Valkyrie’s Lullaby written by Lasair inghen ui h’Airt (Midrealm) performing her newest piece. Recorded at the seventh Known World Bardic Congress and Cooks Collegium that was held at Camp Wawbeek in beautiful Wisconsin Dells on Labour Day weekend 2014. ( I would love to learn this piece for a Halloween celebration that my Barony does as it sound very ominous and hauntingly beautiful, but I don’t know the correct procedure with performing other people’s songs from the SCA.)
Thank you for sharing this! I didn’t get a chance to hear it live, but I did hear people raving about it. 😀
First of all, as with any heraldry/name related question, I highly suggest consulting heralds either at an event’s Herald Consultation Table or on the SCA Heraldry Chat Facebook group. Heralds don’t bite. Promise!
Names The SCA Heraldy page has a some article on 14th Century names for England, but they are specific to the county:
The Academy of St. Gabriel has some naming guides for 14th century English names, but it only goes to 1450. It looks like they have a lot of good stuff here – plenty to help you narrow down and make a choice. [http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/eng1300to1450.shtml]
You could also search their past reports for “14th century England,” but I would suggest narrowing your location to a county/region first, because it pulls up a LOT. You can use the search on their front page, or look at all the reports here: [Link]
Books: Consult with your local heralds to see if someone already has a copy of one of these on hand, otherwise, you should be able to Interlibrary Loan them at your local library. For those that have a Google Books preview (at least), I’ve included that link as well.
A Dictionary of English Surnames (1991), by Percy Hide Reaney. Publisher’s Description: This classic dictionary answers questions such as these and explains the origins of over 16,000 names in current English use. It will be a source of fascination to everyone with an interest in names and their history. Worldcat (See what libraries near you have it) [Link]Google Books [Link]
The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names (1977), by Elizabeth Gidley Withycombe. Publisher’s Description: Presents the early forms of common names, their equivalents in other languages, pet forms, and etymologies together with historical backgrounds. Worldcat: [Link]
Heraldry You’re right – this is harder than names. London’s civic arms date back to about 1380, and the earliest reference to the officer of arms at the College of Arms is 1334. You can read more on the Wikipedia page: [Link]
In the 1390s, Johannes de Bado Aureo published Tactatus de Armis, but the only versions of it I can locate are outside the 14th century window. It’s unlikely the text changed much, since it took so long to make a book. De arte heraldica, by de Bado Aureo, c. 1440-1450 Bodleian Library Images: [Link]
Powell’s Roll (MS Ashmole 804), which dates c. 1345-1351 has been digitized by the Bodleian Library – you can view those images here: [Link]
If we look to non-period sources, there are plenty of English Armorials that list not only the Royal arms, but civic arms, and the arms of the general nobility.
The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales (1884), by Sir Bernard Burke. Internet Archive: [Link]Supplement that begins the general armorial: [Link]
If you compare a source like Burke’s General Armory to something like this list of the Knights of the Garter [Link] in order to date items. Burke’s doesn’t include images – just blazons – but it has a whole section in the front about how heraldry works. And there are other online resources to understand how to decipher a blazon, such as this one on the SCA Heraldry site: [Link] There is also the official Burke’s Peerage website, which has images – but again, no dates.
The 107th edition of Burke’s appears to maybe have dates associated with each entry, but it is difficult for me to tell given the inability to zoom in on the few preview pages available. The book is VERY expensive, so check your library – [Worldcat Link] It may be that it won’t circulate (given it’s replacement cost), which means it probably won’t be allowed to go out on ILL. But you could see where the closest copy to you is and then have a field trip!
You might also try:
Anglo-Norman armory two: an ordinary of thirteenth-century armorials (1984), by Cecil R. Humphery-Smith Worldcat [Link]
This apparently goes from 1250-1315 and has 3,000 coats of arms in it, though the artwork is modern.
By Lilli Fransen, Anna Nørgård and Else Østergård, translated by Shelly Nordtorp-Madson; from Aarhus University Press – free until the end of September 2014!
Description: Short introduction to the amazing finds of garments from the Norse settlement of Herjolfnes in Greenland by Else Østergård. Chapters on technique: production of the tread, dyeing, weaving techniques, cutting and sewing by Anna Nørgaard. Measurements and drawing of garments, hoods, and stockings with sewing instructions by Lilli Frandsen. A practical guide to making your own Norse Medieval garment!
Amazon Review (K. Duffy): While this book is missing a few things to stand alone, such as dates, It is the perfect companion to “Woven Into The Earth.” The garments are refereed to by their numbers, which makes cross refencing [sic] fairly easy. I can find a garment in this book, see the original, see the reporduction [sic], read the exact measurements of the original and it’s fabric content. I am then given a graphed pattern to follow which shows shaded which parts of the pattern are actual remnants of the original garment and which are the interpretations and filling in of missing fabric. It makes it easy to see exactly what I am looking at. I can then look the garment number up in “Woven Into The Earth” and find more informaiton [sic], such as when and where the garment was unearthed, and in some cases even the specific location on a map of Greenland where it was found. All in all this book is a real gem and it is detailed enough for true historic reproductions as well as easy enough to follow for the weekender reenactor [sic]. A great book!
An epic poem, originally written in Middle High German (1050-1350). It is the story of Siegfried, a dragon-slayer, at the Burgundian court, his death, and his wife Kriemhild’s revenge.
This is a page to provide resources for those in the Society of Creative Anachronisms (SCA), interested in the Bardic and Performing arts around the SCA Known World. (*Bards = performers of traditional singer-songwriter-poets and instrumentalists, physical performers, and magicians; musicians, singers, poets, storytellers, jugglers, jongleurs, minstrels, skalds, troubadores, troveres, minnesangers, meistersangers, et cetera and so on and so forth!” ~ with thanks to Gorsedd and Northshield for the wording)
The following list of “44 Medieval Beasts That Cannot Even Handle it Right Now” comes from [this] BuzzFeed post, and completely made me fall off my chair laughing this morning 🙂
No less than four people (I lost count after awhile) wanted to make sure I saw this. Sharing here, because each has a lovely link to the source in the British Library’s collection.