[Ansteorra] honor and animals

[jwtopp at peoplepc.com]

Timmy!!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: ansteorra-bounces+jwtopp=peoplepc.com at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:ansteorra-bounces+jwtopp=peoplepc.com at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf
Of Tim McDaniel
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 1:48 PM
To: Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc.
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] honor and animals

Warning!  You're about to get heraldry goo all over you.

On Fri, 16 Apr 2010, Hugh & Belinda Niewoehner
<burgborrendohl at valornet.com> wrote:
> As to symbols of honor in general I do not know how accurate this
> site is about Heraldry (Perhaps a herald will comment) but they say
> 'honor' in heraldry was represented by

The needle on my bogometer wrapped around the post just reading that
far.

If any page assigns "meanings" to heraldic tinctures or charges in
general, you know that it's bogus, and furthermore you should take
anything they say about heraldry with a small boulder of salt.

In certain *specific* areas, there were meanings.  The ones that come
to mind:

- There was "canting", where something on the coat of arms makes a pun
   on the last name of the bearer.  E.g., the Talbot arms have talbots
   (a breed of hound), the Lucy arms have lucy fish, et cetera.

- There were a *few* specific charges that did have meanings in
   restricted geographical areas: the Red Hand of Ulster in Britain is
   for baronets (post-period); gold fleurs-de-lys on blue in France
   usually meant it was a member of the royal family or they received
   an augmentation to their arms for service to the Crown; et cetera.

- People who were closely related could have differenced arms
   (cadency).  The vassal of a lord might use motifs from his lord's
   arms on his own.

- There were ways of combining coats of arms to show marriage,
   inheritance, claims, or offices.

But those were in specific areas and cases.  There's no evidence that
people chose gold to mean nobility, black to mean steadfastness, or
whatever.  Further, there are heraldic treatises and other works that
discussed the symbology of color, and they didn't agree.  (I once
found something like 11 different "meanings" for gold in 5 works.)

And anyway, most armigers didn't choose arms, they inherited them.
All that "Or, three escutcheons gules" meant was that you were the son
of the guy who bore "Or, three escutcheons gules".

Worse, the page quoted mentioned a good meaning for tenne, "Worthy
ambition".  Heraldic treatise authors did mostly agree that tenne and
sanguine were supposed to be used for "abatements of honor", marks of
*dishonor* added to the shield.  There's no evidence that anyone ever
did, but that's what the treatise authors wrote.


"Meanings" of arms is rather like "meanings" of names.  Heather Rose
Jones was not born all green, leafy, thorny, or bloomy.  Someone named
Margaret is not likely to be a more or less irregular sphere of
calcium carbonate produced by a mollusc.  I was named Timothy, but not
because there was evidence that I honored God.  The difference between
a name and a simple adjective is that a name has become detached from
its literal meaning.

Danielis de Lincolino
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com
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