Excerpts from the book HERALDRY OF THE WORLD Written
and illustrated by Carl Alexander von Volborth , K.St.J., A.I.H. Copenhagen 1973 Internet version edited
by Andrew Andersen, Ph.D. |
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Canting Arms (pp.
34-35) Canting arms are arms in which the charge
or charges illustrate the holder's name or, by a stretch of the imagination, his
way of life or even his address. As stated on p. 8 there are a tremendous
number of canting arms, certainly far more than we realise, because many of
them may be a play upon the meaning or pronunciation of a name no longer used
or long since forgotten. Canting arms have been popular from the
very beginnings of heraldry, among all classes of the community, from the
castle in the arms of the King of Castile (see Fig. 271) to the arms of
craftsmen and farmers. From the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries we even
have examples of noble families rejecting their old, non-canting arms in
favour of new, canting ones. One example is that of the German counts, later
princes, von Henneberg. They exchanged a wall and
an eagle for a hen (German: Henne). The Danish-Swedish noble family of Trolle originally bore a coat of arms tierced,
but changed over to a troll (a supernatural giant or dwarf).
On the next page are examples of German and
English canting arms, and the rest of the book contains many others: from
Germany, Bach (a beck) (Fig. 557) and Dürer (a
door, German: Tür)
(Fig. 562); from Austria, Rothschild (Fig. 580); from Switzerland, Uri
(aurochs) (Fig. 597); from Italy, Turin (a bull, Latin: taurus) ("Fig. 708); from
Norway, Bull (Fig. 751); from Sweden, Goos (a
goose) (Fig. 780); and from Finland, Horn (Fig. 786). But canting arms are
not always so easy to decipher. They may be based on a dialect, or even on a
foreign language. There is the example of the Danish vicar, Lauritz Petersen, who in the seventeenth century latinised his name to Petraeus
and, as this was related to the Greek word petra, meaning a rock, he went
one step further and translated it into Syrian (Thura). Since there is a Latin
word of a similar sound which means incense the Thura
family included a censer in their coat of arms.
This is an example of a punning charge. But the surname could also be chosen
to refer to the charge, and this often explains the meaning of the bearings.
The Danish nobility were in 1526 compelled to adopt permanent surnames and
quite a number of families took their name from their escutcheons, like the
families of Rosenkrantz (the wreath of roses
surmounting the helmet, see Fig. 729) and Gyldenstjerne
(a gold star).
There are also many non-aristocratic
families whose arms originated in the name of the family house and where the
charge eventually became the family name. There were also instances where the charge
and the name were created simultaneously, such as Tordcnskjold
(meaning literally 'thunder shield') and his thunderbolt, see Fig. 743. 743. The arms which Peter Wessel, the Danish
naval hero, was granted when he was raised to the nobility in 1716 and given
the name of Tordenskjold (thunderbolt). The first
quarter illustrates the bearer's new name. The eagle in the second quarter
signifies the battle in the previous year in which the Swedish frigate Hvita oern (white
eagle) was taken. The cannon and three cannon balls in the third quarter
symbolise the Danish signal of recognition which was three gunshots. The lion
in the fourth quarter alludes both to the three lions in the coat of arms of
Denmark and to the single lion in that of Norway. . |
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