Editing Fylfot (section)

==In heraldry==
In modern heraldry texts, the fylfot is typically shown with truncated limbs, rather like a [[Crosses in heraldry|cross potent]] that's had one arm of each ''T'' cut off. It's also known as a ''cross cramponned'', ''~nnée'', or ''~nny'', as each arm resembles a ''crampon'' or angle-iron (compare {{langx|de|Winkelmaßkreuz}}). Examples of fylfots in heraldry are extremely rare, and the charge is not mentioned in Oswald Barron's article on "Heraldry" in most 20th-century editions of ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. A 20th-century example (with four heraldic roses) can be seen in the [[Lotta Svärd]] emblem.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

The addenda to James Parker's 1847 ''A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry'' cited John Green Waller's and Lionel Waller's 1842 ''Monumental Brasses'' for his definition of "Fylfot; a very ancient figure of some unknown mystic signification".<ref name="Parker-1847">{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=John Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/aglossarytermsu11parkgoog/page/n375 |title=A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table Illustrative of Its Rise and Progress |date= |publisher=[[John Henry Parker (writer)|John Henry Parker]] |year=1847 |location=Oxford |pages=337 |language=}}</ref> Parker cited the arms of Leonard Chamberlayne as they were drawn in the British Library's [[Harleian manuscript]] 1394 and gave the [[blazon]] as "[[Argent]], a [[Chevron (insignia)|chevron]] between three fylfots [[gules]]".<ref name="Parker-1847" /> In the 1894 new edition of ''A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry'', Parker described the fylfot as synonymous with the swastika and gammadion:<ref name="Parker-1894">{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=James |url=https://archive.org/details/aglossarytermsu08parkgoog/page/281 |title=A Glossary of Terms Used In Heraldry: A New Edition with One Thousand Illustrations |publisher=James Parker and Co |year=1894 |location=Oxford and London |pages=281}}</ref>[[Image:Arms of chamberlayne.svg|thumb|upright=.7|Arms of Leonard Chamberlayne: ''Argent a chevron between three swastikas gules''. James Parker's 19th-century heraldic glossaries [[blazoned]] these swastikas as "fylfots".]]{{Quote|text=Fylfot, [suggested to be a corruption of A.-S. {{Lang|ang|fíer-fóte}}, (for {{Lang|ang|fyðer-fóte}}) four-footed, in allusion to the four limbs]: an ancient figure to which different mystic meanings have been applied. All that can be said as to the occurrence in England is that it possibly was introduced from the East as a novel device; for a similar form is said to have been known in India and China long before the Christian era. It is called in the Sanskrit 'swastica,' and is found used as a symbol by Fylfot. the Buddhists. It is curious that the same kind of device appears in the Catacombs, and at the same time it is found on a coin of [[Æthelred II of Northumbria|Ethelred]], King of [[Northumbria]], in the ninth century. It is probably similar to the ornament which is mentioned by [[Anastasius Bibliothecarius|Anastasius]] as embroidered on sacred vestments during the eighth and ninth centuries in Rome under the name of ''gammadion'', which was so-called on account of the shape resembling four Greek capital Gammas united at the base. There is no reason to suppose that all these are derived from a common source, as such a device as this would readily suggest itself, just as the [[Greek pattern]] is frequent on work of all ages. It was on account of its supposed mystical meaning perhaps introduced into medieval vestments, belts, &c.; and though several instances of this use are found on brasses, only one instance occurs on coats of arms, namely, in those of CHAMBERLAYNE.<ref name="Parker-1894" />}}
He also quoted his earlier blazon for these arms, adding that they are "so drawn in MS. Harleian 1394, pt. 129, fol. 9=fol. 349 of MS" and that "NB. In Harl. MS. 1415 this coat seems to be [[Tricking|tricked]] with what are meant distinctly for three [[Scallop#badge|escallops]]".<ref name="Parker-1894" /> Parker also cited Froxmere's swastika in the Lansdowne manuscript 874:<ref name="Parker-1894" />
{{Quote|text=One instance only of the name also has been observed in any MS. or book anterior to the eighteenth century, namely in the directions given by Francis Frosmere, c. 1480, apparently to designate his monogram F. F. (See MS. Lansdowne, No. 874.)<ref name="Parker-1894" />}}
According to [[Clive Cheesman]] in 2017, these arms were ascribed to Leonard Chamberlaine in drawings in two manuscript [[armorials]] of the [[early modern period]] appended to copies of the [[Somerset Herald]] [[Robert Glover (officer of arms)|Robert Glover]]'s [[heraldic visitation]] of Yorkshire in 1584/5, including Harleian manuscript 1394 and the [[College of Arms]]' Philpot manuscript 51.<ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> In the College of Arms' armorial "EDN Alphabet", these arms are blazoned in abbreviated form as "Chamberlaine A. a ⌃ bet: 3 卐. G.", without naming the chevron or the swastika-shaped device. Cheesman describes the blazon as "Argent a chevron between three swastikas gules", noting that "The abbreviated, note-form blazon does not offer a name for the cross, but simply indicates it with a picture … as can be seen from other entries, the compiler habitually draws charges rather than naming them".<ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> According to Cheesman, a similar coat of arms with [[Sable (heraldry)|sable]] instead of gules is drawn, unnamed, in 16th-century copies of the 15th-century Portington Roll and "may possibly be a version of the coat of arms ascribed in Sir William Fairfax's widely copied 'Book of Yorkshire Arms'".<ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> Citing Glover's visitation, Cheesman writes that "This ascription is itself rather inexplicable; Sir Leonard Chamberlayne of [[Thoralby]] in [[Buckrose]], presumably the person intended, is generally given quite different arms".<ref name="Cheesman-2019" />