ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1510 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1510 ************************************ 26 May 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our opinion of or as a feminine Irish name between 500 and 1200 AD. You also asked us about arms with a white or gold harp on black and a green shamrock on white. Here is what we found. As you observed, is a modern word not used as a name in period. We have examined the source for the name that you saw on the web [1]. The feminine name is actually , without the accent on the ; is a masculine name [4]. That name was pronounced like the modern word . It definitely would not have been pronounced with two syllables. We can't recommend as good re-creation, though we can't rule out the possibility that it was used. Both examples of are legendary, not historical people [4]. However, there was an Old Irish adjective "solid, firm, substantial", and hence figuratively "downright, thorough, emphatic, vigorous". This adjective was applied to people, and quite a few Old Irish names were taken from descriptive adjectives [5]. Thus, while we cannot provide any evidence that was used as a name, it is consistent with a pattern of name creation in Old Irish and is therefore a plausible invention. The name is most plausible in the period 800 to 1000. is an English spelling of an Irish clan name. The Gaelic version is . The older form, would be more appropriate for the 12th century [2]. Clan names only came into use around 1000 AD, so would not have been used as a family name before that date. All of these Gaelic forms are masculine. Between 1000 and 1200, a woman would have used the form "daughter of O/ Ruaircc" to indicate that she was a member of that clan. This byname is pronounced \EEN-y@n ee ROO-ark\, where \@\ is a schwa, the sound of the 'a' in or . Before then, a woman would usually have been known simply as her father's daughter, e.g. "Dron daughter of Cona/n". Even after 1000 she would have used a patronymic as well as a clan name, using one or the other and occasionally both. For example, a woman named Fi/na, daughter of Cona/n O/ Ruaircc, might have been known in various circumstances as , , and . Heraldic arms were invented in northwestern France in the middle of the 12th century. Heraldry was carried to Ireland by Anglo-Norman settlers in the 13th century, but was not adopted by the native population until much later. Since you want a Gaelic persona at the dawn of the age of heraldry, you obviously would not have used armory. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms event 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're using the harp or shamrock to say "I am Irish," we suggest that you look at a different design. National symbols as we think of them today are modern inventions. A period Irishman did not think of a harp or a shamrock as a symbol of Ireland. The arms of Ireland (Azure, a harp Or) were first adopted as royal arms by James I, king of Ireland, Scotland, and England in the early 17th century. The shamrock, usually depicted as a three-leaf clover with heart-shaped leaves, does not seem to have been used in arms at all in our period. We have found no examples of it, and one source says that the shamrock did not take on national significance in Ireland until the end of the 17th century [3]. However, a similar charge, the 'trefoil slipped,' was commonly used in medieval arms. This heraldic charge has three leaves, which are round or slightly pointed, and a stem or 'slip' which is usually pointed and slightly wavy. (Since this slip is always present, the blazon is usually shortened to 'a trefoil'.) The clubs in an ordinary deck of playing cards would be good, period trefoils if their 'stems' were slightly longer, wavy, and pointed. In considering other possibilities, you might find it useful to look at some examples of period arms. Here is a list of several period rolls of arms we have found on the web: http://www.wctc.net/~randomsf/rollofarms.htm There's a very good book that you can use, too: Joseph Foster's _The Dictionary of Heraldry_ (New York: Arch Cape Press, 1989). It contains several thousand color drawings of arms found in period English rolls of arms. I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you would like more assistance in constructing period style arms. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Margaret Makafee, and Zenobia Naphtali. For the Academy, Juliana de Luna & Arval Benicoeur 26 May 1999 ------------------------------------------------------- References [1] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'" (WWW, Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996) http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html [2] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). [3] O/ Coma/in, Michea/l. The Poolbeg Book of Irish Heraldry (Swords, Ireland: Poolbeg Press Ltd., 1991); p. 110. [4] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976). Both of the women named are figures in the Red Branch cycle of legend or mythology. One is the daughter of the hero Conchobar mac Nessa, called in some manuscripts [6]. The other is the wife of Mug Ruith, one of whose sons is , a name found only in mythology [7]. The same passage also mentions ; this Cathbad appears to be the druid who figures in the tales of Conchobar and Cu/ Chulainn. [5] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.v. dron. [6] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Der O/ma. [7] Ibid., s.n. Buan.