[antir-heralds] Award Name Question

[Jillian Bower]

G'morning :)

Project Ordensnamen is a decent starting place for concocting new Order and Award names, but please remember that Laurel has given us very precise guidelines on what is good style for them. The relevant precedent is on the August 2005 Cover Letter (it's long, but well worth reading):

[From Pelican: Patterns of Order Names

This month we consider clarifications of how we interpret Order name patterns and of the logical extensions of Order names that, while we have no actual examples of such patterns, can be derived from the existing patterns. On the February 2005 Cover Letter, we asked:

Does the pattern we have been using follow the patterns for period Order names? If so, what is missing from it? In what ways is it reasonable to expand this pattern? For instance, given the large number of Orders named for Saints, Mary and aspects of Mary, or Jesus, is it reasonable to allow the registration of Orders named for non-Christian Gods, demi-Gods and, for want of better word, Saints? If such names were held to follow a pattern, would they be held one step from period practice? Given the existence of the Order of the Golden Fleece, it it reasonable to extend the pattern to Orders whose names come from ancient myth (as current precedent suggests)? Given at least one Order named for a secular founder, do Orders named in honor of secular people follow the pattern of medieval Order names? What questions do these patterns raise in your mind? Please bring them forward, as they are important to formulating a reasonable statement of what constitutes a pattern for forming a 
 period
 Order name. 

I thank the commenters of the College of Arms for the time and effort this discussion took. I hope the result will be well defined guidelines of what we now believe are valid period Order name patterns, and a better understanding of those Order names.

Thanks to all who did research and sent comments on this issue; your information is invaluable in such cases.

First, is it reasonable to allow the registration of Orders named for non-Christian Gods, demi-Gods, and Saints? We believe it is. The commenters all favored the logic behind such an extension and described it in terms consistent with the Rules for Submission. Furthermore, evidence from period order names suggests that there were wide reasons why an order might be named for a saint -- simply as an expression of religious honor is only one reason among many. D.G. Neville, Early Orders of Knighthood and Chivalry discuss various reasons why a saint's name appears in an Order name. Some are named simply to honor a saint; the Swedish Order of the Brician Knights established in 1396 is such an Order. The rules of other orders are more closely connected to the saint whose name it bears; the Order of St. George, Burgundy was founded in 1400 "to guard some relics of Saint George." For other Orders, the saint's name is part of a specific place with which the order is associated; The Kn
 ights 
of the Holy Ghost, established 1486, are also known as "The Brethren of the Hospital of the Holy Ghost." There is one example where an order is named for the saint on whose feast day a victory was won (the Order of Saint Hubert of Juliers, established 1444). Given the wide range of reasons why a holy name might be attached to an order name, and given that religion and religious practice is very important to all medieval cultures, it seems logical to make such an extension. However, as we have no examples or such names, their use must be considered one step from period practice. The same logic may be applied to holy relics of non-Christian deities and saints; they may be registered but must be considered one step from period practice.

Second, given at least one Order named for a secular founder, do Orders named in honor of secular people follow the pattern of medieval Order names? Yes, they do. While this pattern appears only in late period, we now have one undisputed example from late period, the Knights of Pius. Argent Snail notes:

It seems clear to me that the "order of Pius" was named after Pope Pius, and does not mean Pious (as in religious) knights. Let me give you some background on the order name. The current Vatican order, the Order of Pius, was founded in 1847 by Pope Pius IX, and in fact, the order name is found in some sources as the Order of Pius IX. However, his intention was that it be reminiscent of the Order of Pian Knights, which was founded by Pope Pius IV in 1560. However, and this is the important part, the way Latin grammar is formed, Pian is the genitive form of Pius, so the order of Pian Knights, means the knights that belong to Pius, not knights that are pious. 

We also have a description of this order from 1615 which establishes that in England and France at least some people believed that Pius had named this order after himself. From Edward Grimstone's translation of Pierre d'Avity, The estates, empires, & principallities of the world Represented by ye description of countries, maners of inhabitants, riches of prouinces, forces, gouernment, religion; and the princes that haue gouerned in euery estate. With the begin[n]ing of all militarie and religious orders., comes the statement "Pope Pius the fourth, in the yeare of our Lord God 1560 erected t[the scan is smudged here]which carrie his name, whom he would have precede all other orders made by Emperors and other Princes, yea the knights of Malta themselves, for tht they were of his houshold, and did eat at his Table." We also have two two examples from the gray area, The Order of Maria-Eleanor, founded 1632 in Sweden and The Order of Amaranta, founded around 1645 in Sweden. Given 
 this i
nformation, order names whose descriptive element is the given name of the founder or an honored person are considered consistent with late period practice.

Given the existence of the Order of the Golden Fleece, it it reasonable to extend the pattern to Orders whose names come from ancient myth? The answer here is less clear than the other two questions. Clearly, the extension of order name patterns to include the names of non-Christian deities extends registerable order names to the names of deities from classical mythology, so they are not considered in this part of the discussion. There is no doubt about the classical allusion here; it was obvious enough that even early order members occasionally tried to hide it. Guy Stair Sainty, "Great Orders of Chivalry, The Most Illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece" (http://www.chivalricorders.org/orders/other/goldflee.htm), says:

The adoption of a pagan image as the badge of a Christian Order led to a protest by the Order's first Chancellor, Jean Germain, Bishop of Nevers, who preferred that it should recall Gideon's fleece (which was neither gold nor a prize for courage). Later in the century, Chancellor Guillaume Filastes added the fleeces of Jacob, Mesa, Job and David to be associated with this image, making six in all and supposedly corresponding to the virtues of magnanimity, justice, prudence, fidelity, patience and clemency.

However, we have found no other examples of chivalric orders whose names make allusions to classical mythology, and we have evidence that even the allusion to the Golden Fleece was uncomfortable to at least some people of the class who would form chivalric orders at that time. The fact is when the classical age was opening itself once again to Europeans and orders reviving chivalric ideals were once again being formed only one bore a name that referred to classical mythology. This suggests that the name is unique and cannot be taken as a pattern for the general use of classical references in Order names. Note, for example, that The Order of the Golden Fleece was not named The Order of Jason or The Order of Jason and the Argonauts. Instead, it followed the well-established pattern of naming a chivalric order after the badge or symbol of the order, e.g. after the name of a heraldic charge. There are some items from classical mythology that are heraldic charges; we have register
 ed chi
meras, pegasi, krakens, harpies, and sphinxes as heraldic charges in the past. We would probably register a minotaur if it was submitted. Therefore, any object from classical mythology that can be used as a heraldic charge may be registered as part of an order name. However, period order naming patterns do not support extending this to any random reference from classical mythology.

Argent Snail, in arguing for more generous interpretations of patterns notes, "since we know that there were period order names of the form color (including Gold/golden) object, any color object should be considered acceptable, and not one step from period practice, even if the submitted color was not used in a period order name." While we are unwilling to extend the interpretation of period order names to include any color (images of "Order of Dead Spaniard Lion" leap to mind--"dead spaniard" being a fabric color found in Elizabethan England), we are often far stricter in our interpretations concerning colors than we are of other patterns. Therefore, since heraldic objects may be found in any heraldic tincture, the ordinary color name for any heraldic tincture may be used as part of an order name when combined with a heraldic charge (which, if applied to the example above, gives us the "Order of the Green Lion," a perfectly ordinary name.) Following this pattern comes with n
 o pena
lty; even if a particular color found in heraldry is not found in any order name, its use in an order name still follows the established pattern. This does not overturn the precedent disallowing the registration of Orders of the form heraldic tincture name + object in English, since we have no examples of English order names that use heraldic tincture names. So, for example, while the Order of the Green Lion would be held to follow demonstrated patterns, Order of the Lion Vert or Order of the Vert Lion would not.

We noted that the items discussed above all address the meta-patterns found in period order names and the logical extension of these patterns. This makes sense, because Order names do not seem to be constructed using strict word-by-word patterns; rather, they are named using a small set of meta-patterns whose structure is made up of common by-word patterns. To base an order name on just a meta-pattern or a by-word pattern considering the other pattern type often leads to names that do not bear much resemblance to period order names. The by-word patterns laid out in Meradudd Cethin's "Project Ordensnamen" must be considered when forming an order name, but only after one of the following meta-patterns is chosen for the name of the order:

* Orders named for deities and saints. These include "aspect" names, such as "Our Lady of Victory" or "Our Lady of the Lilies." Because we have no examples of orders named for non-Christian deities and saints, such names are considered one step from period practice.

* Orders named for places. These include the Order of Calatrava and the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem.

* Orders named for objects of religious veneration. Examples are Shield of Saint George, and the Flag of the Danes, which, according to legend, fell from the sky on June 15, 1219 to the Danish King Valdemar II during his crusade to Estonia as a sign of divine favor. Orders named for objects related to non-Christian deities and saints are considered one step from period practice. Names of the form non-Christian deity or saint + associated object are still only one step from period practice; this is not an additional step for combining name+object.

* Orders named for virtues. These include Silence and Mercy.

* Orders whose name contains the given name of their founder or the secular person for whom the order is named. 

* Orders named for heraldic charges or for items that, while not found in period as heraldic charges, may be used as heraldic charges. In comparing a list of Order named for creatures and objects, every Order so named uses the creature or object whose name it bears as a badge or as part of its regalia. These include the Order of the Garter, Order of the Toison d'Or (Golden Fleece), Order of the Unicorn, Order of the Dragon, and Order of the Ermine and the Ears of Corn. These names may contain the ordinary color names of any heraldic tincture. Note that the usual restrictions that apply to registering a hitherto unregistered heraldic charge also apply to naming an order after a heraldic charge that has not been registered before. The submitters must demonstrate that the charge has a standard, recognizable period form, and that the word(s) used to blazon the object is found in period with the appropriate meaning.]


If that seems confusing, Ursula has distilled it into a wonderful article that I have bookmarked and consulted many, many times trying to create my own Orders and Awards: http://www.doomchicken.net/~ursula/sca/onomastics/registerorder.html


So, if you want to name your shiny bit "Order of the Raven's Blood", you'd go looking through the meta-patterns that the cover letter indicates are acceptable style. A raven's not a deity or a saint, it's not a place or a virtue, and "raven's blood" doesn't have the name of the founder in it. This leaves you with "objects of religious veneration" and "heraldic charge". I think you'd have a hard time proving that "raven's blood" is a heraldic charge, and I'm also not quite sure that you could pass it off as an object of religious veneration.

A fix might be "Order of the Blood and Raven", though I am unsure if that fits the meta-patterns either.

I'm sorry not to be of more help!

Elizabeth Löwenmähne

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Rosemary Underhill <cocinera at shaw.ca>
> Greetings all:
> 
> I am looking at documenting a new award  "Raven's Blood" using Project
> Ordensnamen.  I have been looking at 2 possibilities, Adjective plus Thing
> (Precious Blood) and Creature and Thing.  Although the Creature (raven) is
> in its possessive form, it is still a noun modifying another noun (blood)
> and this is the one that seems most logical.  Ideas?
> 
> Many Thanks
> Theocharista
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