[Table of Contents |Previous Page (Blazon) |Next Page (Bordure)]
Nowing of the tongue ...must be considered artistic license, as is the exact style of nowing. (Morgan Etienne ap Gwalchmai Gwynedd, August, 1992, pg. 6)
In heraldry, a foot is a human foot by default. (Eoin Eardstapa, August, 1992, pg. 11)
The one registration of a "dragon's tongue" in the SCA, back in 1973, does not make it an identifiable charge. Nor does it seem in keeping with period armory: tongues were not used as charges, so far as I know.
Several commenters suggested that these be reblazoned "dragon's tails." Conceptually, this would be much more acceptable: lion's tails and fox's tails were used as period charges, and I'd have no problem with correctly drawn dragon's tails. But the feature that marks these charges as dragon's tails are the barbs at the ends --- which were not found on period dragons. (See the dragons and wyverns in Dennys' Heraldic Imagination, pp.190-191 and the plate opposite p.177; or the Oxford Guide to Heraldry, pp.102, 109, and plate 16.) I might consider tail's barbs to be artistic license, when the tail is part of a full dragon; but I cannot accept a charge whose identifying feature is a post-period artistic detail.
Either as dragon's tongues or dragon's tails, the charges here may not be registered. Dragon's tails drawn in a period style should be acceptable. (Aaron Clearwater, August, 1992, pg. 27)
[A hawk's gambes bendwise sinister couped vs. an eagle's leg erased à la quise] The gambes shown here are not inverted: eagle's legs, unlike lions' legs, have their claws to base by default. However, since eagle's legs à la quise are somewhat embowed, they are often depicted with a bendwise sinister slant; so we can't get a CD for posture. (Shire of Blackhawk, January, 1993, pg. 30)
[Table of Contents |Previous Page (Blazon) |Top of Page |Next Page (Bordure)]
While we have no period evidence for the use of lips as charges, we do have examples of other body parts: hands, arms, feet, legs, heads, eyes, teeth and mustaches. On the basis of these, we've registered ears and toes in the SCA. Lips thus appear to be compatible with period armory, though I'd be willing to count them a "weirdness" pending better documentation. (Saundra the Incorrigible, March, 1993, pg. 1)
[A pig rampant, its dexter hind limb a peg-leg] Several commenters wondered whether the porcine prosthesis was compatible with period armory. I consider this on a par with the arms of Finland (Gules semy of roses argent, a lion rampant crowned Or, its dexter limb an armored arm brandishing a sword, standing atop a scimitar fesswise reversed argent). There should be no problem with the peg-leg [device returned for other reasons]. (Inigo Needham Bledsoe, March, 1993, pg. 26)
I would grant Substantial Difference between a human arm and a beast's jambe. (Caomh Beathan Crubach, June, 1993, pg. 13)
...we grant difference between a dragon and an eagle -- but none between a dragon's foot and an eagle's foot. (Laeghaire O Laverty, August, 1993, pg. 5)
[Or, an open book argent bound sable] the book is essentially argent on Or, in violation of the Rule of Contrast. The black binding does not remove the problem, as fimbriation might --- for it doesn't completely surround the charge. (Caelina Lærd Reisende, December, 1992, pg. 15)
[Table of Contents |Previous Page (Blazon) |Top of Page |Next Page (Bordure)]