Hello Gentlemen

[LionPride32]

Good evening, sirs. As for my kit, I'm about halfway there as far as what time period is in my heart and what I'll be representing (1180's-1220's). I did read you must have armour to be become a full fledged knight. I never really pictured myself in actual armour, but as Sir Brian said, chainmal, helm, tunic and sword (plus many accesories). I suppose I'll get the idea as I go on and learn from you all. And Sir Brian, GREEN is my color, and I've missed my chance to be the green knight!

Til next time.....

[Sir Edward]

Heh, well considering there really are only 5 colors and 2 metals in heraldry, there are only so many color combinations that can be accomplished. Don't feel like you can't use a color just because someone else is.

[Sir Douglas]

Heh, well considering there really are only 5 colors and 2 metals in heraldry, there are only so many color combinations that can be accomplished. Don't feel like you can't use a color just because someone else is.

I second this notion.

*hint hint compare Sir Edward's and my avatar pics. *

[LionPride32]

5 colors and 2 metals...This I didn't know. What are the colors and metals, and does each color represent a different value?? My personal arms are going to be somewhat similar of Edward III of England, as my father is french, my mother english (her maiden name is Worthington, who originated in Lancastershire). Lions and fluer de lis...still thinking. Anyway, about the colors???

[Sir Edward]

For a great crash course on Heraldry, there's a great primer on the SCA site:

http://heraldry.sca.org/armory/primer/

But to answer your question, the colors are here:

http://heraldry.sca.org/armory/primer/tinctures.html

Basically red, green, blue, black, and purple (rare) are the colors, and the metals are white (silver) and yellow (gold). The distinction between a "color" and a "metal" is that the metals are bright, whereas the other colors are not, so there are rules about how they can be combined.

[Sir James A]

Good evening, sirs. As for my kit, I'm about halfway there as far as what time period is in my heart and what I'll be representing (1180's-1220's). I did read you must have armour to be become a full fledged knight. I never really pictured myself in actual armour, but as Sir Brian said, chainmal, helm, tunic and sword (plus many accesories). I suppose I'll get the idea as I go on and learn from you all. And Sir Brian, GREEN is my color, and I've missed my chance to be the green knight!

Til next time.....

Armor is indeed a requirement to be a knight, however, armor appropriate to your time period. So you need not have a "full plate" harness for your time period. Knighthood is many steps down the road, and an admirable goal. The path laid out with the Order builds upon itself, so that you begin with clothing, then later, acquire official heraldry/arms, then after a set of armor (as well as peer review and being deemed worthy) - then comes knighthood. Enjoy the journey, it is part of the fun!

5 colors and 2 metals...This I didn't know. What are the colors and metals, and does each color represent a different value?? My personal arms are going to be somewhat similar of Edward III of England, as my father is french, my mother english (her maiden name is Worthington, who originated in Lancastershire). Lions and fluer de lis...still thinking. Anyway, about the colors???

Sir Edward ninja'd me on the colors.

As Douglas said, don't worry too much about "your color" being taken. Sir William and I both have a "Black Knight" label (at least a specific harness of mine will), as black is our primary color on our heraldry. In any group with more than 7 knights, they will have to share colors with another member. It's also very much a modern concept of being "the (color) knight", as historically, plenty of people shared colors, hence the importance of charges (symbols) and divisions (lines/separations). The lion and fleur-de-lys will set you apart from Sir Brian, as even sharing colors, you don't share charges - or even more specifically, you could have the same charges AND colors, with a different division, or different placement of charges, and still be "unique" from a historical perspective.

There is a free Coat of Arms website you can use to design your own and make comparisons: http://inkwellideas.com/coat_of_arms/

[Sir Brian]

Good evening, sirs. As for my kit, I'm about halfway there as far as what time period is in my heart and what I'll be representing (1180's-1220's). I did read you must have armour to be become a full fledged knight. I never really pictured myself in actual armour, but as Sir Brian said, chainmal, helm, tunic and sword (plus many accesories). I suppose I'll get the idea as I go on and learn from you all. And Sir Brian, GREEN is my color, and I've missed my chance to be the green knight!

Til next time.....

Well I laud your fine choice in colors! 

Also as an aside, my ‘Green Knight’ moniker is one that I embraced after being referred to as the green knight from renfaire patrons which spurred my curiosity to investigate if there was any historical basis of the title besides the Arthurian legends which resulted in discovering an Irish hereditary title that originated back to antiquity and so I adapted my personae to reflect that ancient Irish title. 

[Sir James A]

I decided this was a good time to update my page slightly, and added the grid I had for when I was deciding on my heraldry. I also added verbiage on how I arrived at my final decision. It may be of some use to you.

http://www.james-anderson-iii.com/historical/my-heraldry/index/

[LionPride32]

Thank you all very much for the information. I am aware I will not become a knight OVER-knight haha I look forward to taking every step needed to achieve my goals. I will check out the websites for info on herladry. I'm interested to see how they are officialy planned out. I wojuld just like everyone here to know that Im excited to be here and am taking this seriously Faith and Commitment are big values for me!

[Lord Chagatai]

Hail and welcome!!!


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[Sir Nate]

Hail and welcome to modern chivalry.
I also have a copy of Knight by Robert jones, and have been using it as a sort of handbook on being a knight.
Thank you for your service.

[LionPride32]

Knight and History of Middle Ages were both bargain priced at barnes and noble!! Crazy! My next book will be about the whole Plantagent line of monarchs...

[SirNathanQ]

Welcome, good Sir, and thank you for your service!

Seriously, don't stress the color thing. At this point there's about 3 of us Black and White knights, I'd suppose. I'd say your identifier will be more your main charge than your color. Mine is the White Oak Tree. In fact, in period you see many allegorical passages that refer to people by their charge. Dante's inferno is an example, and one can see in Italy the Guelphs and Ghibellines adopting various charges as snubs at the other faction's charges.

Color identifiers outside of Arthurian legend are probably modern renn-faire patron anachronism, like how at MDRF I was known to one group as "The Templar" even though I was clearly wearing Teutonic regalia (as I am wont to do).

[Sir Edward]

like how at MDRF I was known to one group as "The Templar" even though I was clearly wearing Teutonic regalia (as I am wont to do).

Clearly anything with a cross is a Templar.

[Sir William]

like how at MDRF I was known to one group as "The Templar" even though I was clearly wearing Teutonic regalia (as I am wont to do).

Clearly anything with a cross is a Templar.

As far as the masses go, it seems to be so.  No sweat off my back as I do moonlight as a Templar every once in a while.