Lanuage of Blazon

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The Language of Blazon

(Being the first of many parts)

Greetings, good gentles all;

Many of you who have dabbled with heraldry, or who have done the making of a heraldic device for submission, have run into a seemingly arcane language, full of words that almost sound French, but aren’t really English either, such as "Orle", "Semme" , and "Bordure". Welcome to the language of Blazon!

The language of blazon is what Heralds use to describe, in as precise a manner as possible, the visual, artistic rendering of Arms, and dates back to the inception of recording and codifying Arms. Everything that is can be blazoned. (I can blazon my campsite at Junefaire, feel free to ask) Each color, and two metals, plus all the objects on a device, the way it is divided including the way the dividing-lines are drawn, have descriptive words that tell other Heralds, and those scribes so-trained, what the Arms look like with no need for a picture.

The first thing one notices, usually, about a piece of heraldry, are the colors on it, called Tinctures in the language of Blazon. Each one has a name, and NONE of them are ones that you learned before kindergarten. (unless you were brought up IN the S.C.A.) These are as follows:

Azure (blue) Gules (red) Purpure (purple) Sable (black) Vert (green)

Plus the two metals

Argent (silver, commonly represented as white) Or (gold, commonly represented as yellow)

Despite what your eyes may try to tell you, there are NO OTHER TINCTURES or METALS! Anything that has colors not mentioned above can only be shown in those colors by describing it as "Proper", i.e. "An Orange-tree fructed proper", and don’t even THINK about trying to weasel-in such base metals as brass, copper, or iron! These are the tinctures and metals you have to work with in constructing and describing Arms. Yes, other cultures allowed other tinctures in their versions of heraldry, and in later times there were words for other shadings, such as "Tenne' for brown, but the scope of Heraldry used by the S.C.A. is limited to the above-listed ones. For those of you thinking of taking up Heraldry as your S.C.A. profession, or those of you wishing to attempt the requirements for the Sargentry, Gallant, or Courtier, try blazoning to yourself the colors of the objects around you, this will get you used to the words. Another thing to remember is that the tincture is always listed after the named object, such as "A Cross, Gules" or "A Chevron, argent", so remember to name the object first, THEN the tincture or metal, to get used to the pattern of the language.

The next installation of this set of articles will be field division .

Y.I.S.,

T.H.L. Ian MacKynnes

Return to: Article Archive/Heraldry Hall/Home Page The Language of Blazon II (Field Divisions) The Language of Blazon Part III (Complex lines of Division) - New 3/27/2006 also see Pennons, Banners and Flags (Oh MY!) -New! 03/21/06