ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2365 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2365 ************************************ 4 Nov 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our help choosing a name beginning with 'A' suitable for an Austrian man in the late 1300s or early 1400s; and you asked us to evaluate your heraldic design. Here is what we have found. Here are a few German masculine given names beginning with 'A' that we've found used in Austria or Bavaria around your period [1]: Alram \AHL-ram\ Alphart \AHLP-hart\ Asem \AH-s@m\ (a pet form of ) Asprian \AHS-pree-ahn\ You originally asked about a name that included the Dutch surname and later asked us to suggest a similar-sounding surname. We have found the cognate , pronounced \fohn dehr GRAY-ben\, where \oh\ represents the sound of the vowel in . Various forms of this name were used throughout the southeastern parts of the German speaking world; it meant "from the ditch, trench, moat" and might have refered to a man who lived near the town moat [2]. Your heraldic design can be blazoned "Per pale vert and sable, a dragon and a winged wolf combattant argent, and on a chief counterchanged three roses argent, all within a bordure counterchanged". Unfortunately, it is not compatible with any medieval heraldic style that we've studied. We'll discuss the major problems in detail below; but our best advice to you is to start by examining a collection of German heraldry from your period to get an idea of the kinds of designs they used, and then try to emulate their style. There are three websites we can recommend: * The Manesse Codex, a collection of early 14th century illuminations that includes many examples of heraldry. The site begins at http://www.tempora-nostra.de/manesse/manesse_start.shtml but the images are more easily reached at http://www.tempora-nostra.de/manesse/manesse0-9.shtml * The Zurich Roll of Arms, c.1340. It starts with a collection of flags and then a catalogue of the arms of royalty, some of them fictional. The material you'll find most useful starts with the second row of arms on the front of Strip II. http://ladyivanor.knownworldweb.com/zroaen0.htm * An Ordinary of Das Wappenbuch des Reichsherolds Caspar Sturm. A collection of 15th and 16th century German arms. They are listed only in blazon. http://www.s-gabriel.org/docs/sturm.html In general, your design is simply too complex: Most period heraldry was quite simple, as you'll see on the websites we've recommended. Beyond that, there are several specific problems with your design: * Divided fields were not uncommon in many regions, but they usually combined high-contrast tinctures; green and black is an unlikely choice. * We have not found any period example of a winged wolf. Combining a pair of dissimilar monsters in a single group of charges is very unusual. * A charge cannot be counterchanged over a field that consists of two dark colors. In heraldic jargon, it is "color-on-color". The SCA College of Arms will generally not register a design that contains color-on-color. * It was extremely rare for a bordure to surround a chief. We would not recommend it unless you were trying to re-create a time & place where you knew that combination was actually used. The SCA College of Arms might not accept it. If you'd like our help designing arms more appropriate to your culture, please pick one or two design elements that appeal to you most. What we mean by a design element is one color or one charge or one way of arranging charges on the field. Roses would be a good choice, for example. A dragon wouldn't be as good a choice: Dragons were actually rare in period heraldry. We have found a couple German examples of wyverns (dragons with only one set of legs), but we can't recommend them as the best re-creation [5]. If you particularly want a monster, you might consider the heraldic panther that is the charge in the arms of the Austrian duchy of Styria. It was also used by several other noblemen in that region [6]. The Styrian panther has horns and eagle's claws and breathes fire; you can see a picture at: http://www.heraldica.org/topics/pictures/aoall.jpg in the middle of the bottom row, labeled "Steiermark". Whatever elements you choose, we'll try to create a few designs that fit your requirements. 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 Adelaide de Beaumont, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Raquel Buenaventura, Julie Stampnitzky, Talan Gwynek, and Dietmar von Straubing. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 5 Nov 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Bahlow, Hans, _Dictionary of German Names_, tr. Edda Gentry (German-American Cultural Society, 1994 ISBN: 0924119357), s.nn. Aberle, Adelbe(e)r, Adelgo"{sz}, Allram, Alpers, Alwig, Apel, Asam, Asprian, Atz(e). [2] is an early Middle High German term, cognate with modern German "ditch, trench, moat". It appears in medieval High German bynames: 1286, Ludwigsburg; 1322, Pfullendorf; 1320, Bu"hl [3]; 1402, Prague; 1395, Haslau [4]. The form (where {o"} represents o-umlaut) occurs in numerous places in Bavaria and Austria; is an earlier form of this word [3]. [3] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), s.nn. Grab(e), Amgraben, Imgraben, von der Gro"ben. [4] Schwarz, Ernst, _Sudetendeutsche Familiennamen aus vorhussitischer Zeit_ (Koeln: Blehlau Verlag, 1957), s.n. Graben. [5] Fox-Davies, Arthur C., _The Art of Heraldry_ (London: Bloomsbury Books, 1986), p.426 discussion pl. XCVIII. He has the arms of Specker from a 1547 roll of arms of the Geschlechtergesellschaft 'Zur Katze' in Constance as 'Argent, a wyvern sable vomiting fire, the feet, legs, and underpart of the ears gules'. He says that the same coat appears on a 1382 seal of one Cunrat Speker. The wyvern has the long, pointed ears and unbarbed tail that are typical of medieval drawings of this monster. Another wyvern appears in the c.1340 Zurich Roll of Arms (ed. Gerrit Bigalski, published on the web by Ivanor of Sighty Crag, http://ladyivanor.knownworldweb.com/zroaen0.htm), strip II back, page 13, number 303. [6] Fox-Davies, pp.419-20, has some Styrian coats from Conrad Gru"nenberg's Wappenbuch (1483), including Fry von Trimberg 'Gules, a panther armed and vomiting flames of fire azure horned or'; and Hern von Bernegk vom Wasen Jm Land 'Or, a panther sable vomiting flames of fire gules'. In both arms, the panther is unusual, with the horns and hind feet of a cow and the claws of an eagle. You can see a picture of this style of panther on the web at http://www.heraldica.org/topics/glossary/pics/330.jpg. The Styrian ducal arms appear on page 136, 'Vert, a panther argent vomiting flames of fire', as drawn in 1523 by Hans Burgkmair; this picture, which is also in the Complete Guide, shows the 'standard' German panther.