Symbolism of the Sokola Coat of Arms

Abstract

The wild boar and the bear have been present in people's beliefs and customs from time immemorial. This was the case both with beliefs of representatives of folk culture – e.g. peasants in Byelorussia or shepherds in Silesia – and with recipients of high-brow and sophisticated chronicles written by medieval historians. The boar and the bear lived side by side, and this common presence – both the real one, connected with their similar habitats, and the proximity in the sphere of material and spiritual culture – could lead to the features of both these animals merging in one image, that is in the Sokola coat of arms, in which one can see a half-boar and half-bear.