In a message dated 5/18/2008 11:01:41 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, Fred writes: The name Jelita, incidentally, means "guts, intestines." Maybe so, Fred, but Jelita is what Czech call the sausage AKA Kiska in Polish.... Maybe the guy just like sausages, liked them alot... the intestines, once well cleaned, are what is used as the casing for sausages, even now....or maybe he made them and was well know for them and king like them too, so gave him a coat of arms for it, or maybe he just had them served to everyone who came to his table...no telling where coat of arms comes from.... Anettka **************Wondering what's for Dinner Tonight? Get new twists on family favorites at AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight?NCID=aolfod00030000000001)
Hi, Annetka <Anettka@aol.com> responded to my comment on the meaning of the name of the Jelita coat of arms: > Maybe so, Fred, but Jelita is what Czech call > the sausage AKA Kiska in > Polish.... Maybe the guy just like sausages, > liked them alot... the intestines, > once well cleaned, are what is used as the > casing for sausages, even now....or > maybe he made them and was well know for them > and king like them too, so gave > him a coat of arms for it, or maybe he just had > them served to everyone who > came to his table...no telling where coat of > arms comes from.... Very true, intestines were and are commonly used as the casing of sausages, and that explains why in some languages the word for "gut, intestine" can be the source of a term for sausages. But I cited the armorial entry that purports to explain the origin of Jelita as a clan name and name for the coat of arms: http://www.polishroots.org/herbarz/jelita.htm Nothing about sausages here; the name definitely was understood to mean "guts, intestines." Note also that the actual coat of arms displays three lances, supposedly the ones with which the noble, Floryan Szaryusz, was wounded. The story tells of him actually pushing his guts back inside his body. And as we often see in these old stories, when the king remarked on his suffering, the stoic Floryan downplays his suffering, claiming that the pain his wounds caused him was nothing compared to the grief his neighbor was giving him. We run into this sort of thing all the time in ancient stories. An interesting cultural parallel can be seen in the Iceland sagas, in which fighters often showed their toughness by making jokes even as they receive their death blow. I can never forget one saga where a fighter is fatally wounded with a spear, and responds by saying, "Oh, I see broad tips are in fashion this year." Anyway, to get back to Jelita, it is certainly true that these stories about the origins of coats of arms were often fanciful, even absurd, and not to be taken seriously. But they tell us how nobles themselves understood the origin of the names, whether accurately or not. In the testosterone-drenched world of ancient nobility, given a choice between a war cry and a coat of arms proclaiming "I'm the guy who fights on even when his bowels are hanging out," or "I like sausages!", I know which one strikes me as more credible ;-) Fred Hoffman
I love your responses Fred! Always knowledgeable, sometimes, to me, comical, "given a choice between a war cry and a coat of arms proclaiming "I'm the guy who fights on even when his bowels are hanging out," or "I like sausages!", I know which one strikes me as more credible ;-)" No smile this morning, I actually laughed out loud! I wonder if my family has a coat of arms..............where can I check? Barbara