[ANSTHRLD] FW: Real world Heraldic Emergency

Robert Fitzmorgan fitzmorgan at gmail.com
Fri Dec 14 14:40:12 PST 2007


Army castrates heraldic lion
Published: 13 Dec 07 12:34 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/9398/

Protests from female soldiers have led to the Swedish military removing the
penis of a heraldic lion depicted on the Nordic Battlegroup's coat of arms.

The armed forces agreed to emasculate the lion after a group of women from
the rapid reaction force lodged a complaint to the European Court of
Justice, Göteborgs-Posten reports.

But although the army was eventually happy to make the changes in the
interests of gender equality, the artist who designed the insignia was less
than pleased.

"A heraldic lion is a powerful and stately figure with its genitalia intact
and I cannot approve an edited image," Vladimir A Sagerlund from the
National Archives told Göteborgs-Posten.

Sagerlund blasted the army for making changes to the coat of arms without
his permission.

"The army lacks knowledge about heraldry. Once upon a time coats of arms
containing lions without genitalia were given to those who betrayed the
Crown," said Sagerlund.

But the castrated lion has already won the day and is now worn on the arms
of all soldiers in the battle group's Swedish battalions.

"We were given the task of making sure the willy disappeared," Christian
Braunstein from the army's 'tradition commission' told Göteborgs-Posten.

"We were forced to cut the lion's willy off with the aid of a computer," he
added.

The Nordic Battlegroup is one of eighteen such military groups in the
European Union. Some 2,000 of its 2,400 soldiers come from Sweden, with the
rest coming from Finland, Norway, Ireland and Estonia.

-- 
"If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much
of a day."     John A. Wheeler

Fitzmorgan at gmail.com
Yahoo IM: robert_fitzmorgan



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