ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2418 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2418 ************************************ 28 Jan 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our help choosing a name appropriate for a 12th century woman from the Teutoburger Wald in Westphalia, ideally something similar to or . You also asked us to suggest appropriate surnames and to evaluate your idea for your heraldry, 'Per pale vert and Or, three oak leaves inverted, bordure, counterchanged'. Here is what we have found. You found in a list of Dutch names from before 1100 [1]. Unfortunately, without knowing exactly when this name was recorded, we don't know whether it remained in use until the 12th century. Other data suggests that it did not: The same name appears in the Latinized forms and in late 8th century records from northwestern France [2], but does not appear any later. We can't rule it out for 12th century Westphalia, but since we don't find forms of this name in later records in any German dialect, we can't recommend it as the best re-creation [3]. The situation is worse for : It appears as c.1035 in Marseilles and a few times in earlier French records [2], but we have no evidence that it remained in use in the 12th century or that it was ever used in dialects similar to Westphalian. So we recommend you avoid this name. You told us that you were particularly interested in using a name beginning . We have found several feminine names built on that element in Dutch sources [4]: before 1234 early 11th C 11th C, recorded 1234 We can add one other from Eastphalia, which we've found in two Latinized forms: d.1017 and 1286 [5]. These names were recorded close enough to Westphalia that it is reasonable to believe that they were used there, too. Based on our general knowledge of Low German dialects, we expect that the Dutch element would most often have been or in Westphalian. We've found several masculine names in that region in the 13th-15th centuries that start with or : 1409, c.1300, 1229, 1313 and c.1300 [6]. We can therefore postulate a few names appropriate for 12th century Westphalia and make reasonable guesses at their pronunciations [7]: \AHL-v@-gart\ \AHLF-gart\ \AHL-vilt\ \AHL-v@-lint\ \AHLF-lint\ \AHL-vayt\ Because of the lack of Westphalian sources and the uncertainties about the reconstructed forms, we can only recommend these names tentatively. In your culture, a woman would most often have been identified by her given name alone. When more precision was needed in formal records, she would most likely have been known as her father's daughter or her husband's wife. A woman named who was the daughter of might have been identified in Latin as "Alvegard daughter of Alberic". If she were Alberic's wife, she might have been identified as . Heraldic arms were invented in northwestern France in the mid-12th century. It is not impossible that a woman in 12th century Westphalia would have used arms, but it isn't likely. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. Whether you use arms or not depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article we've posted on the web: What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms? http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/nonheraldic.html If you do want to use arms, we recommend choosing arms appropriate for early German heraldry, which is at least approximately correct for your persona. Your heraldic design can be blazoned "Per pale vert and Or, three oak leaves inverted within a bordure counterchanged". Most of the elements of this design are quite compatible with the style of early German heraldry: We have examples of leaves, bordures, and counterchanging [8]. The color green was not common in German armory in general, but it was used in 2% of arms [9]. We don't think that counterchanging the bordure is a good choice for early German heraldry, though, so we recommend you either delete the bordure or re-arrange the tinctures so that the bordure isn't counterchanged. As far as we can tell, you could register the design without the bordure with the SCA College of Arms. You can see some examples of 14th century German heraldry on the web. The Manesse Codex contains examples of early 14th century arms. The index, in German, is at: http://www.tempora-nostra.de/manesse/manesse_start.shtml The images are available directly at: http://www.tempora-nostra.de/manesse/manesse0-9.shtml The Manesse Codex was produced in the early 14th century, but many of the people represented lived over a hundred years earlier or more. It is possible that they did not actually bear the arms shown during their lifetimes. A collection of arms from Zurich c.1340 is available at: http://ladyivanor.bizland.com/zroaen0.htm 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 on the second row of arms on the front of Strip II. 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 Ursula Georges, Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Will Dekne, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Falk vom Weserbogen. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 28 Jan 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Kees Nieuwenhuijsen, "Germanic Names in the Low Lands before 1100" (WWW: privately published). http://www.keesn.nl/names/ [2] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972), I:30a. Other names that we know derive from the root also appear in 12th century French records with , e.g. , , and others (I:29f & I:30a). [3] Although we don't have evidence that a cognate of existed in 12th century Westphalian, we can plausibly construct the form it might have taken if it had existed. Each of the elements of the name appears in Dutch sources around the same period [4]: (f) before 1234 (f) early 11th C (f) 11th C, recorded 1234 (m) beginning of the 12th C (m) beginning of the 12th C <-suent> 12th C <-swent> 12th C <-suindis> 12th C <-suendis> 12th C <-suinda> 12th C <-suind> 12th C By the 12th century, the pool of Germanic given names was pretty much fixed: names elements like these were no longer being freely re-combined. So it isn't enough simply to demonstrate that the element were in use. However, if a form of were still available in 12th century Dutch, it could have taken the form or , pronounced \AHLF-swint\ or \AHL-v@-swint\. As we discussed earlier, we think the first element would have been or in the Westphalian dialect. Predicting the Westphalian form of the second element <-suent> is somewhat trickier. We haven't found any data to show us the answer. This element derives from an Old German word that meant "strong", and the Old Saxon form of that word was (where {dh} represents the letter edh, written as a backward '6' with a crossbar on the upper limb) [10]. Westphalian is a descendant of Old Saxon, and we would expect the element to have become <-swid>. We can therefore tentatively suggest as a Westphalian name, which might have been written in a lightly-Latinized form. We think that name would have been pronounced \AHL-v@-sweed\ (we suspect that Old Saxon \dh\ had become \d\ by the 12th century, but we don't know that for a fact). [4] Tavernier-Vereecken, C., _Gentse Naamkunde van ca. 1000 tot 1253: een bijdrage tot de kennis van het oudste middelnederlands_ (Belguim: 1968), pp.4-5 and cross-references from citations on p.96. [5] Zoder, R., _Familiennamen in Ostfalen_. 2 vols. (Hildesheim: 1968), 136f. [6] Bahlow, Hans, _Deutsches Namenlexikon : Familien- und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erklaert_ (Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985, 1990), s.nn. Alfke, Alver(s), Algermann, Elvers. [7] The final consonant in the elements <-gard>, <-hild>, and <-lind> was pronounced \d\ in earlier periods, but shifted to \t\ by sometime after your period. We're assuming that shift had happened in Westphalia by the 12th century. Our reconstruction of assumes that the initial in the theme <-hild> dropped out in the compound; that often happened elsewhere. [8] Bigalski, Gerrit, ed., "The Zurich Roll of Arms" (WWW: C. Boselli, 1996). Examples of leaves include "Argent, three leaves inverted vert" (strip II back page 2); "Sable, on a bend argent three leaves inverted palewise vert" (strip II back page 7); "Or, six leaves inverted vert and a bordure gules" (strip III, front page 3). Examples of bordures: "Or, an eagle gules within a bordure divided along its length nebuly argent and azure" (strip II front page 6); "Argent, three escutcheons gules with a bordure company or and sable" (strip II back page 5). Examples of vert include: "Vert, a hunting horn palewise argent and another contourny gules" (strip II back page 8). Examples of counterchanging include: "Per pale argent and sable, an eagle counterchanged" (strip II back page 13); "Per pale argent and sable, two suns counterchanged" (strip III back page 5); "Per pale Or and sable, a stag's attire counterchanged" (strip III back page 5). http://ladyivanor.knownworldweb.com/zroaen0.htm [9] Zenobia Naphtali, "Regional Style" in Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium, 1996, Montgomery, Alabama (SCA, Inc., 1996). [10] Buck, Carl Darling. A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988 [1949]); 4.81(4).