Arms and Awards (fwd)

[clevin@ripco.com (Craig Levin)]

Poster: clevin@ripco.com (Craig Levin)

Rhiannon of Berra:

> okay.. I'm gonna get out the stirring stick again and ask another
> question. (I'll run and hide for a while after this one, I promise!!)

<daleks>
We Are Heralds. We Know Where You Live. There Is No Escape. You
Will Be Exterminated.
</daleks>

> I was reading a piece of email posted to the merry rose when I saw this:
> 
> In that case, the OHH conflicts with the arms of
> Lithuania (Gu. a knight armed cap-a-pie mounted on a horse arg.
> brandishing a sword ppr. and maintaining a shield az. charged
> with a patriarchal cross or)
> 
> Something has been bothering since I joined the SCA and I feel a need to
> re-ask the age-old question.... I have to ask why it matters if an SCA
> device conflicts with a real modern day device?
> 
> Are we talking about copyright problems, or something similar?  

Essentially, yes. The Lithuanian arms are used on their ballot
boxes and other state property. Cadency practices being what they
are/were, we couldn't help but appear as if we're making a sort
of claim. Cadency can be explained, but only at the risk of
boring the others in the tavern. Suffice to say that it's the way
one tells fathers from sons, and brothers from brothers, just by
looking at their arms. In common law, arms are considered a form
of property (an incorporeal heriditament, as oposed to a vase
your ancestor owned-a coporeal heriditament), and, naturally, it
would be wrong to take another's property.

> I doubt very seriously some king/prince/duke or whatever from a foreign
> government (or someone outside the SCA) is going to get his/her kickers
> in a bunch over Duke Sir Bigstick having a device that's the same as the
> one hanging in the hall.  I should think there are more important things
> to be concerned with.  And if there were a problem, the one with the
> "real" one, wins.

I don't doubt. There are several countries with working heraldic
authorities in the world. One of them isn't that far away, in
Canada. The one in Scotland's got powers equivalent to a criminal
court-fines and jail terms. They get used. Best to avoid the
problem right off the bat, IMO.

In Service,

Dom Pedro de Alcazar
Barony of Storvik, Atlantia
Storvik Pursuivant
Argent, a tower purpure between 3 bunches of grapes proper
-- 
http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~clevin/index.html 
clevin@ripco.com
Craig Levin
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