[Sca-cooks] Arms, was Mairi Ceilidh

[Elaine Koogler]

Your device (or arms, if you've been awarded arms in one manner or 
another [Award, Grant or Patent]) represents your personal presence. To 
me, that means that the only time my arms are seen/used is when I am 
personally present or if I give permission for them to be used. On the 
other hand, my badge is used to signify a relationship with me. It is 
worn by my students, on their belts. It is on my dinnerware, and any 
other items that I wish to mark as mine. Heraldically, they are somewhat 
different as well. Devices usually have a background, or field. They 
typically are a little more complex than a badge. In the SCA, they must 
differ from another device by two points (consult your local herald for 
a definition of this...it's too complex to go into here). A badge, on 
the other hand, typically and historically does not have a field, 
although in the SCA it can. It is usually simpler than a device, and 
needs to differ from another piece of heraldry by only 1 point. If you 
wish to register a fieldless badge, then it must consist of a single, 
unified charge. By that I mean that, if there are several elements, they 
must somehow be physically connected. For example, I couldn't register a 
cauldron with a pair of crossed spoons above it. But I could register a 
pair of crossed spoons surmounted by a cauldron...if it didn't conflict 
with another piece of heraldry.

Here ends Kiri's short lesson on heraldry!

Sorry, folks!

Kiri

AEllin Olafs dotter wrote:

> So, if after all this, I ever did actually want to use the silly 
> thing, I need to get something different anyway? I know I've had 
> badges explained to me, but I'm Not Quite Getting it... how exactly 
> are they different?
>
> AEllin
> who is unlikely to ever have minions, but could conceivably have a 
> chair she wanted to mark... seems a complex way to do it, but that was 
> about the only use I could actually see... for me.
>
> Susan Fox-Davis wrote:
>
>> So far, so good.
>>
>>> If you ever get minions,
>>> they will get tabards with your arms on them, so
>>> people will know to whom they belong. You can
>>> paint your arms on various objects, like your
>>> tourney chair or your ice chest, as a period way
>>> to identify your possessions rather that use the
>>> very unperiod "property of ..."
>>>
>> Not quite right here. These are the places to use your BADGE, not 
>> your device.
>>
>> A Device says This Is Me. A banner that proclaims that I am in 
>> residence, or garments that only I wear like a fighting tabard or 
>> heraldic surcoat. Only the current ruling landed noble of a Kingdom 
>> or Barony, or the herald who speaks for him, gets to wear the full 
>> arms of that region. [There was heraldry test question once: You see 
>> two men wearing tabards of the Arms of the East Kingdom. One of them 
>> is wearing a Crown. How do you address the other one? The technically 
>> correct answer is "My Lord Herald", however Zenobia's answer was "Hi 
>> Arval!" Not inappropriate at the time.]
>>
>> A Badge says This Is Mine. My stuff, my householders. Aeduin has a 
>> small emblazon of my arms on his associates' belt, but this is local 
>> tradition rather than technically correct usage. His back-support 
>> belt for carrying heavy objects DOES have my badge carved on it, the 
>> one with the celery stalk between fox' tails. Also the caption: "HOW 
>> AM I SERVING? CALL 1-800-S E L E N E" mainly because nobody believed 
>> I would really do that. <bwahaha>
>>
>>> There are tons of imaginative ways of using your
>>> arms.
>>>
>> This is undoubtedly true, but only I get to use them.
>>
>> Selene
>>
>>
>>
>
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-- 
Learning is a lifetime journey…growing older merely adds experience to 
knowledge and wisdom to curiosity.
					-- C.E. Lawrence