A Herald’s Emblem of Perseverance: The Goat on the Shield
Most of my writing traces other people’s history. Here, I turn the Herald’s gaze on my own. The Ströhl coat of arms becomes a lens for perseverance, caregiving, and a Capricorn mind that refuses to stop climbing. It is a piece that pays homage to how I navigate time, duty, and perseverance.
I came across an intriguing heraldic emblem recently: an ornamental quarterly shield crowded with rampant goats and floral charges. I was instantly and deeply drawn to it.
There were no accompanying explanations, so I consulted my reliable AI assistant, which provided rich detail of origin and meaning. Many writers hold grave concerns about the expansion of this new technological creature, but its resourcefulness for research is an asset. The key, I think, is to use it discernibly. I used to plug away at individual references that sent me here, then there, then back again, until I finally allowed myself to explore what everyone was talking about. Now I won’t go back to the old way.
But back to those goats!
Rampant Goats and Floral Charges. From the collection by Hugo Gerard Ströhl, Heraldischer Atlas of 1899.
The image is part of a collection of model coats of arms created by Hugo Gerard Ströhl from his Heraldischer Atlas of 1899. He created them as pattern plates for artists, craftsmen, and students of heraldry. This particular emblem centres on the goat, combining martial, diplomatic and mystery themes. In heraldry, the goat symbolises a warrior who wins by strategy and diplomacy rather than brute force. It evokes perseverance and deliberate, planned action.
When I read this, it was like an epiphany!
The goat has always been a figure of perseverance to me. The way they climb rugged, steep mountains and remain secured to the side of the steepest parts, is truly amazing. I see these beautiful and agile creatures as ones who refuse to take the easy path even if they could. I mean, if they aren’t climbing, they are jumping like mad things all over the place!
I suspect my attraction to this emblem lies in its symbolic rendering of life’s mysteries and hardships: how we choose to confront them and move through the messy parts. For years I have stood in the herald’s place, announcing the intrigues of other people’s histories – ancient families, civic machinations, or modern states. Today, for this one time, I herald a call to my own arms, to how I see the world and present it.
The quartered shield speaks directly to my website, Letters From Time. I have deliberately placed my work within four main categories, while remaining within one House. Upon entering the Atrium, a reader may wander through other rooms as their interest takes them.
The twin helmets in this emblem remind me of the different hats – or faces – I wear when writing in different categories and eras of Time. I do not simply write about Ancient Rome from a scholarly perspective; I narrate those times as stories that connect so easily to our own. The same is true of the other regions of literature and dispatches from across the globe and the timeline. All of this is built while attending to family: an adult child with a severe disability, an ageing mother, and my own passage into later life.
A great deal of philosophy is compacted into that shield!
If a herald’s task is to name, to clarify, to proclaim, then this goat-emblazoned shield is the closest thing I have to my personal device: a Capricorn mind that keeps climbing long after the path has disappeared.
I write this as my own herald.