ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1549 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1549 ************************************ From: "Brian M. Scott" 27 Feb 1999 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked what documentation would be needed to register the English masculine name or and how the name would have been spelled in the period 1150-1200. You also said that you'd like to design a coat of arms featuring two bucks combatant or 'regardant?' and asked whether such a design would have been used in that period. Before I start, I'd like to clarify the service that the Academy offers. We try to help Societyfolk in choosing and using names that fit the historical cultures they are trying to re-create. Our research can sometimes be used to support submissions to the College of Arms, but that it not our goal and our results are often incompatible with the College's needs. If your main goal is to register a particular name, then we may not be able to help you. As it happens, however, the name requires only minor adjustment to be perfect for your period. is a somewhat later form of an Anglo-Norman borrowing of the Old French name . We were able to find the following examples of it: 1198 [1], 1214, 1224, and two instances of and one of from the period 1182-1272. We also found 1290-91, and there is some reason to believe that he was the son of the Greylond whose name you found. [2, 3] In the 12th century there were still a few scribes who had been trained in the Old English spelling tradition; the use of the edh makes it likely that comes out of that tradition. , on the other hand, follows the Continental tradition, and is a standard Latinization of the name. (Most contemporary documents were written in Latin, and non-Latin names were adapted, sometimes quite drastically, to the requirements of Latin grammar.) appears to be a later English spelling, dating from the second half of the 13th century. The earliest instances of the occupational byname that we have found are 1183 and 1188, and we haven't found any examples with double-r before the 16th century. Forms with the definite article seem to be a bit more common than forms without. The Latinized form is seen in 1277, though it doubtless occurs earlier. [2, 4] We recommend combining or with either or ; any of these four possibilities would be quite characteristic of late 12th century written forms of the name. In a fully Latinized document -- and at that time many were -- the name would probably have been written . The forms and would be appropriate about a century after your period. It's generally believed that the earliest heraldry appeared during the period 1120-1160 or so. Thus, in your period heraldry was still very young, most coats were quite simple, and the repertoire of charges was still rather limited. The stag appears fairly early, being found in literary descriptions of fictional coats of arms by about 1180 and in non-fictional arms by about 1200. [5, 6] We don't know when it came into use in England, unfortunately. Up through the reign of Edward I the surviving English rolls of arms contain only one example of a deer of any kind: the foreign coat 'Or, a hind gules' -- a red hind on a gold shield -- from a roll dated to c.1275. [7, 8] It is clearly possible that the stag had not entered the Anglo-Norman armorial repertoire by 1200, so its use in your arms is necessarily speculative from the standpoint of historical re-creation. [9] On the other hand, it's also clear that the charge was not completely foreign to the heraldry of the late 12th century; even if it was not then in use in England, it probably would not have seemed strange, especially in connection with a byname - - to which it evidently alludes. These arguments gain added force for later periods, since the amount and variety of armory increased rapidly over time. When two beasts of the same kind appear in early coats of arms, they usually face in the same direction. Combatant beasts are much less common, and in fact we found none in the extant English rolls of arms through the reign of Edward I. [7, 8] We did find an early example of rampant lions addorsed, or back-to-back: Gilles de Wattripont, who bore 'Or, two lions rampant addorsed gules' (two red lions rampant back-to-back on a gold shield), sealed with these arms in 1232. [8, 11] For this reason we think that the back-to-back arrangement is probably a better re-creation of early armory; the evidence is too scanty to allow a stronger conclusion, and it's worth noting that in the Middle Ages as a whole the combatant arrangement seems to be slightly the more common of the two. [10] We weren't sure what you meant by 'regardant'. (From the context we wondered if perhaps you meant 'addorsed'.) The term, which is also spelled 'reguardant', refers to an animal whose head has been turned completely around to face to its rear. (If the head is turned only half way around and faces out of the shield, the animal is 'gardant'.) Animals in early armory are rarely regardant, and even in later armory they are much more likely to be gardant than reguardant. We do not recommend using an uncommon posture for a charge that is already uncommon in your period. Clearly any coat that meets your design criteria is going to be at least a bit unusual in late-12th century terms, but we think that none of the following coats would be out of place c.1200. So far as we can tell, all are registerable in the SCA. Since you didn't express any preferences concerning the tinctures used, we have chosen two of the most popular combinations in medieval English armory. [5] Argent, two stags salient addorsed gules. (Two red stags springing back-to-back on a white field. Stags are more often salient than rampant, though the latter is also possible. The main difference visually is that when a stag is salient, both hind feet are on the ground.) Or, two stags salient addorsed gules. Argent, two stags combatant gules. Or, two stags combatant gules. Rouland Carre, Zenobia Naphtali, Fergus Stout, Teceangl Bach, and Walraven van Nijmegen also contributed to this letter. We hope that it has been helpful and that you'll not hesitate to write again if you have any further questions. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek 22 February 1999 ===== References and Notes: [1] Here {dh} represents the letter edh. This letter is properly written like a backward <6> with a short bar across the curved upright. Here it is pronounced like the in . [2] Reaney, P.H., & R.M. Wilson. A Dictionary of English Surnames (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995); s.nn. Grayland, Forester. [3] Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester, 'A Statistical Study of Given Names in Essex Co., England, 1182-1272', in the 1995 Midrealm Heraldic Symposium Proceedings (SCA: 1995; WWW: J. Mittleman) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5145/names.html [4] Thuresson, Bertil. Middle English Occupational Terms. Lund Studies in English XIX (Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup, 1950; Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1968); p. 71. [5] Pastoureau, Michel, _Traite/ d'He/raldique_, 2nd ed. (Paris: grands manuels Picard, 1993); pp. 301, 134 n. 39, Table IV. [Here the slashes stand for acute accents over the preceding letters.] [6] Brault, Gerard J. Early Blazon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972); s.v. cerf. [7] Wagner, Anthony Richard, ed. Rolls of Arms: Henry III. Aspilogia II (London: The Society of Antiquaries, 1967); p. 192, Ordinary sub BEASTS. [8] Brault, Gerald J. The Rolls of Arms of Edward I. Aspilogia III. 2 vols. (London: Boydell Press, 1997). [9] For the record, the earliest dated example that we've found of a stag in an English coat is from the reign of Edward II (1307-27). According to the Povey Roll, Sire Robert Bucksyn bore 'Sable, two bucks courant argent', i.e., two white bucks running, one above the other on a black shield. [10] [10] Chesshyre, Hubert & Thomas Woodcock. Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary. Vol. I (London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1992); pp. 266, 253f. [11] This is perhaps not surprising, since early shields were quite triangular, and the back-to-back arrangement nicely fills the space on such a shield.