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A wild boar, as shown on the Arms of Eberbach, Germany

A Roman Antefix roof tile showing the boar badge and standard of the Twentieth Legion

Albano Laziale's White Boar

The wild boar and a boar's head are common charges in heraldry. A complete beast may represent what are seen as the positive qualities of the boar, namely courage and fierceness in battle; a boar's head may represent hospitality (from the custom of serving the boar's head in feasts), or it may symbolize that the bearer of the arms is a noted hunter.^[1]

During the Roman Empire, at least three legions are known to have had a boar as their emblems - Legio I Italica, Legio X Fretensis and Legio XX Valeria Victrix.

The wild boar was a symbol of Richard III of England.^[2]

In Scotland, a boar's head is the crest of Clan Campbell, symbolizing courage and fierceness. Three boar's heads appear in the coats of arms of the related clans Swinton, Gordon, Nesbitt and Urquhart. The Keating clan uses a boar going through a holly bush to symbolize toughness and courage.

Boar charges are also often used in canting (heraldic punning). The German towns of Eberbach and Ebersbach an der Fils, both in Baden-Württemberg, and Ebersbach, Saxony use civic arms that demonstrates this. Each depicts a boar - Eber in German (and in two cases a wavy fess or bars meant to represent a brook - Bach in German).

Albano Laziale in Italy is near the site where, according to legend, Aeneas's son Ascanius founded Alba Longa; the modern city's coat of arms still sports the white (Latin: Alba) boar dreamt by Ascanius before the founding of the city.

The flag of the Serbian rebel forces during the First Serbian Uprising featured the wild boar, together with other national insignia. During that time wild boars were common in Serbian forests and mountains, and pigs were the main export of the region.^{[citation needed]}

In Belgium, the wild boar is the symbolic animal of the Ardennes forests in the south of the country, and is the mascot of one of the Belgian Army's premier infantry regiments, the Régiment de Chasseurs Ardennais, the soldiers of which wear a boar's head pin on their beret.^{[citation needed]}

Heraldic boars on the memorial to Alexander Nisbet in the Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh.

Three boars are seen on the Grimsby coat of arms. In addition, the Sullivan-Mor coat of arms bears a boar, and the Sullivan-Ber crest has two. The Doran clan, being an off-shoot of the Sullivans, has a boar upon its crest, as well.

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Boars in heraldry

[edit] See also

• Wild boar
• Bears in heraldry
• Eagle (heraldry)
• Lion (heraldry)
• Wolves in heraldry

v • d • e Heraldic creatures Beasts Bear • Boar • Bull • Dog • Camelopard • Hind • Kangaroo • Lion • Ox • Stag • Tiger • Wolf Birds Cock • Dove • Eagle • Pelican • Rook Legendary Creatures Alce • Basilisk • Biscione • Cockatrice • Dragon • Enfield beast • Griffin • Keythong • Lindworm • Manticore • Martlet • Opinicus • Phoenix • Salamander • Turul • Unicorn • Wyvern Fish Dolphinfish • Ged • Lucy • Scallop Others Bat • Bee • Crapaudy • Emmet • Serpent