ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1933 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1933 ************************************ 11 Feb 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked about the name for an early 11th century Irishman, and wanted to know if adding "the wolf," would be correct. You also asked about Irish heraldic insignia from the turn of the millenium, and said you were thinking of "Per fess sable and vert, a roundel argent surmounted by a Celtic wolf couchant reguardant sable." Here is the information we have found. Your name is nearly correct; it needs just a few spelling adjustments in your surname to be correct. is a later period spelling of a name that was spelled before c. 1200. In your period, a name meaning "Conall, son of Dubdarach" would mostly likely have been written . The change in spelling of your father's name is a requirement of Gaelic grammar, analagous to the change in English from to . We've also seen the word "son" spelled in your period; either is a fine choice [1,2]. This name would have been pronounced \KOH-n@l mahk doov-DAR-@kh\. The symbol \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the in . \kh\ represents the rasping sound in the Scottish word or the German . appears to be a misspelling for , where the slash represents an accent over the previous letter. This does mean "the wolf"; however, again you will want the earlier-period spelling, which is . While we have very little evidence of Gaelic people using descriptive bynames of this type (i.e., ones based on animals), we do believe that a nickname meaning "the wolf" would be appropriate. There is a modern surname ; means "the fox." [3,4] Based on this, we believe is a possible byname, pronounced \in FILE-khoo\. If you want to call yourself "Conall the wolf, son of Dubdarach, your name should be . Of course, you could abbreviate this to . We don't have any information about Irish banners from your period. You probably know more than we do, and we'd be very grateful if you could share the details of your research with us. The best we can do is compare your design to early banners we've seen in other cultures, in particular to Norse shields found in archaeological digs and banners described in the sagas; and English and Norman insignia depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. Those designs were very simple, and we haven't seen an example of a charge on another charge, like your wolf-on-a-roundel. We are guessing that early Irish insignia were probably similar, so we suggest you aim for a very simple design with a single charge on a solid-colored background. Medieval heraldry developed an artistic style somewhat different from contemporary styles in other arts. A motif found in 13th century French architecture, for example, did not necessarily also show up in 13th century French heraldry. We don't know if this observation applies to early Irish culture, too, but we advise caution in assuming that a stylized wolf from an early Irish illumination would also have been used on a banner. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Amant le Marinier, Antonio Miguel de Santos Borja, and Mari Elspeth nic Bryan. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael 11 Feb 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: [1] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976). s.v. 146 g 13 & 146 g 47, index [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.n. Conall [3] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). s.n. Mac an tSionnaigh [4] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983). s.v. sinnach