ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1335 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1335 ************************************ From: Rachel Cates 28 Jan 1999 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wrote that you wanted your persona to be a late-16th century Irishman who moved to Scotland. There are two steps to choosing a historically accurate name to fit that persona. The first step is to choose the name your persona was originally given in Ireland. The second step is to figure out how that name might have been adapted to the local language in Scotland. In Irish Gaelic culture a man was known by his given name, his patronymic (a name identifying him as his father's son), and usually by a family or clan name. In your period an Irishman named who was the son of of the clan would have been known in full as . More often he would have been known by one of the shorter forms "Tadhg son of Carthach" or "Tadhg of the O/ Connail clan". The slash in the names represents an accent on the preceding letter. To build an authentic Irish Gaelic name, you'll need to choose your given name, and either your father's given name, your clan name, or both. We don't have an easily-accessible list of late-period Irish names. A book that offers a good selection is: Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: _Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). Another possibility is: O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). It includes many names that were only used in early medieval Ireland, but the commentary identifies the names that were common in your period. If you'd like a name that begins with a particular letter or sound, we'd be happy to send you a short list of possibilities. Or if you find a couple of names that interest you, we'll be happy to determine whether they're appropriate for your period and to fill in the grammar and pronunciation, which can be tricky in Gaelic. Once you have an Irish name, you need to figure out how it would have been used in Scotland. There were two main cultures in Scotland in your period which spoke different languages. The Highlanders spoke Gaelic, the same language spoken in Ireland, and used names reasonably similar to Irish names. Although there were some differences in naming customs, it is probably safe to assume that a Gaelic name from Ireland could have been used in Scottish Gaelic society without much problem; so if your persona lives in the Highlands, you can simply use the Irish names you've chosen. Things get a little more complicated if your persona lived in the Lowlands or a town, where they spoke Scots, a language closely related to contemporary English. We have only a little evidence of how Irish names were adapted into Scots, so it's difficult to give general advice on how to adapt your own name. If this is the culture where you want to set your persona, we suggest you choose your original Gaelic name and then write to us for advice on how it might have been used in Scots culture. You also stated that you wanted to use the arms 'Vert and ermine, a wolf and a two-headed griffin combatant chained to a bordure of chains all counterchanged'. We have interpreted this as 'Per pale vert and ermine, a wolf and a two-headed griffin combatant within and each chained to an orle of chain all counterchanged.' This means that the shield is divided vertically, with an ermine wolf on a green background and a green griffin on an ermine background. Each beast is chained to a single link of a chain extending around the entire edge of the shield. If this is not the picture that you had in mind, please let us know. A couple of features of this coat aren't historically authentic. First, we have found no period examples of two-headed griffins. (Indeed, with rare exceptions the eagle is the only heraldic creature to appear with two heads.) Secondly, orles of chain are extremely rare; we've found one in the arms of Navarre as part of a more complex linkage of chain. We found another in 16th century Flanders in the arms of Urfys: "Argent an escutcheon of Flandres within an orle of chain vert."[1]. (If you choose to register your arms with the SCA College of Arms, the orle of chain poses another problem: under SCA rules only Knights and Masters of Arms may register arms containing a closed loop of chain.) Therefore we recommend that you use an ordinary griffin with one head and replace the orle of chain with a more authentic charge. One possibility with similar connotations is an orle of fetterlocks. (A fetterlock is a pair of shackles; it looks rather like a primitive handcuff. Eight or so of them spaced around the edge of the shield would be an orle of fetterlocks.) Alternatively, you might replace the chain by a bordure, which you could charge with fetterlocks. (These suggestions have not been checked for conflict with registered devices in the SCA.) If you truly would like the two dissimilar beasts, we suggest the you use the beasts only, removing the chain and using a solid field. For example: 'Or, a wolf vert and a griffin azure combatant'. We have found a few examples of period arms with similar designs[2]. (This suggestion has not been checked for conflict with registered devices in the SCA.) We hope that this letter has been useful to you. Please do not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Additional research and commentary on this letter was provided by Zenobia Naphtali, Teceangl Bach, Walraven van Nijmegen, Caelin on Andred, Blaise de Cormeilles, Rouland Carre, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Arval d'Espas Nord and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Eithni ingen Cormacc References [1] Walraven van Nijmegen, "Analysis, Armorial, and Ordinary of Armory Recorded in Paul Bergmans' Armorial De Flandre du XVIme Siecle" (WWW: Brian R. Speer, Privately published, 1997) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1336/bergmans.html [2] Chesshyre, Hubert & Woodcook, Thomas,_Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary_, vol. I (London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1992). DBA I, pp. 252-3. We found these examples of period arms containing a pair of dissimilar beasts combatant." Geoffrey de Wenali, 'A lion and dragon combatant', seal, 1296. John Tame, 'A lion crowned and a dragon combatant', brass, 1500. Another source gives: 'Argent, a lion azure and a griffin vert combatant'. Sir Edmund Thame, 'Argent, a dragon vert fighting a loin azure crowned purpure', source temp. Henry VIII. Edmund Tame, of Fairford, 'Argent, a dragon vert and a lion azure crowned gules combatant each armed and langued and in chief a crescent gules', source c.1465-90. John Dauntesey, 'A lion and a wyvern combatant', seal, c.1600?. Wm. Dunbar, ' A lion and a wyvern combatant', seal c.1240.