ANSTHRLD - Question

[Richard Culver]

>Maybe "Gules, on a plate a cross gammadion saltirewise sable."?
>Works well on a round shield.

  That was unappreciated, but I think you were being funny.

>Seriously, I think "Teutonic" tends to be a linguistic term nowadays.
>Certainly by the time of the adoption of heraldry per se, Germany and
>England (while Teutonic in origin) were separated and got noticably
>different styles of armory, so I can't use one term to lump them
>together.  Germanic is great -- it's a style not seen as much in the
>SCA as others -- but Germanic heraldry, like all heraldry, is later
>than you.

  Teutonic is just a latinization of Teutsch/Deutsch/Þeodisc/Þjoðsk, etc.  I 
realize everything is later.

>However, do your arms designs perhaps fit modern notions of
>primitiveness in particular?  I don't recall many spearheads, I don't
>even recall offhand what a Norse sunwheel or Norse sun cross might be,
>and your designs are mostly rotationally symmetric (not that that
>didn't happen, but it was rare).  Do you have evidence of Old North
>Germanic (or whatever the correct term might be -- sorry about that)
>art or designs?

  Most of anything we have is from picture stones.  Spearheads were the most 
prevailent weapon found in graves.  The Norse sunwheel which was used in 
many Germanic (feel better) cultures was a cross within and conjoined to and 
annulet.  It appears in Migration Age rock glyphs often also as a shield or 
as a sail of sorts on early boat drawings.  Rotational is often found in the 
picture stones.
   Later we have the Sutton Hoo shield which had abstract animal motifs, one 
a type of bird and the other a serpent if I remember correctly.  It also had 
to very long but narrow lozenge-like pieces.  Early text also elude to 
ornate shield designs.

>I've heard of various philosophies for pre-heraldic personae:
>- My persona wouldn't have know about heraldry.  I won't use it.

  I am sure they had some way of distinguishing one another.  Then again 
warbands were not as large as the armies of later times so one could 
probably tell who was who.

>- My persona is ___, but I've moved to this place called Ansteorra, so
>   I'll do this "heraldry" thing just like most people here.  This is
>   the "when in Rome, shoot off Roman candles" theory.

   It is nice to kind of help the Game along.


  Thanks for your help.

Godspeed,
Cyniric

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