King Arthur -- Attributed Heraldry

From Cunnan
Revision as of 14:17, 22 July 2005 by Cian (talk | contribs) (heraldic links, spelling)
Jump to navigationJump to search

Although Arthur (if he existed) ruled, or fought, centuries before the advent of formal heraldry, once there were heralds and coats of arms it was, to the cognoscenti of that period, utterly unthinkable that Arthur and his knights had not been entitled to bear coat-arms and had indeed done so. More, since the major route of transmission of Arthurian lore was through minstrels and bards, who needed to hold the attention of an audience, and were therefore thankful of details of colour and image, it became also an essential, in telling the stories, that heraldry become involved.

The following are some of the heraldry ascribed to the Arthurian heroes:

Much of the above comes collectively from Michel Pastoureau, who collected the information and published it in 1983