Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 259

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 259

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/259

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 found on the name "Celine d'Courselle" and the arms "Argent, a rook rampant sable."

Your name is basically correct, although we do suggest a few spelling changes.

The name "Céline" (with an accent over the "e") is described as being a diminuitive of the modern name "Marceline." (1) However, another source cites two saints named "Céline" and also records the name "Celinia" in 1075. (2) Thus, we believe that "Céline" is most likely a historical French name.

There are several places called "Corcelles" and "Courcelles." We found the following period forms for them--you'll note that none of the forms substitute an "s" for the second "c."

If you like, we can try to figure out which of these forms were used with the Norman town, but it's likely that any of these spellings would be plausible for any of the Courcelles in France. If you have a period example of a spelling using "s," you could also use the "s" spelling--we just weren't able to find any.

Finally, your name would use "de Courcelle" instead of "d'Courcelle." In French, "d'" is used only before a vowel--before a consonant the full "de" is always used. Thus your full name would be "Céline de Courcelle" (you could use any of the variant spellings of "Courcelles" that we found.)

Your arms "Argent, a rook rampant sable" confused us a bit. Birds aren't shown in the same positions as "beasts" (four-legged animals), and there are no examples of a rook, or any other bird, described as "rampant." However, the arms will conflict regardless of the position you display the bird in; ravens are a fairly common charge in the SCA. Among the arms we found are

Caitlin ni Cailean de Bri: Argent, a raven close sable perched upon a rowan branch leaved and fructed proper.

Cigfran Myddrael Joserlin, the Raven: Argent, a raven rising reguardant, wings disclosed, proper, in the dexter claw a sword gules.

Erik Rafn Berserkr af Haddeby: Argent, a raven rising to sinister and in chief an axe, edge to base, sable.

In period, ravens were generally used in "canting arms" (arms which make a play on the name of the person holding them). We aren't aware of a cant on "Courcelle."

We would be happy to work with you further on designing arms. If you could tell us what you want in your arms, we can make suggestions which follow medieval style and won't conflict against other SCA arms.

Angus Scrymgeour, Alison MacDermot, Zenobia Naphtali, Tangwystl verch morgant Glasvryn, and Arval D'Espas Nord all contributed to this letter.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel