more questions and info on the Clan

["Spirit One Email" <laurel@spiritone.com>]

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Dear fellow seakers of obscure facts?  ha

    I just found this book "Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia" by George
Way of Plean and Romilly Squire on sale.  It states on the cover that it has
a forward by The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT covenor, The Standing Council
of Scottish Chiefs.
    The thing that swayed me to buy it was that it does say: "Henry St.
Clair, became Earl of Orkney through his mother, Isabel.  Haakon VI, King of
Norway, who had previously controlled the islands outright, recognized the
title in 1379.   Henry conquered the Faroe Islands in 1391 and discovered
Greenland.  He is now believed to have voyaged as far as the Americas,
possibly landing in both Nova Scotia and Massachusetts."
    On the one hand, it is rewarding to see the recognition of Henry
beginning to be printed, but on the other hand they sure cast doubts on the
credibility of of the event when they say he discovered Greenland.   Haven't
they heard of Leif Erickson and the 400 years of Norweigen trade that
continued up to Henry's time between  them and Greenland and North America?
Henry didn't discover anything as far as I can see and never claimed to have
done so.  He would have been the laughing stock of the North Sea.
It has now generated this set of questions:

    This book says that the traditional pronunciation in Normandy was
"Singklar"
    Why isn't the Clan Gunn in it?
    Our tartan is shown with only three colors.  Under a magnifying glass, I
still only see three colors: Red, black and white.  But my sash (supposedly
authentic) has red, green, blue, and white).  I looked in "The Clans and
Tartans of Scotland by Robert Bain" I can definitely see black, red, white
and blue.  Can't tell about the green but I really don't think so.  So what
is the real colors here?
    I think a link to "Know your Tartan" might be useful.  Along with that
maybe info on purchasing items and ordering Darwin's fabric.  Perhaps a more
general discussion exists on the web concerning heraldy that can be further
linked from our site.  If we do, I would suggest that very near the
beginning (before people miss it or tire of reading all the trivia it might
generate) it tell the women which side and why that side, they should wear
their sash.  I remember long ago how mortified I was to have a woman charge
up to me and tell me I was not to wear it on the left shoulder (not a
Sinclair woman).

        Also this book shows a standard (banner) for each clan.  I have
never
seen these before.  Ours is blue/grey, gold, red, and white.  The left 1/5
contains a white "X" on the blue/grey.  The next 4 parts have a Rooster,
unicorn, muzzled bear upon a crown, and merimaid combing her hair and
looking into a mirror (wierd!).  These 4 fields are separated with diagonal
stripes containing or Clan motto:  "Commit thy works unto God"  Anyone have
an explanation for all of this?
    Laurel



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