Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 645

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 645

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/645

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 our opinion of "Angus mac Iver" as a 13th or 14th century Scottish name, and of your design for your arms. Here's what we've found.

Before you read this letter, I recommend that you read the article "Scottish Names 101", which is available on the web at:

<http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scot_names_101.html>

This article will provide some background material on the languages and names of Scotland that will make our discussion easier to understand.

The basic elements of your name are appropriate for a Gaelic-speaking Scotsman in your period. The Gaelic form of the name could have been <Aonghus mac Iomhair>, pronounced \AIN-gus mahk EE-vahr\ [1]. This is the form you would normally have used. Note that the patronymic would have been used literally in your period: Aonghus mac Iomhair would have been the son of a man named <Iomhar>. (The extra 'i' in <mac Iomhair> is inserted for grammatic reasons. It makes the word mean "Iomhar's", so that the phrase means "Iomhar's son".)

Nearly all Scottish documents in your period were written in Latin, and names in those documents were generally recorded in either Latin or Scots (a language similar to contemporary English). The name <Aonghus> was recorded in several Scots spellings in or close to your period, including these [2]:

Anegos (1296)
Anegus (1178-80, 1204-13)
Angus (1204-11)

Latin spellings include [2, 7]:

Oingusius
Oingussius
{AE}ngussius

{AE} represents the letter "aesc", which is written as an 'a' and an 'e' joined together. It was often replaced by 'e' in medieval texts, so <Engussius> is plausible. Given the number of Scots forms with an initial 'a', we also consider <Angussius> likely.

Your patronymic <mac Iomhair> was also recorded in various Scots forms including [2]:

mac Ywar (1219)
McIvyr (1292)
M'Yuar (1371)

We found two Latin forms of <Iomhar>:

Iuor (1161) [8]
Yvari (1427) [2]

The 'u' in the former spelling represents a \v\ sound. The latter spelling is a Latin genitive, formed from the base (nominative form) <Yvarus>. The genitive is a grammatical case which makes the name mean "Ivar's" rather than "Ivar".

Putting these together, we can construct possible Scots and Latin written forms of your name. In Scots, it might have been <Anegus mac Yuar>; in Latin, <Engussius filius Iuor> or <Oengusius filius Yvari>. You might well have written your name with different spellings on different occasions.

You also asked about arms containing a lion's head encircled by a dragon. We recommend that you avoid this motif for several reasons. First, the dragon is a very rare charge in British heraldry in your period, and especially rare in Scottish arms [4, 5]. Second, although the motif of one charge encircling another is quite common in modern design, it was almost unknown in medieval armory. Twisting a dragon into a circle to form this frame is even less typical of medieval western European heraldry.

The lion's head, on its own, is a fine charge, though it would probably have been called "a leopard's face" or "a leopard's head affronty" by heralds of your period. We've found several examples of "leopard's faces" in 13th and 14th century rolls of arms [3]. The same source records a few examples of "wyverns" in 14th century English arms. The wyvern is a dragon without hind legs; it was the standard form of a dragon in your period [6].

Because we can't find any example of a dragon in period Scottish arms, we recommend that you avoid it. If you choose to use a dragon, it would be most appropriate to use a wyvern rather than a four-legged dragon. Since the wyvern is a fairly complex shape, we suggest that you make it the largest, central charge in your design rather than a smaller, peripheral charge. The leopard's face is also fairly complex, but it would make a reasonable secondary charge. For example, you might consider:

Azure, three leopard's faces Or.
Ermine, in chief two leopard's faces azure. Argent, a wyvern erect and in chief three leopard's faces gules.

These designs are typical of Scots heraldry of your period, and they appear to be clear of conflict for purposes of registration.

Before closing, I should point out that arms were much less widely used among the Gaelic-speaking people of the Highlands than among the Scots-speaking Lowlanders. Most noble or landowning Lowlanders used arms very similar in style to those used in England. Among the Highlanders, arms were used almost exclusively by clan chieftains, and the style of armory was very different from the standard armorial style that you're used to seeing. If you choose a Highland persona, then arms probably are not authentic for you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms, but you may choose not to do so. If you want to discuss these issues in more detail, please write us again.

I hope this letter has been useful. I was assisted in preparing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Naitan de Yerdeburc, Rouland Carre, Charles O'Connor, Zenobia Naphtali, Elsbeth Anne Roth, and Alan Fairfax. If you have any further questions, please write us again. We'll be happy to help.

For the Academy,

Arval Benicoeur


References

[1] O/ Corráin, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, Irish Names (Dublin: The

Lilliput Press, 1990).

[2] Black, George F., The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and

History, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986)

[3] Brault, Gerald J., _The Rolls of Arms of Edward I_, Aspilogia III, 2

vols. (London: Boydell Press, 1997).

[4] "Workman MS" in Stodart, R. R., Scottish Arms, 2 vols (Edinburgh:

William Paterson, 1881).

[5] Balfour Paul, Sir James, Lord Lyon King of Arms, An Ordinary of Arms

Contained in the Public Register of all Arms and Bearings in Scotland, 2nd edition (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969).

[6] Dennys, Rodney, Heraldic Imagination (New York: Clarkson and Potter

Inc., 1975).

[7] Woulfe, Patrick, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames

(Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation).

[8] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames

(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995).