ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1098 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1098 ************************************ 4 Oct 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You sent us two letters. In the first, you asked what form your name might have taken around 1300. In the second, you asked for an Irish form of your name, appropriate between 1250 and 1400, and wondered if it might be . You also asked about your designs for your arms and what sort of arms were used by Irish mercenaries. Here is what we have found. We'd like to apologize for the delay in answering your questions. We hope that the following information is still useful to you. The name was rarely used in England until after the Reformation. We found used in 1213, but no other period example of the name [1]. It is likely that the name was used only as a monastic, devotional name in our period. You may want to consider some form of instead; that name was quite common in your period. We found examples in several spellings: 1276, 1279, 1292, 1372, 1280 [2]. The surname derives originally from , a nickname for . In your period, it could still have been used as a patronymic byname, "son of Colin", or it might have been an inherited surname in the modern style. We found these examples in your period [2]: John Collin 1221 William Colin 1246 Roger Colynes 1327 A name like would be very authentic for an Englishman of your period. , pronounced \SHAHN oh KOHL-yen\, is a fine Irish name for your period, but it isn't correct to describe it as the Irish form of . was a common name in Ireland in your period, and it was recognized to be an Irish form of [4]. (The slash in the names represents an accent on the preceding letter.) The English surname is used today as an anglicization of the Irish family name , but the two names are not the same. is really a completely unrelated name that was substituted for the Irish name because it happened to sound similar [5]. We're not sure if that substitution happened in period, and it is unlikely to have happened as early as 1400. In Gaelic, the native language of Ireland, a man was most often known as his father's son. If your father were called , then you would be called , which would have been understood to mean "Sea/n, son of Tadhga/n of the O/ Coilea/in clan". For short, you might have been called or . For more information on Irish names of your period, we recommend an article on the web: Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ Before discussing your arms, I'd like to clarify the service that the Academy offers. We try to help Societyfolk in choosing and using names and armory that fit the historical cultures they are trying to re-create. If your main goal is to register a particular set of arms, then we may not be able to help you. The first design you asked about was "Sable, a saltire pean, two griffins combatant proper, a sword in fess proper, a sun in chief proper, a gauntlet in base sable". We would blazon this design "Sable, a saltire pean between in chief a sun Or, in fess two griffins combatant proper, and in base a gauntlet sable". This design is not consistent with the style of heraldry used in medieval England and Ireland. In particular: * Medieval British arms tended to maintain strong color-contrast between the field (background) and the charges (objects) placed upon it. Dark-colored charges (black, red, blue, green) were placed on light-colored fields (white/silver, yellow/gold, ermine), and vice versa. Your saltire pean is mostly black, so it will be essentially indistinguishable against the black field. The black gauntlet will be nearly invisible against the field. * The design is far more complex than 13th or 14th century heraldry. Most arms of that period had only one or two types of charge; and if there were two, one of them was usually a simple geometric figure. * Griffins do not have a "proper" coloration. You need to choose a heraldic tincture for a griffin. * Pean (black with gold ermine spots) was unknown in your period. Ermine (white with black spots) was not uncommon, but the color variations on the basic fur didn't appear until much later. Your second design was a pean field with a cup emitting rays and two swords crossed over the cup, with black blades and golden hilts. Assuming you want the cup and rays to be gold, too, we would blazon it "Pean, a cup issuing rays Or surmounted by two swords in saltire sable hilted Or". Unfortunately, this design is also problematic. It was rare for one charge to overlap another, the way the swords overlap the cup. The black blades of the swords will not be visible against the mostly-black background. It would be better to use all-gold swords so that they show up better. Your third design, from your second letter, was two swords in the en garde position with a black clenched gauntlet beneath the swords, with rays of light escaping from between the fingers, all on a green field. We're not sure what the en garde position is. If it means that they are crossed and if the swords are gold, this design could be blazoned "Vert, two swords in saltire Or and in base a clenched gauntlet sable issuing rays Or." As you'll see from our discussion so far, this design is also not appropriate for your period. The black gauntlet on the green field still doesn't contrast well enough. Gauntlets were used in armory of your period, but the ones we've seen were open-handed, not clenched [3], and we've never seen a hand issuing rays of light in period arms. It is also unusual to arrange two separate motifs one above the other on the field, like the pair of swords and the gauntlet. Heraldry was a relatively new phenomenon around 1300, and it had not yet developed the wide variety of charges and styles found in modern heraldry and even in late-period English heraldry. Most designs were fairly simple and used a limited set of charges. If you want to design arms that re-create the heraldic style of your period, we recommend you start by looking at a collection of examples. Two good sources are: Joseph Foster, _The Dictionary of Heraldry_ (NY: Arch Cape Press, 1989) Many Societyfolk own copies, and some bookstores still have it remaindered. There is also a soft-cover edition. Die Wappenrolle von Zurich http://people.delphi.com/ivanor/zroaen0.htm The saltire, griffin, sword, sun, gauntlet, and cup are all charges that were used in heraldry of your period. We recommend that you pick one of them, or possibly the saltire plus one other, to use in your arms. We also suggest that you choose one dark color and one light color, and consider a design following one of the basic patterns used in the examples you see in the sources we've recommended. If you'd like more help putting together a design appropriate to your period, please write us again. You asked if you ought to use a "katana" in your arms. We strongly recommend against it. The first European contact with Japan was in 1542, so it is essentially impossible that a katana was ever seen in Europe before 1400. If your goal is to have arms that could have been used in Europe in the 13th or 14th century, then you should ideally limit yourself to charges that were used in heraldry of that period and certainly limit yourself to objects that were known in England. You also asked what sort of arms a wandering Irish mercenary or gallowglass would have used. We're not sure that such a person would have used arms at all. The use of heraldic arms was brought to Ireland by the English in the 13th century, and the practice was only slowly adopted by the native Irish. If you intend your persona to be a member of an English family who settled in Ireland, then your arms would be a variant of the family arms, and we would expect them to be typical English heraldry of your period. If you want a native Irish persona, then if you had used arms, they would also fit the English style of your period, since Irish heraldry derived from English heraldry. There is no particular charge or color to indicate that you were a mercenary: The notion that each charge and color has a specific meaning is a myth, mostly an invention of the 17th and 18th centuries. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. We were assisted in researching and writing this letter by Margaret Makafee, Talan Gwynek, Zenobia Naphtali, Rouland Carre, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Felix MacAvady, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Alan Fairfax, Brad Miller, and Francois Velde. For the Academy, Walraven van Nijmegen and Arval Benicoeur 5 Oct 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Jonathan. [2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.nn. Collin, John. [3] Foster, Joseph, _The Dictionary of Heraldry_ (New York: Arch Cape Press, 1989). Fane (or Vane), John of Hilden, Kent, (H. VI, betw. 1421 and 1471) Azure, three dexter gauntlets Or. Waunci, Gefrai de (H. III roll, betw. 1216 and 1272) Gules, three dexter gauntlets aversant (reversed) argent. St George roll; ascribed to JOHN in Arden roll. Gerard J. Brault, _Early Blazon_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press,, 1972). Aidelames de Ramestaing, l'escu de geules a v. gans d'argent (Bigot Roll, Paris, 1254; 75) [4] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [5] MacLysaght, Edward, _The Surnames of Ireland_ (Dublin: Irish Academic Press Ltd., 1985, ISBN 0-7165-2366-3). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -