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ISSN 2223-165X

V.I. ABAEV NORTH-OSSETIAN INSTITUTE FOR HUMANITARIAN AND SOCIAL STUDIES

OF VLADIKAVKAZ SCIENCE CENTRE OF RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

AND THE GOVERNMENT OF NORTH OSSETIA-ALANIA

ИЗВЕСТИЯ СОИГСИ

Bulakh E.A., Gutieva E.T. Alanic Connection in Portuguese Heraldry. Print

The present research is carried out in the mainstream of the self-evident interest of the modern Ossetians to the history of their historical and linguistic ancestors - the medieval Alans, who advanced to the forefront of European history in the late Antiquity. The article discusses the content of the famous Portuguese legend about the creation of the Coimbra Coat of Arms, the former first capital of the country. According to the record in the first world history “Monarchia Lusytana”, created in Portugal in the XVI-XVII centuries, the Alanic king of the 5th Century Atashes, responsible for the destruction of the old city and the construction of Coimbra itself, commissioned creating the coat of arms, and it depicts his bride, the daughter of the defeated king of the Sueves. On both sides of the princess there are heraldic symbols generally considered to belong to Alans and Sueves. There are certain ground to presume, that this fairly historical legend mistakenly attributes the dragon to the Sueves, in which case we may reconsider the distribution of symbolic animals, as it is known, what important place in the attributes of Iranian-speaking Sarmatians and Alans was occupied by a dragon, whose image in this coat of arms is attributed to the Sueves. In addition, the analysis of the names of the protagonists shows that the name of the main female character, Sindizunda / Chindizunda, may be regarded as unhistorical and, possibly, emerged as a result of contamination with the name of the Visigothic King of Hispania of the VIIth century Chindaswind. The non-preservation of the name of the princess in the annals of history or her misrepresentation in the folklore memory accords with a fairly common gender asymmetric practice in relation to female anthroponyms.

Keywords: Great Migration of Peoples, Alans, Vandals, Sueves, anthroponyms, heraldic symbols, city coat of arms.


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