Author: Mathghamhain

The Last Super-Simple Field-Only Armory

Earlier this week, I became curious about the simplest armory designs that remained available for registration in the Society — was it still possible to find two- and four-part field-only armory that didn’t use furs, field treatments, or complex lines?

I spent some time looking at all of the current field-only armory: 219 devices and badges registered over the last forty-eight years. A visual sense of the diversity of these registrations is provided by Vémundr Syvursson’s Field-Only Emblazons project from last year, in which he drew out all 202 of these that had been registered at that time.

It quickly became clear that in order to find any design spaces that remained open, I would need to take advantage of the fact that I had parsed all of the existing records from the Society’s Ordinary and Armorial into a relational database, which allowed me to run queries that would filter and group registrations to produce a summary of which combinations of lines and tinctures had been used in the past. Continue reading “The Last Super-Simple Field-Only Armory”

Family Animal Badges

Although devices (or “coats of arms”) are the most recognizable form of armorial display, their cousins the fieldless badges were equally common during the medieval period and renaissance.

We’ve recently registered a fieldless badge for each member of our family incorporating a distinctive animal and color. Continue reading “Family Animal Badges”

An Armory Conflict-Checking Checklist

[Editor’s Note: Portions of this checklist were rendered out-of-date by the new rules for considering changes to the field approved by the March 2021 Cover Letter. See the updated version of this document for a revised version of the checklist. — Mathghamhain]

SENA devotes over 10,000 words to conflict checking armory, which the below guide attempts to summarize.

It includes references to the relevant sections of SENA so you can track down more details if needed. Continue reading “An Armory Conflict-Checking Checklist”

Another Round of Traceable Art

Over the last month I’ve added another 135 illustrations to the Book of Traceable Heraldic Art.

As with last month, these are drawn from a variety of sources, including some more beasts from Torric inn Björn, some tools and objects from Gustav Völker, and a couple of funky lions from Thomas Wriothesley. Continue reading “Another Round of Traceable Art”

An Early Roll of Arms of the Canton of Whyt Whey

In the period of 2003-2005, an armorial roll was assembled for members of the Canton of Whyt Whey by Doña Sancha de Flores.

The pages were preserved at archive.org (1, 2) and I thought they might be interesting as a snapshot of local participants from that time. Continue reading “An Early Roll of Arms of the Canton of Whyt Whey”

Recent Art Additions

Over the winter holidays I took some time to add another 156 illustrations to the Book of Traceable Heraldic Art.

Many of these are drawn from the Viking Answer Lady’s SVG Images For Heralds, while others come from historical documents including Insignia Florentinorum (Italy, 16th C) and Opus Insignium Armorumque (Slovenia, 17th C), and some have been newly illustrated for this collection. Continue reading “Recent Art Additions”

Book Heraldry Symposium in Lion’s End

On December 1, I was pleased to meet with a group of aspiring and intermediate heralds from Østgarðr and its neighboring Barony of An Dubhaigeainn to offer over five hours of classes in the practice of onomastics and armorial design and registration in the Society for Creative Anachronism.

My thanks to Lilie Dubh inghean ui Mordha for her capable teaching assistance, especially on the names side, and to Sláine báen Ronán for writing up a description of the event for publication in the East Kingdom Gazette, reproduced below with her kind permission. Continue reading “Book Heraldry Symposium in Lion’s End”