Yale
Also called Eale.
In medieval heraldic and bestiary tradition, the Yale is a horse- or antelope-like beast, often shown goat-bearded and tusked, whose two long horns can swivel independently to point in any direction during combat.
At a glance
- Tradition
- European folklore (general)
- Symbols
- Boar
Near this figure
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Boar bears The boar denotes solar or lunar vitality, courage, fertility, warfare, lust, gluttony, and winter destruction, with sacred and hostile meanings varying sharply across traditions.
why
The Yale is a beast of medieval heraldry and bestiary tradition, most often described as roughly horse- or antelope-sized, with the jaw and tusks of a boar, a goat-like beard, and the tail of an elephant.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Form
- Independently swiveling twin horns
why
The Yale's defining and most consistently repeated trait is its pair of long horns, which accounts vary in describing as either independently mobile or fully swiveling, so that the animal can point one horn forward and the other backward, or aim both at once toward an attacker approaching from any direction.
- Hybrid of multiple animals
why
The Yale is a beast of medieval heraldry and bestiary tradition, most often described as roughly horse- or antelope-sized, with the jaw and tusks of a boar, a goat-like beard, and the tail of an elephant.
Behaviour
- Reserve horn guards against surprise attack
why
Because one horn is often described as kept angled backward in reserve, the Yale is credited with never truly being caught off guard: if its forward horn is broken or blunted in a fight, it can swing the rearward horn forward to fight on.
Emblems
- Heraldic badge beast
why
As a heraldic charge, the Yale appears chiefly as a supporter in English armory, most notably associated with the Beaufort family and, through that connection, with the coats of arms of some Cambridge colleges, where carved or painted Yales appear among other heraldic beasts.
Utility powers
- Threat detection
why
so that the animal can point one horn forward and the other backward, or aim both at once toward an attacker approaching from any direction