an activity from Grow in Wonder
Every family coat of arms carries a story. Pick a shape, add a color, a symbol, and a few words as a motto and build your family emblem.
Grandpa Theo says
"A coat of arms was a family's way of saying: here is what we stand for, and here is what we'll pass down."
Historians who study this period point out that people picked symbols for a reason. Here's what a few of them stood for.
Long before it stood for peace generally, the dove came from the story of Noah, sent out to find dry land after the flood, and returning as a sign that the worst had passed. Medieval Christians carried that meaning forward: a symbol of hope surviving hardship, and of the Holy Spirit's presence in it.
The clearest possible marker of Christian identity, worn on shields, banners, and tunics across the period. Historians note it wasn't just decoration, it told everyone looking at it, friend or stranger, exactly whose side and whose faith you belonged to.
In a peninsula defined by shifting borders, high ground meant survival. Historians trace the earliest Christian resistance in Iberia to the mountains of Asturias, where small kingdoms held on precisely because the terrain protected them. A mountain on a family's symbol spoke to steadfastness, refuge, and standing firm.
Bread was survival itself in the medieval world, and a good harvest could mean the difference between a kingdom holding together or falling apart. Historians point to wheat as one of the most common symbols for families tied to the land, a sign of provision, of a household that could feed itself and others.
Stars appear again and again in medieval heraldry, often standing for guidance, a light to navigate by, whether at sea, on a long march, or through uncertain times. Historians also connect star symbols to pilgrimage, most famously the Camino de Santiago, whose very name recalls a "field of stars" guiding travelers to Santiago de Compostela.
Almost no symbol was more common among medieval Christian kingdoms than the lion. Historians note it borrowed from older traditions of the lion as king of beasts, and Iberian rulers leaned on it heavily. León, one of the oldest Christian kingdoms in the Reconquista story, took its own royal arms directly from the lion.
Ava's adventures begin in the books
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