ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 919
http://www.s-gabriel.org/919
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* NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports     *
*       contain errors that we haven't yet      *
*       corrected.  Please use it with caution. *
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* NOTE: Later research turned up additional     *
*       information relevant to this report.    *
*       See the end of the letter for details.  *
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From: "S Friedemann" 
19 May 1998

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Anna von Bremen> is an appropriate name for a German
woman living between 1300 and 1550.  You wanted to know until what time
period <von> was used, and said you were considering the towns of
<Innsbruck> and <Eichstatt>.  You also asked for comments on your proposed
arms <Per pale vert and sable, a cross moline disjointed Or, overall a swan
argent, within a bordure Or>.  Here is the information we have found.

We found <Anna> in 1383 [1]; it was a popular name in Germany throughout our
period.

Locative bynames (those based on place names) were very common in your
period.  There are two types, both of which were quite common.  The first is
like <New Yorker> or <Clevelander>; examples are <Bremere> 1267 and <Bremer>
1304 [2].  The feminine form would be <Bremerin> or, with the definite
article, <die Bremerin>.  The other type uses the unmodified place-name,
with or without the preposition <von>; we found <von Bremen> in 1342 [2].
We are not sure how the two types were distributed, but we think that the
locatives with <von> were more common among the nobility than among other
groups.

We find <Eichstatt> in various spellings in period: <Eichsta"dt>,
<Eichsta"tt>, <Eichstetten>, and <Einstat> [2].  (The " represents an umlaut
on the <a>.)

<Innsbruck> is a city in western Austria, first mentioned in history in
1180.  [3] In your period, we found a number of spellings, of which
<Insbrucke> and <Insprucke> are fairly typical. [4]

Any combination of these would be authentic for you, i.e., <Anna Bremerin>,
<Anna von Eichsta"tt>, or <Anna von Insbrucke>.

Your arms would be blazoned as <Per pale vert and sable, a cross moline
disjointed Or, overall a swan argent within a bordure Or.>  Unfortunately,
these arms resemble nothing in period German style that we have found.
While fields divided between two colors were occasionally found, the low
contrast between green and black makes this combination a poor choice.
Overlapping charges, such as a swan overall, were quite rare in period
armory, and there are almost no examples of one complex charge on top of
another.

We suggest that you consider a simpler device such as

     <Vert, a swan rousant between three crosses moline Or>, (a green field
with a yellow swan and crosses)
     <Vert crusily Or, a swan rousant argent>, (a green field with many
yellow crosses, and a white swan)
     <Sable, three swans rousant argent>, (a black field with three white
swans)
     <Sable, a swan rousant and in chief three crosses moline argent>,
(black field with white swan and three crosses at the top)
     <Sable, a cross disjointed Or>, (black field with a dismembered yellow
cross)

Bordures are far more common in Society heraldry than they were in period,
and they appear to be particularly unusual in German heraldry [5].  We
recommend that you do not use a bordure in your arms unless you have a
particularly strong reason to use it for your re-creation.

You will notice that in the above ideas, we suggested using a cross moline
rather than a cross moline disjointed.  In our sources, this type of cross
was only mentioned four times, and we found only one clear example, from
1603.  [6]  It is a very rare charge, and using a regular cross moline would
be better recreation, and we suggest that you use that instead.

We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you will not
hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further
questions.  Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Antonio
Miguel Santos de Borja, Arval Benicoeur, Charles O'Connor, Elsbeth Anne
Roth, Fergus Stout of Westgate, Margaret Makafee, Rafael van Antwerpen,
Talan Gwynek, and Walraven van Nijmegen.

For the Academy,
Arianwy Prydyddes ferch Cadfael

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References:

[1] Talan Gwynek, "Medieval German Given Names from Silesia." (WWW)
http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/bahlow_v.htm

[2] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen
familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), s.n.
Bremen.

[3] "Innsbruck" Britannica Online.  [Accessed 21 April 1998].
http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/291/34.html

[4]  Kommission fuer Mundartkunde und Namenforschung (Isolde Hausner and
Elisabeth Schuster, eds.), _Altdeutsches Namenbuch: Die Ueberlieferung der
Ortsnamen in Oesterreich und Sudtirol von den Anfaengen bis 1200, vol. 8_,
Verlag der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 1989.

[5] Da'ud ibn Auda, "The Use of Bordures in Non-SCA Heraldry: A Statistical
Survey", Known World Heraldic Symposium, Rochester, NY, June 20-22, 1997.

[6] Parker, James, _A Glossary of Terms used in Heraldry_ (Charles E.
Tuttle, 1982).

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Annotation by Aryanhwy, 06 Jan 2009: Added header name to [2].