28 December 2003, A.S. XXXVIII
Kingdom of Atenveldt

Unto Their Royal Jonathon and Deille; Mistress Magdelen Venturosa, Aten Principal Herald; Lord Seamus McDaid, Corona Herald; the Heralds in the Atenveldt College of Heralds; and to All Whom These Presents Come,

Greetings of the Season from Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy, Brickbat Herald!

This is the December 2003 internal Atenveldt Letter of Intent. It precedes the external LoI that will contain the following submissions, asking questions of submitters and local heralds who have worked with them; if these questions are not addressed, the submission may be returned by the Atenveldt College of Heralds. I accept online commentary, in addition to questions pertaining to heraldry: brickbat@nexiliscom.com. Please have comments or questions to me, on any armorial matter, by 10 January 2003.

Submissions Website: You can send electronic commentary on the most recent internal LoIs through the site, in addition to any questions you might have. Current submission forms (the ONLY forms that can be used) can be found on the site. Please let your local populace know about the site, too: atensubmissions.nexiliscom.com.

Consultation Table at Estrella War: Yes, there will be one. I'll let you know the schedule in the next report. I suspect that it will run Thursday-Sunday, as it has in past years. This is a great opportunity to get "in the trenches" armorial experience, to meet heralds from a number of other kingdoms, and to meet the Laurel Queen of Arms Designate, Mistress Shauna of Carrick Point.

Please consider for the JANUARY 2003 Atenveldt Letter of Intent:

Ælfred Lionstar of Ravenspur (Twin Moons): NEW HOUSEHOLD NAME "House Lionstar" and BADGE

Sable, a mullet between three lions' heads cabossed Or.

The primary persona name was registered June 1987.

The household name is taken directly from an element of the submitter's registered name (I suspect that if this were not the case, the closest he might be able to hope for is House Lion and Star, based on inn sign nomenclature).

The badge is derived from elements of his registered device, Pean, a mullet inverted gules, surmounted by a mullet between three lion's heads Or.

Bjorn Meaddranker (Sundragon): NEW NAME

The name is Old Norse. Björn is found in "Viking Names found in the Landnámabók," Aryanhwy merch Catmael ( http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/landnamabok.html ), and is a favorite masculine given name among SCA Norse persona. The byname has no documentation, although the meaning seems pretty self-evident. (The closest ON byname I've found is ölfúss, "desirous of beer," in "Viking Bynames found in the Landnámabók," Aryanhwy merch Catmael, http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/vikbynames.html ). E.V. Gordon's An Introduction to Old Norse shows similar terms as drykkju-maðr, "drinker, a man who drinks"; drukkinn, "merry with drink, having taken drink (not necessarily intoxicated-maybe happily buzzed?)", both on p. 339, and mjoðr, "mead," on p. 370. Perhaps a compounding of these terms would produce a more period form of the name (the submitter wishes an 11^th C. Old Norse name), mjoð(r)drykkju-maðr or mjoð(r)drukkin, "merry with mead."

Diek Rabynovich (Granite Mountain): NEW DEVICE

Per pale vert and Or, in pale two eagles rising, wings displayed, and two pine trees, all counterchanged.

The name was registered August 2003.

Natal'ia Diekova zhena Rabynovicha (Granite Mountain): NEW DEVICE

Vert, an oak tree eradicated Or between flaunches Or, ermined vert.

The name was registered August 2003.

The following are included in the December 2003 Atenveldt Letter of Intent (note potentially new commentary):

This month's commentary is provided by Da'ud ibn Auda [DiA] and Knute Hvitabjörn (Midrealm) [KH]. Additional responses might be made by Marta [MMM].

Amalric d'Acre (Twin Moons): NEW NAME and DEVICE (Per chevron embattled vert and Or, two plates and a sheaf of arrows sable.)

There was no problem seen with the name as possible presumption with the Kings Amalric, who ruled Jerusalem. [MMM]

The head and fletching of the arrow are drawn too small, which alone has been grounds for return in the past. [12a/93, p.21]

Precedents - Da'ud 2.1, under Arrow. ...It should be noted that period arrows were drawn with grossly exaggerated heads and fletching for greater identifiability... (LoAR 1/92 p.6). Precedents - Da'ud 1.2, under Arrow. The barbs and fletches of the arrows should be larger. [KH] This will be corrected on the submission forms and the submitter notified. [MMM]

Dufen Eyðimörkingr (Granite Mountain): NEW NAME

Jacques Beauchamp (Sundragon): DEVICE RESUBMISSION from Kingdom, November 2003

Per pale sable and argent, a pall between three ermine spots, all counterchanged.

The original submission, Argent a pall sable between three ermine spots sable., was returned for conflict. A reversal of tinctures had even more conflicts. Dividing the field and then doing a counterchange resolves the conflicts and hopefully avoids other ones. [MMM]

Tatiana Laski Krakowska (Atenveldt): DEVICE RESUBMISSION from Kingdom, September 2003

Per saltire argent and azure, six mullets argent.

The name was registered September 2000.

The original submission, Quarterly argent and azure, two hedgehogs statant contourny proper and two mullets argent., was returned for the appearance of quartered arms, which is unregistrable in the SCA, per Rules for Submission XI.3.

Temur Khana the Mongol (Twin Moons): NEW NAME and DEVICE

Gules, a ram's head erased within nine lozenges in annulo argent.

To place "the Mongol" at the end of an otherwise entirely Mongolian name seems, well, silly. At least as silly as "John Smith the Englishman", "Angus MacDonnel the Scot", "Pierre Levesque the Frenchman", "Otto von Köln the German", or even "Da'ud ibn Auda the Arab". If we could convince her to drop the unnecessary epithet, it would be ever so much better. [DiA] Upon further consultation with the gentleman, he is willing to drop "the Mongol." [MMM]

The submitted blazon doesn't entirely describe the orientation of the lozenges, but I am not certain how to note that their long axes (axises?) are pointed outwards. With the submitted blazon, they are more likely to be placed "head to tail" going around in a circle. [DiA]

Considering the TSCA motif of creatures in annulo, I would argue that this is the default for all charges in annulo. If they were upright it would probably be blazoned as an annulet of lozenges. [KH]

Vladimir Dragos (Granite Mountain): NAME RESUBMISSION from Kingdom, September 2003

While the name was said to be Romanian, our limited resources only showed the forms Vlad and Vladislav (and nothing for Dragos. However, both elements were found to be Russian. Vladimir is a Russian masculine given name, dating back to 1053, and Dragos is a Russian masculine given name dating to 1208 ("Dictionary of Period Russian Names," Paul Wickenden of Thanet, http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/ ). This would be a fine Russian-derived name as Vladimir Dragosovor Vladimir Dragos syn (also a means of showing the patronymic without modifying the father's name; syn, "son"). Both forms are given in Paul's paper. Upon further consultation with the gentleman, he agrees to a Russian form of the name, Vladimir Dragos syn. [MMM]

The following are returned for further work by the Atenveldt College of Heralds, December 2003:

Amalric d'Acre (Twin Moons): NEW BADGE (Vert, a roundel held in sinister base by a cupped sinister hand in profile fesswise couped argent.)

Regarding the posture of the hand (edge on), such has been disallowed by precedent: "The cupped hand is neither a documented nor a recognizable position." (Elsbeth Anne Roth, LoAR April 2000, p. 18) "The hand was depicted edge on. This has been disallowed for arms (see the April 2000 LoAR, p. 18), and the standard references do not show this position for dextrocheres either." (Elsbeth Anne Roth, LoAR January 2001, p. 9) Though it may look like Brendan mac Artuir's device, which served as the model for the blazon submitted with this badge, was registered recently, the 2002 action was only a reblazon to clarify a 1986 registration. Had Brendan's device been a new submission, it would have been returned under the precedents cited above. [DiA]; [KH]

RETURNED for non-documented position/non-identifiability of charge.

Dufen Eyðimörkingr (Granite Mountain): NEW DEVICE

Vert, a chevron inverted and a bordure Or.

Conflict with Friðælv Olvesdottir, Vert, a chevron inverted and in chief a roundel Or. There is but a single Clear Difference, for the change in type of the secondary/peripheral charge. [DiA]; [KH] Using a semy on the field or the charges will clear the conflict; dividing the design in pale and counterchanging it also clears the conflict and appears to avoid new conflicts. [MMM]

RETURNED for conflict.

I remain,

Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy

c/o Linda Miku

2527 East 3^rd Street, Tucson AZ 85716

brickbat@nexiliscom.com

atensubmissions.nexiliscom.com