ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2328 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2328 ************************************ From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 26 Jul 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked if is an appropriate name for a woman living in England in the 13th or 14th century. You also asked whether "Vert, on a bend argent, three grape clusters purpure" is appropriate armory. Here is the information we have found. is a form of a name that often appears in medieval English records in the Latin form . The name was fairly common in your period thanks to the popularity of the romances of Tristan and Isolda [1]. The name is recorded throughout your period in a wide variety of forms [2, 3]: Isolda 1200, 1219, 1273, 1314-16, 1317, 1346, 1379 Isouda 1214 Iseuda 1214 Isaude 1379 Isod 1379 Isot 1379 Isota 1327, 1369 Ysolt 1201, 1204 Ysout 1200 Ysoude 1186-1210 By the 14th century, was probably the most common vernacular (spoken) form of the name [1]. It was pronounced roughly \ISS-@t\, where \@\ stands for the vowel spelled in and . Thus, would be an excellent choice for the second half of your period. The situation in the 13th century is more complex. The available citations suggest that the name still had the various Old French pronunciations that were probably current in France at the time. Spellings like and the partly Latinized suggest a pronunciation very roughly like \ee-SOAT\, while appears to represent the Old French pronunciation of . This is a little difficult to describe in terms of English pronunciation, but it might be represented roughly as \ee-SEHWT\. To pronounce the sounds represented here by \SEHW\, start to say the word , but replace the final \l\ sound by a \w\. Finally, the citations suggest that at the very beginning of your period an old-fashioned pronunciation \ee-SOHLT\ was still to be found. (Here \OH\ represents the vowel in the word .) We recommend that you avoid the spelling . We found it in English records only in contexts where it is probably a grammatical form of the Latin [4]. The town of Ely in Cambridgeshire has been known by that form of its name since shortly after the Norman Conquest [5]; the name was recorded in 1086 [6]. would be the likely written form of your name; we'd expect in spoken use, pronounced \ISS-@t ohf AY-lee\, where \AY\ rhymes with . Your proposed arms, which we would blazon "Vert, on a bend argent three clusters of grapes purpure" are atypical of your period in several ways. Purpure (purple) was a very rare color in English heraldry, and vert (green) was relatively uncommon, too [7]. We have found no example of grapes in English arms until the 18th century [8]. We cannot recommend a design combining several unusual features as good re-creation. If your goal is to register this armory with the SCA College of Arms, you have an additional problem: Your design is too close to previously registered armory [9]. If you would like to see what typical English heraldry looked like during your period, we recommend the following web article: "Three Early Rolls of Arms" http://www.heraldica.org/topics/earlyrolls/ You should be aware that the illustrations at this site are modern in style, and that we've noted some errors in emblazoning. We also recommend _The Dictionary of Heraldry_ by Joseph Foster [10]. It is fairly commonly available in libraries and would be very useful to you. If you see anything here that you would like to incorporate in a new design, we'd be happy to help; please feel free to write us again with your ideas. You might want to consider canting arms, or arms with a pictorial reference to your byname. Canting arms are quite common in England; in fact, the 18th century English arms which include grapes belong to a family called [8]. We would not be surprised to see a 13th or 14th century lady named with eels on her armory [11, 12, 13]. The arms "Vert, three eels haurient argent" are a fine re-creation for a woman surnamed in your period. If the green isn't especially important to you, then "Azure, three eels haurient argent" would be even more typical. We believe you could register either with the College of Arms [14]. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write 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 Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Julie Stampnitzky, Maridonna Benvenuti and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 26 July 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Isolda. [2] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/reaney/ [3] Bardsley, Charles, _A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames_ (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980) s.n. Isard. [4] Bardsley, s.n. Isard includes the examples in 1273 and in 1379. In these cases, is used in a context that requires a genitive (possessive) form in Latin. is the genitive form of ; is an abbreviation for Latin 'son' and 'daughter'. The full names may be translated as 'Roger, Isolda's son' and 'Matilda, Isolda's daughter', respectively. [5] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names_, 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), s.v. Ely. The town was named for the large number of eels resident in the surrounding fenland. [6] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Ely. [7] Pastoureau, Michel, _Traite/ d'He/raldique_, 2nd ed. (Paris: grands manuels Picard, 1993) Table III, p. 117. [8] Papworth, John W., _Papworth's Ordinary of British Armorials_, reprint (Five Barrows Ltd., 1977), p. 888, arms of Viney. [9] Your design will be considered too close to any design with a vert field and an argent bend as long as there are no other charges on the field. You can gain no more than one clear difference for multiple changes to charges lying on the bend. For example, your design is too close to the registered armory of Olaf the Maedi-Ogre "Vert, on a bend argent a battle-axe gules" and Beryl of the Valley of the Moon "Vert, on a bend argent a winged lion rampant to sinister sable fimbriated argent, wings erect argent fimbriated sable." [10] Foster, Joseph, _The Dictionary of Heraldry_ (New York: Arch Cape Press, 1989). [11] Papworth, p. 840, notes arms from a 16th century collection; the family of Eel bears 'Argent, three eels naiant sable'. Though this example is later than your period, it is consistent with armorial design for your period. [12] Humphrey-Smith, Cecil R., _Anglo-Norman Armory Two_ (Canterbury: Institute for Heraldic and Geneaological Studies, 1984) has several examples which date from your period where a particular type of fish is used to cant on the family name, including: Ralph Hacket, 'Sable crusilly, three hake fish haurient argent', c. 1275 Geoffrey Lucy, 'Gules, three lucies haurient argent', c. 1310 John Heringaud, 'Azure crusilly, six herrings haurient Or', c. 1312 Based on these examples, we believe that 'Azure, three eels haurient argent' would be appropriate armory for a lady named in your period. [13] Von Volborth, Carl-Alexander, _Heraldry: Customs, Rules, and Styles_ (Poole, Dorset, UK: Blandford Press, 1983), fig. 271, p. 35 shows: 'Gules, a winged eel haurient embowed argent crowned or', for Ahlen (Nordrhein-Westfalen); arms granted in 1910 based on a 13th c. seal. Though not an English coat, this example does demonstrate the use of an eel in a canting design in your period. [14] In fact, we found no conflict with "three eels haurient argent" on azure (blue), gules (red), sable (black) or vert (green) fields. If the color green is important to you, "Vert, three eels haurient argent" would be a possible design for a lady of your period, though it would be less typical than any of the other three colors.