Final Blazon w/discussion, LONG, mostly for Steve (was Re: Heraldry Class

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 21318

Danette Schardt-Cordova wrote:

> Are we a frustrated Herald Amanda?

Nope. I *are* a herald. I'm in a medieval group, so I get to really do
it.

>  Actually I have a tincture question. (I haven't seen this coat of
> arms yet but will be getting Brit editions soon).  Are the coats color
> pictures? If not what's the blazon?
> Thanks.

Yeesh. You *would* ask me this. I'm supposed to be getting the Official
Blazon together for Steve, and am some months behind. I was sure this
was in one of the referenced messages, oh well. I've got to have missed
a few. Here ya go.

1. Someone asked about the hatchings (the patterning behind each
animal).

The drawing in the book is not in color; it's a pen-&-ink. The
background patterns behind each animal are not heraldic "hatchings"
(i.e., standard ways of indicating color on a drawing by using certain
established patterns [i.e., azure [blue] is horizontal lines, Or [gold]
is dots, etc.]). We can tell because the blazons (descriptions of the
arms in heraldic terminology that indicate what's on the shield, its
position, and its color) for the House arms as given in the books don't
agree with what you get if you follow those background patterns as
hatchings. The background patterns on the pen-&-ink are simply
contrasting patterns, there to enhance a black and white drawing.

The colored version is *gasp* correct, which means Hell froze over and
somebody in Marketing actually read the books and got the colors right
when they colored the drawing in. Or JKR corrected them.

2. The full blazon: Steve, pay attention, this is mostly for you, late
but correct.

The best way to blazon the whole thing is elegant, but not helpful with
describing the colors: "Quarterly Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and
Ravenclaw, on an
inescutcheon Or the letter H sable." To ensure clarity, you must then
continue and blazon the arms of the Houses separately, so I actually
find this rather cumbersome. There's a different way, though.

Even though the appearance of the House coats are well known to the
audience/readers, their *blazons* are not, so the other method is to
include the individual blazons of each quarter in the longer blazon (it
gets really awkward if the blazons for each quarter are really, really
long, but these aren't).

There's more than one style of doing this. The goal of blazon is
clarity, not form--

"Quarterly, 1st: Gryffindor (gules a lion Or), 2nd: Slytherin (vert a
snake
erect argent), ..."   [House name precedes its blazon]
"Quarterly, 1st: gules a lion Or, for Gryffindor, 2nd: ..."  [House name
follows its blazon]

Anyway. I'd tend to put the blazons of each House in the main blazon. So
the full formal blazon, as I would write it, is as follows (here you go,
Steve!):

Hogwarts, School of.  Quarterly: 1st, Gryffindor (gules, a lion rampant
to sinister Or), 2nd, Slytherin (vert, a serpent embowed erect argent),
3rd, Hufflepuff (Or, a badger rampant regardant sable, marked azure),
4th, Ravenclaw (azure, an eagle displayed Or), overall in fess point on
an inescutcheon Or the Roman letter "H" sable.

Note on Hufflepuff - my blazon here does not agree with the the colored
version as marketed, which shows the badger is sort of gray, with the
standard black cheek stripes. But we all know from the book that the
badger is black. A totally black badger with no cheek stripes looks like
a stunted dog, so it has to have its markings visible. The choice would
be silver or white, to contrast with the gold background. Hence my
choice of blazon.

3. Errata for those of you who aren't asleep yet:

Most heraldic terminology comes from medieval French roots, since when
true heraldry developed, French was the language of court and diplomacy.
I've gone through my blazon above and defined all the jargon terms for
all you lucky readers (but mostly for Steve). They're in order as you
find them as you read the blazon.

gules = red
rampant = rearing up, with one hind foot off the ground (often
incorrectly drawn as salient, "leaping", which has both hind feet down).
It's the most "unnatural" of the positions of animals found in heraldry,
and probably originated from a desire to "fill up" the area of the
shield.
to sinister = facing the sinister side of the shield (the *bearer's*
left, the left of an imaginary person behind the shield, holding it, so
to the viewer it looks like it's facing to the right).
Or = gold. I adhere to the old-fashioned practice of capitalizing this
prince of metals, but not any of the other tinctures (heraldic terms of
color).
vert = green
embowed = in a knot (the standard position for serpents)
erect = upright. For a snake, it means it's rearing its head up like
that.
argent = silver
badger = you know this one, of course, but I wanted to mention that an
archaic term for the badger is the brock, so if this is as old a coat as
it seems, it should probably be blazoned a brock. Oh, well.
regardant = looking back over its shoulder. Simply "guardant" is looking
directly out from the shield at you.
marked = for a badger, this means the cheek stripes.
azure = blue
eagle displayed = the standard position for an eagle, looking a bit like
it flew into a window (about as unnatural as "rampant" and for the same
reason, it fills all the space nicely). Wings spread and wingtips up (if
they were spread with tips pointing down, you must specify "wings
inverted"), feet splayed to each side, head looking up and to the dexter
(bearer's right, see "sinister" above). I think I've seen Ravenclaw's
eagle drawn with wings inverted, but I'm going from the drawing in the
book I've got here, and the wingtips are up.
overall = lying over the top of the other stuff, i.e., it can obscure
them (cover them up) if necessary
in fess point = in the middle of the shield, as opposed to honor point
(in the middle left/right, but above center) or base point (in the
middle left/right, but below center).
inescutcheon = a small shield used as a charge on a coat of arms. A
shield itself, such as you would paint a coat of arms onto, a full
shield, is an "escutcheon."
Roman letter = just so you know it's not some weird alphabet or
something. Probably extraneous.
sable = black.

Anyone who actually read all of this gets ten points to their House.
Congratulations. You may win someday on a game show because of me. I do
expect a cut.

--Amanda Binns


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