ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2313 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2313 ************************************ 5 Jul 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if the arms "Per pale sable and argent, a rapier argent and a rose vert" would be appropriate arms for the late-period Irish Gaelic woman. If not, you asked about the arms "Sable, a rapier and on a chief argent, a wagon wheel proper and a rose vert." You also wanted to know if would be a more appropriate choice for your patronymic byname than . The previous report that we sent to you can be found on line at http://www.s-gabriel.org/1830 As we noted in previous correspondence, does not seem to have stayed in use in your period. The masculine name , on the other hand was a popular name and would be a fine choice for your father's name [1]. The correct form to use in your byname is , pronounced \EEN-y@n KHAH-hahl~\. \kh\ represents the raspy sound in Scottish or German , and \l~\ stands for the sound of the in French . Since heraldic arms were not used by Gaels before 1600, you asked that we evaluate your designs in the context of the rest of the British Isles. Your two designs can be blazoned: Per pale sable and argent, a rapier argent and a rose vert. Sable, a rapier and on a chief argent, a wagon wheel proper and a rose vert. Some of the elements of your designs are excellent choices: Wagon wheels were found on arms as early as 1413 in England, and roses were always fairly common [2]. Unfortunately, each design also contains several elements that are fairly rare in period British heraldry. Combining several rare features creates a design that is unlikely to have been used in period Britain, so we cannot recommend either as good re-creation. The most atypical element of your designs is the rapier: We know no example of a rapier in period heraldry. Heraldry usually used a generic sword rather than a specific type. We recommend that you use a standard sword rather than a rapier. The overall design of your first choice is also problematic: dividing the field vertically and placing a different charge on each half of the field. In period British heraldry, this sort of design generally arose when a man married a woman who also had arms, and wanted to display both sets of arms to proclaim his ownership of both estates. In other words, your first design says, in heraldic language, "my arms are Argent, a rose vert and my husband's arms are Sable, a rapier argent." Since that's probably not what you intend, we recommend you avoid this sort of design. In addition, the SCA College of Arms generally will not registered submissions that appear to combine independent sets of arms [3]. We recommend against your second choice for a different reason: Two non-identical charges on a chief was extremely rare in period British heraldry. However, a simple variant of this design is quite plausible for the last couple centuries of our period. While it was quite rare to place two different charges on a chief, it was far less unusual to have one charge between a pair of charges. For example, you might consider: Sable, a sword and on a chief argent a wheel between two roses vert. We've switched the wheel from "proper" to "vert" to minimize the complexity of the design. Proper was also relatively rare in period British arms. If you prefer the wheel in another color than green, you might make it black or red; that's quite consistent with 16th century English heraldic style [4, 5]. If you aren't interested in a standard sword, you might consider another design: Sable, a wheel and on a chief argent, three roses vert. This design is consistent with British heraldic style from the 14th century on. 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 were provided by Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Aryanhwy merch Catmael & Arval Benicoeur 5 Jul 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.n. Cathal [2] Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme and Akagawa Yoshio, _A Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry as Used in the Society for Creative Anachronism_, (privately published, 1988). s.v. wheel [3] Rules for Submissions XI.3. [4] Parker, James, _A Glossary of Terms used in Heraldry_ (Charles E. Tuttle, 1982), s.v. wheel; arms of John Wheeler "Or, a camel statant between three half-wheels and on a chief azure a wheel argent between two bezants (1543). [5] Bedingfeld, Henry, and Peter Gwynn-Jones, _Heraldry_ (Secaucus, NJ: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1993), pp.62, 80; several 16th century examples of a charge between a pair of charges on a chief.