Due to some problems registering my arms with the Swedish Register of Arms, I am contemplating changing them, simplifying them.

I am very fond of the bear and am considering using that as the only charge.

What would the learned society think of:

Gules, a bears head erased Or?

Does anybody know of a similar Coat of Arms?

I would be surprised if this doesn’t exist somewhere, probably in Scandinavia if nowhere else.

Is the issue the quartering?  Would the register accept your present design if all the fields were the same color, so that it was simply a cross between two bears and two cross-crosslets?

Is the Swedish register you’re talking about the Skandinavisk Vapenrulla, the Swedish Heraldry Society, or some other body we would love to hear more about?

It is indeed the quartering that is problematic. It is possible such a change would suffice, but if I have to change it anyway, I thought why not make it really clear, even in small size, which it currently isn’t always…

The register is Svenskt Vapenregister, www.heraldik.se/svk, which is run by Svenska Vapenkollegiet (the Swedish College of Arms), which is a sub-group of the Swedish Heraldry Society in collaboration with the Swedish National Committee for Genealogy and Heraldry.

It is the National Committee that has objected to my arms.

I have made a search in the database of the Swedish Heraldry Society and only found a very few arms with bears, and even fewer with bear heads, none using it as an only charge.

I think the new design is too simple.  I have been doing the same thing, and would be willing to share experiences dealing with Finns on simplification.

how about the shield with a cross and overall a bears head erased all counterchanched,

Michael Swanson;66884 wrote:

I think the new design is too simple.  I have been doing the same thing, and would be willing to share experiences dealing with Finns on simplification.

Too simple? Ypu don’t hear that often in the wonderful world of heraldry… :p

Please do share you experiences with the Finns, even if our registers are different.

Claus K Berntsen;66887 wrote:

Too simple? Ypu don’t hear that often in the wonderful world of heraldry… :p

My reasoning is this. You have three crosses in your original design and these mean something.  Also, there are lots of bears in germanic arms, so the simplicity might lead to confusion in other countries.  I would suggest stick with the canting but add a cross: "Or, a bear’s head erased Gules (or Azure) charged with a cross (type) Argent."  Or perhaps a "Gules a semy of crosses Agent, a bear’s head Or."

My existing arms with the rye and roses seem to have no meaning for my siblings or father, and are a bit complex.  I wish I had read the Finn heraldic commandments before the design!  I am trying a double cant.  I tried to represent the changed name Storkharu to Swanson with two cants, and Michigan/Sweden/Finland with tincture.  The current fridge tester is "Azure a swan naiant Argent a chief indented embowed throughout of five points upwards Or."

My arms can’t be registered in Finland because I don’t live there.  I am considering a Sweden registration, since my son in nearing fluency in Swedish.  What is the cost there?

Claus K Berntsen;66883 wrote:

The register is Svenskt Vapenregister, www.heraldik.se/svk, which is run by Svenska Vapenkollegiet (the Swedish College of Arms), which is a sub-group of the Swedish Heraldry Society in collaboration with the Swedish National Committee for Genealogy and Heraldry.

Obviously we need to update the Swedish entry in our AHS page on non-US heraldic registries, http://www.americanheraldry.org/pages/index.php?n=Registration.Foreign#toc25.

I wonder if one of our Swedish-speaking colleagues could translate the SVK page for me so I can get the current information up on the site?

Thanks.

Well Joe how much do you want translated just a short introduction or more?

Would it be too much to do the whole page linked by Claus, and then I could condense it down to an appropriate length for our page?

Michael Swanson;66895 wrote:

My existing arms with the rye and roses seem to have no meaning for my siblings or father, and are a bit complex.  I wish I had read the Finn heraldic commandments before the design!

Then why not come up with a new design? Are we sworn in fealty to our blazons? Absent the involvement of a granting or regulatory authority, is there any real reason all of us aren’t free to revise our arms at any time? I would say that if we’re free to assume arms, we’re free to revise them, abandon them, start all over again, etc.

These Finn heraldic commandments sound interesting, BTW. Are they posted here somewhere?

Fred White;66902 wrote:

These Finn heraldic commandments sound interesting, BTW. Are they posted here somewhere?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_for_a_Designer_of_Finnish_Heraldry

Fred White;66901 wrote:

Then why not come up with a new design? Are we sworn in fealty to our blazons? Absent the involvement of a granting or regulatory authority, is there any real reason all of us aren’t free to revise our arms at any time? I would say that if we’re free to assume arms, we’re free to revise them, abandon them, start all over again, etc.

Of course we’re free to, but doing so for "light and transient causes" rather diminishes the usefulness of arms as marks of identity.  We’re also free to change our names whenever we wish, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.

Michael Swanson;66895 wrote:

My reasoning is this. You have three crosses in your original design and these mean something.  Also, there are lots of bears in germanic arms, so the simplicity might lead to confusion in other countries.  I would suggest stick with the canting but add a cross: "Or, a bear’s head erased Gules (or Azure) charged with a cross (type) Argent."  Or perhaps a "Gules a semy of crosses Agent, a bear’s head Or."

My existing arms with the rye and roses seem to have no meaning for my siblings or father, and are a bit complex.  I wish I had read the Finn heraldic commandments before the design!  I am trying a double cant.  I tried to represent the changed name Storkharu to Swanson with two cants, and Michigan/Sweden/Finland with tincture.  The current fridge tester is "Azure a swan naiant Argent a chief indented embowed throughout of five points upwards Or."

 

My arms can’t be registered in Finland because I don’t live there.  I am considering a Sweden registration, since my son in nearing fluency in Swedish.  What is the cost there?

http://xs136.xs.to/xs136/09092/swanson_metzig657.jpg

you could try something like this from Heraldry for the designer by W. Metzig 1983 reprint

Fred White;66902 wrote:

These Finn heraldic commandments sound interesting, BTW. Are they posted here somewhere?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_for_a_Designer_of_Finnish_Heraldry

Quote:

These are the guidelines used when heraldry is designed in accord with Finnish custom. Note that no other tinctures than those mentioned are used. The use of heraldic furs is scarce.

These “commandments” were drawn up by Jukka Suvisaari and amended by a committee set up by the Heraldic Society of Finland in April 1990. The committee consisted of Kimmo Kara, Juhani Vepsäläinen and Jukka Suvisaari.

 

The Commandments

<ol class=“bbcode_list”>
<li>Only heraldic tinctures are used. These are the metals, gold (Or) and silver (Argent); and the colors, red (Gules), blue (Azure), black (Sable) and green (Vert). In heraldic drawings yellow can be used in place of gold and white in place of silver. In flags and pennants this is almost always done nowadays. Heraldic colours are bright and clean; tones of the colours are picked from center of the scale.</li>
<li>The use of only two tinctures, of which one is a metal, is preferred. The use of a third tincture requires good reasons, but a fourth is definitely bad heraldry.</li>
<li>According to the tincture rule, one must not place colour on or next to colour or metal on or next to metal, unless the line of contact is very short.</li>
<li>Letters, numbers or texts do not belong on a heraldic emblem.</li>
<li>Figures (charges) must be as big as possible and fill the space intended for them as completely as possible.</li>
<li>In figures natural presentation is not important, but characteristic is (i.e the ferocity of the lion, majesty of the eagle, gracefulness of the deer).</li>
<li>In principle the charges should be two dimensional. At a minimum they must be recognisable even when presented as coloured flat surfaces, without shading or extra borderlines.</li>
<li>A heraldic emblem must be easy to remember. It should not be crowded with too many symbols, only the absolutely essential. The ideal is only one charge.</li>
<li>It is forbidden to be repetitive in heraldry: one idea should not be symbolized with two or more charges. On the other hand, if one charge suffices to symbolize two or more ideas, it only strengthens the symbolism of the charge, and therefore the whole emblem.</li>
<li>The charges and the whole emblem must be such that they can be redrawn according to a written description (blazon) of the coat of arms or flag without a model. This means that the charge must be a general presentation of its kind. For example, a castle cannot be a specific castle, but only a stylized heraldic castle (although it can be explained as referring to, say, Korela Fortress). In other words, the description of the charge should not require the use of a proper noun.</li>
</ol>