Title: heraldry-tips-msg
Subject: heraldry tips for newcomers.
Author: Edited by Mark Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: heraldry, culture, SCA, pre-heraldic, early

heraldry-tips-msg - 9/28/95

SCA heraldry for cultures that didn't have heraldry.

NOTE: See also the files: heraldry-msg, heraldry-bks-msg, Herald-Embro-art, banners-msg, mottoes1-msg, arms-humor-msg, Voice-Herldry-art.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: mittle at watson.ibm.com (Arval d'Espas Nord)
Subject: Re: Heraldry for Vikings
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 14:55:04 GMT
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research

Greetings from Arval!  Alrik asked:

> I seek some help creating appropriate heraldry for my persona. The
> problem is that I have no idea if 10th century Vikings even have heraldry
> to speak of. 

They didn't.  Armory is generally considered to have arisen in northwestern
France around 1150.  I've found that gentles with pre-heraldic persona tend
to choose one of three approaches:

1) Don't use armory at all.  Using armory is historically incorrect for
your persona, so you could put your time and effort into other things more
appropriate.  If there were other kinds of identifying insignia in use in
your culture, you may or may not choose to use them.

2) Design armory which looks like an insignia appropriate to your persona.
In many pre-heraldic cultures, shields and banners were decorated in
various ways; many of these can be adapted as armory and serve double
purpose.  

3) Accept the style in the culture of the SCA.  If you think of the
Thirteen Kingdoms a strange foreign land to which you have traveled, then
it makes perfect sense to adapt yourself to the customs of this land, no
matter how odd they may seem.  The common armorial style of the SCA is
13th-14th century Anglo-French.

Any of these options is reasonable; your choice depends on how you think
about your persona and what historical elements you want to re-create.

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Arval d'Espas Nord                                   mittle at watson.ibm.com

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