Enflamed

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The preferred, period form of "flaming" per 1993 precedent. See below.

See also Fire


Definition:[edit | edit source]

Glossary of Terms - A charge which has small gouts of flame issuing from it. See also Fire. http://heraldry.sca.org/coagloss.html


Examples:[edit | edit source]

Period source:[edit | edit source]

Siebmacher Siebmacher

An Ordinary of Siebmacher's Wappenbuch[edit | edit source]

Modern[edit | edit source]

Pictorial Dictionary of SCA Heraldry (3rd edition):[edit | edit source]

Per Mistholme, may use PicDic art for submission purposes without prior permission.

Vector Graphics:[edit | edit source]

Annotated Pennsic Traceable Art Project[edit | edit source]

Sources:[edit | edit source]

Academy of St. Gabriel "Medieval Heraldry Archive" - http://www.s-gabriel.org/heraldry/
Archive of St. Gabriel reports - http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/archive.cgi

Laurel Armory Articles - http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/armory_articles.html

Period Armorials


Precedents:[edit | edit source]

Precedents of the SCA College of Arms - [[http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/precedents.html
Morsulus Heralds Website - http://www.morsulus.org/ (to search the LoARs and Precedents)

Use the above links to be sure any precedents listed below haven't been superseded by newer precedents.

Definition/Defining Instance:[edit | edit source]

===November 2020 CL - On Flames This month, Iago Coquille takes us on an excursion through the depictions of flames in period heraldry. His article is currently available at the Laurel website at https://heraldry.sca.org/armory/flames/, and discusses:

  • Flame shape
  • Disconnected flames
  • Tinctures, including proper
  • Depiction of strewn flames

Iago's research affects two items this month. Specifically, we are now overturning precedent: the so-called "crab-claw" depiction, previously viewed as modern as declared on the September 2019 Cover Letter, is now shown to be period and, therefore, usable in Society armory. It is worth noting that not all the sources are Italian -- English, French, and German sources are also represented among others.

Additionally, the ways in which multi-color flames have been depicted in period are much more varied than is typical of our practice. In particular, we now have sufficient evidence to support a variety of ways in which flames may incorporate both red and yellow and still be considered proper, extending beyond our long-held standard of alternating tongues of Or and gules, and future submissions will benefit from this evidence.

https://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2020/11/20-11cl.html

June 1993 Cover Letter: period enflaming[edit | edit source]

For some time now, we've been instituting a change (actually dating from Master Da'ud's tenure as Laurel) on enflamed charges: how they're considered, and how they're blazoned. In the early days of the Society, a [charge] enflamed was depicted as a [charge] completely enveloped by flame --- essentially a full flame, with the [charge] entirely on the flame. In those cases, the [charge] was considered the primary charge, with the flames either an artistic detail or a complex sort of fimbriation. More recently, such designs have been blazoned On a flame a [charge], making the flame the primary and the [charge] a tertiary. This has two effects: it brings our heraldic practice closer to that of period, and it alters the way difference is counted against such designs.

On the first point, enflamed charges weren't normally depicted in period armory as enveloped of flames. Discounting the fiery charges whose flames have a defined placement (e.g., the beacon), a period enflamed charge would be drawn with tiny spurts of flame issuant from several points. Mounts enflamed were not uncommon: in addition to the examples of MacKenzie armory cited by Lady Black Stag (in her commentary on Michael McKenzie, on this LoAR), there's the mountain couped azure enflamed proper in the arms of MacLeod (Guillim, 1632, p.127) and the trimount couped vert enflamed gules in the arms of Lerchenfeld (Siebmacher, 1605, plate 95) and Nouwer (Armorial de Gelres, c.1370, fo.40). There's also the arms of Brandt (Argent, a ragged staff bendwise sable enflamed gules), where the enflaming is depicted in various sources (Siebmacher, Gelres, the European Armorial) as on the top end of the staff, issuant from each "ragged" portion, or issuant to chief --- but never as On a flame gules a ragged staff sable. The salamander is usually shown with spurts of flame, but occasionally as lying on a bed of flame (Dennys' Heraldic Imagination, p.193); but I could find no period emblazon showing the salamander as a tertiary on a flame. The enflamed towers of the arms of Dublin are drawn with spurts of fire from the battlements and windows, not as flames with tertiary towers. I could go on, but I think the point is made: in period, the normal depiction of a [charge] enflamed showed the charge on the field, with tiny spurts of flame issuant (and also on the field).

Two consequences follow from this depiction. First, the [charge] and the flames must both have good contrast with the field. Enflaming isn't a way to get around the Rule of Tincture; we don't permit flaming fimbriation in Society armory. Second, by the period definition of enflaming an enflamed [charge] is definitely the main charge; but by the old SCA definition, an enflamed [charge] is now considered a tertiary charge. We'd count Sufficient Difference, per X.2, between a lion Or enflamed gules and a tower Or enflamed gules, but no difference at all, per X.4.j.ii, between on a flame gules a lion Or and on a flame gules a tower Or.

In all ways, then, it's in the submitter's best interest to render an enflamed charge in the period style, rather than as a tertiary on a flame. It's more authentic, and it reduces the chance of conflict. (24 July, 1993 Cover Letter (June, 1993 LoAR), pp. 5-6) http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/1993/06/cvr.html

Registerability:[edit | edit source]

(Restricted, Reserved, SFPP, OOP)

Conflict:[edit | edit source]

Identifiability:[edit | edit source]

Collected Precedents:[edit | edit source]

Ordinary[edit | edit source]