Fylfot

Notional arms – Argent a fylfot azure (a blue fylfot on a white shield) – exemplifying the design of the fylfot commonly shown in modern heraldry texts (see text)

This article covers the etymology and usage of the word "fylfot" and the occurrence of the fylfot in European heraldry.  For information about the symbol itself, see swastika.

Fylfot or fylfot cross is a synonym for swastika, sometimes used in Britain.

However – at least in modern heraldry texts, such as Friar and Woodcock & Robinson (see below) – the fylfot differs somewhat from the archetypal form of the swastika: always upright and typically with truncated limbs, as shown in the figure on the right.

Contents

1 Etymology
2 Modern use of the term
3 In heraldry
4 Trivia
5 See also
6 External links
7 References

Etymology

The most commonly cited etymology for this is that it comes from the notion common among nineteenth-century antiquarians, but based on only a single 1500 manuscript, that it was used to fill empty space at the foot of stained-glass windows in medieval churches.

However, Thomas Wilson (see below), writing in 1896, cites other etymologies:

"In Great Britain the common name given to the Swastika from Anglo-Saxon times ... was Fylfot, said to have been derived from the Anglo-Saxon fower fot, meaning four-footed, or many-footed." — R.P. Greg, "Meaning and Origin of Fylfot and Swastika," Archaeologia, Vol. XLVIII, 1885, part 2, 1885 (p. 298); Le Comte Goblet d'Alviella, La Migration des Symboles, 1891 (p. 50)
"The word [Fylfot] is Scandinavian and is compounded of Old Norse fiël, equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon fela, German viel, "many", and fotr, "foot", the many-footed figure." — quoted from George Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages"; John B. Day, London; 1874 (p.10). The Germanic root "fele" is cognate with the word "full", which has the sense of "many". For example, the expressions "Full Well" and "Very Well" are interchangeable. Both "fele" and "full" are in turn cognate with the Greek "poly-", all of which stem from the PIE root *ple-. A "fylfot" is thus a "poly-foot", to wit, a "many-footed" sigil.

These etymologies are speculative and have been contradicted by more recent scholars. The word [fylfot] is completely unknown in Scandinavian.

Interestingly, [House of Commons Hansard Debates for 12 Jun 1996 (pt 41)] reports a discussion about the badge of [No. 273 Fighter Squadron], Royal Air Force. In this, fylfot is used to describe the ancient symbol, and swastika used as if it refers only to the symbol used by the Nazis.

Modern use of the term

Clearly, fylfot is an established word for this symbol — in at least British English. However, it was only rarely used. Wilson, writing in 1896, says, "The use of Fylfot is confined to comparatively few persons in Great Britain and, possibly, Scandinavia. Outside of these countries it is scarcely known, used, or understood."

In more recent times the word has become much more established within the areas of design history and collecting, where it is used to distinguish the swastika motif as used in designs and jewellery from its Nazi meaning. In this usage "fylfot" sometimes functions as a euphemism for swastika. Even though the latter term does not derive from Nazism, it has become associated with it. Odinic Rite also consistently refer to the swastika symbol, which they claim as a "holy symbol of Odinism", as fylfot.

In heraldry

Arms of Leonard Chamberlayne: Argent a chevron between three fylfots gules – drawn from the blazon given in MS. Harleian, 1394

In modern heraldry texts the fylfot is typically shown with truncated limbs, rather like a cross potent that's had one arm of each T cut off.  It's also known as a cross cramponned, ~nnée, or ~nny, as each arm resembles a crampon or angle-iron (compare Winkelmaßkreuz in German).

Examples of fylfots in heraldry are extremely rare. Oswald Barron, in his exemplary article on "Heraldry" in the Encyclopædia Britannica (most 20th-century editions), doesn't even mention it!

Parker's Glossary of Heraldry (see below) gives the following example:

Argent, a chevron between three fylfots gules--Leonard CHAMBERLAYNE, Yorkshire [so drawn in MS. Harleian, 1394, pt. 129, fol. 9=fol. 349 of MS.]

(In lieu of an image from this MS., a modern rendering of this blazon is shown on the right.)

Even since the last few centuries the fylfot is conspicuous by its absence from grants of arms (understandably so since 1945; see: swastika – Taboo).

Trivia

In the Japanese version of the video game Lumines released by Q? Entertainment, one of the puzzles was a fylfot, but in other versions distributed by Ubisoft, this was changed to a U.F.O.

External links

online versions of Wilson's book, The Swastika.

[The Swastika]
[Swaztika] (sic) (a scan of the original publication)

References

Stephen Friar (ed.), A New Dictionary of Heraldry (Alpha Books 1987 ISBN 0906670446); figure, p. 121
James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry (1894): [online @ heraldsnet.org]
Thomas Wilson, The Swastika: The Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migrations; with Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times. Smithsonian Institution. (1896)
Thomas Woodcock and John Martin Robinson, The Oxford Guide to Heraldry (Oxford 1990 ISBN 0192852248); figure, p. 200

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