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Atenveldt Submissions (excerpted from the S.C.A. College of Arms' Letters of Acceptance and Return)

ATENVELDT REGISTRATIONS by the College of Arms, February 2004:

Arthur O'Flaherty. Device reblazon. Erminois, a saltire parted and fretted sable, overall a shamrock vert.

The submitter requested a reblazon from Erminois, a saltire parted and fretted sable, overall a trefoil slipped vert. The charge in question has the heart-shaped foils of a shamrock, and can thus be blazoned as a shamrock.

Bartilmew Blackbourne. Name and device. Pily barry gules and Or, a sun sable within a bordure per sable and gules.

The sun's tincture was omitted in the blazon on the LoI. However, enough commenters deduced the correct tincture of the sun that this does not need to be pended for further research.

Fáelán Mac Cuinneagáin. Device. Sable, a sword Or surmounted by a saltire all within a bordure argent.

Guilla Ironhare. Name and device. Per pale Or and vert, in pale a single-horned anvil and a hare salient sable.

Submitted as Guilla Ironhair, there was considerable discussion regarding the submitted given name Guilla. As Siren found dated examples of Guilla in period, we are able to register this name. Guilla was submitted as an Italian feminine given name based on information provided in the LoI: [...]Guilla of Spoleto (c. 925-1012) was born in Este Italy,

http://www.mathematical.com/spoletoguilla925.html. Aryanhwy merch Catmael notes that this website cites ancestry.com as its source, and that Laurel has previously ruled that this site alone is insufficient for SCA documentation [...] The LoI is correct, as explained in the August 2001 LoAR: Heinemann was documented from ancestry.com. The April 2001 LoAR stated the following in regards to the submitted name Sueva the Short: The given name was documented from Roberts, Notable Kin: An Anthology of Columns First Published in the NEHGS NEXUS, 1986-1995. While we have no reason to doubt the quality of the genealogical research, the goals of genealogists are different from ours and their data is not necessarily applicable to SCA use. The same issue applies to documentation from genealogy Web sites including ancestry.com. They cannot be relied on for documentation for spelling variants. [Tatiana Heinemann, 08/2001 LoAR, A-Trimaris]

The LoI hypothesized that Guilla could be a feminine form of the Breton masculine given name Guillo found in Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn's article "Given Names from Brittany, 1384-1600," (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/latebreton/). Metron Ariston explained why this construction is not likely in Breton: Unfortunately, Breton is not a Romance language and, while French names do appear in Brittany, particularly in the later periods, there is no evidence that this formation would be a valid feminine form from Guillo. Moreover, following normal rules for pronunciation, Guilla would be pronounced Willa so it will not sound like the name the submitter wants. I was in fact able to find the feminine name Willa in Morlet (Les noms de personnes, vol. I, col. 225b).

Siren found evidence of Guilla or Willa used as a woman's name in 11th C Italy: A group of 11th century documents from Bologna seem to support <Guilla> or <Willa> as an Italian woman's name (discussion at http://digilander.libero.it/freekey/; these are taken from http://digilander.libero.it/freekey/secoli/1000.htm): 1033 (61) Donazione della contessa Guilla alla Pieve di S.Lorenzo di Imola. Si tratta di alcuni fondi nella zona suburbana di Imola e di un palazzo entro Imola. La nobilissima comitissa è considerata della famiglia dei conti Guidi. 1056 (HE) 14 gennaio: la contessa Willa, vedova del dux et marchio Ugo, ordina, assieme ai fratelli (figli di Willa ?) Ugo, Adelbertus, Bonifacius e Ubaldus, la liberazione di una donna di Pianoro. Si trovano a S.Bartolomeo di Musiano. Willa è probabilmente al suo secondo matrimonio (con Bonandus de Capraria).

It is possible that this use of Guilla is an import of the French Willa, but there is insufficient information to be certain at this time. Regardless, given the information provided by Siren, Guilla is registerable as an 11th C Italian feminine given name.

There was also a good bit of discussion regarding the submitted byname Ironhair. The LoI cited a number of period bynames with an element meaning 'iron' as the first element: Ironhair is a constructed byname, following patterns of English nicknames such as Irnefoot (Ironfoot) 1332, Irenbard (Ironbeard) 1316, and Irenherde (Ironhard) 1379 (examples found in "A Study of Middle English Nicknames I. Compounds, Jan Jonsjo). These names could refer to the bearer's black, coarse hair, or to their strength. The spelling Iron- shows up by the 13th C as shown in Reaney & Wilson (p. 249 s.n. Iremonger) which dates Elyas le Ironmmongere to 1294. Reaney & Wilson (p. 217 s.n. Hare) gives this byname as occasionally being "A nickname from the hair" and dates Henry Mytehare, Myttehere to 1253-4, identifying the meaning as "mid the here 'with the hair'" Based on these examples, a byname such as Ironhare or Ironhere would be a plausible 13th C byname indicating the person's hair color. As no evidence was presented to support the spelling -hair in a period byname, we have changed this byname to the form Ironhare in order to register this name.

It should be noted that the LoI stated that: [T]the submitter originally wished to use Ingwylla, to alliterate with the byname, but we couldn't find anything close (she'd also prefer the spelling of the current given name as Gwylla, if possible-she is most interested in the sound of the name, not the language or culture). Any help in justifying the spelling Gwylla, or even Ingwyllya, would be very much appreciated. Multiple members of the College noted the Old Norse feminine given name Ingvildr found in Geirr Bassi (p. 12). In addition, Metron Ariston found: [...] Inguelina which Morlet (op. cit., Vol. I, col. 146b) dates to the eleventh century. As neither of these options are the submitter's desired Ingwylla, we have registered this name with the submitted given name Guilla, and provided this information as a courtesy to the submitter in case either of these options interest her.

Richard Steavenson. Name and device. Azure, a bend sinister between four lozenges argent.

Rowan O'Flaherty. Name change from holding name Rowan of Atenveldt.

Sely Bloxam. Household name House Bell and Frog.

Submitted as House Bells and Frog, all of the examples found by the College of English sign names with the form [item] and [item] had both items as singular, rather than plural, even in cases where there were multiple items of one on the associated image. Therefore, lacking examples of plural items in sign names of this type, we have changed the plural Bells to the singular Bell in order to register this name.

Veronica da Asola. Name.

ATENVELDT RETURNS by the College of Arms, January 2004:

Nicolette d'Avranges. Device reblazon. Per bend vert and argent, two fleurs-de-lys and a bordure counterchanged.

This device has already been reblazoned, in the errata letter issued with the December 2003 LoAR (dated March 17, 2004). The reblazon in that errata letter matches this blazon.


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