Talk:Coat of arms of Denmark

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Denmark Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Denmark, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Denmark on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DenmarkWikipedia:WikiProject DenmarkTemplate:WikiProject DenmarkDenmark Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. Heraldry and vexillology Coat of arms of Denmark is within the scope of the Heraldry and vexillology WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of heraldry and vexillology. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.Heraldry and vexillologyWikipedia:WikiProject Heraldry and vexillologyTemplate:WikiProject Heraldry and vexillologyheraldry and vexillology An editor has requested that an image or photograph of More images are needed, most imporantly of the fresco on the south wall of the choir of Sankt Bendts Kirke in Ringsted. This fresco shows four medieval kings displaying their (identical) coats of arms. This is Denmark's earliest known depiction of the arms. be added to this article.

but the Sankt Bendts Kirke is not mentioned anywhere in the text. I did find a wiki image Sct. Bendts kirke - coat of arms 2014-04-15-13 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fsqasem (talk • contribs) 04:20, 29 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The dukes of Holstein-etc descend in the male line from the first Oldenburg kings, so naturally they bear the Oldenburg arms by inheritance, not by borrowing from the "previous" dynasty. They're a junior branch of the same dynasty. —Tamfang 04:42, 17 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Glücksburg dynasty is indeed a cadet branch of the old Oldenburg dynasty, but my motivation for repeating this interpretation is that Danish tv has shown several broadcasts of the Queen giving tours of Amalienborg Palace, and I vaguely remember her describing the royal arms this way in one of these programmes (I can't remember which one exactly). In simply legal terms, I believe this symbol has been pretty void of content since 1972, since the actual Oldenburg title was only inherited by the Salic law and in any case, the Queen abolished the claim to this and several other titles when she succeeded her father. (Erling Svane (1994): Det danske Rigsvåben og Kongevåben, Odense). My motivation is essentially remembering the Queen describing the Oldenburg symbol this way, but it is a minor matter and if you feel strongly about it, feel free to change it to that the current dynasty is a cadet branch of the former. Valentinian ^{(talk) / (contribs)} 14:44, 17 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Strange that the Crown Prince retains the Oldenburg arms in his escutcheon since he is not an Oldenburg. Gerard von Hebel (talk) 15:28, 22 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The SVG version by Valentinian currently does not feature the crest (crown). My version (below) does. However the lions are better on Valentinians version. One could transfer the crown of the lions to the other version. Also, what are the best colors? The old version of my picture had brighter colors which I took from some image which is now deleted. I now use the same colors as the image on Vector-Images.com --Ysangkok (talk) 18:44, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unlike Valentinian, I am no expert, but as I understand it the correct colours are simply gold, blue and red, not a single, specific set of RGB-values. So as best as I can figure out, your version is just fine and the one with brighter colours was probably fine too. A greater authority than me could be http://oldwww.sa.dk/om_statens_arkiver/rigsvaaben/eksempler.htm which has a couple of examples of correct colours for official use. Hemmingsen 06:46, 25 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hemmingsen is correct, Danish law does not specify a set of actual RGB-values. Denmark doesn't have a flag law either. In 1819, king Frederick VI chose the easy solution by simply stating that future depictions of the Danish national arms should imitate a single official drawing. The closest one can come to official legislation is the 1959 white paper (betænkning nr. 216 af 1959) and the 1972 royal decree (reprinted as "Indenrigsministeriets bekendtgørelse nr. 488", published in Lovtidende, 16 November 1972), but they're both based on the 1819 rules. Which seems to be a possible explanation for why Denmark has never specified the actual colours, and why official heraldry for almost 200 years has used a heraldic crown with little similarity with the actual crown of King Christian V. Valentinian ^{T / C} 20:59, 11 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe Poul Anderson's book "Three Hearts and Three Lions" could be mentioned -- a significant number of Americans in the 1950s and 1960s who would have never otherwise heard of the Danish coat of arms were exposed to a version of it through that book... AnonMoos (talk) 03:19, 10 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This lions/leopards thing needs to be sorted. I've frequently encountered an assertion that England's gold lions on red can't really be lions because there's more than ONE of them, and male lions are solitary. So, it is argued, they are "leopards". (Whatever is true of mature male lions, I do wonder what could be more solitary than a leopard, which on film at any rate is always shown up a tree with an herbivore carcass that it has dragged up there to keep it from scavengers. Now in this article I'm finding for the first time an assertion that things aren't lions if they are facing the viewer ("guardant"). There's not going to be agreement on this since it probably traces to the highest ranking heraldic authority or chivalry-court in various countries, and, absent treaties, there's no reason to expect different countries' heralds to agree. Neither will recognize the jurisdiction of the other. Beyond doubt Garter King of Arms is never going to say England's gold creatures on red are NOT lions. What Wikipedia needs to do is just cite the disagreeing authorities who say what they say, while not taking sides. WHO SAYS if it's more than one creature it has to be a leopard not a lion? WHO SAYS if it's facing the viewer (guardant) it's got to be a leopard not a lion? Just tell us who says what, and don't write sentences that agree or disagree with any of them.2604:2000:C682:2D00:95A1:955E:6D6A:5A64 (talk) 02:26, 11 March 2018 (UTC)Christopher L. Simpson[reply]

In the section #Other members of the Royal Family, the arms of the princesses are described as "composed of the shield of arms of her husband impaled with those of her own...", but the illustrations do not show impaled arms. At least one must be wrong - illustration or text? --Palnatoke (talk) 07:33, 3 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, are the arms shown for the members of the Royal Family official? I could not find any information about that on the Royal House website.179.208.240.220 (talk) 22:30, 3 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

On December 20, 2024 an updated version was enacted. https://www.kongehuset.dk/en/the-monarchy-in-denmark/the-royal-symbols/the-royal-coat-of-arms/# 2.83.35.99 (talk) 14:07, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

How do we get that into Wikipedia without violating copyright? The royal web page is clearly copyrighted. Oz1cz (talk) 08:10, 13 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The polar bear symbolising Greenland in the royal coat of arms raises its right paw, not the left paw as currently shown in this article. And the same was the case in the past coat of arms used by various Danish monarchs. All these historical and current coats of arms need to be edited, including the personal arms of various members of the Danish royal family, past and present.

I have listed a few sources which explain that right paw of the bear is raised in the royal coat of arms, whereas in the Greenlandic coat of arms, the bear raises its left paw.

• "The Greenlandic coat of arms was introduced in 1985. The polar bear symbolizes Greenland and was designed by the Greenlandic artist Jens Rosing based on the Greenlandic bear in the old Danish national and royal coat of arms. Instead of raising its right paw, this bear is raising its left paw - as it is known to every Greenlander that the polar bear is left-handed." Source: Per Danker, Denmark. Udenrigsministeriet (2000), This is Greenland 2000-2001: The Official Directory : Country, Products, Services, p. 23

• "...Greenland's national coat of arms - a polar bear on a blue background - inserted in the top right-hand corner, as a key part of the visual impression. The bear is standing on its hind legs, its mouth wide open and its left front paw raised, unlike the bear that is featured in the Danish national coat of arms, where the bear has raised its right front paw. The Greenlandic hunters say that the bear uses its left paw for striking." Source: Norden Beyond Borders (2013), Science, Geopolitics and Culture in the Polar Region, ISBN 9781472409713

• "After home rule came to Greenland, the former Danish colony chose the polar bear as its own badge. Unlike the Danish version, which follows heraldic tradition by showing the bear with its right forepaw defensively raised (most knights wielded their swords with the right hand, and the left was "sinister" treasonous, unclean), the polar bear in Greenland's coat of arms raises its left, in acknowledgment of the Kalaallit belief that polar bears are left-handed." Source: Michael Engelhard (2016), Ice Bear: The Cultural History of an Arctic Icon, p. 172, ISBN 9780295999234

Peter Ormond 💬 22:18, 18 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]