The Bavarian Herald Jörg Rügen around 1510. Public Domain in the US

Greetings, Calontir!

The May Letter of Acceptances and Returns was published on Sunday, July 7th.  Here are the results for Calontir.  Most of these submissions were the result of the Krist Kinder consultation table.

CALONTIR acceptances

Alcione de Louens. Name and device. Per chevron throughout purpure and azure, two plates and a seahorse argent.

This name combines an English given name and a French byname, an acceptable lingual mix per SENA Appendix C.

The submitter has permission to conflict with the device of Úlfkell Hrafnhauss, Per chevron purpure and azure, two plates and a vulture displayed argent.

Andreas Seljukroctonis. Heraldic title Argyroglossa Herald.

Submitted as Argyraglossa Herald, this title is not constructed correctly. The substantive element Argyraglossa was intended to be ancient Greek for ‘silver tongue’. However, the Greek construction is not correct. Ancient Greek uses a standard compounding form to construct compounds using the word ‘silver’, Argyro-, which does not change gender to match whatever noun or adjective it is modifying. Therefore, even though the noun for tongue, glossa, is feminine, the compounding form ‘silver’ does not change gender to match it. This results in the compound word argyroglossa ‘silver tongue’. As changing a vowel is the smallest change we can make to register this name, we have done so.

Berakha bat Mira v’Shlomo. Badge. (Fieldless) On a pomegranate gules a crescent pendant argent.

The pomegranate in this badge has no visible seeding. This is a rare variation found in period armory.

Brynki Fálkason. Name change from Brynjólfr Fálkason.

The name element Fálkason is already registered to the submitter and used here via the Existing Registration Allowance.

The submitter’s prior name, Brynjólfr Fálkason, is retained as an alternate.

Cadfael Shotwell. Name and device. Or, a fountain between in cross four holly leaves, stems to center, fructed proper.

Shotwell is the submitter’s legal surname; however, they need not rely on the legal name allowance. Shotwell is a plausible Middle English constructed byname based on the family name Shot and the toponym -well.

Caspar von Görlitz. Name.

Nice 15th century German name!

Develin Ó Sirideáin. Device. Per bend sinister vert and gules, a triskelion of spirals and a lion Or.

There is a step from core practice for the use of a triskelion of spirals.

Dmitrii Zinonovich. Device. Argent, a double-headed eagle sable maintaining a warhammer fesswise within a bordure azure.

Dýrfinna Tonnudóttir. Reblazon of badge. (Fieldless) On a flame purpure an ananas argent.

Blazoned when registered in August of 2023 as (Fieldless) On a flame purpure a New World pineapple argent, we are removing the term New World from our blazons. Ananas is a widely used term globally for what we today call a pineapple. See the Cover Letter for details.

Eleanor Deyeson. Badge. Argent, in pale three escallops between flaunches azure.

This badge does not conflict with the device of Johannes Piper, Argent, three seeblätter in pale between flaunches azure. There is an SC between seeblätter and escallops.

Elisabetta da Bolzano. Name and device. Vert, an increscent and on a bordure Or three ivy leaves vert.

Submitted as Elisabetta of Three Rivers, the submitter requested a byname meaning “of Three Rivers” in Italian, or a city known to be on three rivers in a compatible regional naming group with Italian. The city of Bolzano meets this criteria, as it is located at the confluence of the Torrente-Talfer, Isarco-Eisack, and Adige rivers. Heralds at the Pelican meeting found evidence of this city during our period in Vita del B. Henrico de Bolzano, a book published in 1600 (https://books.google.com/books?id=n0s8AAAAcAAJ). SENA Appendix A says that locative bynames in Italian can be formed with the articles da, de and di. The submitter expressed a preference for da Bolzano. We are happy to make this change for registration.

Gabrielle des Chats Noirs. Device. Or, on a bend sinister azure between two natural panthers passant respectant sable three annulets argent.

Nice cant!

Gamla-Nereiðr. Name and device. Or, a ladybug bendwise and in canton a violet purpure seeded Or.

Hirsch Ross Eichmann. Augmentation of arms. Or, an oak tree fructed proper and on a chief gules three stag’s attires Or, for augmentation on a golpe conjoined in base to the tree a cross of Calatrava Or.

Hrafnhildr ingean Cormaic. Name.

This name combines an Old West Norse given name from Iceland with an Irish Gaelic byname, an acceptable lingual mix per SENA Appendix C.

Hrafnhildr ingean Cormaic. Household name Strays House.

Hrafnkell Festargarmr. Name and device. Per fess sable and gules, a raven volant to sinister wings addorsed and a wolf passant argent.

Nice 11th century Icelandic name!

Isibel Helsingr. Device. Argent, a winged unicorn rampant contourny sable crined and armed gules, in canton a decrescent azure.

Jamette de la Roche. Name.

Joachim Courtenay der Marxbruder. Device. Per fess indented gules and lozengy sable and argent, a sword fesswise argent and a bull rampant gules.

Artist’s note: Please draw the lozengy with fewer repeats. Most period depictions of lozengy had somewhere between 3 and 6 repeats across the width of the shield.

Juan Pablo Villalobos. Name change from Jean Pierre d’Armand and device. Gules, a wolf passant and on a chief argent two pairs of rapiers in saltire sable.

Nice 16th century Spanish name!

The submitter’s prior name, Jean Pierre d’Armand, is released.

Nice cant!

Lugaid mac Erca. Device. Per chevron azure and argent, a mullet of eight points and a coracle counterchanged.

Magdalena vander Meere. Augmentation of arms. Argent, a mermaid, in her vanity and sinister facing, on a chief gules, three escallops argent, and for augmentation balanced on the mermaid’s tail a golpe charged with a cross of Calatrava Or.

Nadyha Helming. Badge. Sable, in pale a rainbow proper and a cock Or, on a chief argent in fess four cucumbers palewise vert.

This badge has a complexity of nine, which is allowed for designs that include rainbows.

Nesscia inghean Chearnaigh. Heraldic will.

Upon the submitter’s death, all names and/or armory registered to them are to be released.

Nordman Mischkovich. Name and device. Purpure, a phoenix and on a chief raguly argent three nails gules.

Submitted as Norðmaðr Mischkovich, this name is in violation of SENA PN1B1 which says in part, “A registerable name phrase must follow the rules of grammar and structure for a single time and place.” As submitted, the Danish given name (dated to 1065-1075) and the Russian byname (dated to 1552) are roughly 490 years apart. Elements in a name that is a mix between compatible regional naming groups must be dated no more than 300 years apart. ffride Morelle found evidence of the Danish byname Nordmanson dated to 1422, giving us the expected given name Nordman in a time and place compatible with the byname Mischkovich. We have therefore made this change for registration.

The submitter requested authenticity for 6th century Rus-Byzantine. This name does not meet that request. It combines a 15th century Danish given name with a 16th century Russian byname. While this lingual mix is registerable per SENA Appendix C, such names are not considered authentic.

Olivera Woll. Name.

Riberlin Halderman. Name and device. Per bend Or and purpure, a lady’s slipper orchid counterchanged.

Sancha Lestrange. Badge. (Fieldless) A rat sejant erect reguardant vert ermined Or sustaining a wand sable.

Submitted as simply a staff, the maintained charge is not our default staff, which is a simple, smooth pole, but rather has a rough, natural outline (though not rough enough to be considered a ragged staff). We have instead blazoned this as a wand, which implies a more natural-looking stick.

Valeriano di Rossi. Badge. (Fieldless) A chevron inverted couped gules, overall an hourglass Or.

Submitted as an hourglass Or, sanded sable, the tincture, and even the presence, of sand in an hourglass is an unblazoned artistic detail.

Zilia Silvani. Name and device. Gules, in bend a rose slipped and leaved inverted argent seeded Or and a frauenadler close contourny reguardant argent armed and crined Or.

Zoran Dvorak. Name change from April Dvorak.

The name element Dvorak is currently registered to the submitter and used here under the Existing Registration Allowance.

The submitter’s prior name, April Dvorak, is released.

CALONTIR returns

Ása lúfa. Badge. (Fieldless) A pair of smith’s tongs sable surmounting in chief a flame proper.

This badge is returned for an undocumented style of enflaming. Precedent says:

Heraldic enflaming generally surrounds the enflamed charge with small tongues of flame issuant from the charge’s entire perimeter. In this submission, the depiction of the “enflam[ing] to chief” effectively fimbriates the top half of the wheel with flame, rather than issuing small tongues of flame from the top portion of the wheel. Such fimbriation of flame is not registerable: “The flames here act only as a very complex fimbriation, which has been previously disallowed” (LoAR of May 1995, p. 14). [Shih Tan Po, 01/2004, R-Middle]

Similarly, the tongs in this submission are not enflamed, but rather the top portion (everything above the pivot) is effectively surrounded by, or lying on, a single flame.

This badge is also returned for enflaming only part of a charge. The same precedent continues:

In this submission, only part of the wheel is enflamed, not the entire wheel. Usually, an entire charge must be enflamed, although at times the SCA has allowed a clearly separable portion of a charge to be enflamed (such as enflaming only the blade of a sword). It was the opinion of the College that it is not appropriate to only enflame the top of a wheel. Thus, even if the enflaming were redrawn so that it did not appear to be fimbriation of flame, this submission has a stylistic problem. Without supporting documentation, this motif may not be registered.

The top section of a pair of smith’s tongs is not ‘a clearly separable portion’ of the tongs.

Tongs, pincers, and pliers are palewise handles to base and closed by default.

Eleanor Deyeson. Badge. (Fieldless) A dove volant bendwise Or, tailfeathers enflamed proper.

This badge is returned for an undocumented style of enflaming. Precedent says:

In this submission, only part of the wheel is enflamed, not the entire wheel. Usually, an entire charge must be enflamed, although at times the SCA has allowed a clearly separable portion of a charge to be enflamed (such as enflaming only the blade of a sword). It was the opinion of the College that it is not appropriate to only enflame the top of a wheel. Thus, even if the enflaming were redrawn so that it did not appear to be fimbriation of flame, this submission has a stylistic problem. Without supporting documentation, this motif may not be registered. [Shih Tan Po, 01/2004, R-Middle]

We do not consider a bird’s tail to be a “clearly separable portion” for the purposes of this precedent, and, absent period examples, we will not register animate charges with only a single limb or extremity enflamed.

This badge is also returned for conflict with the device of Marina Teresa Caminante, Gules, a swallow volant bendwise Or. In the acceptance of the badge of Caitríona le Fox on the January 2024 LoAR, we established a two-part test to determine if flames are worth difference: they should be large enough to count as secondary charges, and their arrangement should be able to be explicitly blazoned. As the exact arrangement and orientation of the flames here can’t be unambiguously blazoned, they are not worth difference, leaving only a single DC for fieldlessness against Marina’s device.

Gyða glóra. Badge. (Fieldless) A tufted titmouse azure, face and breast argent.

This badge is returned for conflict with the badge of Merlyn Elzebeth von Preßela, (Fieldless) A merlin azure and with the device of Reginleif Ragnarsdottir, Or chape gules, a raven azure. The bird in this submission is azure with argent markings, giving no difference for tincture. This bird, the merlin, and the raven are all regular-shaped birds. Birds within a single category may be considered to have a DC between them if they were different in period armory; no evidence was presented that a tufted titmouse was known in period armory. Barring that, there would need to be significant visual difference between the birds; commenters agreed that the tuft on the head is not significant enough to be worth difference. This leaves only a single DC for fieldlessness against both of these pieces of armory.

This badge does not conflict with the badge of Lyrel-Phillipa of Eden’s Hall, Azure, a martlet voided argent. As noted in the February 2023 acceptance of the badge of Sefa Randsdóttir, “For conflict purposes the mar[t]let [in Lyrel-Phillipa’s badge] is azure”, so we are comparing two azure regular-shaped birds. On the July 2020 acceptance of the device of Vrsula Fey, Wreath partially overturned an older precedent and granted a DC between martlets close and ravens close. Due to a lack of evidence that martlets were ever used interchangeably with other birds in period armory, we extend this precedent to granting a DC between martlets close and all other regular-shaped (and non-martletted) birds close.

If registered, this would have been the defining instance of the tufted titmouse in Society armory. This bird’s year-round range covers the entire eastern half of the United States, so it existed in the same areas and times as humans and is therefore registerable.

Jane Fox of Foxhall. Badge. Sable, a fox rampant contourny maintaining a cloud argent.

This badge is returned for conflict with the device of Dorcas Dorcadas, Sable, a three-headed hound rampant contourny, one head reguardant, argent. There is a DC for adding the maintained cloud, but no difference for the number of heads.

The submitted blazon was issuant from its mouth a cloud. In the submitted emblazon, the cloud appears to be held in a forepaw next to the mouth, rather than issuing from the mouth. If this is redesigned and resubmitted, the question of whether clouds or other things issuing from the mouth of a beast or monster would be worth difference should be addressed.

Kitsumi Hisamoto. Device. Per pall Or, sable and gules, a katabami counterchanged gules, Or and Or.

This device is returned for multiple reasons. First, it is returned for violation of SENA A3b3b, which states: “Elements divided per pall or per pall inverted must have one part that has good contrast with the other two parts. No two parts may share a background tincture, but a part may share a tincture with another part which is multiply divided as long as identifiability is maintained.” The katabami is divided into three parts, two of which are Or.

Had this been registered, it would have been the defining instance of a katabami, a stylized wood sorrel leaf found in Japanese kamon. Despite being a leaf, this charge is treated as a few-petaled flower affronty for the purposes of conflict due to its stylization.

Under that interpretation, this device conflicts with the device of Cealmhain Realt Dubh, Tierced per pall argent, sable and gules, in chief rose branch fesswise, flowered of a single rose, slipped and leaved sable. There is no difference for changing the tincture of one third of the field. Examination of Cealmhain’s blazon shows the charge in chief to be effectively a rose slipped and leaved. The katabami is equivalent to a few-petaled flower affronty, which gets no difference from a rose. There is no difference for the placement of Cealmhain’s rose in chief, as this is forced by the tinctures of the field. This leaves only a single DC for the change in tincture of the primary charge.

This device is also returned for conflict with the Kingdom of Caid’s badge for Legion of Courtesy, (Fieldless) A rose Or barbed and seeded vert, and with the badge of Ragna Dzintara of Amberhall, (Fieldless) A rue flower Or slipped and leaved vert [Ruta graeveolens]. The katabami is over half Or, so there is a single DC against both of these pieces of armory for adding a field.

This device does not conflict with the badge of Dananir bint Zang al Tabib, (Fieldless) A tiger lily affronty proper. There is a DC for adding a field, and a DC for the tincture of the primary charge – Dananir’s lily is effectively gules, which we request Morsulus to note in the O&A. Palimpsest is directed to note that tiger lilies proper conflict with gules in Table 4 of the Glossary of Terms.

Lugaid Mac Scannlán. Name change from Lugaid mac Erca.

The submitter has withdrawn this name change.

Saito Takauji. Badge. Sable, a bend erminois between two coronets Or pearled argent.

This badge is returned for the use of a charge, the coronet, which is reserved for Royal Peers and the Court Baronage. Precedent says:

Just as a sitting king/queen/prince/princess cannot put a coronet on their arms until after they have attained the rank of count/ess or viscount/ess, since, while it is rare, there have been cases of royalty who have not completed their reign, neither can a territorial baron/ess, unless they are already a court baron/ess, use a coronet, since they have not attained a permament barional rank.” [Tsivia bas Tamara of Amberview, 05/1999, A-Middle]

The submitter is currently a landed Baron, and kingdom argued that, as Calontir Kingdom Law stipulates that landed Barons are made Barons of the Court upon stepping down, the submitter should be allowed to register this charge. In the interests of fairness, we will not make an exception to Society-wide rules based on individual kingdoms’ laws, and we uphold the 1999 precedent. The submitter is welcome to resubmit this badge once they are entitled to use a coronet.

CALONTIR pends

Berakha bat Mira v’Shlomo. Badge. (Fieldless) On a sun Or a star of David azure.

This badge is pended to redraw the sun in a period style. As submitted, the sun more closely resembles a roundel engrailed, which is not a registerable charge.