Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 521

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 521

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/521

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked for information about the German name "Faust Blutfalke" and about your ideas for your arms. Here's what we've found.

Our references disagree on whether "Faustus" was used as a given name in medieval Germany. One reference says it was, and notes that it was also the name of a 3rd century martyr [1]. However, this reference gives no specific evidence. Another reference implies that "Faust" was used in German only as a surname, not as a given name. That source derives the surname either from a noun meaning "fist" (referring to someone overly included to use them) or from the Latin "faustus" meaning "fortunate" [2]. The given name was definitely in use in Italian as "Fausto" and "Fausta", but we can't find any direct evidence that it was in German. The German historical figure of literary fame used "Faust" as a surname. We don't feel that the evidence really supports a belief that "Faust" was used as a given name in period Germany, but the College of Arms has concluded that the evidence is strong enough to deserve the benefit of the doubt [3].

We do not think that "Blutfalke" is a plausible byname. Period bynames were descriptive and usually fairly concrete. The period surname "Blutwurst" (recorded 1401) was used by a maker or seller of blood sausages. The byname "Falkenauge" (what date is cited?) meaning "falcon eye" was used either for someone with remarkably good vision or sarcastically for someone with lousy vision [2]. We simply can't think of an explanation for "blood falcon" which is consist with the ways that medieval folk were named.

There are lots of possibilities for using either "blut" or "falke" in a byname. We found one other name based on "blut", Jakob der Bluot (1349). "Falke" was a given name, and it was frequently used as a patronymic place names use the element "Falken-", e.g. Falkenau, Falkenauer (1426), Falkenberg (1582), Falkenhagen, de Falkenstein (1281), Falkenstein (1356), Falkenthal. Falconers often used surnames based on their occupation: Falkenfenger (1580), Valchener (1271), Valkener (1316) [2]. You could use any of these names as your byname, and lots of other spellings were used. If you are particularly interested in one or more of these names, let us know and we'll send you more information.

Your description of your arms is not entirely clear: I'm guessing that you've placed the book in the upper, red part of the field and the wyvern in the lower, black part. Is that correct? I'm also guessing that the wyvern's body is basically horizontal, supporting itself on its two front legs and its tail. Assuming I'm right, the blazon would be "Per bend engrailed gules and sable, an open book argent bound sable and a wyvern statant Or langued gules."

This design is a pretty good start, but we would like to point out a couple details which make it atypical of medieval heraldic design. It was unusual to place two different charges in the two halves of a divided field. It was much more common for charges in visually balancing locations to be identical. Your choice of line of division is also unlikely: "Per bend engrailed" is not something we encountered in period arms, and it is even less likely to have been used to separate two low-contrast colors like black and red (which have considerably less contrast than white and red, for example).

Taking these ideas together, we might suggest that you consider designs like these:

Per bend gules and Or, two open books counterchanged. ("Counterchanged" means that the book on the red half of the field is gold, and the one on the gold half is red.)

Per bend argent and sable, two wyverns erect counterchanged. (A wyvern "erect" has a vertical body with its tail curled under it. I suggest this posture because the vertical monster fits better into the half-fields created by the "per bend" division.)

For purposes of registration with the College of Arms, these designs appear to be free of conflict.

In considering other designs for your arms, you may want to think about incorporating a falcon. It was very common in period for the main charge of a man's arms to reflect his surname. This practice was called "canting". Thus, the arms "Per bend gules and Or, two falcons close counterchanged" would be an excellent choice for someone whose surname was based on the word "Falke". (In this design, the falcons are standing with their wings folded.)

I hope this letter has been helpful. Tangwystyl ferch Morgant Glasfryn contributed research for this letter.

For the Academy,

Arval Benicoeur


References

[1] E.G. Withycombe, The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 3rd

ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

[2] Josef Karlmann Brechenmacher, Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen

familiennamen. 2nd ed. (Limburg a. d. Lahn: C. A. Starke, 1957).

[3] Laurel Letter of Acceptances and Returns, February 1996.