[Ansteorra] honor and animals

[Jennifer Smith]

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 1:48 PM, Tim McDaniel <tmcd at panix.com> wrote:
> 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.

What Daniel wrote further is very well said.

An anecdote I am particularly fond of is found in _The Heraldic
Imagination_ by Rodney Dennys. In a chapter discussing so-called
heraldic symbolism, he writes:

"The early heralds would have searched the bestiaries for information
on the beasts and birds of the world. Bado Aureo was clearly
influenced by them in describing, in his _Tractatus de Armis_, the
various beasts, birds and fishes which are borne in arms. The
'sweetness of music with melodius notes', which the Swan was said to
pour forth, is echoed by Bado Aureo who tells us that singers, when
dubbed knights or otherwise raised to eminence, ought to bear a Swan
in their arms. He goes on to say that he had, nevertheless, seen
unmusical men bearing Swans in their arms, and he therefore asked a
'King of the Heraulds why he assigned to such men to bere swannes in
armys, which were no syngers'. The king of arms replied that one
reason could be that 'they wre passing faire men', and another that
'they had longe nekkes'. It is interesting that by 1394 it was
apparently accepted in English Court circles that a king of arms was
the appropriate authority for designing and assigning arms." [quotes
from Bodlein Library MS. LAud. Misc 733, f. 9: a late 15th century
English translation of John de Badu Aureo's _Tractatus de Armis_,
itself written in 1394 or 1395.]

Further discussion of his treatise in the book seems to show that he
was a bit of a wackjob, but I thought his Swan anecdote quite amusing
and very telling.

-Emma