ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1954 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1954 ************************************ From: "Braddon Giles" 26 Feb 2000 Greetings from the Academy of St Gabriel! You wrote to us hoping to form a historically accurate German masculine name for a mercenary between 1200 and 1400, suggesting . Also, you were interested in our opinion of your proposed device, for which you gave the blazon "Per Chevron Sable and Vert, a double headed eagle displayed Or." Both and are fine German names which we have found mentioned frequently in your period [1]. In your period was more commonly spelled either or , where the represents the u-umlaut, a with two dots over it. The pronunciation of is \GOON-tair\ and is \GU"N-tair\; where \OO\ is like the first sound of \Oom-pah-pah\, and \U"\ is the German u-umlaut of [2] . We have only found this name spelled without an 'h' once - a from between 1200 and 1250 [3]. The absence of in is probably the result of Latinization, and so far as we know German forms in your period normally kept the . We didn't find the word anywhere, and we found no evidence that it would be a correct medieval German byname. If you intended to mean something like "attack-hammer", you might be interested in these names: (hammer-stroke) or (swing the hammer) [4]. appears to have been used mostly by smiths. Between 1200 and 1400 most German masculine names were formed with one given name and one byname. Bynames were descriptive, identifying the man's father or home, his occupation, or some aspect of his appearance or behavior. Both and fall into the last category. Therefore, we recommend that you choose one of the given names and combine it with either of the bynames. A name like or is typical of your period. The blazon for your proposed armoury was quite understandable, and you did a good job for a self-described non-herald. However we don't think that the SCA College of Arms would register this device. It is too similar to other arms that the SCA College of Arms has protected [5]. In your design, you used a "per chevron" field division. Unfortunately, that division was almost unknown in medieval German heraldry. We recommend you avoid it. Obscuring the division by placing a charge across it was also rare in the heraldry of your period [6]. We suggest you use a single-color field. The double-headed eagle is the symbol of the Roman Emperor, used in the arms of the Emperor of Constantinople and of the Holy Roman Empire. We strongly recommend avoiding it. Many people in the Society include it in their arms as a way to say "I am German"; this is not a practice found in medieval heraldry. In the modern world, it's standard to use a fleur-de-lys to say "I am French" or a shamrock to say "I am Irish". This sort of nationalist symbolism is not found in medieval heraldry. An eagle is a fine charge, common in heraldry throughout medieval Europe; but the double-headed eagle is a charge we recommend avoiding. Here are some alternate designs that we think might appeal to you. As far as we can tell, you could register either of them with the SCA College of Arms: Sable, three eagles displayed Or. Vert, three eagles displayed Or. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write to 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 Maridonna Benvenuti, Pedro de Alcazar, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, Guntram von Wolkenstein, Rouland Carre, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Blaise de Cormeilles, Amant le Marinier and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, Giles Leabrook. 26 / Feb / 2000 __________________________________________________ Bibliography. [1] Talan Gwynek, _Medieval German Given Names from Silesia_, (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1998, copyright Brian M. Scott, 1998); s.n.n. Andreas, Gunther. http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/bahlow_v.htm [2] \U"\ can be approximated by trying to say the vowel of with the lips rounded and pursed. [3] Talan Gwynek, _German Given Names 1200-1250_, (WWW: J. Mittleman,1997, copyright Brian M. Scott, 1998); s.n. Gu:nther. http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/germ13/ [4] Bahlow, Hans, _Deutsches Namenlexikon : Familien- und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erklaert_ (Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985, 1990); s.n. Hammer. [5] SCA arms - Gilbert of the Glens, "Azure, an eagle displayed grasping a sun in both claws Or", and the important non-SCA arms of the Emperor of Constantinople "Gules an eagle displayed Or" and Napoleon I "Azure, an eagle displayed contourny grasping in both claws a thunderbolt Or." [6] "A Collection of Period German Heraldry (1400-1600) for SCA Heralds" http://www.s-gabriel.org/docs/sturm.html