Re: Fireball shooting yak

[Joyce Baldwin <jocetta@ibm.net>]

Poster: Joyce Baldwin <jocetta@ibm.net>

<snip> >a good friend of mine's claims that there is a mythological
beast in celtic
> >mythology which had  breath that could slay and shot fireballs out its
> >posterior, and in general caused lots of destruction(to the ozone layer).
<snip>
> there is a heraldic beast known as
> the bonacon.  From J. P. Brooke-Little's _An Heraldic Alphabet_:
> 
> Bonacon (also Bonasus)  A bull-like monster but with horns which curl
> inwards, a short mane, and a horse's tail.  Its horns being but useless, it
> defends itself by shooting its burning excrements at its enemies.  It
> appears to have been first granted to Richard Chandelor in 1560 as a crest.
>  (Note - the illustration shows only the head of the beast, as even for
> Tudor heraldry a flame-throwing bull is a bit much!)
> 
> There are no instances of this beast registered as SCA arms.

Maybe not registered but back when I first joined the SCA (it was not
quite before dirt but it was still a New Thing then and regarded
suspiciously) I was an apprentice herald attending a Brigantia Principal
Herald meeting and somebody had submitted it!  There was some question
of  sending it back as patently offensive, but it did pass, the
concensus being "if he wants to go around having people think of him as
a flaming a_____, well..."  I'm not sure if it passed Laurel.

Jocetta
+==================================================================+
| Joyce A. Baldwin      | In the Society for Creative Anachronism: |
|  Lyric Coloratura     |  Lady Jocetta Thrushleigh of Rowansgarth |
|  Soprano              |  Quarterly vert and azure, two thrushes  |
| Diva Extraordinaire   |   countourny, tails erect, in bend, or   |
+==================================================================+

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