[ANSTHRLD] Conflict Check: Gules, a seal sejant argent charged with a fleur-de-lys sable

[Lisa Theriot]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_mother_seal_...]

I think I'd have to blazon that ululant.  If you saw her a second later,
she'd have been flat on the ground again.

[I don't know, but that's the term used by more or less every
registration of a seal.  If you have a better idea, let's hear it.]

Let me see your picture.  If you used the picture in PicDic, that's a
(natural) sea lion, and yes, I'd call him sejant.

[As for seal vs. sea lion. . . I'm not a zoologist.  If what you are
saying is the depiction of seals we are most familiar with, with the
upper body more or less erect and the lower body trailing behind, is
something seals don't do, but (New World) sea lions do do, then in what
position would a seal most commonly be used in period armory? Naiant?]

Correct.  The "sit up, clap your fins, say 'ark, ark' and beg for fish"
animal is found only in the Pacific.  Atlantic seals move like beached
fish.  Even in the water, sea lions swim rings around them, to the point
that the sea lions have to be locked up when the seals get fed or the
seals won't get any (former Busch Gardens employee here).

I have zero evidence for even Atlantic seals in period heraldry, though
they were certainly well known and the idea doesn't bother me, but yes,
they would be known either swimming or lying prone on the beach, so I
think fish blazonry probably suits them best.

Fox-Davies does not mention seals at all (the animal, that is).  Parker
says:

Seal: this marine mammal has adopted in some few coats of arms. It seems
to have been fancifully called by some heraldic writers the sea-calf,
and sea-wolf; possibly, too, by the sea-bear in meant the seal (see
under Bear). The whole animal, however, does not appear to be
represented; only the paws and the head, and then but rarely.

    Argent, a chevron between three seal's paws erased and erect sable
--Town of YARMOUTH, Norfolk.
    Or, a seal's foot erect and erased proper
--BERINGBURGH.
    Azure, a ducal coronet or between three seal's heads erased argent
--BURMAN, Stratford, co. Warwick.
    Argent, a chevron between three seal's heads bendwise couped sable
--LEY, co. Wilts, Barony, 1625; also LEY, co. Devon

The illustration of the paw is nothing like a seal flipper, and is very
hand-like.  Franklyn & Tanner (and here we are talking WELL
out-of-period style) explain it:

Seal: the marine mammal, Phoca vitulina, represented in British heraldry
by its head, either couped or erased, and its paw.  The latter, drawn
like a hand having four fingers, is clearly not a representation of the
seal flipper, nor is it strictly a paw.  It is believed to have
originated in the misnaming of a mole's 'hand', there being a remote
connection in the uses and appearance of seal's skin and mole's skin.
The whole beast is employed in continental arms.

The Ley coat mentioned by Parker is close enough that I think seal heads
are fine, but if somebody has an example anywhere near period of an
entire seal, I'd sure like to see it.

[Or if they simply weren't used in period heraldry, then in the first
place I'll be suprised,]

Just because something is wildly popular in SCA heraldry doesn't mean it
even occurs in period heraldry.  Everybody thought the whole "great
seal" thing made a funny pun, but then actual seals look like lumps, so
they had to be sea lions in order to be cute.  In fact, the Seale family
arms, granted July 9, 1599, are Or, a fess azure between three wolf's
heads erased sable.  If even the SEALE family didn't want seals on their
coat, I'm not surprised I don't find them anywhere else!

[in the second place, I'll point my submitter to that fact.]

Please do.  The page showing the Ley coat and what the seal's "hand"
looks like is here:
http://www.heraldsnet.org/saitou/parker/Jpglosss.htm


Adelaide