Heralds' Point
The Occasional Journal for the College of Heralds of Atlantia

Unto the College of Heralds of Atlantia, come these words of greeting and cheer from your new fearless leader!

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Mistress Rhiannon ui Neill and I became Triton at 12th Night. This is the second time I have served as Triton. I held the office before from 1997 to 2001, and I am honored to do it again.

As many of the long-term crew will tell you, I expect excellence in customer service, whether it is helping submitters, heralding lists or working with Crowns and Landeds in court. I also believe strongly in professionalism and showing pride in being a herald, as well as maintaining good public relations. Heraldry provides so much in ambiance and personal involvement to the SCA. It is our responsibility to make it available and desirable.

I also believe strongly in communication. While I do expect your very best, I understand that sometimes there are extenuating circumstances, and if you just come to me, then I will do what I can to help you fulfill your duties. There really isn’t a senior herald that you can’t approach for help. We are all here to further heraldry and support each other. In addition, should you have difficulties within your groups, please feel free to come to me. You are my heralds. It’s my job to help you do yours. That’s not to say, sometimes I might say “boy, you need to look at that again. I think you were in the wrong.”, because that’s part of being here for you too.

I have a lot of goals for this term and a lot of new ideas I want to enact over the next year. I don’t intend to trot them all out at once, though! I think you’d be a bit overwhelmed if I told you all the thoughts swirling around in my head… So, we will be working on sets of 3-month goals at a time, starting with my revamping of the roster (which is in abysmal shape…No! Don’t look!). I know some of you may have been asked for this information in December, but I’m asking again and would appreciate if each and every one of you would fill out the following questionnaire and return it to me at your earliest convenience. I have reasons for each question, so please fill it out completely. I will also be sending this out via the Merry Rose, the Acorn and the seneschal’s list, to ensure I reach every possible herald. You only need respond to it once. If you aren’t currently a warranted herald, you can use this form to request a warrant. Any heralds that do not respond by March 1st and that I am unable to contact, will be removed from the roster. We aren’t keeping dead branches in this forest. Only new, healthy growth allowed here!

I will also be putting quizzes and games into this newsletter, along with the articles, and sometimes, there’ll be prizes (like heraldry books and fuzzy felt boards, handmade by…me!)! Heraldry is FUN! I want you to enjoy the work you do. The more you learn, the better you get, the more fun you have! So, let me know what you’d like to see more of in this publication. It is my intent to get it out on a bi-monthly schedule, starting with this January issue.

O.k., so on to the questionnaire:

SCA Name:
SCA title (Lord, Lady, Baron, etc.):
Modern Name:
Mailing Address:
City, State Zip:
Telephone #:
Email Address:
Membership # and Expiration Date:
Home Group:
Are you the group herald?:
Are you the deputy to the group herald?:
How long have you been a herald?:
What is your rank in the CoH, if you know (cornet, P.E., etc.)?:

If you have a heraldic title (like Triton or Ibis), what is it?:
What areas of heraldry interest you the most?:
What would you like to learn more about or to do?:
Is there anything I forgot to ask?:

You can return these to me via email (brcurry AT bellsouth.net) or postal mail at the address below. I look forward to hearing from you!

Mistress Rhiannon ui Neill
Triton Principal Herald
(Beverly Curry)
PO Box 1648
Enka, NC 28728
828-230-9286 nlt 9 p.m. (unless you wear the Crown <grin>)

And now, my words of introduction. I am the new Herald's Point editor, following Dom Pedro de Alcazar. I have been participating in the SCA for three years and am the deputy herald for the Barony of Storvik. Although I am only a Cornet in the Atlantian College of Heralds, I bring many years of 20th- and 21st-century writing experience to this newsletter. My aim is to include in each quarterly issue some nuggets of information of value to both the beginning and the experienced herald. Even the most senior members of the College were once novice heralds; I just happen to be a little closer to that experience than others. We extend a welcoming hand to new heralds and new deputy heralds, and we seek to educate all who wish to extend their knowledge of heraldry.

I know that there has been no Herald's Point issued since last summer, and I wish to apologize for the delay in publishing this first issue. I fully concur with our new Triton Principal Herald's goal of a bimonthly publication schedule. In the months to come, I shall be soliciting articles on a variety of heraldic topics, but please feel to suggest (and write) your own.

Google Books (http://books.google.com) now has an option to search for texts where the full text is available. There are a number of 18th- and 19th-century heraldry books on there, including Boutell's Heraldry, Papworth, and a 1905 reprinting of the Boke of St. Albans. Some of the others have great illustrations even if the text itself is of limited value.

Some can be downloaded as PDFs, and some can only be seen using the online viewer. The online viewer is very slow and images can take a long time to load. However, the online versions seem to be completely searchable, even while the text is a scanned image.

There are other medieval topics of SCAdian interest, such as a record of 16th-century English church wills.

If you have a few minutes, maybe even 60 minutes, please consider helping out at a heraldic consult table at one of the upcoming events. For many Atlantians, this is the most convenient way to sit down a herald and figure out whether their name and device ideas are registerable. Assisting at a consult table can also be a great way for heralds at all levels to brush up on their skills and perform a valuable service to our Kingdom.

Within Atlantia, Kateryn Rous (katrous AT yahoo.com) is searching for at least three to five additional heralds to volunteer to help out at Ymir. She would like to have people who can dedicate 3 hours of their day (8 to 11 a.m., 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and 2 to 5 p.m.) to do the Autocrat's bidding by crying announcements across the site. She could also use volunteers willing to herald the various tournaments at Ymir. E-mail her directly with your availability.

In the southern regions of the Known World, Lyneyea de Aston (lyneyea1 AT cableone.net) seeks volunteers to staff Herald's Point during Gulf Wars in mid-March. She welcomes novice and experienced heralds for name consulting, device consulting, and artistic work.

Watch the Atlantian Heralds mailing list for announcements of other consult tables in our Kingdom. The herald(s) in charge of each table would probably welcome knowing in advance who is bringing reference books and a copy of the O&A. Also, when arranging a consult table, please remember to use the new Atlantian submissions forms, downloadable from http://herald.atlantia.sca.org/forms/index.htm.

If you are interested in book heraldry and are not already on Mistress Alisoun MacCoul of Elphane's internal commenting list, you can send her an e-mail at silverdragon AT charleston.net and ask to be put on the list. Once a month, you will get a PDF document containing all the name, device, and badge submissions that have come in to the Golden Dolphin Herald, as well as a deadline for sending in your commentary. Our Golden Dolphin Herald always welcomes more commentary on Atlantian submissions. Because of our careful examination of submissions at the Kingdom level, our acceptance rate at the Laurel level is very good, and submissions that need more work get back promptly to the submitters.

The flag (and arms) of the District of Columbia -- Argent, two bars and in chief three mullets gules -- comes directly from George Washington's personal coat of arms. The device is protected as important non-SCA arms.

Heraldry is an art as old as Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and as young as the newest submission. I welcome you to join in exploring it with your colleagues, the heralds of Atlantia -- this is your journal. If you have always wanted to write an article that would be read by every Atlantian herald, or if you have a question you would like to ask of all the heralds of Atlantia, send me a message at Patoodle AT aol.com! I prefer that any articles or other messages come as plain text (ASCII), as opposed to HTML or some other format. Thank you!

Herald's Point is the newsletter for the members of the College of Heralds of Atlantia. Herald's Point is not a corporate publication of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. (SCA) and does not delineate SCA policies. Herald's Point does delineate policies specific to the Kingdom of Atlantia. Copies of this newsletter are available from: Patricia of Trakai (Patty Daukantas), 7740 Lakecrest Drive, Greenbelt, MD 20770.