RE: Heraldic Help

[E L Wimett <SILVERDRAGON@Charleston.Net>]

Poster: E L Wimett <SILVERDRAGON@Charleston.Net>

>> Poster: Eric Stoneking <estoneki@swales.com>

>> I think it makes a certain amount of sense to go primarily by the picture
>> rather than the words, since blazon syntax is so specialized.  But some common
>> sense must be applied, at least occasionally.

>> For example, the shire of Hammerhold has the following device/badge:

>> Sable, a hammer Or entwined with kudzu vine (Pueraria thumbergia) proper,
>> within a laurel wreath Or.

>> Raise your hand if you can draw kudzu well enough that it can be correctly
>> identified from the drawing alone.  Now raise your hand if you know kudzu
>> well enough to recognize it from a well-drawn picture.  

>> I'm sure it can be done, but I'll bet there was a note on the submission
>> form that said something like, "This is kudzu."

Well, actually, LOOOOOOOOONG before I was a principal herald, much less Laurel, I was the one who designed these arms.  And there were no specific instructions, though in those days the Meridian forms REQUIRED the local herald to do a blazon and --- being a heraldic hobbyist from the age of 10 --- I had no problem doing this.

It was a bit of an in joke, I admit, but almost anyone who lives anywhere in the southern reaches will identify kudzu fairly well,  In terms of conflict, it was just a vine, but the specification was for "local reference" purposes (and because in those days you could have green on black in this sort of context if it were a real proper and the policy then required that a name for a specific plant be used to do this).

Incidentally, the original plan was that every time the group held an event a new leaf would be added to the vine until the laurel wreath was entirely enshrouded in what Yosef Alaric insisted on referring to as a "field kudzuey".  (Those who are familiar with the growth habits of kudzu and/or the early history of Hammerhold, better known in those days as the Black Hole, will understand this perfectly. . .)

Alisoun (who became seneschale of the Shire of the Black Hole at her first SCA meeting)



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