Blekinge (Sweden)

Last modified: 2005-06-03 by phil nelson
Keywords: sweden | blekinge | tree: oak | crowns: 3 (yellow) | eradicated |
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• About the Flag
• Blazon

See also:

• County of Blekinge (Blekinge län)
• Three Crowns of Sweden
• Scanian Cross Flag
• Götaland
• Regional flags (Sweden)
• Clickable Map of Sweden (landskap/provinces)
• Sweden

A seal for Blekinge from the 15th Century shows a hill surrounded by the sea and with trees growing on the hill. This is probably the origin of the arms. Blekinge was conquered from Denmark in 1658, and its arms were first displayed in 1660, on the funeral of King Carl X Gustaf (Charles X Gustavus). The three crowns are from the Swedish state arms.

In earlier days, the tree in the arms could sometimes be seen as growing up from a small hill, but from 1884 it has been displayed as it is now. In the latest revised grant, on the 14 September 1944, the tree was blazoned as an oak, but as the oak is a very common tree in Blekinge, it had been intrepreted as an oak even before this.

Sources:
· C. Nevéus/B.J. de Wærn: Ny svensk vapenbok, 1992 [nev92]
· C.G.U. Scheffer: Svensk vapenbok för landskap, län och städer, 1967 [sch67]
Elias Granqvist 2000-Sep-27

Official blazon in Swedish: "I blått fält en ek med tre kronor uppträdda på stammen, allt av guld."

Blazoned in English: "Azure, an Oak Tree eradicated Or ensigned with three Crowns palewise of the same."
English blazon by Željko Heimer, 2000-Sep-30

"Eradicated" is the way of telling in a blazon that roots of a tree are visible.
Željko Heimer, 2000-Oct-07

In Swedish heraldry, a tree is always supposed to be eradicated (with its roots showing) unless otherwise stated in the blazon. Therefore, there is no word in the official Swedish blazon for the arms of Blekinge corresponding to the word eradicated.
Elias Granqvist, 2000-Oct-07