Heraldry - an SCA perspective
Heraldry can be very simple, but it's also incredibly complex at the same time. I became interested in heraldry completely by accident. I like voice heraldry, and had offered to "call the camp" at a couple of events... and then realized I was actually pretty darn good at it. My voice carries, and even at distance it's usually quite clear and understandable. Not everyone is cut out to be a voice herald, and I thought I ought to use my superpowers for good.
With quiet trepidation, I can now announce that I am the Granite Pursuviant Herald for Stonemarche. This means, essentially, that I'm in charge of all the heraldry paperwork for the Barony, as well as helping people with their name and device submissions, organizing crying at events, and running Herald's Point everywhere I can manage to get a table set up. Wish me luck!
If you're interested or just starting to learn about heraldry, there are some excellent resources available on the internet. I am sharing these because they are tools I use on a regular basis (often daily) in doing heraldic work. I hope you find them as fascinating and educational as I do. Also, I am running a small group on FB for heralds in the Barony of Stonemarche, as well as those who are learning about various aspects of heraldry. Please join us - ask me to invite you, and I'll gladly do so.
With quiet trepidation, I can now announce that I am the Granite Pursuviant Herald for Stonemarche. This means, essentially, that I'm in charge of all the heraldry paperwork for the Barony, as well as helping people with their name and device submissions, organizing crying at events, and running Herald's Point everywhere I can manage to get a table set up. Wish me luck!
If you're interested or just starting to learn about heraldry, there are some excellent resources available on the internet. I am sharing these because they are tools I use on a regular basis (often daily) in doing heraldic work. I hope you find them as fascinating and educational as I do. Also, I am running a small group on FB for heralds in the Barony of Stonemarche, as well as those who are learning about various aspects of heraldry. Please join us - ask me to invite you, and I'll gladly do so.
The Standards for Evaluation of Names and Armor (aka SENA) is the most important documents for heralds. This is the basic body of rules used by us to document names and devices. To quote from the document itself, "This document contains the standards Laurel uses to evaluate all submissions of names and armory for registration. These are the authoritative standards - other documents may summarize or provide simplified versions, but submissions must meet the criteria as laid out here. However, these Rules are not a step-by-step procedure for devising names or armory. Policies for heralds and for the submissions process are in other documents, such as the Administrative Handbook, available on the Laurel website."
10+ Ways to Spice up Your Stuff With Heraldry is a fun page that talks about different ways to put your heraldry onto something (be it a tunic, a staff, a cloak, a book, or other). We often talk about heraldry, but I don't think we talk enough about WHY we want heraldry. This page is a great start to deciding WHAT to do with that awesome device you just registered!
The East Kingdom Heraldic University is the place I visit when I need to learn more. This is where you learn how to apply all the rules laid out in SENA. There are (as of September 2016) 12 classes available for you to watch, most of which are over an hour of good, solid teaching. The classes were recorded live, so there are students involved, asking questions and answering them. I can also say that, if you are learning from these classes and you have questions, you can go to the FaceBook page and ask there. Many of the people in the video classes are there (perhaps all!), and there are many experienced heralds who will be happy to help you get better at heraldry.
The Search Forms for the Armorial are where we do the actual conflict checking. You'll note there are several places where it says to ONLY use the complex search for conflict checking, and they mean it. Having tried it several ways, I can say that the only way of coming back with anything close to a decent check is to use that complex search. It is, indeed, complex though (there's a class on it in the University, by the by!) and you have to learn to use it. Please do - it's very important to know how to use it if you plan on conflict checking people's devices for them. There is a thing called Kiho's Blazon Parser which is new and fairly powerful and awesome. It is NOT a replacement for the complex search, but can definitely help you out while you're learning how to use the complex search.
The Heraldic Primer is chock full of great information for the beginning herald. It's essentially a text class, which you can work your way through at your own pace. This is definitely worth going through, several times.
The SCA College of Arms - Rules and Regulations section has links to a lot of different online books containing our rules. These include SENA, the Administrative Handbook (worth picking up, and it's free), a glossary of terms, and several other documents that you will need to read in order to be a good herald.
I'll continue adding information as I remember it. If there's a resource that is not listed here that you feel is essential for some element of good heraldry, please let me know so I can include it!
10+ Ways to Spice up Your Stuff With Heraldry is a fun page that talks about different ways to put your heraldry onto something (be it a tunic, a staff, a cloak, a book, or other). We often talk about heraldry, but I don't think we talk enough about WHY we want heraldry. This page is a great start to deciding WHAT to do with that awesome device you just registered!
The East Kingdom Heraldic University is the place I visit when I need to learn more. This is where you learn how to apply all the rules laid out in SENA. There are (as of September 2016) 12 classes available for you to watch, most of which are over an hour of good, solid teaching. The classes were recorded live, so there are students involved, asking questions and answering them. I can also say that, if you are learning from these classes and you have questions, you can go to the FaceBook page and ask there. Many of the people in the video classes are there (perhaps all!), and there are many experienced heralds who will be happy to help you get better at heraldry.
The Search Forms for the Armorial are where we do the actual conflict checking. You'll note there are several places where it says to ONLY use the complex search for conflict checking, and they mean it. Having tried it several ways, I can say that the only way of coming back with anything close to a decent check is to use that complex search. It is, indeed, complex though (there's a class on it in the University, by the by!) and you have to learn to use it. Please do - it's very important to know how to use it if you plan on conflict checking people's devices for them. There is a thing called Kiho's Blazon Parser which is new and fairly powerful and awesome. It is NOT a replacement for the complex search, but can definitely help you out while you're learning how to use the complex search.
The Heraldic Primer is chock full of great information for the beginning herald. It's essentially a text class, which you can work your way through at your own pace. This is definitely worth going through, several times.
The SCA College of Arms - Rules and Regulations section has links to a lot of different online books containing our rules. These include SENA, the Administrative Handbook (worth picking up, and it's free), a glossary of terms, and several other documents that you will need to read in order to be a good herald.
I'll continue adding information as I remember it. If there's a resource that is not listed here that you feel is essential for some element of good heraldry, please let me know so I can include it!