ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 597 http://www.s-gabriel.org/597 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 25 Jan 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings, Here's the information we found on the name "Aethelwynn Raedwulfsdotter" and the arms "Argent a wolf statant, head raised and on a chief engrailed azure three estoiles argent." This name would be most likely in England during the 10th century. "{AE}thelwynn" was a fairly common woman's name. (The {AE} is written as a single letter, as in modern Scandinavian languages). We found examples dating from 940 to 1050 (1). The only unquestioned example of "R{ae}dwulf" that we found is from the 9th century (2). Reference (1) says that the "R{ae}d-" was only rarely used as the first element in Old English men's names. Since the only example of "R{ae}dwulf" we have is early, we're guessing that "R{ae}dwulf" would be more likely to appear in the 10th century than the 11th. We need to make a slight modification to "Raedwulfsdotter." The Old English word for 'daughter' is ; is Scandinavian. Also, the Old English possessive form of is . Thus, the normal Old English form of your name is <{AE}thelwynn R{ae}dwulfes dohtor>. We didn't find any conflicts between your arms and anything protected by the SCA. Arms weren't invented until the 12th century, so nobody from the 10th century used them. However, many SCA people with personas from before the invention of heraldry use SCA arms. We strongly recommend that you make the wolf "passant." There's not a single example from period heraldry of a howling wolf, but they're very common in the SCA, to the point of being a cliche. In medieval armory, wolves passant (with one front leg raised) are much more common than wolves statant. Talan Gwynek, Rouland Carre, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Zenobia Naphtali, and Arval Benicouer 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 19 Sept 1997, revised 25 Jan 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References (1) Boehler, Maria, _Die altenglischen Frauenamen_ (Nendlem, Liechtenstein: Krauss Reprint, 1967 [1930]), pp.32-3, 107. (2) Searle, William George, _Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum_ (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1897).