{"id":21666,"date":"2014-06-19T05:16:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T10:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=21666"},"modified":"2014-06-06T07:22:47","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T12:22:47","slug":"design-your-middle-earth-heraldic-device","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=21666","title":{"rendered":"Design Your Middle-Earth Heraldic Device"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/luthien-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Herald of Luthien\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"contentimg\" \/>As someone whose relationship with Tolkien tends to be on the casual side* it&#8217;s easy to forget just how rich and detailed his mythology and history actually are.  Then I discover that not only did Tolkien create heraldic devices for many of his characters, he even laid out the rules (formulated by &#8220;the Elves&#8221;) for designing new ones.<\/p>\n<p>The Council of Elrond discusses how to design a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.councilofelrond.com\/craft\/design-your-own-womans-middle-earth-heraldic-device\/\">woman&#8217;s device<\/a>, with the main points being:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It must be circular<\/li>\n<li>The background is generally black<\/li>\n<li>It usually contains a flower which has special significance to the bearer<\/li>\n<li>There can be a mark which identifies the bearer&#8217;s family (such as a detail from the family coat of arms)<\/li>\n<li>The number of points touching the edge of the field relates to the bearer&#8217;s rank<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Tolkiens\u00e4llskapet Forodrim site has a <a href=\"http:\/\/forodrim.org\/gobennas\/heraldry\/heraldry.htm\">detailed article<\/a> on Middle-Earth emblems and heraldry; the rules for men don&#8217;t seem to be quite as cut-and-dried as for women, other than that it should be lozenge-shaped and you need to pay attention to the number of points touching the edge.  There are additional examples at the Tolkien Gateway <a href=\"http:\/\/tolkiengateway.net\/wiki\/Category:Flags_and_Devices\">wiki<\/a>, and you can also look at sites devoted to &#8220;real&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.internationalheraldry.com\/\">heraldry<\/a> for ideas on color choices, placement of charges, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>If you can draw or have access to a computer graphics program, this would be an interesting way to create your own unique &#8220;brand.&#8221;  Once you have a design you like, it could be used as a pattern for all sorts of craft projects: Quilts, wall hangings, cross-stitch, personalized stationery, painted fabric, and lots more.  (And, obviously, if you&#8217;re into LOTR cosplay, embroider the design on a cloak or paint it on your shield.)<\/p>\n<p>Couple of bonus links from the Council of Elrond site: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.councilofelrond.com\/craft\/weddings-planning-the-middle-earth-wedding\/\">Planning the Middle-earth Wedding<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.councilofelrond.com\/craftcats\/gardening-herblore-and-herbcrafts\/\">Gardens of Middle-earth<\/a>, which has a bunch of theme garden ideas (including one representing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.councilofelrond.com\/craft\/gardens-of-middle-earth-mordor\/\">Mordor<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\n<br \/>\n*Saruman and Sauron should have had less-similar names.  <i>The Two Towers<\/i> could have been replaced with a pamphlet saying, &#8220;They rode and rode and rode and rode&#8230;.&#8221;  <i>The Silmarillion<\/i> is a loooooong way across.  <em>That<\/em> sort of casual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As someone whose relationship with Tolkien tends to be on the casual side* it&#8217;s easy to forget just how rich and detailed his mythology and history actually are. Then I discover that not only did Tolkien create heraldic devices for many of his characters, he even laid out the rules (formulated by &#8220;the Elves&#8221;) for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doom-it-yourself"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21666"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21883,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21666\/revisions\/21883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}