[ANSTHRLD] Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

The Next Laurel

The Board of Directors has selected my successor: I am pleased to
announce that the next Laurel King of Arms will be Francois la
Flamme. Francois stepped down as Star Principal Herald last year after
a very successful term. He will be handling the administrative duties
and has assembled a team to handle submissions.  Mari Elspeth nic
Bryan will serve as Pelican Queen of Arms and make name decisions,
Zenobia Naphtali will make armory decisions (see the discussion of her
title below), and Daniel de Lincoln will be Laurel Clerk and Keeper of
the Records.

They will be making decisions as of the August LoAR, so as of now
please send all submissions packets to

Kathleen M. O'Brien
7323 Potters Trl
Austin, TX 78729-7777

[NOTA BENE: That's for KINGDOM submission heralds!  Submissions within
Ansteorra go to Asterisk as before!]

Additionally, electronic copies of Letters of Intent, Comment,
Response, et cetera, should be e-mailed to submissions at sca.org.

I hope that you will give them all the support you have given me and
Pietari.

 From Francois: Introduction

I am excited to have been designated the next Laurel and I look
forward to the challenge of the office. You will notice a difference
in the staff structure I am putting in place. The organization of my
team is designed to distribute the work into manageable units that are
focused on areas of interest and expertise. The decisions on name and
armory submissions have been delegated, and I will be focusing on the
communication and administration of the College. I will be ruling on
name and armory appeals.

Many of you already know this team from their work in the COA.  Mari
Elspeth nic Bryan has been an active commenter in the COA for the last
few years. She has published many articles on onomastics.  Mari will
be making the decisions on name submissions. Zenobia Naphtali has been
active in COA since 1988. Zenobia Naphtali will be making decisions on
armory submissions. She has published papers on armory and compiled
the precedents for two years of Da'ud ibn Auda's tenure as Laurel.
Daniel de Lincoln has been tapped as the Laurel Clerk and Keeper of
the Records.  Daniel has also been active in the COA for many
years. Those who know Daniel know of his legendary attention to detail
and precision. Every member of the team continues to participate in
his or her Kingdom College of Heralds and is dedicated to helping our
submitters.  I have confidence that this team will keep the quality of
the submission process at the high level we have become accustomed.

I have been active in the administration at all levels of the
Ansteorran College of Heralds, including a recent term as the Star
Principal Herald.  I have been a consulting herald for the last ten
years working at a local and Kingdom level. I believe that the success
of heraldry in our Society comes from having effective communication
from the local herald up to and including the COA and providing
education to the populace.  My goal is to work with all the heralds in
our Society and provide support and encouragement to the various
Kingdom Colleges and the Society as a whole. Over the next few weeks I
will be contacting each of the Principal Heralds to introduce myself
and get to know you and the problems you are facing.

 From Zenobia: Title for the Armorial Sovereign of Arms

We need a title for the Armorial Sovereign of Arms. The title will
have to sound good on its own and in combination with a first name:
William, who was Garter King of Arms, could be known as William
Garter.

Preliminary research indicates that the majority of King of Arms
titles (rather than Heralds' titles) are taken from place names, or
derived from place names: Anjou, Clarenceux etc. The place names are
usually references to the area assigned to that King of Arms, although
they can be famous place names (Agincourt). King of Arms' titles are
also taken from Orders, mottoes, and heraldic charges (from arms or
badge).

The Herald and Pursuivant ranks add titles drawn from regalia items,
and have a higher proportion of titles taken from heraldic charges.

Since the SCA already has Laurel and Pelican Sovereigns of Arms, many
believe that the third title should refer to the Chivalry. "Chivalry
King of Arms"/"William Chivalry" sounds funny to most on first
hearing. It is however a plausible King of Arms formation, following
the "motto style" or "Order name style" model.

Some titles allusive to the regalia of the Chivalry have been
suggested. These would be more "pursuivant type" formations, but might
not have the twitch factor that some have felt from "Chivalry". These
have included:

  o White Belt

  o Ceinture Blanche (French for White Belt, Ceinture Blanche rhymes,
    more or less, with "grant your launch")

  o Chain

  o Spur

  o Rowel (currently registered to Ansteorra, it isn't known if they
    would want to relinquish the title)

If the Chivalry is not the source of the title name, the Order of the
Rose could be used to generate a herald's title. "Rose" was a
real-world pursuivant's title (no longer in use). It could be re-used
by the SCA.

Your comments would be appreciated by 31 August. These preliminary
comments will be used to generate a title submission, which will (of
course) go through the usual submission process. Please send new
suggestions and research, as well as comments on the material above
(does the title need to reference the Chivalry at all? Does "Chivalry
King of Arms" sound any more intrusive than "Laurel" or "Pelican"?)
If you cannot send your comments in a standard Letter of Comment,
please send your comments directly to me (Zenobia).

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel is tmcd at jump.net; if that fail,
    tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work account.
"To join the Clueless Club, send a followup to this message quoting everything
up to and including this sig!" -- Jukka.Korpela at hut.fi (Jukka Korpela)