LoRR July 2023

Letter of Registrations and Returns

Society of the Middle Ages, Inc.

Office of the Muskatour King of Arms

July 2023

Greetings from the Muskatour staff.

Summer is a busy time. People with children are planning vacations and trips. Reenactment groups of all types schedule their biggest events. Outdoors activities pick up and people spend less time inside on their computers. It comes as no surprise, then, that the summer months would be the slowest for the College of Arms. This month’s decision list was the smallest since the College began accepting open submissions. Furthermore, since no submissions have been received in the month of July, we will not be conducting an August decision meeting. Any entries that need to be adjudicated (such as pended submissions or late arrivals) will be adjudicated in person at Coronation. This will give those outside the College an opportunity to see what takes place in the discussions leading to registrations and returns.

We have no precedents from this month’s meeting.

This month we have one return of a previously pended submission, one withdrawal of a previously pended submission, and two submissions pended for administrative deficiencies. See below for the details.

REGISTRATIONS

• Arte di Domenico – New Guild Name, New Guild Badge
  (Fieldless) A pair of shoe soles conjoined in fess azure.
• Pipa of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne – New Badge
  (Fieldless) An amande purpure.

  Amande is the heraldic term for an almond.

RETURNS

1. Roscza Juhosz – New Name, New Arms
   Vert, a stag trippant regardant and in chief four bees Or.
   
   This submission was originally pended to allow time to obtain permission from the client to make changes to the name necessary for proper grammar and name formation and to supply the black-n-white line art for the arms. The client has not responded to multiple notifications. There is no consulting herald of record to contact regarding the changes. Therefore, the College has no recourse but to return the submission. The client may resubmit at any time but the College can make no guarantees that the name or arms will not conflict in the future.

   From the original LoRR:
   The client states that the name is a matronymic (daughter of Rosa) followed by an occupational surname (shepherd). This raised two issues. The first is that the name as submitted consists of two surnames and no given name. The second is that the spellings submitted include letter arrangements that did not exist in medieval Hungary. Specifically, the scz in Roscza and the sz in Juhosz did not enter the Hungarian lexicon until well into the 18th century. 

   The client was primarily concerned about the pronunciation of the first name element – RO-shah – which the Muskatour staff was unable to validate in medieval Hungary. The client was also concerned that the spelling of the name be intuitively pronounceable, eschewing the documented spelling of Rwsa as an option. The Muskatour staff was able to “back in” documentation for the spelling Rosa or Rusa using two 15th century names and the knowledge that unmarked matronymics existed in the 15th century. Thus, both Rosa and Rusa are possible as given names.

   The correct spelling of the occupational byname would be Juhás.

   The client has been contacted and the name is pended awaiting their response.

   The arms are pended administratively, as the package was missing the required black-n-white line art copy.

   2. Scriptorum Titivilli – New Guild Name, New Guild Badge
   (Fieldless) A dextrochère sustaining a pen argent.

   Withdrawn by the client in order to research and submit a revised name.

    

PENDED

1. Centropolis, Borough of – New Name, New Arms
   Vert, a bend between a sun and a garb argent, a chief ermine.
   
   The name was documented using examples of Latinized names of Greek communities dating to the Roman Occupation. κέντροπόλης (Kéntropólis, meaning “center city”) would be Latinized to Centropolis.

   The name and arms are both pended administratively, as the package was missing the required petition signed by a majority of paid members of the branch.

 

2. Stórvötn, Borough of – New Branch Name

   Meaning “big lakes”, this follows the Old Norse pattern of naming communities for the body of water they sit adjacent to. One example is Straumfjǫrðr (stream ford) – a settlement established by Thorfinnr Karlsefni in Vinland. The name is recorded in two versions of the Saga of Eric the Red: Hauksbók (14th century) and Skálholtsbók (15th century). Another is Árheimar (“River home”), a Goth capital city cited in the Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (13th century). Öxnafurða (“Oxen’s ford”) was the Old Norse designation for the settlement in the 8th century that eventually became the modern city of Oxford (Oxford English Dictionary).

   The name is registerable, though it has been pended administratively, as the package was missing the required petition signed by a majority of paid members of the branch.