Greetings to All,
Below are the results of this LOAR.
The Armorial and Saker website will be updated this evening to reflect the items in this letter.
In Service,
Gunnar Thorisson
Vert Hawk Herald
Blazoned when registered in January 1998 as Per bend vert and gules, a bend between a mouse sejant erect and a pair of manacles, the chain fracted argent, this is actually a per bend sinister field with a bend sinister.
The submitted requested authenticity for 13th-14th century England. This name is authentic for the 1270s, meeting the submitter’s request.
The submitter’s previous name, Wulfhere of Eofeshamme, is retained as an alternate name.* Isabeau Ruiz. Name.* Katherine von Heilige. Name change from holding name Katherine of Forgotten Sea.
Submitted as Katherine die Heilige, this name was pended to discuss whether this name presumed upon the name of Saint Catherine, especially due to the use of the demi-Catherine’s wheel in the submitter’s device.
Saints are occasionally referred to by [given name] die Heilige in modern German, although the reverse order (die Heilige [given name] appears more frequently. The use of die Heilige (“the saint”) is presumptuous under PN4D1 of SENA, as this name appears to make a claim to be the historical St. Catherine. We note that unmarked forms like Heylig and von den Heiligen are not presumptuous because they are attested as the bynames of non-saints in our period.
The submitter allowed a change to the attested byname von Heilige (based on Von Heilige, found in the FamilySearch Historical Records). We have made this change. If she prefers Heylig (or other attested unmarked form) or von den Heiligen, she can submit a request for reconsideration.
This name was pended from the August 2015 Letter of Acceptances and Returns.
* Kezia von Holzenhaus. Badge. Argent, a billet and a bordure sable.
* Layla bint `Asim. Name and device. Azure, in fess a mullet and a decrescent Or, a bordure wavy argent.
Please advise the submitter to draw deeper waves on the bordure and the primary charges larger so they fill better the available space.
* Mell MacAlpin. Badge. (Fieldless) A snail gules attired and shelled Or.
* Mell MacAlpin. Badge. Per fess embattled azure and Or, in chief three buckets inverted argent.
* Mell MacAlpin. Badge. Per pale Or and gules, two dragon’s heads couped addorsed counterchanged.
This is the submitter’s sixth piece of registered armory.
* Miranda de Logan. Name (see RETURNS for device).
Miranda is the submitter’s legal given name. We note that it is also a grey period English literary name. Recently, we ruled the following:
Miranda is the submitter’s legal given name as well as the name of a gray area literary character from Shakespeare’s Tempest and a late 16th century English byname which can be registered as a given name. Therefore, the submitter need not rely on the legal name allowance. [Miranda Mór ingen Fhailtigern, June 2015, A-An Tir]
The instance of Miranda as a late period English byname in that decision inadvertently relied on an I-batch in the FamilySearch Historical Records. I batches continue to be acceptable only on a case-by-case basis, and should not be used as the sole documentation to support a name element.
Therefore, as Miranda does not appear to have been coined until after 1600, the submitter must rely upon the legal name allowance.
* Rianorix of Forgotten Sea. Name.
Forgotten Sea is the registered name of an SCA branch.
* Thaddeus Ellenbach. Name (see RETURNS for device).
Submitted as Thadeus Ellenbach, the submitter requested the spelling Thaddeus Ellenbach if it could be documented. The preferred spelling is found in Historia und Christliche Legenden, von der heiligen zwölff Apostel unsers Herrn Jesu Christi, Item von S. Pauli, auch beider heiligen Euangelisten S. Luce und S. Marci, beruff, lehre, leben, wunderwercken, letzten marter und todt, ob standhaffter bekandtnuß des Namens Christi, published in 1589 (https://books.google.com/
* Theodoric Rufus the Goth. Reblazon of device. Sable, a sea-lion naiant and in base three pheons two and one argent.
Blazoned when registered in June 1995 as Sable, in pale a sea-lion naiant and three pheons two and one argent, the sea-lion is the sole primary charge.
* Umm Razin Rusa al-Badawiyya. Name and device. Per fess azure and vert, a chevron couched from sinister and in canton a decrescent argent.
* Zachariah MacDonald. Name change from Zachariah Lochrie.
The submitter’s previous name, Zachariah Lochrie, is retained as an alternate name.
* Ann O’Carolan. Badge. (Fieldless) A sword argent and overall a wolf’s head erased contourny azure.
This badge is returned for redraw. Please instruct the submitter on the proper way to draw erasing: either three or four prominent, pointed jags on the erasing, as described on the Cover Letter to the November 2001 LoAR:
Therefore, for purposes of recreating period armorial style for erasing, the erasing should (1) have between three and eight jags; (2) have jags that are approximately one-sixth to one-third the total height of the charge being erased; and (3) have jags that are not straight but rather are wavy or curved.
Alternatively, the submitter could decide to resubmit the overall charge as wolf’s head couped.* Cuthbert Longschankes. Badge. (Fieldless) A Celtic cross Or irradiated azure.
This badge is returned for not being reliably blazonable, which is a violation of SENA A1C which requires an emblazon to be describable in heraldic terms. Blazoned as a Celtic cross irradiated, irradiation would surround the entire charge and would leave no gaps between the azure extensions. It cannot be blazoned as a mullet of eight points azure with a Celtic cross Or surmounting it as there is no way to blazon the exact overlap of the center of the mullet with the junction point of the cross.* Miranda de Logan. Device. Azure, a snake headed at each end annodated palewise and on a chief Or, three mullets of eight points azure.
Blazoned on the LoI as palewise counterembowed-embowed, the snake’s posture can only be described as what Parker’s Glossary, p.11, defines as annodated: “bowed embowed, or bent in the form of the letter S.” No documentation was provided by the submitter or in commentary for the period use of this posture in snakes. Thus this device is returned for running afoul of SENA A2C1 which states “Elements must be drawn in their period forms and in a period armorial style.” Additionally, this posture renders the snake difficult to identify and many commenters confused it with a letter S.* Thaddeus Ellenbach. Device. Lozengy azure and argent, a lion contourny Or maintaining a sword proper, a bordure sable.
This device must be returned for insufficient contrast between the held charge and the field.
Per SENA A3B4a:
Placement of Charges: Charges must have good contrast with the background on which they are placed. Primary, secondary, and overall charge groups are considered to be placed on the field and must have good contrast with it.
While technically this armory has a neutral field, the mostly argent sword lying nearly entirely on argent lozenges of the field has insufficient contrast.