ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2895 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2895 ************************************ 16 Jul 2004 From: Femke de Roas Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us whether the byname would be appropriate for a woman living in the region between Norway and Sweden around 1200 CE. You also asked us whether a person in this time and place would have borne arms similar to "Argent, a cat passant sable orbed Or and in chief a Fleur-de-Lys azure." The byname , as you noted, is a patronymic indicating that the bearer is the 'daughter of Victor.' Therefore, the question becomes whether or not the given name was borne by men in Scandinavia at this time. No form of is noted in the standard comprehensive references for medieval Icelandic, Norwegian, and Danish names. [1, 2] One collection of Old Norse names does include , but we suspect that the original source referred to a foreigner, possibly one of the two 12th century antipopes who took the name Victor IV. [3] In regards to your suggested armory, "Argent, a cat passant sable orbed Or and in chief a Fleur-de-Lys azure," we can say a few things. First, describing the tincture of the eyes in the blazon was less likely to be done in early armory. It was considered more of an artistic detail. It can certainly be blazoned for registration within the Society, but we have dropped it from our blazon here. Scandinavian armory quite commonly uses the tinctures argent and sable. There are also some examples of a beast and another charge, although these are not as common as a beast alone. We have the following examples [4]: #127 (1322) is 'A goat's head between 5 roses 2, 2, and 1.' #130 (1323) is a 'stag's head cabossed with a sexafoil between the antlers.' #142 (1335) is 'Per fess, in chief a demi-lion issuant from the line of division and in base a mullet.' #155 (1326) is 'A stag statant and in sinister chief a mullet of six points.' #186 (133) is 'A ram's head cabossed and in chief a mullet of six points, all within a bordure engrailed.' We recommend that you do not add another tincture to your design, since this is not consistent with Scandinavian period armorial practice. It should also be noted that we have no examples of domestic cats in Scandinavian armory. We might suggest: "Argent, a domestic cat passant and in chief a fleur-de-lys sable," as a reasonable re-creation of period style that we believe may be registerable with the Society of the Creative Anachronism's College of Arms, though it would be much better with a beast actually used in period rather than the cat as primary charge. Alternatively, you could put the fleur-de-lys in dexter chief or sinister chief, or you could use two or three fleurs-de-lys in chief instead of one. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of ithas been unclear or if you have other questions. Research and assistance in writing this letter was provided by Jillian Saint Andre, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Femke de Roas July 16, 2004 ______________________________________________________________________ REFERENCES [1] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla"ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). (Here stands for a-umlaut, and stands for an with a small circle directly above it.) [2] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48). [3] Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977). [4] Huitfeldt-Kass, Henrik Jo|rgen, _Norske Sigiller fra Middelalderen_, 8 vols. (Kristiania/Oslo: 1899-1950). (Here stands for an with a slash through it.)