Rainbows, Clouds and Thunderbolts

The crest granted to Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) is a superb example of the romance of heraldry with a triumph of symbolism over reality. Drake’s ship, larger than the earth, sails atop the globe, pulled along with a cable led by a hand emerging from clouds. The clouds float in space, broken free from the earth’s atmosphere, but as the motto reveals, the hand emerging from clouds is a symbol of divine aid. On the masthead sits a ‘star’, an estoile or star of the heavens, as in the arms, and for crew a red wyvern (for an argument between Drake armigers):

A ship under reef (sails reefed) drawn round a terrestrial globe with a cable by a hand out of the clouds all proper, on the mainmast a star Argent, and in the ship a wyvern Gules, its wings spread, looking towards the hand

The crest of Sir Francis Drake by Tobias Frick

Proportion has its place and an artist’s eye is essential to the art of emblazoning arms; yet it is imagination that brings to life the relationship between real world objects at unlikely scales and gives recognisable features to fantastical beasts. Likewise, given that the heavens are seen from the surface of the earth, it should not be surprising to learn that rainbows, clouds and thunderbolts count as celestial objects in heraldry.

The crest of Baronet Hope of Craighall, Chief of Clan Hope, features exoatmospheric clouds with a rainbow that arches into space. An exoatmospheric rainbow is a beautiful oxymoron. Rainbows form when sunlight interacts with water droplets in the atmosphere, causing refraction, reflection, and dispersion of light. In space, there is no liquid water present in droplets, as it either freezes or vaporises due to the lack of pressure. All of these facts are overlooked as we admire the fine symbolism of:

A broken terrestrial globe, surmounted by a rainbow with clouds at each end all proper

Crest of Baronet Hope of Craighall by Tobias Frick

Fox-Davies advises that the rainbow’s use as part of a crest “is to be deprecated” but that “it might very advantageously be introduced as a charge upon a shield.” Papworth and Nisbet have Argent a rainbow proper for the arms of “Pont in Scotland”. Both originate from Nisbet’s source:
PONT of Shires-mill, argent, a rain-bow proper, between two stars in chief gules, and a galley ship in base sable ; crest, a sphere azure, beautified with six of the celestial signs, environing the terrestrial globe, all proper : motto, Terrene sub polo nihil ; so given by one James Pont, in his Collections of the Blazons of the Nobility and Gentry in Scotland, in the year 1624. Which Manuscript is often mentioned by me in this treatise ; the exactest copy that I have seen is that in the house of Seaton, where he died.

Arms of Reverend Robert Pont of Shiresmill (Lymphiad Wikimedia: MaEr)

The rainbow proper verges into the territory of landscape heraldry (debased heraldry), where an eighteenth century fascination for landscape art began to break away from heraldic traditions of symbolism and rules of tincture. The results are works of great artistic beauty, or not, that fail to be defined in the simplicity of a blazon. The rainbow is particularly problematic, as described by Bernhard Peter on his German website welt-der-wappen.de:
At first glance, a rainbow has pretty much everything that makes it seem unsuitable as a heraldic motif: It is not a tangible object, but an atmospheric-optical phenomenon, an optical illusion caused by the circular arc-shaped dispersion of light due to wavelength-dependent refraction on finely distributed water droplets in the air. The outer edge appears red (least refraction), followed by orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, turquoise, blue and violet on the inner edge (shortest wavelength, strongest refraction). Even more problematic is that a rainbow consists of a continuous spectrum of colours, contradicting the fundamental heraldic rule of clearly defined and uniform tinctures. It also includes colours that are not recognised as permitted tinctures in heraldry, such as violet, yellow-green, turquoise, and orange. Additionally, in the natural sequence of a rainbow, certain colours clash rather than alternating with metals. While gold is present in the spectrum as yellow light, white, or heraldic silver, is absent, as it represents the unbroken combination of all frequencies before light is spectrally dispersed.

Even so, the rainbow is not uncommon as a charge in German heraldry, particularly the ‘heraldic rainbow’ which conforms to the rules of tincture. On metal it is Rot-Gold-Blau or Rot-Gold-Grün. On a shield coloured Blau it is simply Gold-Rot-Gold. The civic arms for the Bavarian market town of Regenstauf have a red-green-gold rainbow, above two crossed fish, on a blue background. Although this rainbow does not conform to the rules of tincture, the arms have been in use since 1470 when they were granted by Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria.

A Gules-Or-Azure heraldic rainbow features in the arms granted by Lord Lyon for the Incorporation of Bonnetmakers and Dyers of Glasgow.

Gules-Or-Azure and Gules-Or-Vert heraldic rainbows

Or-Gules-Or heraldic rainbow with clouds, as in the arms of von Mosen of Meißen, 1605 in Siebmacher’s “Wappenbuch” (archive.org)

The civic arms for Regensberg in Canton Zurich, Switzerland feature a rainbow between clouds where both the rainbow and clouds are Argent. It reminds me rather of a moonbow, which is a spectacular sight for those fortunate enough to have seen one. As described on Wikipedia:
Moonbows are much fainter than solar rainbows, due to the smaller amount of light reflected from the surface of the Moon. Because the light is usually too faint to excite the cone color receptors in human eyes, it is difficult for the human eye to discern colors in a moonbow. As a result, a moonbow often appears to be white.

Arms of the Municipality of Regensberg, Switzerland with a silver rainbow and stylised clouds (Wikimedia: Gerhard Bräunlich)

Clouds are usually ‘proper’, as depicted in James Fairbairn’s Book of Crests for the crests of Stodart, Innes, Pitcairn and others. Some stylised forms have been adopted for clouds but the tincture rarely varies.

Papworth provides several examples for the historic arms of Leeson which, in various forms, feature the sun’s rays emerging from behind a cloud. The blazons range from a purely symbolic chief nebuly to the sort of puffy white clouds that a landscape artist could delight in.

Arms of ‘Leeson’: Gules, a cloud as a chief nebuly Argent with seven rays Or

Arms of ‘Lesune’ from Harley MS. 4199: Gules, a cloud as a chief nebuly Azure and Argent with thirteen rays alternately plain and wavy descending palewise Or

The canting arms of the German von Donnersberg family from Munich are not dissimilar to the arms of Leeson, except that the several rays of the sun are replaced by three wavy rays representing bolts of lightning. The cloud appears as a chief nebuly that is depicted with the blue-grey of a dark storm cloud. The arms were already quartered during the lifetime of Joachim von Donnersberg (1561-1650), Chancellor of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, after whom the Donnersbergerbrücke in Munich is named.

Canting arms of von Donnersberg

Quartered arms of Joachim von Donnersberg

Where there are clouds one might expect rain but not particularly in heraldry. Droplets gouttée, found in the arms of Clare College, Cambridge (derived from the seal of Elizabeth de Clare) signify ‘clarity’ rather than rainfall. The eleven gouttes added to the coat of arms of Cologne in the 16th century recall the 4th century Britannic princess Saint Ursula and her martyred virgins.

Snowflakes appear in modern civic arms in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Although each snow crystal is unique in nature, in heraldry there is a strictly stylised interpretation of the natural six-pointed crystal form. The same approach applies to personal arms, with a number of fine examples consisting of snowflakes or semé of snowflakes recorded in The Public Register of Arms, Flags, and Badges of Canada. Among these is a beautiful grant of arms integrating indigenous art forms and a ceremonial headdress of the Mohawk nation.

Ascending from the familiar presence of rain or snow in the lower sky, the higher reaches of the atmosphere reveal sights that are both elusive and extraordinary. Among these is upper-atmospheric lightning, such as Sprites, first predicted by Scottish physicist C.T.R. Wilson (1869-1959) in the 1920s. Though occasionally captured in striking photographs, this colourful, ephemeral display has yet to find its way into heraldry. Or is it, like the rainbow, ‘not a tangible object’, and debatable as a charge?

A fitting subject for celestial heraldry must surely be the Aurora. Commonly known as the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) or Southern Lights (aurora australis), an aurora is a natural light display resulting from disturbances in the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by the solar wind. Across cultures, this ethereal phenomenon has inspired a wealth of folklore. In Scottish Gaelic, Na Fir-Chlis - the northern lights are fairies locked in an everlasting battle, dancing and fighting in the air. Similarities are found throughout Scandinavia and among Indigenous peoples in North America and Australia. The aurora appears in the civic arms of Murmansk and Murmansk Oblast region in the northwest of Russia and takes dramatic form, beneath the North Star, in the civic arms of Utsjoki, the northern most municipality in Finland. With its awe-inspiring lights dancing across the sky, the aurora embodies a breathtaking spectacle that bridges the earthly and the celestial, drawing on both scientific curiosity and folklore.

Coat of arms of Utsjoki designed by Gustaf von Numers (Wikimedia: Care)

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