Monday, August 16, 2021

More Danish Heraldry, from the Mid-20th Century and Early 21st Century


Continuing our look at some of the armorial plaques of members of the Order of the Dannebrog in Frederiksborg Castle, we come these eight shields, the top five and then the bottom three, on one wall in a window alcove. (Again, click on an image to see a larger and more detailed picture. And as usual, the blazons are my own.)

Starting and the top left, then running left to right and then down, we find the armorial plaques of:

Flemming Emil Harald Albrecht Lerche (1878-1972, inducted in 1948), Danish diplomat and chamberlain: Per chevron azure and gules a chevron throughout argent between in chief to mullets of eight points or and in base three birds argent

Johan Christian Westergaard Kruse (1880-1964, inducted in 1949), Danish ambassador: Argent two bars wavy azure overall a tree eradicated gules on a chief azure three mullets of six points argent

Otto Carl Mohr (1883-1970, inducted in 1950), Danish lawyer and diplomat: Or a female Moor’s head proper ear-ringed or

Aage Helgesen Vedel, Vice Admiral (1894-1981, inducted in 1949) a non-heraldic design: On a roundel argent on an equilateral triangle per pale or and vert an altar argent enflamed proper and a rose branch flowered vert, on a base pointed counterchanged argent and azure a serpent involved or; and

Erik Andreas Mathias Biering (1876-1964, inducted in 1949), Danish diplomat: Or a plough overall a caduceus on a chief azure a Latin cross argent between two mullets of six points or.


The top two plaques in the next picture are the bottom two plaques above. The remaining three plaques are the arms of: 

Aage Immanuel Tang Barfod (1878-1956, inducted in 1950), Danish head of department who played an important role in the design of the Danish public school through the 20th century: Azure a leg couped below the knee proper

Hans Jesper Helsø (born 1948, inducted in 2007), Chief of Defence: Argent a tree eradicated sable leaved vert in chief a Latin cross gules, the tree’s trunk and roots between three pellets two and one; and

Anders Troldborg (born 1941, inducted in 2007), Head of Department, Ministry of Defense, former Director, the Danish Prison and Probation Service and head of department, Ministry of Justice: Argent a devil’s face gules orbed and toothed (fanged?) argent, pupiled sable, a base embattled gules masoned argent. (It is possible that the field is meant to be Per fess embattled argent and gules masoned argent, but the line of division here is really too low for it to be accurately considered “per fess”.)


Next time, we'll have something for military aircraft lovers!

2 comments:

  1. I don't think Trollborg has a "devil's face", but rather a troll's head, giving him canting arms.

    The troll's head/face can also be seen in some of the arms of the noble family Trolle.

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    1. You are no doubt correct. My difficulty was blazoning it in a such a way as to be comprehensible to an English-speaking audience, and neither a troll nor a troll's head/face can be found in any of the general English dictionaries of heraldry. So I selected a term which would be more comprehensible to my American readers.

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