October 2005 - Laurel LoAR - Ealdormere Submissions

ACCEPTANCES

Amanda of Ben Dunfirth. Holding name and device (see RETURNS for name). Quarterly gules and azure, a cross between four martlets Or.
Submitted under the name Falgerðr bumbari hoensaskjald.

Bethóc ingen Mael Féchín Fynletyr. Name and badge (see RETURNS for device). Argent, three bars wavy, a pale azure.
Submitted as Bethóc inghean Mael_Féchín F.ynletyr, the submitter requested authenticity for 11th-12th C Scottish Gaelic but accepted minor changes only. As submitted, the name combines an 11th-12th C Gaelic given name and patronymic with a 14th C Scots locative. Because the submitter will not allow major changes, we cannot drop the 14th C Scots element to make the
name authentic. The name has some minor grammar problems that must be fixed to make the name registerable. First, the patronymic combines the Early Modern Gaelic marker inghean with a Middle Gaelic name; to correct this, the marker should be ingen, the Middle Gaelic feminine patronymic marker. Finally, the . (dot) was added to the locative Fynletyr to lenite it; in Irish script, the dot is added after lenited letters to show lenition. However, while Gaelic uses lenition, it is not found in English or Scots and is not appropriate for a word in English or Scots spelling. The attempt at lenition must be dropped to make the name grammatically correct. Therefore, we have changed the name to Bethóc ingen Maelféchín Fynletyr to correct the grammar.
There is a blazonable distinction but no heraldic difference between a field with three bars and a barry field. Please advise the submitter that if she desires a barry field, the argent and azure traits should be the same width and there should be an equal number of each argent and azure trait.

Caitilín inghean Tomáis uí Dhuibihir. Device. Ermine, a lion rampant tail nowed gules charged on the shoulder with a rose Or barbed, seeded, slipped and leaved vert.

Deredere of Aberdeen. Name (see RETURNS for device).

Mateo de Merida. Name (see RETURNS for device and badge).

Odette de Saint Remy. Device. Per bend purpure and azure, a fleur-de-lys within a double tressure argent.

RETURNS

Bethóc ingen Mael Féchín Fynletyr. Device. Argent, three bars wavy, overall on a pale azure a sea-unicorn argent.
This conflicts with Johann Mathern, Bendy sinister argent and gules, on a pale azure a unicorn rampant argent. There is a CD for changes to the field as a field with three or more bars is equivalent to a barry field. RfS X.4.j.ii requires a substantial (X.2) difference in charges in order to gain a CD for changing the type only of the tertiary. There is only a significant difference
(CD), not a substantial (X.2) difference, between a sea-unicorn and a unicorn.
Please advise the submitter that if she desires a barry field, that the argent and azure traits should be the same width and there should be an equal number of each argent and azure trait.
Deredere of Aberdeen. Device. Per pale engrailed vert and argent, a shepherd’s crook and a fish haurient embowed counterchanged.
This is returned for a redraw - thirteen engrailings is too many "cups". Drawing so many engrailings forces them to be too small to be identified from a distance. The nine engrailings on the mini-emblazon were borderline; the large emblazon has more and shallower engrailings, enough so that it is cause for return.

Falgerðr bumbari hoensaskjald. Name.
While the overall formation of this name is consistent with Old Norse naming practices, none of the individual parts are registerable. Neither of the bynames follow patterns found in Old Norse or Icelandic naming practices, and the given name is, as far as can be determined, a scribal error introduced into the Landnamabok that did not find distribution into the general naming pool. The paragraphs below explain further.
The proposed occupational byname, bumbari, is grammatically incorrect. Bumba is only documented as a noun; no documentation is given and none found to suggest that the Old Icelandic noun bumba "drum" also served as the verb "to drum". The -ari endings are used to turn verbs into agent-nouns; they are not used with nouns. Barring evidence that bumba is also a verb with an appropriate meaning, bumbari is not an occupational byname and cannot be registered.
The submitter has not documented the pattern bird/animal+shield or even the more general pattern object+shield as a pattern found in Old Norse bynames. We have one undisputed Old Norse example of the pattern color+shield, Rauðumskjôldr meaning "red shield" from Lindorm Eriksson, "The Bynames of the Viking Age Runic Inscriptions." However, this is unlikely to be a simple descriptive byname for someone who owns a red shield. According to Cleasby Vigfusson, s.n.SKJÖLDR, "A shield was raised as a signal in time of war; a red shield betokened war (rauðr skjöldr, her-skjöldr), a white shield peace (hvítr skjöldr, friðar-skjöldr, a peace-shield); in a battle the red shield was hoisted, Hkv. I. 33; but, bregða upp friðar skildi, to hoist the (white) shield of peace, was a sign that the battle was to cease..." The submitter provides a record of an email conversation with four examples of Scandinavian bynames that are probably on heraldry that are "post viking era". Such documentation tells us very little that is useful for registration purposes -- neither the language of these names, or when they are found, or the source where they were found was included. This information must accompany supporting documentation for constructed
bynames. Because the submitter has not demontrated the pattern bird/animal+shield in Old Norse naming practices, this name cannot be registered.
Finally, the given name Falgerðr is, according to Lind, Norsk-Islänska Dopnamn och Fingerade Namn Från Medeltiden s.n. Salgerðr, "skriven g. Salgerdar, LN 43, 167, men felakt. Falgerdar Ln 241." (written in the genitive as Salgerdar, Landnambok 43, 167, but wrongly as Falgerdar in Landnamabok 241."). This scribal error may not appear in every copy of the Landnamabok, or modern transcribers may just make the correct; it is not found, for example, in the excellent transcription at "Netútgáfan (http://www.snerpa.is/net/snorri/landnama.htm). Nor does it seem to have come into use as a name variant of Salgerðr. If the submitter is interested in resubmitting, we suggest the form Salgerðr.
Her device has been registered under the holding name Amanda of Ben Dunfirth.

Mateo de Merida. Device. Per pale "wavy" vert and argent, a sword inverted argent and a winged frog sejant erect affronty gules.
This is returned for redraw. The line of division needs more waves - at least twice the number currently shown. The current emblazon is not quite embowed-counter-embowed. The frog is neither sejant nor sejant erect nor in fact, in any blazonable posture. The wings should come out of the frog's back not its head. We are not sure that a winged frog can be redrawn in a recognizable affronty posture as the overlap between its parts may well remove the identifiability of the charge's outline.

Mateo de Merida. Badge. Argent, a winged frog sejant erect affronty gules, a bordure vert.
This is returned for redraw. The frog is neither sejant nor sejant erect nor in fact, in any blazonable posture. The wings should come out of the frog's back not its head. We are not sure that a winged frog can be redrawn in a recognizable affronty posture as the overlap between its parts may well remove the identifiability of the charge's outline.