An Tir Arms
The arms of An Tir
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.
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.
According to Theodulf of Borogrove:
“I don’t know the full story of the creation of these arms, but believe they 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.
“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.”1
The use of “Black Lion Herald” for An Tir’s primary herald, appears to begin about 1974, with Robert of Winchester being appointed as “Acting Black Lion Herald.” An Tir became a Principality in 1973.
Robert of Winchester served at various times as Black Lion Herald from 1974-1976.
1Email from Theodulf to Richard Fitzalan, 3 May 2025.
Alphabet Capitals
These amazing illuminated capitals were drawn by Janet of Arden used in The Criers from the 1970s.