Special Projects
Like the Southron Gaard
Heraldry Symposium
Like the Royal Review of the
Awards section of Kingdom Law - here
Like the Caidan AoA Scroll
Project - here
Like the NZ Naming Project - here
Like the NZ Heralds’ Library
Project - here
Like getting everyone
submitting Blanket Letters of Permission to Conflict
Like getting everyone
submitting Heraldic Wills
Please feel free to email me here
if you want to help out, or can provide further info, or add things to the Need
To Be Done pile J
The Southron
Gaard heraldry symposium:
In August, Her Excellency
Baroness Katherine of Southron Gaard mooted the idea of holding a heraldry
symposium. There is a considerable number of the populace of Southron Gaard who
are keen on getting formal name and armoury registrations – far more than the
new herald-crew of Southron Gaard to be able to deal with in a timely manner. If
a few experienced book heralds from beyond the Barony could assist, this large group
of keen individuals can have their requests tended to.
This idea has been approved by
the Baronial Council, so an event has been set for the weekend of November 28th
& 29th.
Heralds currently attending
include Eleyne, Rocket Herald for Kingdom submissions; Benedict, Astrolabe Herald;
Giles, Baron St Florian and former Crux Australis Herald.
Other possible attendees may
include William, Crux Australis Herald, his successor Baroness Massaria and
Wakeline, another former Crux Australis Herald
There will be classes and
consultations to advise on how to come up with a good design, and what makes a bad
one. Computers will be available to check submissions immediately for conflict.
It will also be an opportunity to train new heralds and other interested folk
in how to do conflict-checking in a quick way, that doesn’t involve unnecessarily
burning out braincells!
The Review of the Awards section
of Kingdom Law:
In February this year, Their
Majesties Berenger and Bethan invited people to make comments on any changes
they would recommend to the Kingdom Law, specifically the areas covering
Financial matters, and the Kingdom Awards. A significant amount of discussion
and communication was generated over these.
On April 21st Their Majesties issued their proposed draft of the update of the Kingdom Laws, which can be found here
This was subsequently
published in the Pegasus newsletter
There are several significant
changes, to whit:
·
A new range of awards
is to be created equal in precedence to the Grant of Arms, in the three fields
of Service, Arts & Science and Martial Combat
·
A clear and delineated
Order of Precedence
·
Raising the Lochac Order
of Grace to being an armigerous award
·
Creating a new
armigerous award – the Order of Hector – recognising skill, service and
achievement in equestrian activities
·
Creating a new
non-armigerous award – the Order of the Pride of Lochac – recognising contribution,
service or achievement by groups to the Kingdom
·
The Mouse Guard is to
be renamed the Order of the Fledglings of Lochac, and the Miles Regni renamed
as the Order of the Soldiers of the Kingdom
The
Caidan AoA Scroll Project:
Condesa Catalina Orosol,
former Queen of Caid, in conjunction with the Lochac Guild of Scribes is
organising this project.
As an update, submissions have
now closed on this project, and the process of creating these award scrolls is
underway.
“AWARD OF ARMS SCROLL PROJECT FOR FORMER CAIDANS
Through special arrangement with the Caidan Scribe Armarius and the Lochac Provost of Scribes, residents of Lochac who received their Award of Arms from Caid are being given the opportunity to receive a signed and sealed scroll made on behalf of the Caidan Crown by the hands of the talented and tireless Rowany scribes of Lochac.
These AoA scrolls will be hand-painted, with some pre-print text (the body of the scroll) and some original calligraphy (all personal information). These will be official Caidan AoA scrolls, with signatures and seals and, as such, will be considered your one and only 'original' AoA scroll by Caid. Caidan AoA scrolls are only available to those gentles who have registered arms. There are no exceptions to this rule.
However, we will allow you to go on the list provided your arms are formally submitted to the College of Arms by the date the lists close (see below for further details).
To receive your scroll, you must contact Condesa Catalina OroSol, either by email to: “scrollproject AT sca DOT org DOT nz” or by writing to the following address:
Melissa Muckart,
56 Beazley Avenue,
Paparangi,
Wellington 6037,
New Zealand.
All requests must be made in writing and you may only request a scroll for yourself.
Your correspondence should include the following:
* SCA name (if your SCA name has changed since you received your AoA, please include both names)
* Mundane name
* Contact details (address, phone and email)
* Approximate date of your award, if known
* Blazon of your registered arms (these will be painted on the scroll)
** If your arms are in process, please send a copy of your submission to the College of Arms. These must be submitted by August 31, 2008.
*** If your arms are in process when you send your request, the onus is on you to inform Catalina when your arms have passed - and to provide her the official blazon of your registered arms.
If you prefer to get an all-original scroll from Caid, you may write to “scribearmarius AT sca-caid DOT org” at any time. Anyone who puts in a request that way will go onto the Caidan backlog as of the date they request the scroll. The Caidan scribes take care of the backlog requests in the order in which the request came in, not when the award was given.
* This offer is valid until August 31, 2008.
* You will only be put on the list if you contact Catalina and request a scroll.
* No one but you can put your name on the list.
* This offer is valid only for those New Zealanders who received AoAs under Caidan rule and who have registered arms (or arms in process as of the closing date).
Any persons wishing an AoA scroll from Caidan monarchs after the closing date of August 31, 2008, must contact the Caidan Scribe Armarius to be put on the Caidan scroll backlog. Caidan procedure is such that you must send a request to the Scribe Armarius to have your name put on a list. The waiting list is very long so please be patient if you go that route.
Any queries or concerns may be addressed to Catalina OroSol via the above address / email. Alternatively you may write to the head scribe of the Scroll Project,
Mistress Cairistiona (Tina Bean) at
“tinabean AT aapt DOT net DOT au”
or 89 Constitution Road
Meadowbank
NSW 2114,
Australia.
Thanks to Duchess Yolande for inspiring the project.”
Ever since the NZ SCA groups
merged with those of Australia to form the Kingdom of Lochac, there has been a
desire to coin a collective phrase denoting our groups, rather than just the
mundane ‘groups of New Zealand’. This has been bubbling along for several years
now, ( see here) with intermittent bouts of activity.
Her Excellency Baroness
Katherine of Southron Gaard has now set up an FAQ page here, and we are wanting to get some tangible progress done before
May Crown Tourney in Darton.
Despite being in an age of
technology and widely accessible information, there is still a strong need for
at-hand book resources to allow the group heralds to research and perform their
duties most effectively. This is for their own benefit in properly drafting up
heraldry submissions, as well as being able to share with the people in their
groups to help educate and raise awareness of good period style of medieval
heraldry.
Quoting from the ‘What Happens
Next’ section:
“The naming process was
formally commenced in 2005 (see May and July issues of Pegasus in that year).
However, it stalled because the approach adopted -- the desire to prove all
the proposed names ahead of any poll -- was an impossible workload for the
College of Heralds.
The process could be resumed
and completed by:
a) Running a poll with the
existing names and asking people in either country to, say, rank their
favourite 3-5 names for their country, then documenting the the top names
chosen for each -- working down the list to find the most favoured one that is
properly documentable and can be registered.
OR
b) More simply, not worrying
about registration. Instead, just run the polls and use the successful leading
names informally for as long as they seem to be needed. (And if someone wants
to use an alternate name and it gains some traction, that's their prerogative).
Note that any such poll would have only the citizens of each mundane nation voting for the name for their bit. So no name would be imposed from the outside.”
The shortlist published by
Crux Australis, in the Kingdom-wide discussion is here
The Heraldic Library Project:
One of the main roles of the
Astrolabe Herald is to assist and support the Territorial heralds in the NZ SCA
groups. To that end, I have started this project:
Despite being in an age of
technology and widely accessible information, there is still a strong need for
at-hand book resources to allow the group heralds to research and perform their
duties most effectively. This is for their own benefit in properly drafting up
heraldry submissions, as well as being able to share with the people in their
groups to help educate and raise awareness of good period style of medieval
heraldry.
There are a number of recommended heraldry texts, both as armoury and name-pattern resources, many of which are included on Laurel’s “No-photocopy” and “Every herald should have” lists. In consultation with Crux Australis, who has agreed, I propose that a portion of the funds taken for NZ heraldry submissions be used to provide the 4 main group heralds with a core library of heraldry resources. These would remain the property of the respective SCA group.
For books costing less than
~US$15, funds would come directly from the NZ heralds account, however for
larger purchases I would optimally like a 50:50 contribution from the groups’
funds in helping set up these libraries to a respectable standard.
Although the list can be
debated and added to, some of the key texts I want in each groups’ possession
would include:
|
Bahlow - |
“Dictionary of
German Names” |
|
Black - |
“Surnames of
Scotland” |
|
Compleat
Anachronist #66 - |
“A Welsh
Miscellany” |
|
Ekwall - |
“Oxford
Dictionary of English Place Names” |
|
Geirr Bassi - |
“The Old Norse
Name” |
|
O'Corrain &
Maguire - |
“Irish Names” |
|
Reaney &
Wilson - |
“Dictionary of
English Surnames” |
|
Withycombe - |
“Oxford
Dictionary of English Christian Names” |
|
Compleat
Anachronist #51 - |
“The Islamic
World” |
|
|
|
|
Brooke-Little - |
“Boutell’s
Heraldry” |
|
Brooke-Little - |
“An Heraldic
Alphabet” |
|
Compleat
Anachronist #22 - |
“Heraldry” |
|
Foster - |
“Dictionary of
Heraldry” |
|
Fox-Davies - |
“Complete Book
of Heraldry” |
|
Neubecker - |
“Heraldry:
Sources, Symbols & Meaning” |
|
Von Volborth - |
“Heraldry:
Customs, Rules & Styles” |
Master Bruce Draconarius |
“Pictorial
Dictionary of Heraldry as used in the SCA” |
A similar list has been compiled by the heralds in An Tir:
http://www.antirheralds.org/education/books.html