Re: Arms and Awards

[Dave Montuori <damont@wolfstar.com>]

Poster: Dave Montuori <damont@wolfstar.com>


Rhiannon reaches for yet another can marked "WORMS":

> 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?

Consider this as a *partial* answer: SCAdians are all supposed to be
medieval gentry-or-better (unless we deliberately choose to be baseborn).
Actual medieval folks of that social class would have recognized certain
coats of arms as belonging to a particular person, group, or political
entity. It is therefore good recreation, if we actively avoid displaying
arms that, in period, either belonged to someone else or would denote a
close relationship with someone else.

The same thing applies to more modern items, especially if they are
well-known. In this case there is also a question of obtrusive modernity:
if someone goes out on the field bearing "Gules, on a pale argent a maple
leaf gules," *everyone* will think "Oh Canada!" and I can't vouch for what
Dafydd might do. :-) And that flag isn't as old as *I* am.

This is a subject that always generates some discussion, and everyone's
mileage will vary, so I don't claim to have all the answers. But the above
is the nutshell version of why I, personally, believe it just for the SCA
to call "mundane" conflicts -- and I believed that before I became a
herald.

Evan

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