An Tir Arms

The Arms of An Tir

Arms of the Kingdom of An Tir, 2025.

An Tir College of Heralds with Principality of An Tir Arms, 1980.

The Arms of An Tir were registered to Laurel: December, 1981, the month before the Principality of An Tir became the Kingdom of An Tir. Registration is attributed to Torric in Bjorn.¹

Blazon

Blazon according to the An Tir Roll of Arms [2025]: Checky Or and argent, a lion rampant tail forked and nowed sable, crowned gules, grasping in dexter forepaw a laurel wreath bendwise vert.

During the time An Tir was a Principality (1973-1981), the Arms did NOT include a CROWN. That was added when An Tir became a kingdom in 1982.

History

An Tir Banner behind Prince Theodulf and Princess Anne, September 1976.

An Tir became a Principality in 1973.

“The name was decided by 5 of us at the Tourney, myself, Robert of Winchester and 3 others who's names I don't recall. All heralds of An Tir. I don't remember Henrik being in at this meeting. The 5 of us talked about the name and came up with An Tir. I had already designed the new Arms for the Principality and that was accepted at this meeting also. I came in second to Sir Fredrick of the West Tower in the lists. This may be due to old age.” – Jerald of Galloway²

The use of “Black Lion Herald” for An Tir’s primary herald, appears to begin about 1974, with Robert of Winchester being appointed as the first “Acting Black Lion Herald.”³

Robert of Winchester served at various times as Black Lion Herald from 1974-1976.

The first known photograph of the Banner of An Tir displaying the Arms is from the An Tir Principality Coronation in September 1976 at Ravenna Park in Seattle. This banner, in looking at later photos of the same banner, appears to be on a Checky field 5 by 5.

The Ancient Arms of the Principality of An Tir are blazoned: Checky Or and argent, a lion rampant, tail forked and nowed, sable, grasping in its dexter paw a laurel wreath proper.

Design

Jerald of Galloway claimed he had designed the arms and it was approved at a meeting of heralds at An Tir’s first coronet tourney.²

According to Theodulf of Borogrove:

“I don’t know the full story of the creation of these arms, but believe they [the drawings] were the work of Robert of Winchester. He was a good designer who I met in art school and who first told me about the SCA. I remember him telling me the arms that were submitted, and which were the ones I saw in his renderings was blazoned as “Checky of 20 Or and argent, a lion rampant tail . . .” If you’re not a herald, what this means is that the gold (Or) and silver (argent) checkerboard background (field) is a total of 20 squares, conveniently rendered as four squares horizontally and five squares vertically (and for those of us who were fastidious about design) on a heater shaped in such a fashion that at least a little bit of all the squares are visible. It was an elegant design.

The first use of the Principality of An Tir Arms in print appears to be in The Crier for June 1977. Drawn by Serena Cleindori of Bagulay.

“I don’t know when or why this detail disappeared, but I suspect the College of Heralds in the West thought this was too fine a detail to foist upon folks. (In retrospect I wonder if Robert made it up to justify his design.) It would certainly have been tough to explain what this means to the scribes who would have to render it.”⁴

Ian Jameson relates:

The tale as I heard it is that the arms of the new principality got designed over beers at a restaurant; some versions of the tale state it being a Shakey's Pizzeria. Checky or and argent… the tablecloth. And in that timeframe this really was a common tablecloth pattern at restaurants. The An Tir lion? The Löwenbräu Lion; and at the time Löwenbräu was very much the upper end of the beers one might find at such a restaurant.

I've heard versions of this tale since I first became active in 1980. If apocryphal...it started up early on.⁵

In Print

The first use of the An Tir Arms in print appears to be in The Crier for June 1977. There is was used along with the arms of Prince Edward Zifran of Gendy below the first printing of the Laws of An Tir. The Checky field in this illustration is 4 by 5. Drawn by Serena Cleindori of Bagulay.

Kingdom Arms

The principality arms were altered to become An Tir’s kingdom arms, “differenced by the addition of a crown to signify our lumenent Kingdom status. All Kingdoms in the Known World bear crowns in their arms.” [see document below]

Proposed changes to the Principality arms when An Tir became a kingdom in 1982.

Charters

Early use of An Tir’s Arms on the second Principality Charter from 1977. Note that the checks field is 7 by 7.

Herald of the Kingdom of the West (likely Duke Frederick of Holland) reading the Proclamation creating the kingdom of An Tir. Arms in the illuminated Capital. January 1982.

Heraldic Illuminated Alphabet Capitals

For the August Coronation Festival in August 1977, there was a contest for “Illumination: An illuminated alphabet suitable for use in YE CRIER. Entries must be in black and white and approximately 1 inch by 1 1/2 inch square (per letter one assumes). A prize will be awarded and the winner(s) used in YE CRIER. Sponsored by Mistress Maele.”6

The result was these amazing illuminated capitals were drawn by Janet of Arden used in The Criers from the 1970s.

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Citations

¹An Tir Roll of Arms [2025]: An Tir Roll of Arms
²”First Coronet Tournament (Principality of An Tir) - August, 1973” from The History of the Kingdom of the West [1]
³The Crier July 1974, page [3].
⁴Email from Theodulf to Richard Fitzalan, 3 May 2025.
⁵Discord post on An Tir SCA (Unofficial) server, sca-culture-and-history channel, Aug 11th, 2025
⁶The Crier August 1977, page 9.