Herald's Point, September-October 2009

The Occasional Journal for the College of Heralds of Atlantia

It has come to my attention that we are not following the “customer service” attitude I so wish for the Atlantian CoH to promote. I’m getting complaints! Complaints! So not cool, folks.

And yes, you may have heard some of this on the Herald’s List, if you were paying attention. But I’m going to rehash it here, because this is flatly unacceptable, for there to be such unhappiness caused by our discipline. We’re supposed to be the “helper folks.”

So, it’s time for Rhiannon to pinch some folks. If you read this, and recognize yourself, then consider yourself pinched, and DO BETTER NEXT TIME!

First, there’s submissions... Whether its working at a consult table, or taking on a single client, always be mindful of your attitude, and try to give the best help you can, in an expedient manner as possible. If working at the consult table, don’t hog all the clients. A secondary benefit of the consult table is to provide training for younger heralds, so let them have a turn! Help them out when they get stuck, and point them gently in the right directions, but don’t be the wound-up know-it-all who makes everybody feel useless. Plus, if you are trying to handle too many clients at once, then none of them are getting the best service now, are they?

For single consults, keep the communications flowing. They email you, you email back, they respond... six weeks later, they email me complaining you’ve dropped the ball... If you take on a email consult or a local consult, follow through, all the way until it’s time for them to fill out the paperwork. Then, if they never bring you back the forms, fine. You should check back on them, but once the ball is in their court, if it never goes any further, you’ve done your job. However, if that ball bounces back across your line, in the form of forms and a check, get rid of that baby like a live grenade! You have 2 (TWO) weeks total, to get the finalized submission to Golden Dolphin. Once again, expediency.

Then, there’s field/announcement heraldry. I’m not talking about mispronouncing names, although, we could always use a refresher course in how not to piss off Sir Boris Pigswallower, the giant German fighter. I’m talking about volunteering and being available when a field or announcement herald is needed. Yes, yes, I know being an announcement herald is boring at times. Nobody’s really paying attention and who wants to walk all the way out to the parking lot to cry the announcement again, but it’s a really, really necessary part of our events. Lots of folks in the SCA don’t wear a watch while playing, and sometimes, things get delayed or changed, and those changes need to be passed on to the folks who might be interested in knowing the autocrat is about to burn the unclaimed A&S entries, if you don’t get them out of her hall. Or how about the fact that they’re about to tow cars parked in the wrong location? You’d want to know if it were your car, right???

The autocrat depends on us to be that announcement/notification service. And while you might be unable to do every announcement, if you can make one, you’ve helped out. O.k., so it’s not your home group, so what? You can’t take 3 minutes to let the field area know they’re opening a keg in the hall? And if it is your home group and you are the local herald, well, I hate to tell you, but it’s part of your job to arrange for announcement heralds, regardless of what other jobs you might be doing that day. That doesn’t mean you have to do all the announcements yourself, or even oversee them. You can delegate it to another herald. But you have to make sure that need is covered.

Same with field heraldry. This is one of the areas we’ve worked really hard to get the marshals to see us as a benefit and not a detriment to getting their job done. Be available, be on-time, be clear and loud, pay attention, don’t mix up the cards, and above all, be courteous! ANY time you act as an Atlantian herald, be courteous! Or I’ll do more than pinch!

Finally, court heraldry. Oh, I’ve ranted and raved on this subject and proper behaviour and decorum until I would think your ears were bleeding. But am I getting through? That’s the question...

And do you know, if you are heralding a royal court, how to coordinate the local territorial B&B into the mix? We all know that for most kingdom-level events (12^th Night; Crown; Coronation; etc.), baronial courts are not held. However, you should always check with the Crown and make sure They haven’t made other arrangements with the local B&B first. Surprise! Those folks communicate with each other! Imagine that.

Also, at the local event which has Crown attendance, you make sure the local B&B know what the Crown has planned for court. Back when I first started heralding courts, we used to ALL sit down together for the pre-court meeting, Crown, B&B and court heralds. That way, we were all on the same page as to where we were lining up, what time to line up, at what point the B&B would start their court, etc. You know, I remember getting ready for court being so much easier when we did it that way!

This is a great place to utilize your seconds as well. While you are going through the docket for court, send the second to alert the landed B&B (and hustle back).

Atlantia has the potential to have one of the very best College of Heralds in the Knowne World, but not if we all become too self-indulgent, discourteous, unreliable and uncaring! You have to remain diligent as to the representation you are giving for your fellow heralds! People don’t say “that doggone Achbar! He never helps with announcements!” (And they don’t, ’cause guess what? He never refuses...) No, they say “those damn heralds wouldn’t help with any announcements!” Uh-huh. We are ALL tarred with the brush just a few of you are wielding.

So, stop and think about your actions, behaviours and attitudes. Really can’t help right that minute? Fine. SAY so. Be honest. “I’m on my way to judge A&S in the hall, but I’ll herald it on my way in that direction” or “I can’t do it, but let me help you find someone who can.” I often locate a better voice, even though I have a pretty decent one, but I know there are a few others who are easier to hear outdoors. And always be polite, not self-important. They’re asking you for help, and since you are an officer, they have every right to ask. It’s our version of helping ladies carry their burdens...or don’t we bother to do that anymore either???

Remember... Be courteous, be helpful, be happy!

-- Rhiannon

Greetings unto all to whom these presents come from Lady Patricia of Trakai!

Wow, you are getting a big newsletter this time around! First of all, Lord Janos has written an excellent article on place names from a period map of Germany. (Keep it handy in case anyone from Lunenburg, Virginia, wants a late-period SCA name.) Then you've got some extremely detailed instructions on how to file your quarterly report online, so from now on, you have NO excuse (and I don't either)! As if that wasn't enough, I've put together some information on heraldic wills, in case you or your customers are curious as to what happens to their heraldic property once they shuffle off this mortal coil. Finally, I've got both the April and May acceptances and returns from Laurel (the stuff we used to publish in the Acorn).

Remember, in a few months we will have a new Triton Principal Herald and a new Golden Dolphin Submissions Herald. The transition will go much more smoothly if we all pitch in and do our best for the College of Heralds.

I recently found a review of an exhibit which took place in Berlin in 2007 (which can be seen here http://www.h-net.org/~german/reviews/boettcherapril07.htm). The review was done by Susan R. Boettcher of the Department of History, University of Texas at Austin. It covers several displays in a museum in Berlin.

As a part of the exhibit a map was presented of Germany (Germania or “Teütschland”, now Deutschland in German). After some digging around on the internet, I found that the map was made by a well-known Swiss writer and cartographer named Johann Stumpf. Since Stumpf lived from 1500 to 1578, it can only have been made in the mid-16th Century. The map itself can be found at http://www.h-net.org/~german/reviews/graphics/dtlandkarte.JPG. You will quickly learn several things:

The map itself is beautiful – a cartographer’s dream.
North is at the bottom of the map.
The spelling of place names is unusual.
It covers everything from the Netherlands/Belgium to Prussia/Poland and South to Croatia and Italy.
Parts of it are hard to read due to the early form of Fraktur (German Blackletter print) as well as being faded.
The map does not explain the title, so I have no idea what the “other book” is.

I have compared the names on the map to various other maps from the medieval and modern eras to determine the names of the cities, areas, rivers and locations shown thereon and provide them here as a herald’s source for alternative spellings of place-names from that era. I was not able to accurately determine the names of all places to give Stumpf’s version as well as the current one in use today – I have used question marks to indicate uncertainly. In some cases there is inaccuracy in the map (for example, it shows the Spree River flowing to the sea, when in fact it flows into the Havel River, which is not shown).

The map shows what Stumpf considered to be the most important cities of his day in the region. You will find that many of them are less significant now than they were then – Kalmünz, for example, is a lovely small city in central Bavaria today, but it’s hardly noteworthy nowadays. Other major cities – Wiesbaden and Darmstadt, for example, do not appear at all.

I hope you will find it of some use for your customers who are working on names from that time and that part of the world.

Original Form on Map	Modern Form	Original Form on Map	Modern Form
Aistet	Eichstädt	Lütich	Liège
Albis fl.	Elbe River	Lüzelburg	Lucelle
Algew (area)	Allgäu	Maas fl.	Meuse River
Alpes (mountains)	Alps	Main fl.	Main River
Amberg	Amberg	Marpurg	Marburg
Amstertam	Amsterdam	Masler	unknown city in Lorraine
Antorff	Antwerp	Mastricht	Maastricht
Arnstein	Arnsberg?	Mechelburg (area)	Mecklenburg
Augspurg	Augsburg	Meichtzen (area)	Meißen (district)
Baden	Baden-Baden	Melck	Melk
Bamberg	Bamberg	Mentz	Mainz
Basel	Basel	Methern (area)	Moravia
Bassaw	Passau	Metz	Metz
Behem (area)	Bohemia	Meyssen	Meißen
Beiern	Bavaria	München	Munich
Bergen	Bergen op Zoom	Münster	Munster
Berlin	Berlin	Mynden	Minden
Bern	Bern	Namur	Namur
Bingen	Bingen	Neidburg	Neidburg ruins
Bisantz	Besançon	Newe Marck (area)	Silesia **
Bon	Bonn	Nörenberg	Nuremberg
Brabandt (area)	Brabant	Nüenburg	Neuchâtel
Brandenburg	Brandenburg	Nüß	Neuss
Brandenburg	Brandenburg	Oder fl.	Oder River
Bremen	Bremen	Olmütz	Olomouc
Brenner (place)	Brenner Pass	Oppel	Opole
Breßlaw	Wrocław	Ossenbruck	Osnabrück
Bruna	Braunau am Inn	Ostereich	Austria
Brunschwig (area)	Brunswick	Otenwald (forest)	Odenwald
Brunschwig (city)	Brunswick	Paderborn	Paderborn
Brussel	Bruchsal	Polen (area)	Poland
Camin	Kamień Pomorski	Pomern (area)	Pommerania
Cassel	Kassel	Posua	Poznań
Chur	Chur	Prag	Prague
Coblenz	Koblenz	Preßburg	Bratislava
Cöllen	Cologne	Prüssen	Prussia
Croatia	Croatia	Rab	Raab
Dachow	Dachov	Regenspurg	Regensburg
Dantige	Gdansk	Rhetia (area)	Switzerland (Eastern part)
Das Deütsch Meer	The Baltic Sea	Rhin fl.	Rhine River
Das Mitternächtig Meer (sea)	The North Sea	Römerßwl	Reimerswaal
Deventer	Deventer	Rotertam	Rotterdam
Die Eyffel (area)	Eifel	Rotwil	Rotweil
Die Marck	Carinthia (Avar March)	Rotwitz	Rattwitz
Donaw fl.	Danube River	S. Vit	Sankt Veit an der Glan
Draua fl.	Drava River	S. Wolfgang	Sankt Wolfgang
Dresen	Dresden	Sagabria	Donji Bogićevci
Düringen (area)	Thuringia	Saltz fl. (?)	Salzach River
Düringer Wald (forest)	Thuringian Woods	Saltzburg	Salzburg
Eichwaß (?)	Eichelwang	Sarbruck	Saarbrucken
Elb flus	Elbe River	Saxen (area)	Saxony-Anhalt (district)
Elsas (area)	Alsatia	Schadeck	unknown city in Poland
Emerich	Emmerich (am Rhein)	Schadwien	Schottwien
Ems fl.	Ems River	Schafhusen	Schaffhausen
Erdfurt	Erfurt	Schlesy	Silesia
Flandren (area)	Flanders	Schmalkald	Schmalkalden
Francken (area)	Franconia	Schwaben (area)	Swabia
Franckfurt	Frankfurt am Main	Schypolit (?)	Schönbühel an der Donau
Franckfurt	Frankfurt (Oder)	Seger	unknown city in Poland
Fridaw	Ormož	Snisna	unknown city in Poland
Frießland	Frisia	Solatorn	Solothurn
Fryburg	Freiburg	Soltwedel	unknown city on the Elbe***
Frysing	Freising	Spir	Speyer
Geldern	Geldern	Spre fl.	Spree River
Gelnhusen	Gelnhausen	Steir (area)	Steiermark
Gent	Ghent	Steir (city)	Steyr
Görlitz	Görlitz	Stettin	Szczecin
Goßlar	Goslar	Straßburg	Strasbourg
Gretz	Graz	Stulweyssenburg	Székesfehérvár
Griptzwald	Greifswald	Stutgart	Stuttgart
Grüningen	Groningen	Sund	?Unknown city on the Baltic*
Hamburg	Hamburg	Sur see (sea)	Ijselmeer
Hartz Wald (forest)	Harz mountain region	Swol	Zwolle
Heidelberg	Heidelberg	Thorn	Toruń
Heilbrun	Heilbronn	Torgen	Torgau
Helvetia	Switzerland (western part)	Trier	Trier
Hessen (area)	Hesse	Tübingen	Tübingen
Holand (area)	Holland	Uberlingen	Überlingen
Hüdeßheim	Hildesheim	Ulm	Ulm
Ingelstat	Ingolstadt	Utrecht	Utrecht
Intal (valley)	Inn Valley	Vatra (or Watta) fl.	Warta River
Iser fl.	Isar River	Venlo	Venlo
Judenburg	Judenburg	Villach	Villach
Kalmünz	Kallmünz	Wal fl.	Waal River
Keiserslutern	Kaiserslautern	Wallis (area)	Valais canton
Kernten	Carinthia	Wenden (area)	the Wends (Slavic tribe)
Kolberg	Kołobrzeg	Werd	Wörth an der Donau
Krems	Krems	Werden	unknown town in Saxony
Lausnitz (area)	Lusatia	Wesel	Wesel
Lech fl.	Lech River	Weser fl.	Weser River
Leiptzig	Leipzig	Westphalen (area)	Westphalia
Lindow	Lindau	Wien	Vienna
Linz	Linz	Wirtzburg	Wurzburg
Lipp fl.	Lippe River	Wittenberg	Wittenberg
Losan	Lausanne	Wixel fl.	Vistula River
Lothringen (area)	Lorraine	Wurms	Worms
Lubeck	Lubeck	Yn fl.	Inn River
Lucern	Lucerne	Ynßbruck	Innsbruck
Lüneburg	Lüneburg	Zurch	Zürich
Lünenburg (area)	Lüneburg

*Perhaps Wismar or Rostock

**Formerly Neumark or East Brandenburg

***Perhaps Schönebeck (Elbe)

Heraldic Wills
By Lady Patricia of Trakai

If you're a reasonably responsible person, you've already made out and signed a last will and testament, designating who will get your house, your high-mileage war wagon and your other worldly goods after you die. You've designated a guardian for your minor child(ren), if you have any, and you've signed other forms stating your preferences for medical care if you cannot speak for yourself.

But have you written a heraldic will?

The registrations of your name, device and badges with the SCA College of Arms do not come with an expiration date, and they don't drop out of the armorial database when you die, either. A few months ago, the Laurel Office returned an Atlantian badge submission for conflict with a badge registered to a rather infamous former (non-Atlantian) king who died in prison five years ago. Since he's no longer around to grant permission to conflict, current and future SCA members can't get too close to his badge design for all eternity.

Granted, no one likes to think about dying, but we all will shuffle off this mortal coil eventually. What would you like to have done with your heraldry when you are gone? You have options:

You could do nothing and let your mundane heirs deal with it.
You could let your heraldry will remain in the Ordinary and Armorial forever as a record of your participation in the SCA. No one else can try to call themselves by your SCA name. (This is the unofficial "default setting" for the many cases in which people have died or left the SCA and the College of Arms has no further instructions about their armory.)
You could bequeath your device to your spouse or one or more of your children.
You could designate one of your badges to your household.
You could release all your heraldry, or just your device and badges, so that future SCAdians could either use them or come closer than two clear differences to them.

(Technically, if you die without a heraldic will, your mundane heirs will inherit your SCA heraldry -- but if they're not in the SCA already, they probably will have no clue that such armory even exists. And even if they are in the SCA, they can release the armory or give permission to conflict as THEY deem fit, regardless of what you would have wanted.)

The rules governing heraldic wills are laid out in Section IV.G of the current

Administrative Handbook of the College of Arms. There, the Laurel Office spells out the rules for restricted or reserved armorial elements and for cadency. For example, the son of a late Duke can't display a ducal coronet on his inherited device until he serves two reigns as King.

Writing a heraldic will is not that difficult. First, of course, you have to decide exactly what you want to do with your heraldry.

Then, proceed to Appendix D of the current Administrative Handbook of the College of Arms. There, you will find the sample text of a heraldic will, and you can just fill in the blanks:

I [Legal name of owner], known in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Incorporated (SCA) as [SCA name of owner] leave to [legal name of heraldic heir], known in the SCA as [SCA name of heraldic heir, if any] my (name/armory) registered in the SCA, ([name to be transferred]/blazoned as [blazon of armory to be transferred].

I [Legal name of owner], known in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Incorporated (SCA) as [SCA name of owner] release the following names and armory registered to me in the SCA [insert list of all names or armories to be released]

[Date] [Signature of [Name]]

I [Legal name of owner], known in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Incorporated (SCA) as [SCA name of owner] wish to make the following determinations to my name(s) and/or armory upon my death as below:

[select options as desired; items may be split amongst multiple people or released entirely]

- transfer to [legal name of heraldic heir], known in the SCA as [SCA name of heraldic heir, if any] my [name/armory] registered in the SCA, [insert name or "blazoned as [insert blazon of armory]].

- release the following [name/armory] registered to me in the SCA [insert list of all names or armories to be released]

[Date] [Signature of [Name]]

The FAQ of the West Kingdom College of Heralds says that the recipient of the willed armory should also send paperwork to his/her heraldic college indicating acceptance of the future transfer. That will make the eventual procedure run more smoothly.

When the original bearer of the armory dies and the heir accepts the bequest, the transfer will follow the usual route of submissions to the College of Heralds and eventually be registered by the Laurel Office.

The Laurel Office letter of December 2003 contained a note from the (then) Wreath Herald concerning proof of death. Wreath had honored a request to fulfill a heraldic will, but the submission was unaccompanied by any documentation that the original bearer of arms had, in fact, died. Suppose this was some kind of cruel prank? At that time, the Laurel Office was able to verify that a death had occurred, but the Wreath Herald recommended that kingdoms request -- or require -- some sort of real-world paperwork demonstrating that a heraldic testator is dead before bestowing the armory on the heir, lest they become an unwitting accomplice to malice.

Laurel Letter of Acceptances and Returns, April 2009

Unto the populace of Atlantia, greetings from Alisoun MacCoul of Elphane, Golden Dolphin Herald!

The Laurel Office has notified us of the results of its considerations at the meetings in April, 2009. The results for this meeting were contained in a letter from the Laurel Office received in Atlantia on 19 July, 2009.

Atlantia, Kingdom of. Order name change to Order of the Alcyon from Award of the Alcyon.

Atlantia, Kingdom of. Order name change to Order of the Hippocampus from Award of the Hippocampus.

Atlantia, Kingdom of. Order name change to Order of the Sea Tyger from Award of the Sea Tyger.

Atlantia, Kingdom of. Badge for Award of Arielle. (Fieldless) An antelope rampant contourny Or.

Bella Trentavasi. Device. Quarterly sable and argent, a lion's head Or jessant-de-lys within a bordure gules.

Caer Mear, Barony of. Badge for Order of La Brise de Mer. Per fess gules and azure, a fess invected argent and overall a lighthouse Or.

Fritz Justus Fritz. Badge. Per pale gules and azure, on a bezant a boar's head couped sable.

Gwenllian of Yarnvid. Device. Per fess sable and argent, a plate and a tree blasted and eradicated sable.

Jason Michael Corvinus. Name and badge. (Fieldless) Three birds close conjoined in annulo vert. Jason and Michael are the submitter's legal given names.

Kára væna Þórudóttir. Name and device. Per pale argent and sable, two demi-horses combatant and a fleur-de-lys counterchanged.

Kieran Hunter. Device. Vert, a fret between three hounds courant and a stag's head cabossed argent.

Marinus, Barony of. Badge for Order of the Golden Nutmeg. (Fieldless) A whelk inverted Or. The barony has permission to conflict with Tir-y-Don's badge for the Order of the Whelk, Gyronny argent and azure, a whelk, bell in chief, Or.

Middlegate, Canton of. Branch name change from Canton of Hindscroft and device change. Or, a portcullis and on a base gules a laurel wreath Or. Their previous name, Canton of Hindscroft, is released. As requested, their old device, Azure, eight keys in cross parted, addorsed in pairs, all conjoined at the base by links of chain, and the whole environed of a laurel wreath, all Or, is retained as ancient arms.

RETURNS

The following items were returned for the stated reasons:

Griffinsvale, Canton of. Name and device. Quarterly azure and sable, a griffin segreant within a laurel wreath Or. Unfortunately, the Laurel staff returned the group name, ruling that all the examples of English place names which combined a given name or surname in the possessive with a descriptive noun used a descriptive noun derived from Old English or Old Norse rather than from French. They indicated that, if the name used a descriptive noun for a valley that came from Old Norse or Old English, the name would have been registerable and suggested several possibilities. Of these suggestions the form closest to the previously submitted name would be Griffinsdale, although the Laurel staff also suggested Griffinsclough, Griffinscombe, Griffinsdall, Griffinsdell, or Griffinsden as “plausible Middle English placenames.” Since the name was returned, the device had to be returned as well, since holding names cannot be created for territorial groups.

Your servant,

Alisoun

Laurel Letter of Acceptances and Returns, May 2009

Unto the populace of Atlantia, greetings from Alisoun MacCoul of Elphane, Golden Dolphin Herald!

The Laurel Office has notified us of the results of its considerations at the meetings in May, 2009. The results for this meeting were contained in a letter from the Laurel Office received in Atlantia on 29 August, 2009.

ACCEPTANCES:

The following items were REGISTERED by the Laurel Office:

Aodh Marland. Badge. (Fieldless) A flame per pale vert and sable.

Donngal mac Ronain. Name and device. Per bend sinister embattled sable and Or, in pale two lozenges Or and sable.

Esmé Rose. Name.

Janyn Fletcher of Lancastreschire. Name.

Mariah Isabel. Name.

Sybella Valentine. Name.

RETURNS:

No submissions from Atlantia were returned in May, 2009.

Your servant,

Alisoun

The first Known World Heraldic Symposium was held in September 1973 during the first year of the existence of the Barony of Tir Ysgithr in the Kingdom of Atenveldt (mundanely Tucson, Arizona). The most recent Known World Heraldic Symposium was held this month in the Barony of the Lonely Tower in the Kingdom of Calontir (mundanely Omaha, Nebraska).

© Copyright 2009, Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. For information on reprinting letters and artwork from this publication, please contact the Editor, who will assist you in contacting the original creator of the piece. Please respect the legal rights of our contributors.