Blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb to blazon means to create such a description. The visual depiction of a coat of arms or flag has traditionally had considerable latitude in design, but a verbal blazon specifies the essentially distinctive elements. A coat of arms or flag is therefore primarily defined not by a picture but rather by the wording of its blazon. Blazon is also the specialized language in which a blazon is written, and, as a verb, the act of writing such a description. Blazonry is the art, craft or practice of creating a blazon. The language employed in blazonry has its own vocabulary, grammar and syntax, which becomes essential for comprehension when blazoning a complex coat of arms.
Other armorial objects and devices – such as badges, banners, and seals – may also be described in blazon.
The noun and verb blazon are not to be confused with the noun emblazonment, or the verb to emblazon, both of which relate to the graphic representation of a coat of arms or heraldic device.
Etymology
The word blazon is derived from French blason, "shield". It is found in English by the end of the 14th century.Formerly, heraldic authorities believed that the word was related to the German verb blasen, "to blow ". Present-day lexicographers reject this theory as conjectural and disproved.
Grammar
Blazon is generally designed to eliminate ambiguity of interpretation, to be as concise as possible, and to avoid repetition and extraneous punctuation. English antiquarian Charles Boutell stated in 1864:However, John Brooke-Little, Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, wrote in 1985: "Although there are certain conventions as to how arms shall be blazoned... many of the supposedly hard and fast rules laid down in heraldic manuals are often ignored."
A given coat of arms may be drawn in many different ways, all considered equivalent and faithful to the blazon, just as the letter "A" may be printed in many different fonts while still being the same letter. For example, the shape of the escutcheon is almost always immaterial, with very limited exceptions.
The main conventions of blazon are as follows:
- Every blazon of a coat of arms begins by describing the field, with the first letter capitalised, followed by a comma ",". In a majority of cases this is a single tincture; e.g. Azure.
- If the field is complex, the variation is described, followed by the tinctures used; e.g. Chequy gules and argent.
- If the shield is divided, the division is described, followed by the tinctures of the subfields, beginning with the dexter side of the chief edge; e.g. Party per pale argent and vert, or Quarterly argent and gules. In the case of a divided shield, it is common for the word "party" or "parted" to be omitted.
- Some authorities prefer to capitalise the names of tinctures and charges, but this convention is far from universal. Where tinctures are not capitalised, an exception may be made for the metal Or, in order to avoid confusion with the English word "or". Where space is at a premium, tincture names may be abbreviated: e.g., ar. for argent, gu. for gules, az. for azure, sa. for sable, and purp. for purpure.
- Following the description of the field, the principal ordinary or ordinaries and charge are named, with their tincture; e.g., a bend or.
- The principal ordinary or charge is followed by any other charges placed on or around it. If a charge is a bird or a beast, its attitude is defined, followed by the creature's tincture, followed by anything that may be differently coloured; e.g. An eagle displayed gules armed and wings charged with trefoils or.
- Counterchanged means that a charge which straddles a line of division is given the same tinctures as the divided field, but reversed.
- A quartered shield is blazoned one quarter at a time, proceeding by rows from chief to base, and within each row from dexter to sinister; in other words, from the viewer's left to right.
- Following the description of the shield, any additional components of the achievement – such as crown/coronet, helmet, torse, mantling, crest, motto, supporters and compartment – are described in turn, using the same terminology and syntax.
- A convention often followed historically was to name a tincture explicitly only once within a given blazon. If the same tincture was found in different places within the arms, this was addressed either by ordering all elements of like tincture together prior to the tincture name ; or by naming the tincture only at its first occurrence, and referring to it at subsequent occurrences obliquely, for example by use of the phrase "of the field" ; or by reference to its numerical place in the sequence of named tinctures. However, these conventions are now avoided by the College of Arms in London, and by most other formal granting bodies, as they may introduce ambiguity to complex blazons.
- It is common to print all heraldic blazons in italic. Heraldry has its own vocabulary, word-order and punctuation, and presenting it in italics indicates to the reader the use of a quasi-foreign language.
French vocabulary and grammar
A number of heraldic adjectives may be given in either a French or an anglicised form: for example, a cross pattée or a cross patty; a cross fitchée or a cross fitchy. In modern English blazons, the anglicised form tends to be preferred.
Where the French form is used, a problem may arise as to the appropriate adjectival ending, determined in normal French usage by gender and number.
The usual convention in English heraldry is to adhere to the feminine singular form, for example: a chief undée and a saltire undée, even though the French nouns chef and sautoir are in fact masculine. Efforts have however been made, for example by J. E. Cussans, who suggested that all French adjectives should be expressed in the masculine singular, without regard to the gender and number of the nouns they qualify, thus a chief undé and a saltire undé.
Complexity
Full descriptions of shields range in complexity, from a single word to a convoluted series describing compound shields:- Arms of Brittany: Ermine
- Azure, a Bend Or, over which the families of Scrope and Grosvenor fought a famous legal battle.
- Arms of Östergötland, Sweden: Gules, a Griffin with dragon wings tail and tongue rampant Or armed beaked langued and membered Azure between four Roses Argent.
- Arms of Hungary dating from 1867, when part of Austria-Hungary:
Quarterly I. Azure three Lions' Heads affronté Crowned Or ; II. chequy Argent and Gules ; III. Azure a River in Fess Gules bordered Argent thereon a Marten proper beneath a six-pointed star Or ; IV. per Fess Azure and Or over all a Bar Gules in the Chief a demi-Eagle Sable displayed addextré of the Sun-in-splendour and senestré of a Crescent Argent in the Base seven Towers three and four Gules ; enté en point Gules a double-headed Eagle proper on a Peninsula Vert holding a Vase pouring Water into the Sea Argent beneath a Crown proper with bands Azure ; over all an escutcheon Barry of eight Gules and Argent impaling Gules on a Mount Vert a Crown Or issuant therefrom a double-Cross Argent .