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February 11

Proper term for "heraldic key"

Hello,

I'm trying to translate the Norwegian phrase heraldisk nøkkel (from a book title) into English. I know what it means, but haven't so far managed to come up with anything better than the literal translation "heraldic key". It refers to a directory of symbols used in heraldry, with information aimed at using them to identify the family a particular coat of arms belongs to.

Is there a standard name for this kind of book? Musiconeologist (talk) 01:25, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps armorial or roll of arms?--216.15.56.15 (talk) 04:05, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No, 'armorial' and 'roll of arms' refer to collections of actual 'coats of arms' (technically 'heraldic achievements') either depicted or described (or both). From my shelf of Heraldry books [Disclosure: former member of the Heraldry Society], there is no particular term for such a key of symbols alone, and books about heraldry are often divided into chapters, each illustrating and explaining the appearance, meaning and use of a particular class of symbol (such as 'The Cross', for example). One book I have is arranged alphabetically as an illustrated encyclopedia, and is called A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry (by James Parker, 1894); other books may use other general English terms, like 'Dictionary'. 'Heraldic key' would be an appropriate name for such a list of symbols.

Many early armorials had no particular order, and were often compiled by touring a particular area and adding arms as they were encountered, or adding them as they were granted by the relevant authority. However, an Ordinary of arms is an armorial or roll of arms specifically arranged in some logical order, the earliest English example dating to about 1340. One such influential compilation is Papworth's Ordinary (1874) which re-arranged the contents of an 1847 edition of Burke's General Armory in a logical analytical order (devised by Papworth) according to the field, division and charges of a coat of arms, so that on seeing an unknown coat, one could (with practice) quickly look it up and identify the bearers of it.

From Musiconeologist's description, what he has corresponds to an Ordinary of arms, so "Heraldic ordinary" would probably be a good translation. Hope this helps. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.123.129 (talk) 05:19, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Our article Ordinary (heraldry) identifies this as a charge, so heraldic ordinary will be confusing. Perhaps one or more of the following terms are usable: list, index, register.

Books for identifying plants (floras) or animals are sometimes called "key guides"; see e.g. the book title Cronin's Key Guide to Australian Mammals. Occasionally just "key" is used, as seen in the book title Key to the Families of North American Insects. The sense of key is presumably "identification key"; perhaps that of nøkkel in the phrase heraldisk nøkkel is likewise that of bestemmelsesnøkkel. ‑‑Lambiam 07:57, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As a Swede with a Norwegian father, I agree that nøkkel in this case should be interpreted figuratively, similar to an answer key. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 12:53, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That does agree with the NAOB definition, which seems to me to confirm that the range of Norwegian meanings of nokkel is very similar to that of English meanings of key. There's a Norwegian Heraldisk nøkkel article, which is where I found out what it is, but I couldn't find a dictionary entry for the phrase. Search results mostly bring up either that article or the book in question (Heraldisk nøkkel by Herman L. Løvenskiold). So I think it's probably pretty specialised in Norwegian too. Musiconeologist (talk) 17:55, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And I've just noticed that the Heraldisk nøkkel article mentions the Løvenskiold book as an example, saying that it lists the symbols alphabetically by their heraldic names. Musiconeologist (talk) 18:25, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

remarkable, for many years in the eye of my mind you have been an american otaku 130.74.58.166 (talk) 16:20, 12 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Appearances might deceive... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 10:24, 16 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As Lambiam noted in another comment, "key" is a standard English term for a guide like this, so I don't think it needs any further translation. I would suggest that "Key to Heraldry" or "Key to Heraldic Symbols" might be a better phrasing, to avoid confusion with the idea of the heraldic use of the image of a key. Iapetus (talk) 13:03, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Given that Heraldisk nøkkel is the entire title, I'm reluctant to introduce too many explanatory words, so I think I'll go with either Key to heraldry or Heraldic key, but add a brief explanation of what it is. It seems there isn't a more standard term, and it is basically an identification key for symbols used in heraldry—so as you say, key seems entirely appropriate.

What I'm doing is adding English translations of titles to a bibliography that lists Norwegian sources. Several of them are followed by a comment about how they're relevant—so I can just include the explanation in the same way, without affecting the format at all. Musiconeologist (talk) 18:13, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]