New Heraldic Image: How do we create it & define it?

[Edward Hillenbrand]

Recently I was pursuing a heraldic web sight of questionable reputation. While some of the work is very good, others are ghastly. However, it did give me pause to think: how do we go about getting the heraldic world to accept and define a new image? The Native Americans in both North & South America have their own mythology that is both rich and germane to us as heralds.

Take for example the Great Blue Heron. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blue_Heron A proud bird that appears in many different fables and creation stories of the American Indians. In some stories the GBH is the messenger of the gods. In others a potent symbol of wisdom, patient and perseverance.

Since I already have my CoA & most Americans do not have or use supporters, I can't readily add one to my blazon and thus define it by virtue of being the first (and thus a trend setter for heralds!) to incorporate it in my arms.

So then, how do I (or us) get the heraldic world to accept a new symbol and define it?

[Bradley Smith]

Usage.

What may not be accepted immediately today may become a recognizable standard in the future simply because we start using it today and keep using it.

[Chris Green]

I don't really see the problem. All sorts of birds, real and imaginary have been used in heraldry. New charges are introduced all the time by the College of Arms. Why a great blue heron should prove a challenge to them or any heraldic authority I cannot imagine. It could readily be statant or volant, though displayed might be more difficult given its wing-span. As for tincture, I think it would have to be proper, since a heron azure could be any heron coloured blue, and in any case the GBH isn't blue.

A great blue heron volant proper would be a magnificent charge:

[JMcMillan]

Herons have been used in heraldry for centuries. Certainly one could specify a GBH, although I suspect that the stylization traditional to the depiction of heraldic figures would make that a lost distinction. I'd differ slightly with Chris. I think the best approach to including a GBH in a coat of arms is simply to blazon "a heron [volant, close, whatever] Azure." Using the natural colors might work all right in a crest.

[Ryan Shuflin]

The great blue heron and the grey heron are not that distinct looking, in fact a lot of heron's look similar. I think a heron azure would be easier identified as a blue heron. I think that is in line with heraldic tradition, like depicting red deer as a deer gules. Heraldry is a representative and figurative art form, one just has to convey the idea.

[Edward Hillenbrand]

Or we could use the Latin: Ardea herodias. I am just surprised that I have not seen a definition in the various sources I have. Of course to use it in a design, one must be asked to develop a blazon for someone. In UpState NY that doesn't happen all that often.

[Ryan Shuflin]

well, you could seek out potential armigers. For example: the Heron Observation Network of Maine could use new arms, and maybe they have a New York counterpart. http://maineheron.wordpress.com/join-heron/

[JMcMillan]

Or we could use the Latin: Ardea herodias. I am just surprised that I have not seen a definition in the various sources I have. Of course to use it in a design, one must be asked to develop a blazon for someone. In UpState NY that doesn't happen all that often.

I'm trying to understand the problem and not getting it. From Papworth's Ordinary, among many other herons:

Argent a heron rising and on a chief indented Azure three estoiles Or - Crooke of Alderford, Norfolk
Argent a heron volant Azure membered Or between three escallops Gules - Creck
Argent a heron volant in fess Azure between three escallops Sable - Herondon
Argent three herons Azure - Heron, Essex & Staffordshire

There are also herons proper. What's the issue again?

[Edward Hillenbrand]

The issue was defining the heraldic meaning for new images, specifically incorporating Native American meanings. I picked on the Great Blue Heron as I had not seen that in use before.

[Chris Green]

The issue was defining the heraldic meaning for new images, specifically incorporating Native American meanings.

So a good example would need to be something specific to Native Americans rather than a bird or animal. My knowledge of the Native American way of life is virtually completely skewed by an early diet of western films. But I did glean that, as well as a great respect for the natural world, there was also a sort of mystic communion with ancestors and the spirit world.

Of course every tribe had different customs, but choosing the Cree at random, one finds (thanks to Wiki) that there was a belief in an entity called the Mannegishi. Now I don't see that it would be any more difficult to have a Mannegishi as a charge than any of the fabulous creatures in European heraldry, the Green Man, half tree half human for example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannegishi