RE: coat of arms necessary vs required

[rmetzler@nmaa.org (Robert Metzler)]

Poster: rmetzler@nmaa.org (Robert Metzler)

Poster: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>

  We register so that you and I do not both end up being known by the same
  spiff design.
  
  Yes, it is necessary.

Anne, that is simply false.  Some thing it is a good idea, and some don't.
But it is NOT required to register arms.

You really ought to label opinion clearly.  You *think* it is a good idea,
but it is *not* a requirement.



Sir Tibor,
Given the tone of you posting, if education, and not chest thumping, were your goal you really 
should have limited your response to the parties, especially when you are as incorrect as you 
are here. (I do; however, applaud your pedantry - it certainly improves with age).  In point of 
fact registering ones device is "necessary", if heraldry in the SCA is to represent anything 
like period heraldry.  It is necessary to register one's device to insure that it does not 
conflict with the arms of other members in the SCA.  As you well know, in period a person would 
often protect their arms as zealously as Disney protects its mouse ears logo.  One's arms 
defined who they were, what they owned as well as their genealogy.  In period one would neither 
assume nor be assigned arms without determining they were not in conflict with other known arms. 
  
It is also necessary to register it in the SCA so that should one be Awarded Arms by their King 
they may (eventually) receive their scroll.  If one fails to register their device until after 
they receive their AoA, someone else may have registered it.

You are correct to say it is not "required" (but then - that is not what she said is it?).  You 
are wrong to say it is not necessary.  To say that it is not "necessary" to register one's 
device is as correct as it is to say that it is not "necessary" to be polite or courteous.  
May one infer your opinion on the later based on your expression opinion of the former?  

Hreodbeorht MacBeath
Drakkar Herald
Barony of Storvik

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