Lion (heraldry)

The lion is a common charge in heraldry. It traditionally symbolises bravery, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness, and valour, because historically it has been regarded as the king of beasts. Lion refers also to a Judeo Christian symbolism. The Lion of Judah stands in the coat of arms of the city of Jerusalem. Similar looking lion can be found e.g. In the coat of arms of the Republic of Finland.

Lions are present in the coats of arms of several European countries:

The animal designs in the heraldry of the high medieval period are a continuation of the animal style of the Viking Age, ultimately derived from the style of Scythian art as it developed from c. the 7th century BC.Symmetrically paired animals in particular find continuation from Migration Period art via Insular art to Romanesque art and heraldry.

The animals of the "barbarian" (Eurasian) predecessors of heraldic designs are likely to have been used as clan symbols. Adopted in Germanic tradition around the 5th century, they were re-interpreted in a Christian context in the western kingdoms of Gaul and Italy in the 6th and 7th centuries. The characteristic of the lion as royal animal in particular is due the influence of the Physiologus, an early Christian book about animal symbolism, originally written in Greek in the 2nd century and translated into Latin in about AD 400. It was a predecessor of the medieval bestiaries.

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