October 2022 Letter of Heraldic Acceptances and Returns

FROM THE OFFICE OF SAKER HERALD

The latest Heraldic Letter of Acceptances and Returns was published December 15, 2022. These items have been processed through the College of Heralds and have been made official or returned for further work.

CALONTIR ACCEPTANCES:

* David de la Cloude. Name and device. Argent, in pale two clouds gules. Nice 13th-14th century English name! Nice cant!
* Hamilton fitzHugh. Name change from holding name Jack fitzHugh. This is an appeal of the original February 1991 return for using a surname as a given name. At the time, precedent required that “the use of surnames as given names should be limited to surnames actually shown to have been used as given names in period.” This precedent was overturned in April 2010, when a more general pattern of late period surnames in England being used as given names was established, and so we may joyfully register this name.
* Irial mac Uilliam. Name. Nice 15th century Irish Gaelic name!
* Numerius Volusius Germanicus Secundus. Device. Quarterly gules and sable, a cross counter-vairy Or and gules between a pair of wings in bend Or.
* Rúna Úlfsdóttir. Device. Per saltire Or and azure, a wolf’s head erased argent between in cross the runes algiz, rahu, fehu, and urhuz counterchanged.
* Sancha Lestrange. Badge. (Fieldless) Issuant from a snail shell opening to chief Or a flame proper. Nice badge!
* Sem’iyye bint Tahir al-Hindi. Name change from Miakushka Loshkina. This name combines a Turkish given name and an Arabic byname, an acceptable lingual mix post-1100 per SENA Appendix C.
* Týki Mikaelsson. Name. Submitted as Týki Mikaelson, this byname is not constructed correctly. The patronymic byname formed from the Old Norse given name Mikael is Mikaelsson. We have made this change for registration.
* Volusia Zoe. Name and device. Argent, a rat rampant sable vested purpure and hooded Or. The Roman cognomen Zoe is found in several inscriptions cataloged in the Epigraphic Database Heidelberg as documented by Gwen Recorder. Nice Imperial Roman name!

CALONTIR RETURNS:

* Visvamitra Yavana. Badge. Per fess argent and vert semy of acorns Or, atop a tree a brown squirrel proper maintaining an acorn Or. This badge is returned per the August 2015 Cover Letter: “A held or conjoined charge which is not identifiable will render the design unregisterable. A charge may be rendered unidentifiable through the usual methods, including reduction in size, poor contrast, etc…” [emphasis added]. As the held acorn has poor contrast with the field, this design is unregisterable.
You can find the entire Letter here: http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2022/10/

Heraldic Wills and Letters of Permission to Conflict

This is the ninth in a series of educational articles about heraldry for Calontir. (See bottom of page for links to previous articles.)

The previous article in this series discussed “conflict” – the rule that no two people in the SCA can have names or armory that are too similar to each other.

On a regular basis, someone trying to register a new item will discover it conflicts with an item that has already been registered.  But all is not lost.  If you can track down the owner of the item that conflicts, you can ask for a “Letter of Permission to Conflict”.  They don’t have to give you permission, of course, but a lot of times they will.  (You might request a letter preemptively, if you’re not sure if your item conflicts or not.)

Some people have been kind enough to file “Blanket Letters of Permission to Conflict” with the College of Arms which is nice to save hassle in the future.  Even with Permission, no one can register a name or device that is exactly like yours.

On a related note, the names and heraldry registered with the SCA are considered legal property, and the SCA has committed to protect your heraldic property in perpetuity.

So what happens to your registered names and armory when you die?  Their ownership passes to your legal heirs.  This may be fine, or you might prefer someone else in your biological or adopted SCA family inherit your items.  Some people choose to completely release their heraldic items from protection when they die, or release some of them.  Others designate their Kingdom Herald as their heraldic heir so that Letters of Permission to Conflict can be issued as needed.

You can do any of these things by filing a Heraldic Will with the SCA College of Arms.  There is no fee for this.

There are sample letters and wills here:  http://heraldry.sca.org/admin.html#APPENDIXD

As always, there are lots of “Heraldic Helpers” to guide you through all this.

At your service,

Sofya la Rus, Habicht Herald

Calontir Heraldic Education Deputy

habicht@calontir.org

 

Previous articles in this series:

Heraldic Helpers

What’s in a Name?

Where do I find a good name?

How do I create a coat of arms? Part four, embellishments.

Conflict is bad (in Heraldry and elsewhere)

Conflict is bad (in Heraldry and elsewhere)

This is the eighth in a series of educational articles about heraldry for Calontir.  (See bottom of page for list of previous articles in this series)

Hopefully at this point, you have developed some ideas for your name and/or your heraldry.  But before you fall in love with one of them, it’s a good idea to make sure you don’t conflict with (are too similar to) someone else.

Names conflict if they look or sound too much alike.  It would be awkward if a herald called your name in court and someone else answered the call.  Most of the time, no other name is even close, but sometimes it’s tricky to decide if your name is different enough from name that has already been registered.

Items of armory conflict if they look too much alike.  There are actual period guidelines for this, called marks of cadency.  A mark of cadency would be a small change that a son would make to the family coat of arms to show he was related to the head of the family, in SCA-speak that’s a “distinct change”.  So your device needs to be enough different from someone else’s, that you’re not implying that you’re their heir.

Over the years, heralds have come up with a system of what counts as a major change (significant change or SC, just need one), minor change (distinct changes or DC, need two) and what doesn’t count at all for difference – based as much as possible on period research.

Go here to see what names have already been registered (check multiple different spellings of each of the parts of your name): https://oanda.sca.org//oanda_np.cgi

Here are the official rules about names conflict: SENA PN.3. Personal Names Conflict – http://heraldry.sca.org/sena.html#PN3

Go here to look up what other coats of arms have been registered with your charges: https://oanda.sca.org/ordinary/

Here are the official rules about armory conflict: SENA A.5. Armory Conflict – http://heraldry.sca.org/sena.html#A5

Articles to explain the rules: http://scaheraldry.info/index.php?title=Conflict_Checking

Admittedly, “conflict” is one of the most challenging parts of researching names and heraldry.  Even experienced heralds get confused, argue, and miss things (a lot), but you can at least start the process and get ideas for what other people have done.

As always, there are lots of “Heraldic Helpers” to guide you through all this (see article below).

At your service,

Sofya la Rus, Habicht Herald

Calontir Heraldic Education Deputy

habicht@calontir.org

 

Previous articles in this series:

Heraldic Helpers

What’s in a Name?

Where do I find a good name?

How do I create a coat of arms? Part four, embellishments.

How do I create a coat of arms? Part four, embellishments.

This is the seventh in a series of educational articles about heraldry for Calontir. (See bottom of page for links to previous articles.)

Previously, we discussed the basic ingredients for a coat of arms.  Now how can we embellish those basic ingredients?

Furs.

Furs are treated like tinctures in most ways.  The most common fur in heraldry is ermine.  Plain ermine is black ermine tails on a white background, but versions can be done using all the heraldic tinctures.

Vair is another fur, meant to mimic squirrel fur, and is traditionally blue and white, but can be done in other tinctures also. Furs obey the contrast rules, so you can have red ermined white, but not red ermined green.

Lines of Division

The field (background) of a device, and many charges (motifs) can be divided into different-colored pieces.  These pieces do NOT have to obey the contrast rules if they’re simple enough to be identifiable.  (This because the color is considered “next to” the color, not “on” the color, i.e. you’ve divided layer 1 into different colored pieces, not placed a dark-colored layer 2 ON a dark-colored layer 1.)

Here are some options:

   

Complex Lines

The lines of the above divisions don’t have to be straight line, and these complex lines can also be applied to the edges of some simple geometric charges.

Here are some examples:

Diapering

In heraldry, diapering is adding tone-on-tone patterns to embellish an otherwise plain area of a device.  For example, a plain blue background can be dressed up with light blue foliage swirls.

As you can see, even with all the rules in heraldry, there are millions of amazing options available.  We’re happy to help if you can’t make up your mind.  (See “Heraldic Helpers“.)

 

At your service,

Sofya la Rus, Habicht Herald

Calontir Heraldic Education Deputy

habicht@calontir.org

 

Previous articles in this series:

Heraldic Helpers

What’s in a Name?

Where do I find a good name?

Sign Ups for Virtual Heralds Point 2 Are Open

Gleaned from the SCA Heralds email list:

The SCA College of Arms will be hosting a Virtual Heralds Point for approximately 2 weeks, from Aug. 8-22, with a Zoom event for consultations from Aug. 14-15.

Links to the sign-up forms can be found at http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldspoint/

All submitters must pre-register before August 5 to take part. That’s this Thursday.

We will again be taking electronic payments via PayPal for submissions. So if you’ve been putting off submitting, this is the time to do it!

The hope is that it will be very flexible, a submitter can enter their ideas and preferred forms of contact, and a herald will get in touch and try to help them through the process, either slowly by email over the course of a number of days, or in one hit over a Zoom meeting, whatever it takes.

Yours in Service,

Dame Lillia de Vaux for Virtual Heralds Point Staff

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

Virtual Heralds Point

The SCA College of Arms will be hosting a Virtual Heralds Point for three weeks beginning on Sunday, Jan 24th. Whether you’ve been meaning to get something registered for a while but can’t find your local herald, or you’re a herald looking for a little more consulting work, this is a great opportunity to get something moving. Links to the sign-up forms can be found at http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldspoint/

The best part of this consulting table is that we’ll be taking electronic payments via PayPal for submissions. So if you’ve been putting off submitting, this is the time to do it!

The hope is that it will be very flexible, a submitter can enter their ideas and preferred forms of contact, and a herald will get in touch and try to help them through the process, either slowly by email over the course of a number of days, or in one hit over a zoom meeting, whatever it takes. Sign up today over at http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldspoint/

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

Announcement: Statement from the Laurel Queen of Arms on Offensive Names and the Current Situation

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

From Juliana de Luna, Laurel Queen of Arms, greetings to all those to whom these presents come.

Offensive Names and the Current Situation

As you doubtless know, a great deal of concern has been expressed about the fact that Wolfgang von Sachsenhausen, a name registered in 2007, included reference both to a Nazi concentration camp and a scientist who did experiments there.  We wish to share with you, so that you can share with your populace, an explanation of how this name was registered and a general road map of what the Laurel Office has been working on since we became aware of the issue in the morning of Saturday, June 6, 2020.

How this name was registered:

The Standards for Evaluation of Names and Armory (“SENA”) ban the registration of names that are offensive.  Specifically:

No name that is offensive to a large segment of members of the SCA or the general public will be registered. Offense is a modern concept; just because a name was used in period does not mean that it is not offensive to the modern observer. Offense returns are rare because the bar for determining offensiveness is quite high; it has not been unusual for years to pass between returns for offense.

Offense is not dependent on intent. The fact that a submitter did not intend to be offensive is not relevant. The standard is whether a large segment of the SCA or the general public would be offended.

In 2007, we were not as attuned to the problems of white supremacy in the SCA as we are today.  At that time, we used a different set of rules, but the rules about offensiveness were substantially the same.

The people making decisions on names and armory are not experts in every topic that arises.  For that reason, we rely heavily on commentary from our array of volunteer heralds from every Kingdom.  In this particular case, no one at the Society level identified the link between this name and the concentration camp in commentary, so the issue was not considered at the time.  I was a commenter at that time and can say that we rarely looked actively for such issues, assuming that submissions of hate were a thing of the past.

Now, in 2020, we are more alert to the problems of white supremacy and racism in the Society, as are our commenters.  In addition, there is vastly more information available to allow us to identify potentially problematic names.  We make a regular practice of checking Google and other available resources, such as the databases of white supremacist images and lists of offensive racial terminology, when making decisions.  Offensive racial epithets such as the Gypsy have been banned, as have certain depictions of the Celtic or Norse crosses that are commonly used by hate groups.

What has the Laurel Office been doing?

Since becoming aware of the issue, the Laurel Office has been working on several projects:

(1)  We have prepared a report to the Board of Directors discussing the issue, our plans for moving forward, and the calls for revocation of this person’s registration (something that is regulated by Corpora rather than the Laurel office).

(2)  We have prepared and will shortly be issuing a Palimpsest Letter for commentary adding a provision to SENA banning names that are morally offensive and proposing a multi-factor test for moral offensiveness.

(3)  We have researched and prepared a proposal for how to handle names that incorporate place names of concentration camps, which will appear in an upcoming Cover Letter.

(4)  On the April 2020 Cover Letter, we will be announcing a new policy allowing free changes of names and armory for people whose registered elements are offensive.  For example, some period armorial motifs have been co-opted by hate groups in the years since they were originally registered.  Likewise, the phrase the Gypsy once had a very different popular meaning, but is now considered hate speech by the Roma people and the United Nations.  People who now find themselves with inadvertently offensive names may wish to change them and we are removing one barrier to doing so.

(5)  Pelican Queen of Arms is forming a working group to identify other potential red flags in names so that we can maintain a list of problematic name elements going forward.  Although Pelican and her staff have been doing this same work behind the scenes for several years, we now are actively reaching out to people who are not presently commenting to request their assistance.

What can people do?

(1)  Be patient.  Many of the things we are trying to do require substantial research time or input from the Board of Directors.

(2)  Become involved in researching and commenting on names and armory in OSCAR.  The Sovereigns are not experts in every single area of language, history or armory.  We need and rely on commentary from experts in a wide variety of fields.  We remain particularly in need of people with expertise in languages and cultures outside of Europe.

(3)  Become involved in researching and writing articles to help educate people on period names or armorial motifs that have problematic modern connotations.

Julia Smith/Juliana de Luna

Laurel Queen of Arms

herald@sca.org

How do I create a coat of arms?  Part two, design principles.

This is the fifth in a series of educational articles about heraldry in Calontir. 

Previously, we discussed where to get inspiration for your coat-of-arms.  Now that you  have some ideas, let’s talk about how to put it all together.

Some important design principles to keep in mind:

Duct-tape heraldry.  Aka who’s going to draw this for you? Be considerate of whoever is going to be sewing your heraldic design on your tabard.  There’s no shame in designing good solid heraldry that can be laid out on your shield using duct tape in a pinch.

Identifiability.  The original purpose of heraldry is to identify you across a battlefield.  So the colors are bright, the contrasts are clear, and the designs are relatively simple.  Charges (motifs) tend to be drawn in order to make the key identifying features of the object obvious.  For example, the eagle is shown with its wings displayed on either side.

Stylized and Simplified.  Heraldry is a bit like cartoon art.  Things are not necessarily drawn realistically, or painted their natural colors.  Heraldry has it’s own visual language with defined poses for animals and simplified depictions of objects.  That’s why it’s so useful to study period armorials for inspiration.

Complexity.  We are limited to a complexity count of 8 or less – adding up the number of colors with the number of charges.  So a red shield with a white owl has a complexity count of three: two colors (red & white) and one charge (owl).  A half-blue and half-green shield with a gold stars and a sword on either side of a gold stripe with purple and red hearts has a complexity count of nine – with five colors (blue, yellow, purple, red, green) and four charges (stars, stripe, hearts, sword).  As you can see, it’s a little much.

Contrast.  Identifiably requires good contrast, so we need to avoid putting dark things on a dark background (“color-on-color”, eg. blue on red) or light things on a light background  (“metal-on-metal”, eg. yellow/gold on white/silver) in most situations.

Slot machine.  Having 3 or more different things in the same area of the shield doesn’t match period practice and is also poor design.  You shouldn’t have a star, a diamond and a sword in the same group on your shield.  If you have to have them all, separate them into different sections of the shield.  (More on this in the next article.)

Marshalling.  Marshalling combines the arms of two or more families to display noble lineage.  Since we do not inherit nobility in the SCA, marshalled designs cannot be registered.  There are two types of marshalling:  impaling and quartering.  Impaling is when a shield is divided down the middle with one family coat of arms on the left, and another on the right – originally to show off that both of your grandfathers were important.  Quartering was an alternate way to show off your grandfathers, or you could show your 4 great-grandfathers’ arms in each of the sections.  Note that we can display heraldic designs that look like marshalling.  For example, a couple might marshal their arms as a “marital badge” to mark their children at an event to help people return them. That’s a great use of heraldry, just not registerable.

Contact me or one of the many other heralds of Calontir for further details.  (See “Heraldic Helpers”)

At your service,

Sofya la Rus, Habicht Herald

Calontir Heraldic Education Deputy

habicht@calontir.org

12th Night Court Summary, January 5, A.S. 53

In evening court:
Arn Haraldson – AoA
Sasha (dicta Lilith of Lonely Tower) – AoA
Krystyn I Lund – Torse
Hugo van Harlo – Silver Hammer

Other court tidings:
7 newcomers received mugs in court; another was given after court, by Her Majesty’s grace.
Meister Gawin Kappler addressed the populace about the upcoming Historic Combat Studies Symposium at Lilies War.
Lady Alexandra Rikve Jessen will be the new Kingdom Equestrian Marshal.
Master Alan Smyith of Darkdale will be the new Chair of the Lilies Committee.
Siora Zaneta Baseggio and Doña Alexandra Vazquez de Granada addressed the populace about the upcoming Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium in July.

Presentation scene; detail of a miniature from BL Royal MS 15 E vi, f. 2v. 15th C. Public domain in the US

How do I create a coat of arms? Part one: inspiration.

This is the fourth in a series of educational articles about heraldry in Calontir. 

Now that you have a useable name, you need some heraldry to go with it.

We’re lucky that we get to design our own coats of arms.  In period, you would have been stuck with whatever your great-great-granddad decided to slap on his shield the night before the big battle that made him famous.  So historical coats of arms did not have “deep personal meaning”, just layers of family honor.   Period nobility had to resort to badges and impressa when a new generation wanted add a personal stamp to their heraldic identity.

Which brings up the question of devices vs arms vs badges.  Your device is what you would put on your shield, your tabard and your banner in order to say “I am here.  This is me.”  Your “device” magically becomes your “arms” when you are given an “Award of Arms” by the Crown. 

Your badge is used to mark your followers, children and your property in order to say, “This is mine.”  (An impressa is an heraldic-ish design that a late period noble would use to express “deep personal meaning” for special events.)

It can be fun to have your heraldry match your persona (or your great-great-grandad’s persona).   We now have lots of period armorials (collections of coats-of-arms) on-line:  German, Italian, English, French, Spanish, etc.  Here’s one place to start:
An Annotated List of Period Armorials Available Online

Even if you don’t plan to match your heraldry to your persona, it’s great to browse through period armorials for ideas.  (If you find a design you like, it’s smart to write down where you found it.  Some period heraldry “breaks the rules”, but we can get around that if you have the documentation.)

You may notice that a lot of period arms are “canting arms”.  A “cant” is a pun so, for example, the Talbot family had an image of a dog (a talbot) on their coat of arms.  This is great for SCA heraldry, too.  Names in period often have different meanings than we would assume, so that’s fun to research. 

Be careful about resume heraldry.  You may be a brewer, a weaver, and a fighter, but trying to work in a barrel, a loom and a rapier on your shield will be messy.  Try to trim your “resume” to one main thing or get more subtle.  Symbolize your fighting with an embattled bordure, or use yellow on your shield to symbolize the mead that you brew.

You don’t have to follow the crowd.  Lots of archers have arrows on their devices, but fewer have pheons (fancy arrowheads).  Why have a plain old lion when you could have a panther breathing fire?  The Pictorial Dictionary of SCA Heraldry is a great resource for the wide variety of charges that have been used in the SCA.  And using period documentation, we can register “new” ones!

As always, the heralds of Calontir stand ready to help.  (See “Heraldic Helpers“)  Bring your ideas to a Heraldic Consult Table at an event or try out the Virtual Consult Table and we’ll help flesh them out!

At your service,

Sofya la Rus, Habicht Herald

Calontir Heraldic Education Deputy

habicht@calontir.org