About Our Household Name

We chose Tyddyn Ystradfflyr as the name for our family’s household in the context of our historical re-creation activities within the Society for Creative Anachronism.

The name is Welsh, and is intended to suggest a small family farm in an idyllic medieval valley filled with flowers.

The word Tyddyn is Welsh for “farmstead” or “family farm,” while Ystradfflyr is a compound word meaning “vale of flowers.”

As far as I can tell, the appropriate pronunciation for Middle Welsh is /’tə-ðɨ̞n ‘əst-rad’flɨ̞r/, or to use American newspaper phonetics, “Te-thin Est-rad-flir.”

With a bit of poetic license, one might render this into English as “Bloomingdale Farm,” a name that appealed to us as an echo of the Bloomingdale neighborhood of New York City where we have lived for the last fifteen years.

The historical documents we cited to support the registration of this name with the Society’s College of Arms are shown below.


Tyddyn is a Old Welsh word meaning a family farmstead, as documented in Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn’s “Period Welsh Models for SCA Households and the Nomenclature Thereof” which says:

… tyddyns or homesteads, each with its share in the surrounding fields…. each tyddyn is held, in theory, by an individual household … the Ordinance Survey Map of Anglesey turns up more examples, such as Tyddyn Mawr (Big Tyddyn) and Tyddyn y Felin (Tyddyn of the Mill).”

Ystradfflyr is the historical name of a mansion in central Wales, as documented in Aryanhwy merch Catmael’s “A Collection of Welsh Household Names from 1602” which says:

Ystradfflyr (Cardigan): Welsh. ystrad ‘vale’ + n. fflur ‘flower’ …

Viceregal Platform

Greetings from Alienor Salton and Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin to the populace of Østgarðr!

This autumn, at the invitation of their Excellencies Suuder and Lada, we announced our intention to stand as candidates for the viceregal succession, and since then we have laid out our qualifications (Alienor’s resume, Mathghamhain’s resume) and our objectives for the office.

We invite you to take a few minutes to peruse our platform statement and get to know us better, then feel free to contact us directly if you have any questions that weren’t answered here, or suggestions or concerns that you’d like to see addressed.

Thank you for taking the time to consider the choice before you.

In service to the dream,

— Alienor Salton
— Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin


To their Royal Majesties Emperor Ioannes and Empress Honig, and to their Highnesses Crown Prince Ryouko’jin and Crown Princess Indrakshi, and to their Excellencies Suuder Il-Khan and Lada Il-Khatun, and most importantly to the beloved populace of the Crown Province of Østgarðr, birthplace of the East, first among equals — greetings!
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We come before you, Hlæfdige Alienor Salton and Boaire Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin, to present ourselves as candidates for the viceregal succession. Continue reading Viceregal Platform

Resume for Alienor Salton

[People sometimes talk about their history in the SCA as their “Society Resume” so I thought it might be interesting to format Alienor’s accomplishments as if they were a traditional curriculum vitae — it does demonstrate that she’s been busy!

If you have questions about the work she’s done or her goals for the future, please drop by tomorrow’s “Meet the Viceregal Candidates Night” and ask! — Mathghamhain]

Continue reading Resume for Alienor Salton