Elements of Romanian Heraldry
Numismatics is closely related to heraldry and history. The goal of this section of our site is to eventually present the contemporary Romanian coat of arms, and that only after concisely going through the heraldic and historical evolution that the coats of arms of the Romanian territories underwent in time. That will be to see when the coats of arms of Moldavia, Walachia and Transylvania appeared, how were they understood and employed and how they fused in the heraldic ensign depicting the Romanians.
To learn about the coats of arms the Romanian lands proudly wore over the centuries it is compulsory to learn about the time they consolidated and the circumstances that allowed their coming into being.
When the Roman Empire started to collapse Roman provinces fell one after another, many of them being voluntarily left by the army and administration, in the case of Dacia even after previous agreements with German invaders - the Goths that took over in Dacia were entitled confederates of Rome, something more alike some friendly allies.
Several peoples come from the indistinct hazy Eastern Europe and far Asia either crossed Dacia or settled here, for a period at least, slowing down any crystallization process that the proto Romanian people might have had. Dacia was struck in the old times by Goths, Vandals, Gepids (German strains), Huns and Avars (Mongolian strains), Slavs, Turkoman strains like the Pecenegs, Cumans and Bulgarians (the last should not be confounded with the nowadays Bulgarians, just like there should not be mixed up the ancient and the present day Macedonians) and then the Hungarians (Finno-Ugric strain) - less known invaders were skipped.
The most important influence had over Romanians was left by the Slavs. Worth mentioning for their not at all neglectable backwash around the Carpathian Mountains are the Hungarians. The last, coming from the Middle Asia Altai Mountains settled first somewhere on the European side of the Ural Mountains, then between the Don and the Nipru river (around 830 A.D.) to get in 889 in Atelkuz (Land between Rivers), land thought to be east of the latter Moldavia between Bug and Nistru river. Pushed by other invaders, they arrived in 896 in Pannonia. They tried to move farther west but after the complete victory of the German Emperor Otto the Great in 955, they ended their journey.
All these mentioned migratory peoples, and not only these, were militarily organized societies that moved like an army and were on foot of war at all times, the fact being proved by the countless battles known by history that changed owners over various lands and even sent some into oblivion. On the other hand the Romanians were a people in a natural transformation aimed to establish ethnic identity and conscience. All Roman military hierarchy left Dacia from the beginning, peaceful and land working individuals remaining though at their homes or workshops (some historians pretend many common workers fled the Empire for the neighboring Barbarians all over the Roman border to elude large taxes, during the period of decadence). The entire situation then is curiously illustrated by a linguistic reality: the Romanian word "oaste", meaning "army", is directly inherited from Latin originating in the word "hostis" meaning "enemy" (akin to the English "hostile").
Towards the 14th century the Tartarians were the political rulers of the territories implied. Their invasion in 1241 devastated Europe over to the present day Italy. Cetatea Albă, (ancient Tyras), and Moldavian fortress at the Black Sea was rid of Tartarians somewhere towards 1380.
The second independent Romanian principality to arise from the seeds sown by the Roman Empire in Dacia was Moldavia, Walachia being the first. Transylvania fell under the Hungarian sovereignty progressively starting in the 11th century to the middle of the 13th. However, Romanians in Transylvania were ruled for a long time by local voivods, Slavo-Romanian institution now, borrowed from the Slav invaders. Transylvania itself had a voivodship organization till long latter on. In 1353 the Hungarian king sent Dragoș, Romanian voivod from Maramureș (region in Transylvania), along an expeditionary corps to establish a defensive mark (having a meaning related to the one of the Old English word "mearc"). So he did. Dragoș "dismounted", as the Romanian chroniclers wrote, somewhere in the county of Suceava, inside the Tartarian controlled regions, sowing the seed of Moldavia and becoming its first voivod. These are the undeniable historic facts, but let us see how the Moldavian legends picture this decisive deed. As stated by the Moldavian voivod and scholar Dimitrie Cantemir in his book "Descriptio Moldaviae", voivod Dragoș of Maramureș and his party were on an urus hunt. The urus crossed the mountains being finally hunted down in the waters of a rapid river. Despite this stately catch, Dragoș grieved the death of his bitch Molda he was very fond of and which drowned bravely plunging in the cold waters at the end of its pursue. To always be remembered the place it drowned, he called the river Moldova. Also, loving the place he got, he and his men settled there. (In 1359 another Romanian voivod of Maramureș, Bogdan I, banished the descendants of Dragoș rendering Moldavia independent under his scepter.) The country Dragoș "dismounted" had the urus head as coat of arms ever since. Many things should here be explained. First, there are many rivers (but not one lake) in all Romanian provinces that end in "ova" or "ava": Suceava and Moldova for instance in Moldavia and Tîrnava in Transylvania. Secondly, I maybe forgot to mention that the Romanian word for Moldavia is Moldova and that a river of such name does flow through it. It is not pointless to think that the name of the country came from the name of a river, since this is the case of India (from Indus) and not only. Besides, though not meaning anything in the present Romanian language, "ava" is for sure a word itself - akin to the Latin "aqua", the Romanian "apă" (previous two meaning "water"), and the Old English word "avon" that is actually inherited from Celtic, meaning "river". Due mentioning is that Shakespeare was born and buried at Stratford-upon-Avon. I mentioned before the river Tîrnava, that means River of Thorns, striking resemblance to English, don't you think? - although the only Romanian word for thorn is "spin" (akin to the English "spine" and inherited from Latin). Keeping in mind that the Celtic invasion of Europe in the fourth and third centuries B.C. crossed the present day Romania, I guess we can definitely bind the river name endings to the idea of river, water, and not to the common Slav ending "-ov". Draw your breath here because things come more and more raveled. It is also due to suppose Moldova actually means River of Molda, not knowing, besides the legend, what Molda means but there is another fair explanation of this name. Many sources, both internal and external, cite Moldavia as Moldavia (Latinized name), Moldova or Moldo-Valachia. If we are supposing that the oldest name of all versions was Moldo-Valachia all comes clear: Moldova is a short appellation for Moldo-Valachia, thusly meaning THE WALACHIA NEXT TO MOLDA (Molda being in the case given a certain toponym - the river Moldova then having received the name after the state of Moldova appeared and not all the way around). Why is it rational to make this (as far as I know, new) assertion? Well, it must be known that the principality of Walachia, in the early decennia of its being bore often the name of Ugro-Valahia, meaning THE WALACHIA NEXT TO HUNGARY. This mentionings of NEXT TO were necessary because there were other Walachias. Walach, Vlah, Olah, Iflak were the names used by Slavs, Greeks, Hungarians, Turks (latter) to call the Roman origin peoples speaking different versions of the former Latin. The Aromanians, the Romanians of the south (speaking a different Romanian dialect from those north of Danube), stretched once everywhere from Greece to Bulgaria and former Yugoslavia to Italy, in strong settlements now largely disappeared. But at the times we speak, before Romanian principalities were born, there were several Walachias in the Balkan Peninsula. Nicetas Choniates speaks of a Great Walachia comprising Thessaly, in opposition with two other Walachias mentioned by Frantzes, namely Small Walachia in Acarnania and Aetolia and Upper Walachia in Epirus. Pope Clement the Fifth called the Romanians around the Carpathian Arc "Olahi Romani" and, picture this, even the nowadays Polish name of Italy is neither more nor less than "Wlachy".
So much for the name of Moldova. I previously mentioned that voivod Dragoș hunted down an urus and you should probably be wondering what is an urus. Rightful question, since many Romanians do not know either. The urus was a fierce herbivorous animal that lived in Europe until its extinction from everywhere in the Middle Age. This long horned wild ox is called by the Latin name of Bos primigenius, thought to be, as the word primigenius - first born suggests, the ancestor of the common ox, Bos taurus. The English use yet another word for this beast: aurochs. This word I would have used but for the Webster Dictionary that mentions that aurochs is also rarely employed to define the wisent. We all know the American buffalo (the bison), but little of us know there it has a European relative called the wisent. A confusion between the urus and the wisent brought curious changes to the Romanian heraldry as I will point out further and that is the reason for which I insist on the subject. The wisent survived only in and thanks to the Polish swamps. The last Romanian wisent was hunted in Moldavia in 1790, so the memory of this stately animal still lived. The Latin name of the wisent is Bison bison bonasus, while the buffalo, also known, in Romania even, on the name of bizon (bison), is scientifically called Bison bison bison. For the ones not so familiar to the classifying of Linnaeus (Swedish scientist Karl von Linné), first comes the genus, secondly the species and then, if necessary, the subspecies, so actually the wisent and the buffalo belong to the same species. Their looks differ, the wisent having a more sober, shaved appearance unlike the American cousin that looks maybe kind of dull.
So, the urus head became the Moldavian coat of arms from the very beginning, being accompanied by the astral elements. Check the picture below. Between the horns is a five ray star, the uneven ray pointing up. On the left lies a waning crescent and at right a five petal rose that probably stands for the sun. (In heraldry we report to the left or right of the shield, coat of representation, not the left or right of the beholder.)
Allow me to explain why I felt necessary to point out the fact that the Moldavian rose is maybe an avatar of the sun. Two arguments can be brought up here to support this idea. One is that the astral elements were very dear to Romanians and the Romanian heraldry, being present on the coats of all main Romanian provinces: Moldavia, Walachia and Transylvania. The other is that instead of a rose, on some Moldavian coats, a plain sun was used. For instance below you can see a Moldavian coat of arms from Grigore Ghica III. The picture was taken from above one of the two fountains built in the walls of his welfare foundation of Saint Spiridon in Iași (the capital of Moldavia) - a hospital and a church mainly - raised in 1765. You can see clearly the moon and the sun, both bearing human countenances.
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 | section by Adrian Homutescu |