SCA - West Kingdom College of Heralds | Heraldic Templates

Heraldic Templates -- Fish

The following links are to pages that contain images that you can use to help design your armory -- this set of images are for Fish and related charges (kraken, etc.) You will see that some of the 'natural' fish are not always depicted in heraldry as they are in nature.

Instructions (please read):

If you want to use this for your heraldic submission, or print it for any reason, click on the 'PDF File' link -- a new browser window will open, and you can print from there.
- If you want to use the image for your own armory submission, these should be sized to be close to the submission forms, and you can trace over them. For straight lines you might want to use a ruler to help.

Note that printing the GIF Files probably will not provide images that are the correct size for the heraldic submission forms.

Note: These are not done yet -- the links are here to make it easier for Golem, rather than having to keep adding them ... this is a work in progress.

Fish

NOTES: if you click on the link for an individual fish you will be taken to a new page that shows that fish in as many different heraldic positions as the artists could manage and several sizes.

In addition, some fish that are found in many heraldic texts are not given here, due to not wishing to overwork the artists more than they already are being worked. Once the original "wishlist" is completed, if they are still speaking to me, we can consider coming back in and inserting "missing" items.

The descriptions of the fish below are all taken from The Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry ...¹, and rather than having a 'footnote' for each, we have one. Note that not all of the detail in the Pictorial Dictionary has been included in the text given ...

The term fish, as it is used in heraldry, refers to any marine creature not a monster. The category includes the generic fish, and such specific types as the barbel, the herring, the lucy> (also called a pike) and the roach. All these are found in period heraldry; the exact type was often chosen for a cant (as in the arms of Herring, de Lucy, and the Counts of Bar).
Also included in this category are the cetaceans, e.g. the porpoise, the orca or killer whale, the narwhal, and the sperm whale; and the crustaceans, e.g. the crab and the lobster.
Fish are in general naiant by default; the exception are the crustaceans, which are tergaint by default. In other respect fish of the SCA follow the same conventions as those of mundane armory.

Crab

        PDF File

Dolphin     The dolphin was considered in medieval times the fastest and noblest fish. The term may refer to the heraldic fish or the natural ceacean; the heraldic form is the default, a fierce fish with a spined dorsal fin. ... The dolphin's default posture is naiant; when blazoned proper it is vert detailed gules.
     The dolphin as found in nature is usually blazoned a bottlenosed dolphin. When blazoned proper, it is colored in grey tones, and is considered equivalent to argent.

        PDF File

Eel     The eel is a fish with a long, serpentine body; it is distinguished from the serpent by its tail and fins. Eels are wavy by default. They are normally found in mundane heraldry for the sake of a cant, as in the arms of Eels, c.1584. Eels may also be called congers for canting purposes; small eels are also called grigs.

        PDF File

Kraken     The kraken is a sea monster from Norse myth, which would grab passing ships and break them apart. It is depicted as a squid, with tentacles and a pointed head; the number of tentacles is left to the artist, but is most commonly shown with ten. The tentacles are in chief by SCA default.
     Similar to the mythical kraken is the octopus, an actual sea animal with eight tenticles. Its head is rounded, and the tentacles are in base by SCA default.

        PDF File

Lobster

        PDF File

Lucy (Pike)     A lucy is a long, aggressive fish, popular in medieval armory for its canting value ... It was also known as the pike, the gad, ged, or the jack, in each case for its canting value. The lucy is haurient by default.

        PDF File

Whale     The whale is a large sea-going creature, known today as a cetacean mammal, but regarded in period as a fish; it was hunted from ships for its meat, oil and baleen. The medieval depiction of the whale is somewhat fanciful; ... taken from Gesner's De Avibus et Piscibus, 1560. If a naturalistic depiction is desired, it must be specified as, e.g., a sperm whale.
     There is also the narwhal, a cetacean with a long unicorn-like horn (actually its tooth). It is generally depicted as found in nature.

        PDF File

Footnotes:
¹ The Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry as Used in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., 2nd Edition, Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme and Akagawa Yoshio, 1992, self-published.

Disclaimer: All of these drawings are intended for use in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., specifically for heraldic purposes. However, these pages do not delineate SCA College of Arms or West Kingdom College of Heralds policy. All attempts are made when describing or portraying the elements of armory used in these pages to be as accurate to both medieval and SCA usage as possible, but if you are not sure, you should check with the College of Arms or the College of Heralds. You may use these drawings "as is" for the purpose of designing heraldry for use within the SCA with this understanding. All decisions by the West Kingdom College of Heraldry and/or the SCA's College of Arms regarding the depictions used on your submission forms supercedes anything found here.

Heraldic Templates


Crab
		PDF File

Dolphin	The dolphin was considered in medieval times the fastest and noblest fish. The term may refer to the heraldic fish or the natural ceacean; the heraldic form is the default, a fierce fish with a spined dorsal fin. ... The dolphin's default posture is naiant; when blazoned proper it is vert detailed gules. The dolphin as found in nature is usually blazoned a bottlenosed dolphin. When blazoned proper, it is colored in grey tones, and is considered equivalent to argent.
		PDF File

Eel	The eel is a fish with a long, serpentine body; it is distinguished from the serpent by its tail and fins. Eels are wavy by default. They are normally found in mundane heraldry for the sake of a cant, as in the arms of Eels, c.1584. Eels may also be called congers for canting purposes; small eels are also called grigs.
		PDF File

Kraken	The kraken is a sea monster from Norse myth, which would grab passing ships and break them apart. It is depicted as a squid, with tentacles and a pointed head; the number of tentacles is left to the artist, but is most commonly shown with ten. The tentacles are in chief by SCA default. Similar to the mythical kraken is the octopus, an actual sea animal with eight tenticles. Its head is rounded, and the tentacles are in base by SCA default.
		PDF File

Lobster
		PDF File

Lucy (Pike)	A lucy is a long, aggressive fish, popular in medieval armory for its canting value ... It was also known as the pike, the gad, ged, or the jack, in each case for its canting value. The lucy is haurient by default.
		PDF File

Whale	The whale is a large sea-going creature, known today as a cetacean mammal, but regarded in period as a fish; it was hunted from ships for its meat, oil and baleen. The medieval depiction of the whale is somewhat fanciful; ... taken from Gesner's De Avibus et Piscibus, 1560. If a naturalistic depiction is desired, it must be specified as, e.g., a sperm whale. There is also the narwhal, a cetacean with a long unicorn-like horn (actually its tooth). It is generally depicted as found in nature.
		PDF File