[ANSTHRLD] A cross between two anchors and two compass stars

[Tim McDaniel]

It's best to keep the blazon during the discussion.

"Quarterly sable and gules in bend two anchors Or, in bend sinister
two compass stars and a cross throughout argent."

Also, the subject line should have some reference to the blazon or the
name, to distinguish this in the mailing list archives from all the
other help requests.

On Thu, 2 Dec 2010, Jillian Birtciel <saintesun at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't like including commas in a blazon...just a nitpicky quirk of
> mine, but without the comma I just couldn't make that blazon read
> right in my head.

Tadhg Liath of Duncairn (former Star Principal Herald, long gone from
the SCA) averred that punctuation in blazons can be as lethal as
punctuation in legislation, and given his druthers, he would rather
have eliminated them completely.  To go by
http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Grants.htm , that appears to be the
practice of the English College of Arms (along with Another Boring
Persona Story arms).

Still, it can be occasionally useful to include commas, though it may
also be an indication of non-period style.

By convention, the SCA puts a comma after the field, if any.  In many
other cases, a comma can be replaced by "and" or "within" or another
word.  As written, the original blazon's "in bend sinister two compass
stars and a cross throughout argent" could be read as saying that
there are three charges in bend sinister (maybe leading to a far
offset cross, I suppose).  I simply assumed that the cross is actually
in its normal position in the center of the field -- if I'm wrong,
please tell me, for there would be bigger problems.  Since centering
it would normally make it the primary charge, it would be blazoned
first.  Crosses are throughout by default.

So I get

Quarterly sable and gules, a cross argent between in bend two anchors
Or and in bend sinister two compass stars argent.

Daniel de Lindicolino
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com