House-badges/devices AND punishment&crankiness AND warSHIPS for hire.

[Christian Stubø]

No: HPFGUIDX 13900

Blimey!  I seem to have started off quite a topic here. 

--- Amanda Lewanski <editor at texas.net> skrev: 
> pengolodh_sc at yahoo.no wrote:

[snip]
> >  I do not think that the use of the term rampant in the books is as
> > strictly adhering to the rules of heraldry as it would be in a
> > textbook on heraldry, and therefore rampant to sinister would not
> > encessarily be described as such.
> 
> Well, yeah, but you were using a bit more heraldic jargon yourself than
> I'm used to hearing, living in a country where living, breathing
> armigers are rare and "crest" commonly means coat of arms. It sounded
> like you had a specific citation or text justification for knowing the
> lion faced to sinister.

Well, I'm Norwegian, so I am at least closer to regions where heraldry was common - it
was not too common in Norway, though it was in use here.  Nowadays, personal arms will be
frowned upon by some people (who see it as a way of upholding a classist society), but
municipal arms are very alive, and the choice of municipal devices is subject to public
interest.  You would probably like Norwegian municipal heraldry - it is very simple, as
the rules dictate that it is limited to two tinctures and a single charge (which may be
repeated - i.e., two lions passant is allowable, but not a lion passant and a lion
rampant, or a lion passant and a badger passant).  Also, no supporters, helmets or
crests.  Fortified cities are allowed a mural crown, however.

Of course, I also have more of an interest in heraldry than most of my peers - acquired
in part through an rpg where we played upper-class brits in the 1920s, and in part from
an rpg placed in Flanders anno 1240.

> I didn't for a minute think the words "rampant to sinister" occurred in
> the books; I just thought you might have seen some "to the left" or "to
> the right" or something similar that made you so certain.
> 
> Otherwise, the most "honorable" part of a shield was the dexter chief
> (that's upper left, to those of you looking at it), and so in most
> heraldry the animals tended to face that direction by default. The lions
> of England face to dexter, and lions facing that way probably just look
> right, for no reason a person in the street could put a finger on, for
> you Brits out there. So the Gryffindor device is to dexter; makes sense
> to me.
> 
> >  I think the word rampant when used in the books should probably be
> > taken as a general description of an animal standing upright (which is
> > what my dictionary gives as the meaning of "rampant" when used about
> > animals).
> 
> I don't. Brits as a rule are a bit more aware of heraldry than
> Americans. Wish I could find my references, but I seem to recall that
> JKR was pretty descriptive of the positions of the other animals, albeit
> they were described in English and not heraldese. I could be totally
> wrong, but I still think that an English person is familiar enough with
> "rampant" and heraldic depictions to know what that particular term of
> jargon means.

[snip]

> > But were not Hufflepuff's colours black and yellow in the first
> > place?  A black badger in a yellow field, I believe.
> 
> Yeah, I think you're right. As I said I don't have the books to hand,
> and my Hogwarts fridge magnet's downstairs. So their quartered field is
> the House colors, just as Gryffindor's. Makes sense.

Except that the quartered fields is not really a happy solution.

[snip]

> > Still, I think they would have made happier choices by simply
> > duplicating what has been displayed at least in th UK-editions for the
> > house-arms.
> 
> Post a picture file to the group! I haven't seen a UK edition yet.

Actually, on of the mugs has an almost excact reproduction.  If you again direct your
browser to http://www.hpgalleries.com/muggallery.htm and look at the picture at the left
on the top (entitled "Journey to Hogwarts"), the arms displayed there are almost exactly
the same as in the UK books, down to the shape of the shield.  The difference is that the
arms on the cup are coloured, and those in the books simply have something meant to be
hatching (but it is not).  The background on the mug (the red and blue lozengy pattern)
and the scroll bearing the name "Hogwarts" are not in the books, but the scroll with the
school motto is there, in the same position as in the books. The central field witht he
letter "H" is also a bit different in the books - it is a completely square,s
traight-edged block, with the letter in the style of an engraving in stone, roman-style.

I also see that I worder myself somewhat unclearly - what I meant was to repeat, for the
hosue-devices in the movie, the design used in the quarters of the Hogwarts arms as shown
in the UK books.

> Byt the way, if you feed people smalahove and keel-haul them when you're
> cranky, what do you do when you're truly P.O.'d?

Do you really want to know?  OK.  Norway simply does not have punishments stringent
enough for those cases, so we simply ship them off to Sweden and expose them to
surstrmming.  surstrmming is apparently a form of fermented freshwater fish, but the
exact procedure of manufacture is still a secret heavily guarded by the Swedish
armament-industry.  Secret movements are underway to have the use of surstrmming in war
condemned, in the same manner as chemical and biological weapons are today.  Sweden did
threaten Denmark with surstrmming in a recent disagreement between the two countries
regarding a Swedish nuclear powerplant, but the Danes carried out a preemptive strike
with Danish "gammelost", and the Swedes surrendered.  The powerplant is, AFAIK, due to
shut down within five years.  <g>

ANNOUNCEMENT:  WarSHIPs for hire!

The heavy scouting-squadron of the mercenary fleet is now for hire for any SHIPs that
feel they need protection.  The squadron will include the battlecruiser HMS Lion; the
aircraft-carrier HMS Eagle; the light cruisers HMS Sirius, HMS Minerva, HMS Centaur and
HMS Dragon; several torpedoboats and TBDs, including, but not restricted to, HMS Griffin
(H31), HMS Basilisk (H11), HMS Venomous (D75), HMS Witch (D89), HMS Wizard (R72), HMS
Sybille, HMS Sorceress, HMS Owl, HMS Harpy, HMS Stag, HMS Express (H61, shortly to have
its name amended to HMS Hogwarts Express) and USS Fletcher (DD445); an
antisubmarine-flotilla consisting of the corvettes HMS Pansy, HMS Lily and HMS Petunia; a
minesweeping-group consisting of the minesweepers HMS Poppy, HMS Myrtle and HMS Lupin;
and HM submarine Sibyl.  Torpedo-gunboats HMS Hazard, HMS Speedy and HMS Spanker and the
gunboat HMS Gay Viking are kept in reserve for the time being.

Attempts to refit the light cruiser HMS Cordelia, HMS Hermione and the
torpedoboat-destroyers HMS Keith (D06), HMS Clare(I14), HMS Cassandra (R62) and HMS Wild
Swan (D62) for service, have so far not been succesful, as it appears they have been
taken over by other SHIPping-entities, one of which appears to be the H/H SteampSHIP
navigation Co. Ltd.

Services offered include, but are not limited to; raiding, piracy, disruption of general
SHIPpinglanes and general escort against various forms of attack.  Landing-parties can
also be organised to search out and apprehend fugitive farmers and return them, under
armed guard, to their dells.  ;-)

Best regards
Christian Stub
Captain-General of the heavy scouting-squadron of the mercenary navy
Hailing from the country of recent political purges.

P.S.    All shipnames given above *are* genuine ship-names of the Royal Navy of Great
Britain, with the exception of USS Fletcher, which was the lead-ship of an American class
of destroyers.  The names can be found by looking through "Destroyers of World war Two: 
An international Encyclopedia" by M. J. Whitley, "Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I"
and "Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II".

P.P.S.  The paragraphs on surstrmming and warships are of course entirely tongue-in-cheek.

______________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Organiser sammenkomsten p http://no.invites.yahoo.com