Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 385

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 385

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/385

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 on your proposed Welsh name, "Maelgrim yr Cerddorion o Llanfyllyn o Powys."

"Maelgrim" and the other names you list appear to be modern variants of the name "Maelgwn" (pronounced something like "MILE-goon"). Maelgwn is found in the 12th century, (1) but the 10th-century form of the name is "Mailcun." (2)

"Cerddorion" is the modern Welsh word for "minstrels" (plural). The modern Welsh for "minstrel" is "cerddor." The most likely 10th-century form is "cerdaur." (3)

The 10th-century form of "Llanfyllyn" is unclear, but the most likely form is "Lann Milin." "Powys" is spelled "Pouois" in a 9th-century inscription. (3)

Although all of these name elements are found in period, they wouldn't all go in the same name. The large majority of Welsh names from your period consist of a given name and one descriptive byname. Two bynames are unusual, and triple bynames are virtually unknown.

We recommend using just one byname. Locative bynames (names based on places) are very rare in Welsh. Since your persona is a wandering minstrel with no fixed home, a name meaning "from Llanfyllyn" is particularly inappropriate. We recommend that you just use "Cerdaur." An occupational byname like this would not use the definite article, so an appropriate 10th century form of your name would be "Mailcun Cerdaur."

Thus, the most appropriate 10th-century form of your name would be "Mailcun Cerdaur." If you wanted to use one of the locatives as a byname, you could also use "Mailcun Lan Milin" or "Mailcun Pouois."

You also asked about how often the cockatrice or basilisk were used in medieval heraldry.

Heraldry wasn't used in the 10th century--it was invented in France in the 12th century and spread rapidly through Western Europe. So in theory, your persona wouldn't have used heraldry at all. In practice, many SCA members with "non-heraldic" personas use heraldry.

The basilisk was used in period heraldry, but only in the 16th century. The earliest example of a basilisk in a coat of arms that we found is from 1559.

Since the basilisk was used in period heraldry, you could theoretically use it in your coat of arms. However, since it was only used in very late period, we recommend that you use another charge. The most obvious alternative is a wyvern, which was used in heraldry from an early date and is very similar to the basilisk.

We didn't find a conflict for your coat of arms, either with a basilisk or a wyvern.

Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Pedro de Alcazar, Rouland Carre, and Zenobia Naphtali contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Book of Llan Dav

(2) Bartrum, "Early Welsh Geneological Extracts."

(3) Tangwystl