Danish Heraldry

[Gorm]

I was wondering about the accuracy of the shield image used in the game for Denmark. I have never seen this before. I was expecting a simple white cross on a red field, the Dannebrog. According to legend, this flag fell from the sky during a battle in Estonia in 1219.

If the developers scan these pages, perhaps they can tell us why they chose the current design. Looks like a runic eagle. The royal crest of Denmark has 3 lions.

[Kraxis]

Obviously Dannebrog is too young to be used. Had they used it, a lot of people would undoubtedly complain at that.

The current raven is what appears to be a leftover from the viking raven, and often used symbol in war. The current royal heraldry is not certain to be that old either, as lions were pretty unknown up here, and the state was very loosely structured around the free farmers and low nobility. So the king wasn't a king like in the more structured southern (or english) kingdoms. You can see this in the killing of Cnut the Holy. He dared to put a tax on the peasants and got killed for it.

So technically the three lions aren't that great, besides the English already have them too. So making a sort of crossover from the black raven banner to a more feudal symbol like we have now is pretty good. It is far from perfect, but just as good as the other two. And given the relatively vikingesque Danish unitroster, it is clear where the initial feel is supposed to be somewhat pointed in that direction.

The sad fact remains, we do not know what kind of royal heraldry Denmark had at the time.

[Gorm]

Great reply! Thanks.