Re: heraldry ?

[edh@ascc01.ascc.att.com (Alfredo el Bufon)]

Andrea --

  You ask a lot of very good questions.  I know a little bit on the
subject, so I will try to answer them, and let my comments echo
throughout the Merry Rose, so that anyone who catches my misspeaking
may correct me.

  Firstly, heraldry was not used everywhere and everywhen within
the scope of the Period, so it's possible that your persona is
from a time, place, or station that wasn't concerned with it.
But even then, you might want to have a device for SCA-related
reasons (like avoiding big blank spots on your award scrolls).

  Generally, the arms actually used in the Period were not
meaningful to the bearer, except ones that occasionally
made a "cant", or pun, on the family name.  I think that
things that related personally to the person granted arms
usually showed up in the crest (this was a sort of hood
ornament for helmets that is drawn above the shield in a
fancy full-out "achievement of arms".  SCA heraldry usually
avoids thinking about crests).  For example, one of Robert
the Bruce's men (I forget who) was granted a crest of an
arm in armor holding a bloody dagger, to commemorate the
time the Bruce came out of church one day all upset, saying
something like, "I got mad at the Comyn [his rival to the
Scottish throne] just now, and I hit him!  In the kirk!  I
think I might have killed him!" and his loyal man drew his
dagger and said, "I'll make sure."

  Don't be afraid of going to your local herald with no ideas.
I think that most heralds prefer such customers to the ones who
are dead-set on getting "Gules, two lions combattant Or" registered.
If you're going to Pennsic, you can stop in at Herald's Point and
see a bewildering array of nice devices lovingly devised by bored
heralds.  Then you can eliminate the ones that don't appeal to you,
and select at random from those that do appeal.

  In the SCA (some people say) you get your "device" registered with
the College of Heralds, then they become your "arms" after you get
an Award of Arms from the Crown.  In the Period, and in modern mundane
heraldry (like in England), "arms" and "device" are interchangeble,
but then they never tried to set up a registry like in the SCA.

  Hoping that I've helped, I remain

-- Alfredo
(whose arms are "Per pale argent and azure, a jester's belled hood of two
ears counterchanged" which means the shield is split down the middle
vertically, with white one side, blue on the other, and cap-and-bells
split the same but with the colors reversed.)

-- 
Alfredo el Bufon
Elvegast, Windmaster's Hill, Atlantia
edh@ascc01.ascc.att.com
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