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MINUTES OF THE HERALDS MEETING – May 18, 2025
(11:04 AM to 1:30 PM)
ATTENDEES:
Domamir Vlatko syn, Vesper; Edith of Swanesdale, Matins; Hirsch von Henford, Golem; Moss of Little Marsden, Seawolf; Anne fitzRichard, Stellanordica; Alizan dela Fontaine, Green Cloak; Moira O’Connor, Glora Fjord Herald; Caolinn Rose Maddox, PaL; Teagan Ulfsdotter, Deputy Sable Swan; Elewys Gwynne verch Llewelyn Dedewyth ap Gwenhwyfar Llwyd, Deputy Seawolf; Astrith of Swansvale, HE; Richard Talbot, Coronet; Ceara of Morven.
COLLEGE OF HERALDS MEETINGS
The May meeting was held via online conference, future meetings will be held via online conference until Vesper announces otherwise.
Note that West Kingdom Heralds Meetings can be found on the West Kingdom Calendar under the All Activities option [https://westkingdom.org/all-activities-calendar/].
Herald’s Meetings for 2025:
July 13, September 21, and November 16.
Herald's Meetings for 2026: January 4 (in-person only at the West Twelfth Night event), March 15,
May 17, July 12, September 13, November 22.
Meetings usually begin at 11:00 AM and will be held via online/remote teleconference until
further notice.
The 2025 DEADLINES for submission forms and documentation are: July 2, September 10, and November 5. The 2026 DEADLINES for submissions forms and documentation are: December 17, 2025 and in 2026 March 4, May 5, July 1, September 2, and October 28.
Submission forms must be complete and received either via EMAIL or hardcopy by the deadline date at midnight to be considered at the next meeting (which is about 11 days later, except December due to holidays and the roadshow meeting prep time needed). If the forms are EMAILED, then payment must arrive by the meeting day. WALK-IN submissions will not be accepted while meetings are held via remote conference.
REPORTS
Vesper (Damir): The West College is still here, woohoo! Beltane occurred and the West has a new King and Queen. Vesper requested new funds to purchase lanterns for the West Royal pavilion, which were delivered at Beltane. Commendations to Hirsch for all their work on the Order of the Mark roll out. And additional commendations to Moss and Elewys for their work at Mists Investiture.
Seawolf (Moss), Deputy (Elewys): Investiture was yesterday, everything went very smoothly. Special thanks to Damir and Gillian for heralding Kingdom courts, and Eneco for incoming court. Special commendations to Eneco for all their support of heraldry throughout the kingdom. And thanks from Coronet to everyone who helped with heraldic duties. Thanks to Domamir Vlatko syn, Eneco Ximenez, Gillian Trenowyth, Ruaidri, Bersi Bjarnarson, Moira of Kent, Kathryn Grym, Kean de Lacy, Colin MacLear, Mercy Grym, Maciej Swyebothka, Thialvi Ulfsson, Gayane of Teufelberg, Mongfind filia Colin, Rianorix Alaunana.
Sable Swan (Victoria), Deputy (Teagan): She and Teagan are moving along with training. They are working with the P&P of Cynagua to prepare for Coronet next weekend. They will be needing help with all of the weekend heralding.
Teagan is now in possession of the Sable Swan scroll-sealing items.
Reminder to Aasa that we would love to have a consultation table.
Stellanordica (Anne): The Selveirgard big spring event is coming up next weekend. She will be at June Crown! Query about additional wax for scroll sealing, as her supply is running low. She is also looking at having the Principality seal redone due to poor results when creating seals.
Exchequer (Moira): The College remains solvent. Work on getting the PayPal process in place has stalled, but should be in place before the next College of Heralds Meeting. We will be working to update the signers on the bank account, including exploring the possibility of moving the account to a different bank. Moira must step back from the office of Exchequer temporarily, and Viscountess Caoilinn Rose Maddox will serve as interim Exchequer.
Matins (Edith): The West College submissions office continues to truck along. Special notes for the May meeting are: again thanks to Ræv Kolfinsson for assisting Matins in providing updated artwork for armory submissions that would otherwise have been returned. For all submitters and consulting heralds, please review the Registration of Names/Armory Page on the West Kingdom College of Heralds website [https://heralds.westkingdom.org/Register.php] for such MANDATORY information as submission requirements, deadlines, fees, forms, and more. If anyone has any questions or concerns, they can always reach out to the Matins office for additional information or clarification. Reminder: if submissions do not meet the requirements they will be rejected and never move forward for consideration. That said, we have a large number of submissions to consider this May and Matins is thrilled to report there are already more submissions in the queue for the July meeting.
Baldric (Eilis): Nothing to report at this time.
Brachet (vacant), Leveret (Ræv).
Green Cloak (Alizan): Moira of Kent is looking to take on this office, once her current obligations are reduced. Heralds Point is making it to Kingdom events, and remains dry! Voices will be needed for June Crown, please send out the reinforcements.
Green Crown (Moira), Interim (Gillian): Since the last College of Heralds meeting, we have held a successful Crown Tournament and Coronation, and with the assistance of Vesper and Golem, created ceremonies for a new award (The Order of the Western Shore) and a new peerage (The Order of the Mark). Unfortunately, after just two months tenure, Moira had to give up the office of Green Crown Herald temporarily as of May 17, 2025. Her thanks to her Deputy, Viscountess Gillian Trenowyth, for taking over as Green Crown, and to Vesper for organizing and running Courts at Beltane when real world obligations prevented both Gillian and herself from attending.
Green Trumpet (Gwenhwyfaer): No report received.
Green Banner (Aasa): No report received.
Golem (Hirsch): Since the last meeting things have been a bit busy. Among other things, the largest is that the BOD finalized the Order of the Mark (the ranged weapon peerage), and things moved quickly from there. Working with Green Crown (who will have stepped back to be Princess of the Mists for the second time) the Mark ceremony, and a variety of changes to other ceremonies have been worked on, and are in pretty good shape. We are waiting for feedback from the Principals of the Order who were named at Beltane Coronation. Minor updates to the Principality ceremonies for the Order of the Mark, and “Mark Students” (until a different term is chosen by the members of the Order) have been taken care of and sent to the Principality heralds.
In addition, various award things have been taken care of, and of course all the court reports. Before Mists Coronet, Moira had offered to become Golem’s deputy for working with ceremonies, but then her husband went and won her the Coronet … so that won’t really happen for a little while, as her plate will be full.
All the forms on the heralds website stopped working briefly, because without any notification, Google (the service provider for West Kingdom email) changed an internal mechanic requiring a different password than we were using to connect to the mail server through program code (regular email services didn’t require this, just when done through programs). Luckily the Kingdom Technomancer (Karius) was able to figure out what needed to be done, and in a few hours we were back on track. Golem knows at least two court reports had to be re-sent (and were processed shortly after – all is good there), but didn’t hear about any other issues.
On other fronts, the Web Team needs to, based on new requirements from the Board of Directors, move the heralds (and history) websites to a new server. This could be a simple change in some of the code, or it could get complicated. However, this process has not been started yet. When it does, there will be at least a minor interruption in service, most likely, but hopefully only minor. Golem has started laying out a step-by-step plan to test things before implementing the full move, but hasn’t heard back from the web team.
ANNOUNCEMENTS / Other Business
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTSFacebook Page: The West Kingdom Heralds' have their own page on Facebook, announcements, help with consultation, and more are often done there:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/302970543102065/
The West Kingdom web team have added a Discord channel for heraldry, which is used for consultation, look for the #heraldry group.:
MAILING LIST: The Yahoo hosted mailing lists have been closed by the folk at Yahoo. At this time, we no longer have a means of communicating with the College of Heralds except the Facebook Page noted above, or via email. To make it possible to post announcements from senior staff heralds, there is a new Announcements page (link removed, as this page was not used and removed from the site).
ELECTRONIC RESOURCES: Many interesting heraldic links can be found through the SCA Heraldry web page at https://www.sca.org/heraldry, including the Laurel home page, the on-line Armorial and Ordinary (with search capabilities) and The Academy of St. Gabriel (an onomastic and heraldic consultation service). The West Kingdom Heraldry site and the West Kingdom Awards List can be accessed through the West Kingdom site, https://www.westkingdom.org. Heraldic queries may also be addressed to Vesper at herald@westkingdom.org -- answers may take a few days.
Also see above for the Kingdom Heralds' Facebook page and Discord channel.
BRACHET MEETINGS
Contact brachet@heralds.westkingdom.org for external commenting participation.
FROM THE LOARS
The cover letters, acceptances and returns for the past can be found at https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/. If you are interested in responding to some of the calls for commentary put out by the Laurel Sovereign of Arms, please be sure to visit the site.
February, 2025 LoAR (printed April 5, 2025) (West - November, 2024 LoI)
Cover Letter
West Acceptances - February LoAR
West Returns - February LoAR
March, 2025 LoAR (printed April 28, 2025) (West - No LoI)
Cover Letter
West Acceptances - March LoAR
West Returns - March LoAR
Special April, 2025 LoAR (printed April 30, 2025) (West - No LoI)
Cover Letter
In Service,
Edith of Swanesdale, HE,
Matins Herald
SUBMISSONS – May (2025)
ITEMS SENT TO LAURELÆlfmær Æscer (New Name & Device sent to Laurel)
The submitter will accept the following changes: Æscer to Ascer. And cares about the language and/or culture (none noted) and has no gender preference for the name.
Ælfmær - from “Handbook of British Chronology” edited by F. M. Powicke: pg. 169 <Ælfmær> dated 1009 - 1031 and pg 170 dated 1017 - 1023.
from “Anglo-Saxon Wills” edited with translation and notes by Dorothy Whitelock: pg. 59 from the Will of Ætheling Æthelstan <Ælfmær> appears twice.
Æscer - from NCS [HC&M]: 1381 Poll Tax Attington, Oxson. 1332 Lay Subsides Rolls for Lincolnshire Village, village K-134 line 35, village H-21 line 12. <Thomas Æscer>
The English name formation <given + byname> is found in SENA Appendix A.
Device:
Gules, a wyvern statant to sinister, wings displayed, Or and a horse rampant argent.
A note regarding Unity of Posture, which does not apply to this submission:
Per SENA Appendix M.3
wyverns are an animate charge grouped together with other "tailed non-humanoid bipeds" and therefore use
different postures than standard quadrupeds (which include horses). Because they are in separate groups,
their postures need not be considered for Unity of Posture and Orientation
(SENA A3.D2c).
Alexander Goodenough (New Device sent to Laurel)
Per bend sinister azure and argent, on a hand Or a bird and on a trimount issuant from base vert two birds Or.
Ceara of Morven (New Device sent to Laurel)
Azure mullety, on a bend cotissed Or an arrow azure.
Christy Buchanan (Resub to Laurel Device sent to Laurel)
Azure, a pall voided inverted between three roses argent.
Published in the December 2024 LoAR, the original Device submission of Azure, a pall between three roses argent was returned for conflict with the following commentary:
This device is returned for conflict with the device of Ailith ferch Dafydd,
Azure, a pall between a Celtic cross and two unicorns combattant argent, and with the device of R{o,}gnvaldr Arason, Azure,a pall between a fret couped and two wolf's heads erased addorsed argent. In both cases there is a single DC for changing the type of the secondary charges.
The resubmission has inverted the pall and voided it to address these conflicts.
Elewys Gwynne verch Llewelyn Dedewyth ap Gwenhwyfar Llwyd (New Name & Device sent to Laurel)
The submitter will accept the following changes: date, sound, meaning, name spelling of parts except “Elewys” (prefer they remain as-is when possible). And further cares about the spelling (Elewys), language and/or culture (Welsh), and gender (female) of the name.
Submitting as Welsh 15th century using name construction seen in “Gruffudd Ddu ab Ieuan Fab ap Ieuan Las” 985-1215 NCS [Morgan and Morgan], pg 155, S.N. Mab: a three-generational name with all parts having descriptive bynames. A three generational name with a matronymic at the end can be found in “Wirvill vz Ievan ap Gwenhover” 1420-53 NCS [Morgan and Morgan], pg 110, S.N. Gwenhwyfar.
Elewys - from “Feminine Given Names in A Dictionary of English Surnames” by Talan Gwynek, S.N. Helewise: Elewys 1273. [https://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/reaney.cgi?Helewise].
Gwynne - “David ap Hugh Gwynne” 1553-7 NCS [Morgan and Morgan], pg 117, S.N. Gwyn.
This spelling can also be found in NCS [R&W] A Dictionary of English Surnames by P.H. Reaney and R. M. Wilson, pg 209, S.N. Gwinn, 1474.
verch - formation of <given + relationship word + byname> when forming Welsh names as listed under S.N. Bynames Based on A Relationship. meaning daughter of. From NCS “A Simple Guide to Constructing 13th Century Welsh Names” by Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn [https://heraldry.sca.org/names/welsh13.html].
Llewelyn - “Llywelyn Arthur” 1442 NCS [Morgan and Morgan] S.N. Llywelyn, pg 150.
Dedewyth - “Henr' Dedewyth” 1326 NCS [Morgan and Morgan], pg 85, S.N. Dedwydd.
ap - formation of <given + relationship word + byname> when forming Welsh names as listed under S.N. Bynames Based on A Relationship. meaning son of. From NCS “A Simple Guide to Constructing 13th Century Welsh Names” by Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn [https://heraldry.sca.org/names/welsh13.html].
Gwenhwyfar - “Gwenhwyfar [Wennour] f. Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd” 985-1215 NCS [Morgan and Morgan] pg 110, S.N. Gwenhwyfar.
Llwyd - “Dafydd Anwyl ap Bel Llwyd” 1350-1415 NCS [Morgan and Morgan] pg 50, S.N. Belyn.
This name is formed as Elewys Gwynne daughter of Llewelyn Dedewyth who was the son of Gwenhwyfar Llwyd.
Device:
Argent, three chevronels braced vert, in base a mascle sable.
Giana Vettoria Colonna (Resub to Kingdom Device sent to Laurel)
Original submission was considered by the West Kingdom in May 2004 and returned for further work:
Giana Vittoria Colonna. New Device Returned.
Azure, a bear sejant erect Or, on a chief invected argent, three bees volant, wings elevated and addorsed, sable.
The device is too similar to the device of Margarethe Wessel: Azure, a bear rampant Or, on a chief invected argent, three anchors azure. There is a difference for the charges on the chief, but none is given between sejant erect and rampant.
The new submission replaces the primary charge with a different charge and tincture.
Azure, a panther, on a chief invected argent three bees sable.
Saraj Keys de Halyok (New Name & Device sent to Laurel)
The submitter will accept the following changes: anything but <Saraj>. And further cares about the meaning (none noted), sound (none noted), and gender (neutral) of the name.
Saraj - Legal Name Allowance: this is the submitter’s given legal name, documentation provided, SENA PN1.B.2.e.
Keys - from NCS [R&W]: Keys, English byname dated 1275, p.260, s.n. Kay
de Halyok - from NCS [Ekwall]: Halyok, English placename dated 1396, p.247, s.n. Holy Oakes. Formed as a locative byname using <de> meaning <of> per SENA Appendix A.
The English language formation <given + byname + byname> is acceptable per SENA Appendix A.
Device:
Azure, on a chevron argent between three keys Or, two cats passant guardant sable.
Teagan Ulfsdotter (New Device sent to Laurel)
Argent, a bend sinister vert, overall a winged sword fracted and inverted gules.
Theron Ktesifanes (New Name and Device sent to Laurel)
The submitter will accept the following changes: spelling corrections as long as the translated name stays the same. And cares about the sound (“Theron Katstefanis” preferred) and has no preference on the gender of the name.
Theron - from the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names under the Greek characters <Θήρων> 34 results are found [https://search.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/browse.html?field=names&sort=nymRef&query=%CE%B7%CF%81%CF%89%CE%BD&collection=&start=1].
Ktesifanes - from the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names under the Greek characters <Κτησιφάνης> 2 results are found [https://search.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/browse.html?field=names&sort=nymRef&query=%CE%9A%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%86*%CE%BD%CE%B7*&collection=&start=1].
The Greek name formation <given + family name> is found in Bardas Xiphias, "Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era" [http://heraldry.sca.org/names/byzantine/introduction.html]. SENA, Appendix A, states that all patterns documented in this article are registerable.
SENA, Appendix A, also states that the pattern <given + given> is documented in Hellenistic and Imperial-era Egypt. [Boreas Loukas, 07/2023, A-An Tir].
Device:
Azure, in pale a trident head and a trident head inverted and in fess two dragonflies tails to center argent.
Westermark, Barony of (New Badge sent to Laurel)
The Barony of Westermark and its Officers request registration of a badge for the use of its populace. This submission is fully supported with a signed petition.
Gules, five plates in annulo.
RETURNS – May (2025)
Siobhán (New Name & Device Returned)
Returned for admin reasons.
Luxia Sabina (Resub Badge to Kingdom)
This submitter had two badge submissions on the West Kingdom Sept 2020 ILoI, both of which were returned. This badge counts as a resubmission of one of those badges.
The new submission is a complete rework.
Argent, a unicorn rampant sable, crined, tailed, and tufted purpure, armed and unguled Or.
This badge was returned for conflict with the following:
Device for Aurelia de la Licorne, registered in January of 1974: Argent, a winged unicorn rampant sable,
armed crined unguled and winged Or. There is only one DC, for the wings. The tincture changes for the
horn, hooves, mane, and tail do not count.
Device for Ian Duncanson, registered in July of 2004 (via Caid): Argent, a unicorn rampant sable within
a bordure quarterly sable and vert. and the badge for Richard de la Croix, registered in October of 1989
(via the West): Argent, a unicorn rampant sable within a bordure dovetailed gules. Both of these also
have only a single DC, for the bordures.
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