ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1499 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1499 ************************************ 8 Mar 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for whether would be an appropriate name for a Scottish Gael in the 10th to 12th century. You also asked our opinion of your arms and for information about gallowglasses in Scotland. Here is what we have found. We believe that your name is basically fine for this period, though the spelling is not appropriate. Gaelic spelling underwent a significant change around 1200. We recommend as the likely early medieval spelling. (The slash represents an acute accent on the preceding letter.) There was an early medieval king of Northumbria and Dublin named , and a Scottish Gael in 1219 whose name was recorded as . With the evidence in our last letter, this establishes that both parts of your name are appropriate for your period [1, 2, 3]. The arms you described could be blazoned "Vert, a lion's head cabossed and on a chief argent three thistles vert". Heraldic arms were invented in northwestern France in the mid-12th century. Since your persona is earlier than that, you obviously would not have used armory. In addition, Scottish Gaels did not make much use of heraldry in our period. Heraldry was very popular in Lowland culture, but in the Highlands it appears to have been reserved to chieftains and their immediate families [5]. All this doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. Whether you use arms or not depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article we've posted on the web: What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms? http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/faq/nonheraldic.html If you do decide to use arms, we recommend you re-consider some elements of your design. The basic layout is fine, and the lion's head was a reasonably common charge in medieval heraldry. The color green, however, is unusual in period armory, and the thistles are not a good choice. The Scottish thistle was not found in the arms of private persons in our period, except for one late 16th c. example which was an augmentation from the Crown of Scotland. In modern insignia, it is commonplace to use a thistle to say "I am Scottish", but this sort of nationalist symbolism was not used in period heraldry. In period Scotland, the thistle was used only as a royal badge [4]. We recommend that you avoid it. If you drop the thistles, the remaining design is reasonably appropriate for 14th or 15th century Scottish arms. Unfortunately, you couldn't register it: The simplified design is too similar to an existing Society coat of arms [8]. However, the good news is that you can avoid that problem and make your arms more typical of period Scottish heraldry by changing the green background to black or red. That is to say: Sable, a lion's head cabossed and a chief argent. Gules, a lion's head cabossed and a chief argent. As far as we can tell, you can register either of these designs. The Academy doesn't generally research cultural history, but we can tell you what we found about the word . The Irish word is , and in Ireland it referred either to a mercenary in the employ of a chieftain, or more generally, a foot-soldier [6]. The modern Scottish Gaelic word is (with a grave accent), which referred to a chieftain's armor-bearer, a kind of bodyguard chosen for his bravery [7]. Your note suggested that you are thinking of "the gallowglasses" as a sort of organized mercenary band. We found no evidence to support that notion. 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 Zenobia Naphtali, Talan Gwynek, and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 8 Mar 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.n. Maciver. [3] Academy of Saint Gabriel letter 645 http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?645 [4] Burnett, C. J., "The Thistle as a Symbol" in _Emblems of Scotland_ (Heraldry Society of Scotland 1997). [5] Campbell of Airds, Alastair, Unicorn Pursuivant of Arms, "A Closer Look at West Highland Heraldry", _The Double Tressure_ (#19). [6] Gove, Philip Babcock, ed., _Webster's Third New International Dictionary_ (Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1986), s.n. gallowglass. [7] Dwelly, Edward, _Faclair gaidhlig: A Gaelic Dictionary_ (Herne Bay [Eng.] E. Macdonald & co., 1902-[11]). [8] The design "Vert, a lion's head cabossed and a chief argent" conflicts with the registered Society arms of Rebecca of Twywn, called the Demanding: Vert, a domestic cat's head affronty argent, collared and grasping in his mouth a dagger fesswise, hilt to sinister, argent hilted sable.