano Leoneses; and Die Altenglischen Frauennamen.

Æ&M: To document "Avery" we have: ...Beatrice, Margaret's sister, married Avery Cornburgh. On fol. 115 of Ellesmere 26.A.13, after Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes, Cornburgh is identified by a note in Shirley's hand as "Aluredo Corneburgh de Camera Regis.'' [8] He is also mentioned in a letter from John Russe to John Paston dated 15 July 1462 (?) as a "yoman of the Kynges chaumre.'' [9]
...(selected footnotes for above)...8 Guide to the Huntington, p. 37. The inscription is illustrated in English Court and Culture, plate 17. The note in Shirley's hand naming "Aluredo Corneburgh" is important in that it indicates, along with the continuous pagination, that not only the opening gathering but the first 115 folios were assembled under Shirley's supervision and in the possession of the two sisters, even though the bulk of the manuscript is not in Shirley's hand. 9 The Paston Letters 1422-1509 A.D., ed. James Gairdner, vol. 2 (Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co Ltd, 1900), p. 107. For a brief account of what is known about Cornburgh's career, see Doyle, "English Books In and Out of Court," p. 177. ...Taken from: The Storie of Asneth Edited by Russell Peck Originally Published in Heroic Women from the Old Testament in Middle English Verse Kalamazoo, Michigan: Western Michigan University for TEAMS, 1991 http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/asnint.htm#9
To document "Rolling Waters", we have: Online Oxford English Dictionary: Rolling:
3. a. Heaving, surging, swelling, flowing strongly and steadily onwards. 1633 T. JAMES Voy. 29 There came a great rowling Sea. 1642 H. MORE Song of Soul II. cxxix. Wks. (Grosart) 31 Woods rent from hence, its rowling rage bestows In other places that were bare before.
Water:
b. The plural is often used instead of the sing. esp. with reference to flowing water or to water moving in waves.
For the pl. cf. F. eaux, L. aquæ, Gr. . c1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xiv. 28 Dryhten, yf u hyt eart, hat me cuman to e ofer as wæteru. a1300 Cursor M. 380 e watters al he cald e see. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 437 en he wakened a wynde on watterez to blowe. c1374 CHAUCER Boeth. V. met. i.
(1868) 152 Sone aftre e same ryueres tigris and eufrates vnioygnen and departen hire watres. 1535 COVERDALE Ps. lxxvii. 19 Thy waye was in the see, and thy pathes in the great waters. 1610 SHAKES. Temp. I. ii. 1 If by your Art (my dearest father) you haue Put the wild waters in this Rore, allay them.

Rory & Dugan: have been trying to track down the documentation used for the various Averys we already have registered. Avery Austringer, of Shattered Crystal, (name registered via Calontir in 1985) can only remember that he thought it was a diminutive of AElfric.
One of the more recent registrations was for Avery Shaw (Ansteorra, 8/2001). According to the Ansteorran College of Heralds web page (www.ansteorra.org/regnum/herald/ICC/aicc200102.html) "Withycombe shows Avere as a given name from 1608 on the Oxford university register. Hitching, "References to English Surnames 1601 and 1602", page 20 gives the spelling Avery as a surname and page 60 gives Shaw as a surname in 1601. This should be fine for 16h century England."

Knute: Although I have heard Elsbeth mention that she didn't mind having the sable colored in on the B&W drawing (It can help with the internal detailing of sable charges), this poor rendition adds to the unidentifiability of the entire device. The squirrels are poorly drawn and not lined up in bend. The small and irregular divisions of the field combine with the small and irregular depictions of the squirrels to render this device unidentifiable. Clear.

Gabriel: The squirrels, in the black and white, do have a bad contrast, although I suspect it is not unregisterable due to that.

Kevin & crew: Device needs to be redrawn. The squirrels are not identifiable and they are not in bend.

Æ&M: In the mini-, the squirrels are not *quite* in bend, but probably ok.

Rory & Dugan: We tried coloring in the mini-emblazon - the squirrels are very hard to see, and the middle one is rather squished.

3) Gertrud Krumpf - New name & device Argent, a boar salient and a bordure embattled purpure In one study of names from Muensterland in 1498, 17.4% of the women were named [Getrud], according to dtv-Atlas Namenkunde, Konrad Kunze, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Muenchen 2000, p.44. In Arnsburg, between 1350 and 1450, the name occurs as [Gerdrud] and [Drude], according to Mulch, Roland, Arnsburger Personennamen: Untersuchungen zum Namenmaterial aus anrsburger Urkunden vom 13. - 16. Jahrhundert (Darmstadt & Marburg: Hessischen Historischen Kommission Darmstadt and the Historischen Kommission fu:r Hessen, 1974). p.37-40. The German edition of Bahlow has a [Johannes Krumpf] dated to 1487, p.300. The client cares most about having a Germanic name and would prefer that it was period for around 1400. Submitted as [Gertrude Krumpf], documenting [Gertrude] from Withycombe, we have substituted the closest German spelling appropriate for her period.

Name commentary

Kevin & crew: Name is OK.

Device commentary

Knute: Argent, a boar SALIENT and a bordure embattled purpure. Both rear legs are down. The boar's body should be aligned more vertically. This depiction is below the in bend orientation and begins to confuse the posture with passant. The bordure could stand to be a little thinner with bolder embattling. Clear.

Kevin & crew: Bordure is device is too thick.

Rory & Dugan: Consider "Argent, a seahorse within a bordure embattled purpure." (D-Denis the Quiet, June 95). Does this count as simple heraldry under the revised RfS?

Thorvald & Percival: In the emblazon, the boar looks more salient than rampant.

{*) Griejte Crynes - New device Argent, a waterlily pad gules between two bendlets sinister azure.

Name reg. 01/01 (via the Middle)

This is being returned for lack of forms. As the Rouge Scarpe never received any copies of the forms for submission on the Northshield LoI, and since the Northshield on-line LoIs, contrary to what the Admin Handbook states, are in color and not black and white, I have no mini emblazon to include on the ELoI.}

Device commentary

{*) Julianna de Pardieu - Device resubmission Purpure semy-de-lys, a unicorn salient argent

This is being returned for redrawing. As drawn, it is not a unicorn but a unicornate horse, which has been disallowed since before Da’ud II. A properly drawn unicorn is distinctly non-horselike; it will have a lion’s tale, cloven hooves, and a prominent goat’s beard. Also, a properly drawn rampant would have only one foot on the ground; with both hind feet on the ground, this is salient, and not rampant.}

Device commentary

Knute: Purpure semy-de-lys, a UNICORNATE HORSE SALIENT argent. Both rear legs are down. Horse's tail and hooves with no beard. “The "unicorn" on the large emblazon is clearly drawn as a unicornate horse. Unicornate horses have been disallowed for some years. [12b/93, p.14] precedents - Da'ud 2.1 under monster” The unicorn would be clear.

Kevin & crew: Unicorn & semy-de-lys are unidentifiable.

4) Máel Mhuire mac Néill uá Cholmáin - New name & device Azure, a crescent within an orle of mullets argent

is found in OCM s.n. Colmán, which notes that it was the 14th most popular masculine given name in early Ireland. The client cares most about having an early medieval Irish Gaelic name that means “servant of St Mary, son of Neil, clan Coleman.” The client would like an authentic 7th-9th century Irish name. Submitted as [Máel Mhuire…], this combines pre c1200 and post c1200 orthography in one name element; we have substituted the fully early period form.
{To Kevin & crew: Clan affiliation bynames in Ireland were used by the 10th century, according to “Quick & Easy Gaelic Names” (http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/). This is only a century later than the client’s desired period, and since there are absolutely no problems with the name itself, there is no reason that I could have to return it. We do not return names because they are inauthentic or because they conflict with the submitter’s desires. If they are registerable as is, they are sent up. If they are registerable but there is an easy fix to conform to the submitter’s desire, we will change it. If they are registerable but there is a more complicated fix to conform to the submitter’s desire, we will pend the submission and contact the client. I see no need to do anything in this case but forward this name on to Pelican.}

Name commentary

Gabriel: Nice name.

Kevin & crew: Name should be returned. Client wanted authentic early Irish name, but there were no clans in 7-9th Century Ireland.

Device commentary

Knute: Draw the crescent a little larger. Clear.

Gabriel: It is unclear to me whether the client has a good reason for wanting 12 mullets, but with that many, I would just blazon the device Azure, a crescent within an orle of mullets argent.

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5) Máel Mhuire mac Néill uá Cholmáin - New badge Per fess argent and sable, a cross patonce between four mullets counterchanged

Name submitted on this LoI

{To all of the commenters who noticed: Paul typoed the blazon on the LoI; the charges are counterchanged.}

Badge commentary

Knute: What tincture are the charges? Clear - This would actually clear tinctureless.

Gabriel: This needs to have the colors of the charges added. I conflict checked based on the charges being counterchanged, and could find no conflict. I’d reblazon it Per fess argent and sable, a cross patonce throughout between four mullets all counterchanged.

Æ&M: The blazon is incomplete; we were unable to check for conflict.

Rory & Dugan: Are the charges counterchanged with the field??? This seems to be missing from the blazon.

Thorvald & Percival: The tincture of the charges seem to be missing.

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{*) Middle, Kingdom of the - New badge [Fieldless] In a stirrup Or, an armored foot argent

This is being returned because there is already a badge registered for the Equestrian marshallate (“Sable, two tilting lances in saltire and in chief a chamfron Or,” (reg. 04/96). By long-standing precedent, “badges for subsidiary offices which have a higher-level equivalent will not be registered” (06/94, Meridies under returns).}

Badge commentary

Knute: Clear

Kevin & crew: Badge needs to be returned. It is metal on metal.

Rory & Dugan: Any problems in contrast with the Or stirrup on the argent foot? When colored in we found it somewhat hard to see.

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{*) Ulrich von Brandenburg - New name & device Sable, a bull’s head cabossed argent within an orle between three suns Or eclipsed sable.

While the LoI stated that [Brandenburg] was made a bishopric in the 10th century, no evidence was given to support this statement, nor any that it was known as [Brandenburg] at this time, and thus the byname can be considered undocumented. I could not find [Brandenburg] in Bahlow or any of my other German surnames resources. Without evidence that Brandenberg a) existed in the Middle Ages and b) was known by that name, this name must be returned for lack of documentation. Next time, if Keythong lists her sources for such statements, this problem can hopefully be avoided.}

Name commentary

Device commentary

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6) William Gunn - New name {& device Sable, a falcon and on a chief Or three pheons sable}

[William] is dated to 1327 in Reaney & Wilson s.n. Williams. [Gunn] is dated to 1279 in Reaney & Wilson s.n. Gun.
{The device is being returned because no forms reached the Rouge Scarpe office for this submission (actually, I received no forms whatsoever for any Northshield submission this month). Without a mini to include in the ELoI, this must be returned, and as the on-line copy of the Northshield LoIs, contrary to the Admin Handbook, has the minis in color and not black and white, I can’t reproduce one.}

Name commentary

Device commentary

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Done by my hand this 31^st day of March, being the celebration of Easter,

Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Rouge Scarpe

Sara L. Friedemann
150 Langdon #B2
Madison, WI 53703
sfriedemann@students.wisc.edu

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Disclaimer: This page is not officially sanctioned by the SCA, Inc., the Middle Kingdom, or the MK College of Heralds. It is a private project of the Escutcheon Herald (Angharad Rhos Tewdwr of Pembroke) and the Rouge Scarpe Herald-Elect (Paul Wickenden of Thanet) who have based the information published here on publicly-available documentation.