ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1575 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1575 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 04 May 1999 From: Jodi McMaster Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether the name would be appropriate for an incipient shire. You also asked whether the following arms would be appropriate: Per fess gules and sable, on a bend engrailed ermine three wolves rampant gules. Before I start, I'd like to clarify the service that the Academy offers. We try to help Societyfolk in choosing and using names and arms 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 or arms, then we may not be able to help you. We'll discuss the historical possibilities of your name, but first we'd like to point out that animal-words are overused in SCA place names, far more than in period place-naming. It's almost a comical cliche in the SCA: There are already branches called , , , and , and households called , , , , and , where represents a u-umlaut. This proliferation of animal-based place names has the result of making them less effective as a form of identification. You may want to consider this problem in choosing your name. The name is constructed from two components: and <-vale>. is from Old English and <-vale> is from Old French. The combination of these two language to make a placename is unlikely. A place called "Wolf valley" could have been named for an animal or for a man named . In place names that refer to the animal, the usual combining form of the word is or . In names that refer to a person, the element is usually <-Wulfes> "Wolf's." A Middle English place name meaning could have derived from either of two words meaning "valley": Old English or Old Norse [1, 2]. The Middle English result could have been , on one hand, or on the other. [1] If you want your name to mean , then the corresponding Middle English names might have been and . We understand from one of our Academy members that your final choice for arms was "Per fess gules and sable, on a bend engrailed between two laurel wreaths ermine three wolves rampant palewise gules." We don't know if you considered it, but we'd like to point out that it will be very difficult to render the laurel wreaths recognizably ermine. Further, a laurel wreath, with all its little leaves at (presumably) one ermine spot per leaf, is unlikely to be period. All the examples of wreaths we've found are either a solid tincture or counterchanged. Bends engrailed and bends charged were common in medieval English heraldry. However, we found only a few examples of bends on fields divided "per fess", and only two which also had a set of three charges on the bend. The combination of the divided field and the charged bend is visually complex, and apparently did not appeal to medieval heraldic designers. Dividing the field per fess in two colors (dark tinctures) was also rare; we found only 12 examples. [3, 4, 5] We recommend simplifying your design to eliminate some of these atypical practices. Here are some alternative designs that are more likely for English heraldry for the period you desire: Sable, on a bend ermine between two wolves rampant argent, in chief a laurel wreath gules. Note that the wreath is at the upper end of the bend, and is oriented in bend, i.e. the opening of the wreath points toward the upper end of the bend, not the top of the shield. Gules, on a bend between two wolves rampant ermine, a laurel wreath palewise gules. Here, on the other hand, the wreath is at the center of the bend and the wreath opens toward the top of the shield. Sable, on a bend between two wolves rampant argent, in chief a laurel wreath sable. When we checked, these designs appeared to be clear of SCA conflict. We hope this letter has been helpful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. Talan Gwynek, Alan Fairfax, Rouland Carre, Arval d'Espas Nord, Teceangl Bach, Sebastian Sterne, Elisabeth de Rossignol, Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Zenobia Naphtali contributed comments and/or research for this letter. For the Academy, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum May 4, 1999 __________________ References: [1] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), s.nn. Denes, d{ae}l. [2] Smith, A.H., _English Place-Name Elements_ (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1956), s.vv. denu, dalr [3] Chesshyre, Hubert & Woodcock, Thomas, _Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary_, vol. I (London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1992). Hugh de Neville and John de Neville. [4] Siebmacher, Johann, _Johann Siebmachers Wappenbuch von 1605_, 2 vols., ed. Horst Appuhn (Dortmund: Harenberg, 1988, 1989), Kiesewetter, Sinzendorf, Ilsung, Vogt von Wierant, Horning, and Rackel. [5] Chesshyre, Hubert & Woodcock, Thomas, _Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary_, vol. II:22 (London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1992). Acton, Warneford, Giles (Gylys, Gilis). ------------------------------------------- Correction by Aryanhwy 02 June 2006 Explained the use of .