ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1464 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1464 ************************************ 23 Feb 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 12th century Norman, and whether your design for your arms fits that period. Here is what we have found. is a Scottish name, the name of an early saint. His cult was apparently reasonably popular, so it is not unlikely that his name was used occasionally. However, we have found no examples of his name being used in your period and none at all that the name was used in France [1]. The name was also used in the early Middle Ages among the Picts, but again, we find no evidence that it persisted into the 12th century [2]. We didn't find the spelling anywhere. The most similar-sounding French given names that we found are and , both of which were reasonably common among the Normans. was also spelled . is also recorded as , and [3, 4, 7]. Your surname, , is a fine choice for your period. The modern town of is in Calvados, in Normandy. The spelling is exactly right for your period [5]. would have been a very typical Norman name in your period. Your design for your arms can be blazoned "Per pale bendy sable and Or, and sable semy-de-lys Or." This design is an excellent re-creation of the heraldry of your period. However, the SCA College of Arms will not register it: It is "impaled arms", i.e. two separate designs combined on the two halves of the field, which Society custom and College of Arms rules forbid. Impaled arms were used in period to indicate the marriage of two armigerous families: The husband put his arms on the dexter half of the shield, and his wife's on the sinister half. Thus, displaying impaled arms is an implicit statement that you and your wife are both armigerous and that you have the right to display both sets of arms. Society custom views that sort of statement as a claim of rank; the SCA College of Arms will not register arms that appear to be impaled. There are a couple ways you could get around this problem. If you remove the fleurs-de-lys from your design, the result "Per pale bendy sable and Or, and sable" is registerable. The College does not consider a plain field to create the appearance of impalement. Similarly, you could quarter the two simpler fields: "Quarterly sable and bendy sable and Or." You could also use just one of these two designs. "Sable semy-de-lis Or" is not registerable [6], but "Bendy sable and Or" appears to be a possibility. (It actually conflicts with the Society arms of Walraven van Nijmegen, but he is willing to discuss giving you permission to conflict. If you're interested, write us and we'll put you in touch with him.) If you want to combine the two designs, you could use the striped design and put black fleurs-de-lys on the gold stripes: "Bendy sable and Or semy-de-lis sable" would also be a fine, elegant design for your period. 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. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Walraven van Nijmegen, Rouland Carre, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Blaise de Cormeilles, Margaret Makafee, Evan da Collaureo, and Alan Fairfax. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 23 Feb 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Notes & References [1] Watson, William J., _The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland_ (London: William Blackwood & Sons Ltd., 1926), p.300. [2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "A Consideration of Pictish Names" (Y Camamseriad, Issue 4, Summer 1996, pp.29-56; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996). http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/pictnames.html [3] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Durant. [4] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html [5] Dauzat, Albert & Ch. Rostaing, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Lieux de la France_ (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1963). [6] "Sable semy-de-lys Or" conflicts with France "Azure semy-de-lys Or." [7] Villehardouin, Geoffroy, _La Conque^te de Constantinople_, ed. & trans. Edmond Faral (Paris: Socie/te/ d'E/dition Les Belles Lettres, 1961), chapters 8, 48.