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Rules of Heraldry
Sir Edward:
I was looking on wikipedia recently since I saw some discussion about heraldry that raised the question of use of black as a color, and also separately on someone's website I noticed a quartered division using two colors (no metal), namely red and blue.
Apparently (and I've been neglecting this), it seems that it's OK for colors to touch colors in the base division of the shield's field. Additionally, while we tend to think of black working both as a color and a metal (comparing it to a fur), this wasn't usually the case in western Europe. It usually was strictly a color, so a black charge over a color or vice-versa wouldn't always have been acceptable.
Anyway, check this out. It's insane:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grenville_Diptych_edit2.jpg
Wikipedia's heraldry page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraldry
Sir William:
Would I be totally wrong if I just chose one of those as my CoA? I ask because I get the feeling that for most of you guys, what you wear has some sort of connection to you- like a familial crest; my ancestry would be cost-prohibitive to track down as at least on my Mom's side, there's an adoption for which we cannot find the original parents. I could CLAIM ancestry from anywhere though, so long as I didn't need to furnish papers of nobility. lol
Wait a minute, I just looked this up- this was for ONE person only? 719 quarterings of the same family? GEEZ. It'd cost the price of at least an econobox car to get something like that made for a surcoat and shield!!!!
Sir Edward:
Yep, that was one set of arms. It's crazy.
Some people do track down family arms and work from there, but it's common practice in groups like the SCA and so on to make something up for yourself that means something to yourself. Sir Brian and I both invented ours from scratch, using symbolism that means something to ourselves.
In my case, I wrote up a small web page describing the meaning of the elements of mine, though I didn't go into much detail on what the personal origins of them are and why I wanted them in there, mostly the historical meanings of those charges, etc: http://ed.toton.org/chivalry/my-coa.html
Sir Edward:
This is a really great starting point to understand the rules of heraldry. It's the SCA's interpretation, so it's not 100% accurate to historical heraldry (though it's really good), but then again, there were variations across regions and centuries, as with anything.
http://heraldry.sca.org/primer/
As an aside, I got my arms approved in the SCA (they consider the ankh valid though it's not a historical charge, but I discuss that on my heraldry page).
Sir William:
Wow,
--- Quote from: Sir Edward on 2010-10-14, 16:07:00 ---Yep, that was one set of arms. It's crazy.
Some people do track down family arms and work from there, but it's common practice in groups like the SCA and so on to make something up for yourself that means something to yourself. Sir Brian and I both invented ours from scratch, using symbolism that means something to ourselves.
In my case, I wrote up a small web page describing the meaning of the elements of mine, though I didn't go into much detail on what the personal origins of them are and why I wanted them in there, mostly the historical meanings of those charges, etc: http://ed.toton.org/chivalry/my-coa.html
--- End quote ---
Didn't go into much detail? That was a wealth of information- and an excellent starting point for me to begin understanding what all of it entails. It seems more intricate than putting together a harness, requiring more thought on the matter.
Note to self: Creative juices- now would be the time to start flowing!
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