Alerion

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Avalerion
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This article is about the Heraldic bird. For the song by Asking Alexandria, see Stand Up and Scream.
See also: Aileron
Heraldic representation
Seal of Bouchard de Marly (1225) with the coat of arms of the lords of Montmorency, or a cross gules, quarterly four alerions azure[1]
arms

Alerion (sometimes known as Avalerion) is a term for a heraldic bird. Historically, it referred to the regular

heraldic eagle
. Later, heralds used the term alerion to refer to "baby eagles" or "eaglets". To differentiate them from mature eagles, alerions were shown as an eagle displayed inverted without a beak or claws (disarmed). To differentiate it from a decapitate (headless) eagle, the alerion has a bulb-shaped head with an eye staring towards the dexter (left-hand side) of the field. This was later simplified in modern heraldry as an abstract winged oval.

An example is the arms of the

Geoffrey de Bouillon, according to a tale that he killed three white eaglets with a bow and arrow when out hunting.[2] It is far more likely to be canting arms that are a pun based on Lorraine / Erne. (alerion is a partial anagram
of Lorraine).

Medieval

Indus, possibly based on a description by Pliny.[3]

The word's ultimate origin is unclear, possibly adapted from the German Adler or Adelar ("eagle"). It is found in 12th-century French as alérion and in medieval Latin as alariōnem (a large eagle-like bird).[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ A. Maquet, Les seigneurs de Marly, recherches historiques et archéologiques sur la ville et seigneurie de Marly-le-Roi avec notes, armoiries et sceaux... préface de Victorien Sardou. Paris, Imprimerie et librairie universelle, 1882. fr:Armorial des Montmorency: or à la croix de gueules cantonnée de quatre alérions d'azur, Bouchard II de Marly: d'or à la croix de gueules frettée d'argent cantonnée de quatre alérions d'azur. The seal of Mathieu II does not indicate the fretty variation.
  2. ^ Rothery, Guy Cadogan. Concise Encyclopedia of Heraldry. pp.50
  3. William Latham Bevan; Henry Wright Phillott (1873). Mediæval Geography: An Essay in Illustration of the Hereford Mappa Mundi. London: E. Stanford. pp. 30
    –31. Avalerion.
  4. ^ "alerion". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alerions.
  • Guillaume de Machaut (1994). The Tale of the Alerion. Translated by Minnette Gaudet & Constance B. Hieatt. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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