ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2278 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2278 ************************************ 30 Apr 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 12th to 15th century Irish man. You also asked for our evaluation of your design for your arms. Here is what we have found. was a popular name in medieval Ireland, and it remained in use throughout your period [1, 2, 9, 10]. Early in your period, it was pronounced \ROO-@dh-ree\. \@\ stands for the schwa sound of the in and \dh\ stands for the sound of the in . After 1200 or so, it was spelled , and by the end of your period the pronunciation shifted to \ROO-@-ree\. In your letter to us, you spelled the name ; that is not correct. In period Ireland, a man was most often identified as his father's son. Ruaidhri son of Conn would have been called "Ruaidhri Conn's son". is the genitive (possessive) form of , analogous to in English. Men were sometimes identified by other kinds of descriptive bynames, but we recommend you choose your father's given name so that you can identify yourself in the standard way in at least some circumstances. You can find a list of good choices for your father's name in the articles on the web that we've cited as references [2] and [11]. We did not find any example of a medieval Irishman known as "Silverhand". One of the early Irish gods was called "Nuada Silverhand" because, in myth, he lost a hand and replaced it with one made of metal [3, 8]. The slash in the name represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. We've found no evidence that this byname was ever used to identify anyone else, so we can't recommend it as good re-creation. However, we did find a strong pattern of nicknames based on words that meant "hand". Many of these were used much earlier than your period and may appear only in legend; but some were used by real people in your period. In the list below, we've given dates for those examples. The others were taken from Old and Middle Irish documents, so they are certainly medieval, but they may not be from your period. These bynames fall into several categories of meaning [4, 5, 6]: * Nicknames simply meaning "hand", perhaps used for a man with a deformed hand, or a man of particular strength or dexterity. na laimhe (of the hand, 1497) la/mdo/it (hand-hand, arm-hand) do/it (hand, arm) * Nicknames describing appearance, including some which may have been intended metaphorically. "Red hand" might have meant "bloody-handed, guilty of murder", but in some cases it was used for a Leincesterman, since the red hand was a badge of that kingdom. laimhdearg (red hand, 1369, 1417) la/mru/ad (red hand) croibhdearcc (red hand, 1190) la/mglas (blue/green/grey hand) la/mghind (white hand) la/mgel (bright hand) * Nicknames that mean "long hand" or "long arm" (whether intended literally as a physical description or metaphorically): la/mfhota sirla/m do/itlebar * Nicknames that refer to actions of the hand or arm: la/mluath (swift hand) nertla/m (strong hand) la/mdes (right hand) ciotach (left[-handed], late medieval, 1598) la/me/chtach (powerful/destructive hand) baclamhach (lame hand, 1597) * Nicknames that describe positive social qualities with metaphors: la/mfhi/al (generous) la/midan (pure/faithful) It's notable that we didn't find any examples of real people's nicknames that described a hand by its material, which is the pattern that might have supported . We're not sure exactly what you intend "Silverhand" to mean, so we're not sure which of these comes closest to the idea you're trying to express. If any of the examples we've listed here appeals to you, write us again and we'll give you more details about its usage and pronunciation. Heraldic arms were not much used by Irish Gaels in our period. Heraldry arrived in the 12th century with the English, and Anglo-Irish settlers continued to use English-style arms. However, the Gaelic population was slow to adopt this custom. We have found evidence that the Gaelic Irish chiefs started to use heraldry in the mid-14th century, but most examples of heraldic use by the Gaelic Irish chiefs are from the 16th century or later; and lower-ranking Gaels adopted arms even later [7]. Your persona, therefore, would almost certainly not have used arms. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. Whether you use arms or not depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article we've posted on the web: What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms? http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/nonheraldic.html We're not precisely sure what heraldic design you have in mind; perhaps you intended "Per pale gules and vert, two swords in saltire, in base a gauntlet, and a chief argent" or "Per pale gules and vert, two swords in saltire surmonted by a gauntlet, and a chief argent". This blazon describes a field divided in half vertically, red on the left, green on the right. The upper third of the field is covered by a silver (or white) stripe. On the red-and-green field is a pair of silver swords crossed X-wise, points up. In the first version, there is a silver gauntlet beneath the two swords, centered on the lower part of the field. In the second version, the gauntlet overlies the intersection of the swords. Unfortunately, neither design is a plausible re-creation of late medieval Anglo-Irish heraldry. It was rare for a set of charges to overlap a divided field in the way your swords do. It was also rare for a single charge to be placed below a set of charges or to overlap the intersection of a pair of charges, as the gauntlet is placed in the two designs we described. The combination of these two motifs creates a design that is very unlikely to have been used in period England. We've created a few alternate designs, using elements of your design, that we hope will interest you. They are much more typical of the heraldry of the British Isles in your period. As far as we can tell, you could register any of them with the SCA College of Arms. Per pale gules and vert, a gauntlet and a chief argent. If you want the silver hand to be focus of your design, then we recommend that it be the only charge on the main part of the field. A pair of swords in saltire is one of the most overused motifs in Society heraldry; your arms will be more distinctive if you stick with other charges. You could also use "a hand" rather than a gauntlet; both were used in medieval English heraldry. Per pale gules and argent, in canton a hand argent. Gules, three hands argent. A field divided "per pale gules and vert" is appropriate for the heraldry of your period, but it was a fairly unusual motif (and is rather overused in Society heraldry). A plain field or a field divided between a dark and light tincture is more typical of the heraldry of your period. Placing three charges on the field, arranged two-and-one, was extremely common in period heraldry. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Talan Gwynek, Mari neyn Bryan, Adelaide de Beaumont, Juliana de Luna, Effrick neyn Kenneock, Julie Stampnitzky, Adelais de Savigny, and Zenobia Naphtali. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 30 Apr 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Ruaidri/. They mention two 12th century men bearing this name. [2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 [3] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.v. argat. [4] _Annala Rioghachta Eireann: Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the Earliest period to the Year 1616_ edited from MSS. in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy and of Trinity College, Dublin with a translation by John O'Donovan, VII Volumes (Hodges, Smith, and Co: Dublin, 1854). Here are the specific examples. A period after a letter represents a dot over the letter; it indicates lenition, a softening of a consonant sound required by Gaelic grammar in some circumstances. Lenition is indicated in later Gaelic spelling by adding an 'h' after the letter. Cat.al croib.dearcc 1190 (vol. 3, p. 88) "Cathal the Red-handed" Diarmaitt laim.dearg 1369 (vol. 3, p. 646; another 1417 vol.4, p.830) "Diarmaitt the Red-handed", "of the Red Hand" Conc.ob.ar mac aod.a mic concob.air na laim.e ui/ buig.ill 1497 (vol. 4, p. 1234) "Conchobhar son of Aodha son of Conchobhar O/ Buighill of the Hand" which may mean "Conchobhar of the large hand" or "of the deformed hand". t.epo/itt a burc mac uateir c.iotaig. 1598 (vol. 6, p. 1998) "...son of Uater (Walter) the Left(-handed)" Murchad. baclam.ac. 1597 (vol. 6, p. 2044) "Murchadh of the Lame Hand" [5] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.vv. la/m, doe/. [6] O'Brien, M. A., ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976). [7] Kennedy, John J FitzPatrick, "When did the Irish Chiefs Adopt Heraldry?", in _Genealogica and Heraldica_, ed. Auguste Vachon, Claire Boudreau, and David Cogne/ (University of Ottawa Press, 1998; ISBN 0-7766-0472-4). [8] Coghlan, Ronan, _Irish Myth and Legend_ (Belfast, The Appletree Press Ltd., 1985). [9] Flanagan, Laurence, _Favourite Irish Names for Children_ (Dublin : Gill and Macmillan, 1993), s.n. Ruaidri/. He notes "...the great sculptor of the Ossory or Kilkenny school, Ruaidri/ o/ Tunney, or 'Roricus O/ Tuyne', as he signed himself, who is known to have practised between 1501 and 1552, with a workshop at Callan, Co. Kilkenny." [10] Cournane, Mavis, Vibeke Dijkman, and Ivonne Tummers, "Annals of Connacht" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997). http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100011 We found several 15th and 16th century examples of the name. You'll notice that the spelling varies considerably in these examples. The spellings we've recommended in the body of this letter are the most typical of your period. 1483.4 O/ Cianan ...] .i. Ruadhri mac Taidg 1473.13 O hUiginn .i. GillanaNoem mac Ruadri Moir 1489.8 Tadc mac Ruadri Meic Diarmata 1510.9 Tadc mac Ruaidri Mec Donnchada [11] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Dated Names Found in O/ Corra/in & Maguire's Irish Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/ocm/