Son of Ansteopality

[dennis grace]

Greetings Cousins, 

Lyonel here.   First, many thanks to Daniel de Lincoln and Master Talan for
the list of name possibilities.  Anyone for the Principality of Scireland
(that's SHEER-uh-lond) or Sonnenmark?

I'm afraid I have to take acception to Daniel's posting in response to my
wife, however.

Aquilanne said:

>> If you style yourself a herald, a bandier-about of words, you set
>> yourself up as an authority on words and word-usage,

and Daniel replied:

>I don't agree.  Certainly the original mediaeval herald was a variety
>of minstrel, and as such I suppose would be expected to be above
>average in word usage.  However, I think that the respective jobs
>diverged later, and I believe that at least a few heralds later
>(e.g. Garter King of Arms and some of his staff) weren't primarily
>public heralds.
>
>Certainly, in the SCA, word skill is only a part of the duties.  The
>usual division of heraldic tasks involves field, camp, court,
>submissions and general paper-shuffling, precedence, general
>administrative, et cetera.  Some requires word skill, some do not.

Note that Aquilanne never said "in the mediaeval tradition."  SCA heralds
control words.  Look at Daniel de Lincoln's postings on the matter of names
using the words Devil or Hell, for example, or his latest posting of Master
Talan's response.  We in the SCA cannot use the names we select without
heraldic approval.  This approval, quite simply, represents linguistic
authority and requires a certain linguistic facility.  

As to word skill being only a part of the job, . . . well, that certainly
doesn't refute Aquilanne's point that heralds in the SCA are word authorities.
So, does anyone have any ideas for awards and adjunct names for the
Principality of Scireland?  Until next time, I remain

Yours in e-Service

Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace
_______________________
 

Dennis G. Grace
Postmodern Medievalist
Division of Rhetoric and Composition
Department of English
University of Texas at Austin
amazing at mail.utexas.edu
___________________

Baro, metetz en guatge                    |  Lords, pawn your castles,
Chastels e vilas e ciutatz                |  your towns and cities.
Enanz qu'usquecs no'us guerreiatz         |  Before you're beat to the draw,
                                                    draw your swords.

                   -- Bertran de Born (a really fun Viscount)