Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 215

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 215

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/215

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we have on the name "Johannes the Sinistre" and the arms "Gyronny vert and sable, a sinister hand appaumy argent."

"Johannes" is a Latin name. Latin was often used in records, so your persona's name might have been written as "Johannes," but he would more likely have been called "John" or "Jehan" by people who spoke to him.

There are a number of issues to consider when looking at your name. The main one is language--in the 13th century, your persona could have spoken French or English, and his name could have been recorded in French, English, Latin, or some combinations of them. "Sinister" is a Latin word, but we didn't find any examples of its use as a name. The "Record Interpreter" is a reliable source for words, but the fact that a word was used doesn't necessarily mean that it was used as a descriptive name.

We did find a French word "senestre" which means "left" or "lefthanded" which is first found in 1080. (1) Although we didn't find any examples of "senestre" used in names, we did find an English name "Gauche" which is based on another French word for "left-handed." If one French word for "left-handed" can be used in an English name, it seems reasonable that other words for the same concept would also be plausible. Thus we would say that "le Senestre" is at least a reasonable byname for 13th-century England. "Sinister" is the probable Latin translation of this word.

The only question remaining is how you might use these names. Although Latin-language records are common for this time period, it's reasonable to assume that the form of the name that was actually used in day-to-day speech was the common-language one. A person called "Left-handed John" might be called "Jehan le Senestre," even though his name would be written "Johannes Sinister" in Latin records. It might be appropriate to register either name, but it's unlikely that an English-speaking person would have been called "Johannes" in daily life.

Your arms "Gyronny vert and sable, a sinister hand appaumy argent" don't completely follow medieval heraldic style. Generally, gyronny fields used a "color" (a darker color--red, blue, black, or green) and a "metal" (a lighter color--gold/yellow or silver/white). Also, it's very rare for a coat of arms with a gyronny field to have one charge in the middle. In early heraldry, a gyronny would most likely have been uncharged. In later heraldry, if charges were on the field they were usually placed in each wedge.

The following would be good examples of medieval heraldry, and would not conflict with any existing SCA heraldry:

Gyronny argent and vert. (Gyronny argent and sable conflicts with the Campbell arms)

Vert, a sinister hand appaumy argent. ("Sable, a sinister hand appaumy argent" are the arms of Saruman the White in "The Lord of the Rings". Although the SCA doesn't protect Saruman's arms, many people will associate that design with his character.)

Sable, three sinister hands appaumy argent.

Gyronny sable and argent, an orle of sinister hands appaumy counterchanged. (this would have eight hands, one in each wedge, in contrasting colors).

Gyronny sable and argent, four hands argent (one white hand would be on each black wedge).

You could substitute "vert" for "sable" in these last three examples, although sable is much more common in medieval heraldry than vert.

Arval D'Espas Nord, Zenobia Naphtali, Lindorm Eriksson, Pedro de Alcazar, Rouland Carre, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Evan de Collaureo, and Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel