[HPforGrownups] The Gryffindor Coat-of-Arms

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 42455

Haggridd said

> I noticed the other day that the Scottish coat-of-arms is a red lion
> rampant on a field of gold (forget the fleury borders), which is the
> same as the Gryffindor arms with their colors reversed.

Ahem. <anal herald mode> You *can't* forget the border. It wouldn't be
Scotland without that fleury-counter-fleury double tressure. </anal herald
mode>

Okay, on to your real point.

>  My next
> thought was that it must be the other way 'round, of course.  The
> Gryffindor coat-of-arms is the reverse of Scotland's, much as the
> "Red Cross" is the reverse of the Swiss flag, and for the same
> reason:  to give honor by imitating.

>From the author's perspective, I think JKR may well have done this on
purpose. Although the lion is the noblest of heraldic beasts, the griffin is
right up there too for good connotations, it would have been a perfectly
good (and more logical) charge for Gryffindor (given the obvious cant).
However, England is rather lion-heavy, too--lions are *the* top-of-the-line
charge, and I doubt that Scotland's having a lion is anything besides one
thing on a long list of reasons she had.

>From the perspective of inside the story, I don't know that it has ever been
stated that the coats of the Houses were the coats of the founders. If
Hogwarts was founded a thousand years ago, that was before heraldry really
existed as we know it (i.e., the formal system with coats that were
inherited). People *did* paint things on their shields further back, though;
I find it totally reasonable that these were the emblems chosen by the
Founders, but it's not canon.

ANYway, the point being, Gryffindor's lion may well have been established
before Scotland's was. How far back does the usage of the red lion
go?Scotland may be the one extending the honor. The differences are
small--Gryffindor's lion faces sinister, Scotland's faces dexter; the colors
have been flipped, and Scotland has the tressure.

>  I have to think that this was
> done consciously by JKR.

I agree and I don't. I think much thought went into what she does, very,
very, very much, but I also think part of her genius is that she manages to
get these details *right* on a very subliminal level. I don't think she had
any idea of all the resonances of the names she's chosen (although she
clearly knew some), and look how applicable and correct the stuff that we
find turns out to be. So I'm sure that the connection was there, but
possibly not consciously, possibly just a factor in how the colors and
animal "fit." She does that "fit" thing so very well.

> Well, that's all.  I hope nobody thinks this is too trivial an
observation.

Heraldry is never trivial.

--Amanda