ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2188 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2188 ************************************ From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 24 Jan 2001 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our evaluation of your name, , and arms, which you described as "an argent crescent, horns pointing toward upper right corner, argent snowflake in upper right corner on a sable field". After further consultation, you indicated that you were most interested in a culture for which your interest in the rapier and your arms were plausible. Here is the information we have found. Unfortunately, we are not experts in the history of the rapier. There is a lot of good information available at The Arte of Defense Homepage: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/fencing.html You can also access this site through the SCA site, www.sca.org, under the "Combat" heading. From our review of the information presented, it appears that a rapier-fighter persona would be most plausible between 1500 and 1600 in Italy, Spain, Germany, and France, and in the very late 1500s in England. We will discuss your name and arms with this in mind. is a Visigothic name; our earliest example of the name is found circa 400 [1]. We find it recorded through the 13th century, but we do not find examples of it recorded anywhere in Europe between 1500 and 1600. Accordingly, we do not consider it appropriate for any of the cultures where rapiers were used. If you'd like to choose another given name, we'd be happy to help; we can be most helpful if you select a single culture for us to research. You mentioned that was a name given to you by your household, which is predominantly Scottish. , where the slash indicates an accent over the preceding letter, comes from the Gaelic words for 'hound' and 'great (big)'. Although is two words, it would have been used as a single given name. Analogous names used in our period include , derived from the phrase "hound of the sea". The phrase is also grammatically incorrect; if a man named had had a son named , then the son would have been known as . (The change from to is required by Gaelic grammar, and is much like changing to .) surnames were used literally in period Gaelic; their use as inherited clan surnames didn't start until later. This analysis assumes that is a plausible Gaelic given name. We're not sure whether a good argument can be constructed to support this invention. Made-up names are of course not as good a recreation as names which were actually used in period; however, as the rapier does not seem to have been part of Scottish Gaelic culture before 1600, we don't believe that any Scottish Gaelic byname is appropriate for you. You described your arms; we would blazon them, "Sable, in bend sinister a snowflake and a crescent bendwise sinister argent." If you intend the crescent to be the central focus and the snowflake smaller and less significant, a better blazon would be "Sable, a crescent bendwise sinister and in sinister chief a snowflake argent." The crescent is a fine medieval charge in many cultures; the snowflake, unfortunately, is not. We do not find any depictions of individual snowflakes in period armory. We strongly recommend that you choose a different charge. You may not be aware that the SCA College of Arms no longer permits snowflakes in SCA armory, so if your goal is to register arms for use in the SCA, a snowflake will make that impossible. As an alternative to your snowflake, we can recommend several period charges which have the same sort of six- or eight-fold symmetry, such as an escarbuncle and an estoile. You can see a depiction of an escarbuncle as the principal charge of the arms of the Kingdom of Aethelmearc at: http://members.nbci.com/AEthelmearc/ The escarbuncle is a stylized shield-boss; it would not have represented a snowflake to anyone in your period. The estoile, found predominantly in English armory, is usually depicted as a wavy-armed, six-pointed star. You can see a depiction of an estoile at: http://www.geocities.co.jp/Hollywood/5004/m242a.gif Another charge that might appeal to you is a mullet, or star. The five-pointed star is usually found in England; in the rest of Europe, six- and eight-pointed stars are much more common. You can see six- and eight-pointed stars used in period armory at: http://people.delphi.com/ivanor/zroadt2v.htm Your design has a number of features that are unusual in medieval armory. We found no example of a crescent rotated 45 degrees. It's not impossible. We did find a few examples of other charges bendwise and bendwise sinister [2], but it is a rarity for charges that aren't long and skinny, like a spear. It's also relatively uncommon to arrange a pair of dissimilar charges in a row. There are more examples of this sort of design [3], but they aren't typical in any medieval style of heraldry. We believe that there are several options open to you that are authentic for one or more of the cultures where the rapier was common, and we'll discuss them in detail. We have found one set of arms that has a design similar to yours, recorded in Germany just at the end of our period [4]. The German arms in question have the two charges "in bend", that is, creating a top left to bottom right diagonal (like a backslash \), which is much more common and therefore a much better recreation than "in bend sinister" as you have in your design (like a forward slash /). We would not be surprised to find "Sable, in bend a mullet of eight points and a crescent bendwise argent" in German heraldry. However, based on our review of several period rolls of arms, we don't believe that your design is plausible in any of the rapier cultures except Germany. We believe this design may be registered with the SCA College of Arms [5]. If you re-oriented the charges, "Sable, a crescent and in chief a mullet of eight points argent" or "Sable, in pale an escarbuncle and a crescent argent" would be plausible designs for any of the cultures indicated in the rapier information. We can recommend a few other designs: Sable, a crescent and in chief three estoiles argent Sable, a crescent and in chief three mullets argent Sable, an escarbuncle and in chief three crescents argent If you particularly want a diagonal crescent, you might consider "Sable, in bend three crescents bendwise argent" [6] or "Sable, in bend sinister three crescents bendwise sinister argent". The former design fits any medieval or renaissance heraldic style; the latter is less likely but still plausible. We also believe that these designs can be registered within the SCA. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Arval Benicoeur, Blaise de Cormeilles, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Dietmar von Straubing, Jonathan Sholes, Margaret Makafee, Rouland Carre, Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, and Zenobia Naphtali. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 24 January 2001 ____________________________________________________________________ References: [1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Alaric. [2] Popoff, Michel, _Le Ro^le d'Armes de Zurich_, Documents d'He/raldique Me/die/vale 9 (Paris: E/ditions du Le/opard d'Or, 1986), frame #324, arms of Tengen shows a demi-fleur-de-lis bendwise sinister; frame # 353, arms of Eschach shows a fish-head bendwise. [3] Popoff, Michel, op cit, frame #394, arms of Strit shows "Azure a fess argent and in chief a bezant and a mullet of eight points Or." [4] Siebmacher, Johann, _Johann Siebmachers Wappenbuch von 1605_, 2 vols., ed. Horst Appuhn (Dortmund:Harenberg, 1988, 1989), p. 169 shows the arms of Konitz as "Gules, in bend the dexter half of a fleur-de-lis bendwise sinister and a rose Or." [5] We believe this design is clear of the registered device of Sean Macarailt of Sandyhume, who bears, "Sable, an increscent argent". [6] Popoff, Michel, op cit, frame #338, arms of Laubenberg shows "Gules, in bend three hearts bendwise inverted argent."