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Snaffle-bit

Snaffle-bit (Period)

A snaffle-bit is the part of the bridle which goes into the horse’s mouth; the rider controls the horse through direct pressure, without leverage. It’s a period charge, found in the arms of von Wierrant, 1605 [Siebmacher 40], and of Kasattel, mid-16^th C. [BSB Cod.Icon 392d:542; cf. Parker 63]. It’s sometimes blazoned, a bit redundantly, as a “riding snaffle-bit”. The snaffle-bit is fesswise by default.

Period forms of the snaffle-bit have a bar or curb at either end, to keep it from slipping from the horse’s mouth; and a ring, to attach the reins. While a snaffle-bit could be a solid bar, by far its most usual form is jointed in the center (as in the illustration); it is thus usually blazoned a “broken snaffle-bit” in the Society. (“Broken” here refers to the joint; it doesn’t mean the bit is fracted.) Society armory often emphasizes the joint by arranging the snaffle-bit in chevron.

There’s one Society example of a “double-strand snaffle-bit”, which is simply a broken snaffle-bit whose central part is made from two braided wires rather than a solid metal bar.

For related charges, see bridle.

Shishido Tora bears: Per bend sinister gules and sable, a snaffle-bit Or and an eagle argent.

Elizabeth de la Vigne bears: Vert, a broken snaffle-bit chevronwise argent and in base a sun Or.

Alail Horsefriend bears as a badge: A double-strand snaffle-bit fesswise.

Shield

Kite shield (Accepted); round shield (Period)

Escutcheon (Period)

A shield is a piece of defensive armor, generally carried in one hand, freeing the other hand for a sword. As an heraldic charge, the most common form of shield is the escutcheon or heater shield.

Another type is the “buckler” or round shield; also called a “targe” or “target”, it’s found as an heraldic charge as early as 1312, in the arms of Bosun [ANA2 359].

Madu (Probable SFPP)

Other types of shield found in Society heraldry include the “madu” or “madhu”, an Indian shield with horns projecting from either side [Stone 423]; the “kite shield”, depicted in this form in the Bayeux Tapestry, c.1070; and the “shield of David”, another name for the star of David. See also roundel.

Edwin Bersark bears: Gules, a roundel so drawn as to represent a round shield battered in long and honorable service argent.

Umbar in Harchiral Dandachi bears: Argent, chaussé ployé cotised and in chief a kindjal dagger palewise inverted sable surmounted by a madu shield fesswise gules.

Sheaf

Sheaf of three spears (Period)

A sheaf is a bundle or cluster of objects. The unmodified term is normally considered equivalent to a garb, and this is sometimes made explicit (e.g., “a sheaf of wheat”). But in blazonry, the term also refers to a group of three charges, two in saltire surmounted by another palewise. The term is most often used with arrows: a “sheaf of (three) arrows” is a common motif, found in the arms of Joskyn, c.1435 [DBA1 11]. But the term has also been used in mundane blazons for charges other than arrows [Franklyn 302], and it has been adopted for use in Society blazons as well. (It thus replaces older, more awkward neologisms, such as “in estoile” or “in gyronny”).

The illustration shows a sheaf of three spears. It is also possible to have more than three charges in a sheaf, but such cases must be explicitly blazoned.

Sten Stensson bears: Vert, three sheaves of arrows argent.

Conaire Anluan MacMurchadha bears: Vert, a sheaf of three spears argent within a bordure checky vert and Or.

Kilic ibn Sungur ibn al-Kazganci al-Turhani bears: Sable, a sheaf of five swords argent within an orle Or.

Semy

Semy of roundels (Period)

A semy field is one strewn or powdered with many small, identical charges. In medieval usage, any number greater than six could be blazoned “semy”. (Strictly speaking, “semy” is an adjective, not a noun: it’s from the French semée, “strewn”.)

Semy charges on the field may be drawn as whole charges, placed to fit as best they can; or as an orderly array of charges, cut off by the edges of the shield. Both depictions are period, and either may be used. While semy charges are not a field treatment, in many ways they act as though they were: e.g., semy charges on a field are always blazoned immediately after the field tincture.

Charges may themselves be charged with semy charges (e.g., a bordure mullety). In those cases, the semy charges are not cut off at the edges, but are always whole.

Semy charges may only themselves be charged if the tertiary charges remain identifiable; even then, the usage is deemed a step from period practice.

The illustration is semy of roundels. Semy fields may always simply be blazoned “semy of [charges]”, but some charges have special terms when semy. “Crusilly” is semy of crosses crosslet; “semy-de-lys” is semy of fleurs-de-lys; “goutty” is semy of gouts. In like manner, “bezanty” is semy of bezants, “billety” is of billets, “mullety” is of mullets, &c.

Astra Christiana Benedict bears: Per fess azure mullety of eight points Or and purpure crusilly Or.

Gwenlliana Clutterbooke bears: Gules semy of open books Or.

Marie de Lyon bears: Or semy of suns azure.

Kosa Korotkaia bears: Argent semy of fish gules.

Nicolas de Beaumont bears: Azure semy of garbs Or.

Ribbon

Ribbon (Disallowed)

A ribbon, or riband, is a long narrow strip of silk, linen, &c. Though the ribbon had at one time been used as a charge in its own right in Society heraldry, the practice is now disallowed. Ribbons may still be used, however, in conjunction with another charge: e.g., as the decoration on a chaplet.

Sometimes the term “riband” was used to mean a diminutive of the bend by 19^th Century heraldic writers, but it is more often used in its normal sense; and always so in Society heraldry. For related charges, see escroll.

The Gyllene bandets orden, of Nordmark, bears: A ribbon Or.

Aegina de Spencer bears: Gules, a mascle of two ribbons entwined, two ends pendant from chief Or, thereon in cross four sunflowers proper.

Rainbow

Rainbow (Period)

A rainbow is a multi-colored arc found in the sky in rainy or misty weather. As depicted in heraldry, it’s an arc fesswise, embowed to chief, the ends terminating in clouds. The default heraldic rainbow has four bands; when blazoned “proper”, these bands are Or, gules, vert, and argent, with argent clouds [Parker 488]. On a light field, the bands’ order is changed: azure, vert, Or, and gules, with the tincture of the clouds to be specified. The rainbow is a period charge: a rainbow throughout proper is found in the arms of von Mosen, 1605 [Siebmacher 159].

The “natural rainbow proper”, a Society invention, has white clouds, and seven colored bands, as found in nature: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. As it’s the rainbow, not the clouds, that must be recognized, a natural rainbow proper may not be used on a color field. See also heavenly bodies.

The Baron of Sundragon bears: Argent, a rainbow gules, argent, azure, Or and purpure, clouded within a laurel wreath azure.

Adriana of Hawkwood bears: Ermine, a rainbow proper clouded azure, a bordure sable.

Celeste Ballatini bears: Sable, issuant from the flanks two rainbows proper.

Gabrielle Cartier bears: Or, a natural rainbow proper clouded sable, a chief indented pean.

Quiver

Quiver with two arrows (Period)

A quiver is a container that allows for the protection of and easy access to arrows. It’s found in the arms of Loyd, 1632 [Guillim2 336]. The quiver is palewise by default. If the quiver contains arrows, the fact must be blazoned; the illustration shows a quiver with two arrows.

Tsunetomi Todomu bears: Sable, a Japanese quiver with two arrows within a bordure argent.

Elizabeth Wingfield bears: Per pale and per chevron gules and Or, a quiver holding two arrows sable.

Malcolm Hogg bears: Per chevron sable and vert, three quivers each with two arrows argent.

Quadrant

Quadrant (Accepted)

A quadrant is a period astronomical instrument used for measuring elevation from the horizon. It consists of a graduated quarter-circle (hence the name) with a movable index and a sight; an example with heraldic interest is a horary quadrant engraved with the badge of Richard II, 1399 [Marks & Payne 35]. For related charges, see astrolabe, sphere, sundial.

Iosif of Novgorod bears: Sable, on a bend sinister embattled counter-embattled argent between in chief three estoiles and in base a quadrant Or, a scarpe gules.

Christoforo Antonio Passavanti bears: Sable, a quadrant Or.

Gosfrei Kempe bears as a badge: Or, a quadrant gules.

Pole-arm

Berdiche (Period); billhook (Period)

Halberd (Period); pole-axe (Period)

This class of weapon is characterized by the long shaft by which damage may be inflicted at a safer distance. Usually a sharp implement is attached to the pole’s end, and it is by this head (to chief by default) that most pole-weapons are identified.

Examples of pole-arms found in period armory include the “berdiche”, whose backswept blade is fastened to the haft at its center and bottom points, found in the arms of Kürnburg, 1548 (Vigil Raber’s Armorial of the Arlberg Brotherhood of St. Christopher, fo.48); the “billhook”, a spear with a hooked blade, found in the canting arms (Italian roncola) of Roncha or Runche, c.1555 [BSB Cod.Icon 275:119 and 276:205]; the “halberd”, with an upswept blade, and a spike on the end of the haft, as in the arms of von Griffenstein, c.1515 [BSB Cod.Icon 308:391; also von Schella, 1605, Siebmacher 43]; and the “pole-axe”, with a standard battle-axe head and a long haft, as in the canting arms of Mordaxt, 1548 (Vigil Raber’s Armorial of the Arlberg Brotherhood of St. Christopher, fo.133). Strictly speaking, any axe on a long pole is a “pole-axe”: the pole-axes in the arms of the Worshipful Company of Butchers, granted 1540, have been depicted both as battle-axes and as nondescript “chopping” axes [Bromley & Child 34].

Bec de corbin (Accepted); corsica (Accepted); fauchard (Accepted)

Glaive (Accepted); naginata (probable SFPP); partisan (Accepted)

Other pole-arms, used as weapons and accepted for Society armory, include the “bec de corbin”, a long-handled war-hammer c.1400, with a curved point like a raven’s beak, from which it takes its name [Stone 109]; the “corsica” or “corsèque”, 15th and 16th C., with broad, branched blades joined to the main blade [Stone 374, s.v. korseke]; the “fauchard”, 16th C., with a falchion-shaped blade [Stone 226]; the “glaive”, 12th and 13th C., whose single-edged blade has a backwards-curving tip [Stone 248]; the “naginata”, a Japanese spear with a back-curving blade [Stone 463]; the “partizan” or “partisan”, 16th C., a double-edged spear with short, hooked blades at the base of the head, very like a corsica [Stone 484]; the “war-scythe”, 16th C., essentially a scythe blade mounted on a long, straight shaft [Stone 545]; and the “Swiss voulge” or “vouge”, 14th C., favored by the infantry of that tiny nation [Stone 654].

War-scythe (Accepted); Swiss voulge (Accepted)

For related charges, see hammer, mancatcher, spear, trident.

The Baron of Bjornsborg bears: Azure, two bears rampant addorsed regardant argent, each sustaining a berdiche proper, in base a laurel wreath Or.

Andrew Mariner bears: Argent, two billhooks addorsed in saltire sable, a chief doubly enarched vert.

Shandon Yar Mohamed Gehazi Memo Hazara Khan-ad-Din bears: Per bend sinister raguly sable and Or, a sun of six greater and six lesser points and a naginata bendwise sinster counterchanged.

Christopher of Eoforwic bears: Per pale Or and sable, three glaives fesswise in pale, blades to chief, the first and third reversed, between two goblets in bend counterchanged.

Lucas Otto Gustav Oswald Stefan bears: Checky vert and argent, a partisan bendwise surmounted by a snail shell reversed Or.

Aldwin Yale of York bears as a badge: Per bend sinister sable and Or, a compass star and a corsica bendwise sinister counterchanged, within a bordure embattled gules.

Charles Greenlimb bears: Per bend embattled gules and azure, two war-scythe heads bendwise, issuant from chief the point to sinister and issuant from dexter the point in base, argent.

Johannes Kaspar Zurfluh bears: Per fess embattled argent and gules, an eagle displayed and a Swiss voulge bendwise sinister reversed counterchanged.

Alexia of Thessalonica bears: Per bend Or and purpure, a bec de corbin bendwise vert and a whelk bendwise Or.

Pine cone

Pine cone slipped and leaved, stem to base (Period)

New World pineapple (SFPP)

A pine cone is the fruit of the pine tree. It is a period charge, found in the canting arms of Pin c.1285 [ANA2 252]; but it seems to have no default orientation, being shown sometimes with the stem up, other times with the stem down. Because of the ambiguity, the pine cone should be explicitly blazoned; the illustration shows a pine cone slipped and leaved, stem to base.

Mundane heralds frequently blazon the pine cone as a “pineapple”. In modern parlance, this is the term for the bromeliadic fruit from South America (or, more recently, from Hawai’i). To avoid confusion, the Society does not use the unmodified term: instead, this fruit is blazoned as a “New World pineapple” in Society heraldry. This fruit has its leaves to chief by default; as New World flora, its use is considered a step from period practice.

Cedar cone potted (Period)

A specific stylization of the pine cone is found in the arms of Augsburg as early as c.1450 [Ingeram 52]. This form, said to date from Roman times, is invariably potted (or mounted on a pedestal; sources differ as to which it is) with its stem to base. German sources variously blazon this form as a “Pinienzapfen“, “Zirbelnuß“, or “Stadtpyr” [Leonhard 252]; in the Society, it’s blazoned as a “cedar cone”, to distinguish it from a pine cone. See also hops.

The Shire of Emerald Glen bears: Or, a dragon dormant, tail sufflexed sable within a laurel wreath vert, in chief three cedar cones vert, potted sable.

Morgillian of Greenbough bears: Or, a pine cone, stem to chief vert.

Marsaili inghean Domhnaill bears: Or, a New World pineapple vert, on a chief sable a sun in its splendor Or and a moon in its plenitude argent.

Mistholme

heraldry, illumination, and random jottings