[ANSTHRLD] It Est, So Where Is It Scriptum??

tmcd at panix.com tmcd at panix.com
Fri Jan 30 09:10:37 PST 2004


"Haines, Paul" <PHA at allseas.com> wrote:
> I believe the premise behind registering the emblazon over the
> blazon is primarily in regards to what is cause for return.  The
> emblazon is concrete, while blazons may vary (to a point).

I wouldn't agree with the first sentence as it's worded, but I do
agree with the second.  It's much more convenient to work with words
in describing armory and working with it, but indeed the picture is
primary.

Consider what would happen if we registered the blazon.  Suppose a
kingdom registers something with a "hippocampus", and they put a
natural seahorse all over their kingdom banners and the thrones and
tabards and kingdom newsletters and ... Then suppose that Laurel were
to decide that a "hippocampus" were a heraldic sea-horse -- half
horse, half fish.  Would you want to tell the kingdom that the blazon
is what's registered, and they need to change all their kingdom
banners and thrones and tabards and Web pages and ...?

(That's a contrived example.  A few years ago, Laurel found that
"hippocampus" was being used inconsistently, sometimes for the
heraldic sea-horse, sometimes for the natural seahorse.  So Laurel
banned the term "hippocampus" from SCA blazons, and went back and
reblazoned everything that used the term to be either a natural or
heraldic seahorse. -- But I hope you get the point of my example.)

He have had cases when conventions have been established or  changed.
I think it was in Elsbeth's tenure that she decided that the default
orientation for a spur should be the same as the real-world default,
and reblazoned armory.  Zenobia recently noticed that there was no
defined orientation for a trillium, but since they have three (3)
petals, it's quite noticable when it's a Y versus an inverted Y.
So she went thru and reblazoned all the trilliums to specify, and she
set a default (though I'd have to look to see whether it's Y or Y
inverted).

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com; tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work address



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