View source for Fylfot

{{Short description|Anglo-Saxon and heraldic symbol}}
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The '''fylfot''' or '''fylfot cross''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|ɪ|l|f|ɒ|t}} {{Respell|FILL|fot}}) and its mirror image, the '''gammadion''', are types of truncated [[swastika]], associated with medieval [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] culture. It is a cross with perpendicular extensions, usually at 90° or close angles, radiating in the same direction. However{{snd}} at least in modern heraldry texts, such as Friar and Woodcock & Robinson (see {{slink||Bibliography}}){{snd}} the fylfot differs somewhat from the archetypal form of the swastika: always upright and typically with truncated limbs, as shown in the figure at right.

==Etymology==
The most commonly cited [[etymology]] for the word is that it comes from a belief, common among 19th-century [[antiquarian]]s but based only on a dubious reading of the [[British Library]]'s [[Lansdowne manuscript]] 874, that the word referred to the device{{snd}} a swastika{{snd}} shown in the main part of the image on of a [[stained glass|stained-glass]] memorial window to Thomas Froxmere in the [[parish church]] of [[Droitwich Spa]] in [[Worcestershire]]. Subsequent analysis of the manuscript by lexicographer [[Henry Bradley]] explained that the word was an instruction to the painter to ''fill'' empty space at the ''foot''.<ref name="Bradley">{{cite journal |journal=[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|]] |first=Henry |last=Bradley |title=THE DERIVATION OF "FYLFOT." |date=31 July 1897 |number=3640 |url=https://archive.org/details/p2athenaeum1897lond/page/163/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Mind your language |last=Wordsworth |first=Dot |magazine=The Spectator |location=London |volume=285 |issue= 8977, (Aug 26, 2000) |page=14 |quote=But in 1842, in a book on monumental brasses, J.G. Waller took the word fylfot for the shape of the pattern in the picture; hence a swastika. In reality fylfot seems to derive from words meaning 'fill' and 'foot' - meaning nothing more than a filler at the foot of the window. Yet, as the 19th century went on, the word was copied from book to book. Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) throws fylfot about as if it were the regular mediaeval label for a swastika.}}</ref><ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> This etymology is often cited in modern dictionaries (such as the ''Oxford English Dictionary'',<ref>{{OED|fylfot}}</ref> the ''Collins English Dictionary'' and Merriam-Webster Online<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fylfot |title=Fylfot |work=Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |year=2015 |access-date=31 March 2015}}</ref>).

[[Walter William Skeat]]'s 1882 ''A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' defined the fylfot as "a peculiarly formed cross" and derived it from [[Old English]]:
{{Quote|The word simply means 'four-footed.' The A.S. {{Lang|ang|feówer}}, four, when used in composition, took the curious form {{Lang|ang|fyðer}} or {{Lang|ang|fiðer}}, easily contracted to {{Lang|ang|fyr-}}, and corrupted to {{Lang|ang|fyl-}}.<ref name="Skeat-1882">{{Cite book |last=Skeat |first=Walter W. |author-link=Walter William Skeat |url=https://archive.org/details/aconciseetymolo06skeagoog/page/n629 |title=A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language |date=1882 |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |location=Oxford |pages=614}}</ref>}}

The second edition of Skeat's ''An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'', completed in 1883, included an expanded etymology for fylfot which derived the word from {{Langx|ang|*fyðer-fóte|4=four-footed|links=no}}.<ref name="Skeat-1888">{{Cite book |last=Skeat |first=Walter W. |author-link=Walter William Skeat |url=https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldict00skeauoft/page/807 |title=An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language |date= |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |others= |year=1888 |location=Oxford |pages=307 |orig-year=1884}}</ref><ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> His definition was "a peculiarly formed cross, each arm being bent at right angles, always in the same direction" and continued that the figure was "Also called a rebated cross". After citing [[Frederick William Fairholt]]'s ''Dictionary of Terms in Art'' and [[Charles Boutell]]'s ''Heraldry'', Skeat wrote of fylfot's etymology that it was:
{{Quote|Supposed to be (as is probable) a corruption of A. S. {{Lang|ang|fíer-fóte}}, variant of {{Lang|ang|fyðer-fóte}}, four-footed, in allusion to its shape The change from ''r'' to ''l'' is common, Cf. Swed. {{Lang|sv|fyrfotad}}, four-footed. The A. S. {{Lang|ang|fyðer}}-, i. e. 'four,' is only found in compounds; the usual form is {{Lang|ang|feówer}}; cf. Goth. {{Lang|got|fidwor}}.<ref name="Skeat-1888" />}}
In the fourth edition, completed in 1909, Skeat accepted Bradley's 1897 etymology,<ref name="Skeat-1910">{{Cite book |last=Skeat |first=Walter W. |author-link=Walter William Skeat |url=https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldict00skea/page/230 |title=An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |others= |year=1910 |edition=3rd |location=Oxford |pages=230–231}}</ref><ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> replacing the mention of the rebated cross and the Anglo-Saxon etymology with:<ref name="Skeat-1910" />{{Quote|Also called a ''gammadion''. ... Modern; and due to a mistake. MS. Lansdowne 874, at leaf 190, has ''fylfot'', meaning a space in a painted window, at the bottom, that ''fills'' the ''foot''. This was erroneously connected (in 1842) with the '''gammadion'',' as the cross was rightly named.<ref name="Skeat-1910" />}}''The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology'' of 1966, edited by [[Charles Talbut Onions]], defined the fylfot as the 
{{quote|antiquary's term for the cross cramponee, swastika, or gammadion, derived from a solitary ex. in British Museum MS Landowne 874, f. 190, the context of which suggests the interpretation 'fill-foot', i.e. a device for filling the foot of a painted window.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/onions-ed.-the-oxford-dictionary-of-english-etymology-1966/page/384 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |year=1994 |editor-last=Onions |editor-first=C. T. |editor-link=Charles Talbut Onions |location=Oxford |pages=384 |orig-year=1966 |editor-last2=Friedrichsen |editor-first2=G. W. S. |editor-last3=Burchfield |editor-first3=R. W. |editor-link3=Robert Burchfield}}</ref>}}

==History==
The fylfot, together with its sister figures, the gammadion and the [[swastika]], has been found in a great variety of contexts over the centuries. It has occurred in both secular and religious contexts in the British Isles, elsewhere in Europe, in Asia Minor<ref>{{cite book |first=Tomasz |last=Wujewski |title=Anatolian Sepulchral Stelae in Roman Times |year=1991 |pages=23–24 |location=Poznań |publisher=[[Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań|Adam Mickiewicz University Press]] |isbn=9788323203056 }}</ref> and in Africa.<ref>{{cite journal|first=David Roden |last=Buxton |title=The Christian Antiquities of Northern Ethiopia |journal=Archaeologia |publisher=[[Society of Antiquaries of London]] |volume=92 |year=1947 |pages=11 & 23 |doi=10.1017/S0261340900009863 }}</ref>

The gammadion is associated more with Byzantium, Rome and Graeco-Roman culture on the one hand, whereas the fylfot is associated more with Celtic and Anglo-Saxon culture on the other.{{cn|date=December 2022}} Although the gammadion is very similar to the fylfot in appearance, it is thought to have originated from the conjunction of four capital '[[Gamma]]s' ({{char|Γ}}, the third letter of the Greek alphabet) but that the similarity of the symbols is coincidental.<ref name="Parker">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/aglossarytermsu08parkgoog/page/281/mode/1up |title=A glossary of terms used in heraldry |date=1894 |publisher=James Parker and Co |location=Oxford |page=281}}</ref>

Both of these swastika-like crosses may have been indigenous to the British Isles before the Roman invasion. Certainly they were in evidence a thousand years earlier but these may have been largely imports.<ref>{{cite book |first=Miranda Jane |last=Green |author-link=Miranda Aldhouse-Green |title=The Wheel as a cult symbol in the Romano-Celtic world : with special reference to Gaul and Britain |publisher=Latomus (Revue d'Etudes Latines) |location=Brussels |year=1984 |pages=295–296 |isbn=9782870311233}}</ref> They were certainly substantially in evidence during the Romano-British period with widespread examples of the duplicated Greek fret motif appearing on mosaics.<ref>{{cite book |first=David S. |last=Neal |title=Roman Mosaics in Britain |page=19 |location=London |publisher=[[Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies]] |year=1981 }}</ref> After the withdrawal of the Romans in the early 5th century there followed the Anglo-Saxon and Jutish migrations.
 
The fylfot is known to have been very popular amongst these incoming tribes from Northern Europe, as it is found on artefacts such as brooches, sword hilts and funerary urns.<ref>{{cite book |first=Stephen |last=Taylor |title=The Fylfot File: Studies in the origin and significance of the Fylfot-Cross and allied symbolism within the British Isles |location=Cambridge |publisher=Perfect Publishers |year=2006 |isbn=9781905399222 |pages=37–40}}</ref> Although the findings at Sutton Hoo are most instructive about the style of lordly Anglo-Saxon burials, the fylfot or gammadion on the silver dish unearthed there clearly had an Eastern provenance.<ref>{{cite book |first=Angela Care |last=Evans |title=The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial |publisher=British Museum Publications |location=London |year=1986 |pages=57–58 |isbn=9780714105444 }}</ref>

The fylfot was widely adopted in the early Christian centuries.  It is found extensively in the Roman catacombs. An example of its usage is to be found in the porch of the parish church of [[Great Canfield]], Essex, England.<ref>{{cite journal |first=J. G. |last=Waller |title=The Church of Great Canfield, Essex |journal=Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society |volume=II |series=New Series |issue=Part IV |year=1883 |pages=377–388}}</ref> As the parish guide states, the fylfot or gammadion can be traced back to the Roman catacombs where it appears in both Christian and pagan contexts.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ivana |last=Della Portella |title=Subterranean Rome |location=Venice |publisher=Arsenale |orig-year=2000 |year=2002 |edition=Eng. |pages=106–107 |isbn=9788877432810 }}</ref> More recently it has been found on grave-slabs in Scotland and Ireland.<ref>{{cite book |first=Françoise |last=Henry |author-link=Françoise Henry |title=Irish Art in the early Christian period (to 800 A.D.) |location=London |publisher=Methuen & Co. |year=1940 |pages=119–120 }}</ref> A particularly interesting{{how|date=September 2024}} example was found in [[Elrig|Barhobble]], Wigtownshire in Scotland.<ref>{{cite journal |first=William Fleming |last=Cormack |title=Barhobble |journal=Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society |year=1995 }} ([[passim]])</ref>

Gospel books also contain examples of this form of the Christian cross.<ref>{{cite book |first=George |last=Henderson |title=From Durrow to Kells : the insular gospel-books 650–800 |location=London |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=1987 |page=110 |isbn=9780500234747 }}</ref> The most notable examples are probably the [[Book of Kells]] and the [[Lindisfarne Gospels]]. An example of this decoration occurs on the [[Ardagh Chalice]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Liam S. |last=Gógan |title=The Ardagh chalice; a description of the ministral chalice found at Ardagh in county Limerick in the year 1868 |location=Dublin |publisher=Browne & Nolan |year=1932 |page=93 }}</ref>

From the early 14th century on, the fylfot was often used to adorn Eucharistic robes. During that period it appeared on the monumental brasses that preserved the memory of those priests thus attired.<ref>{{cite book |last=Beaumont |first=Edward T. |title=Ancient Memorial Brasses |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientmemorialb00beau |location=London |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1913 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientmemorialb00beau/page/43 43] }}</ref> They are mostly to be found in East Anglia and the Home Counties.<ref>{{cite book |first=Stephen |last=Taylor |title=The occurrence of the Fylfot-Cross in the church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Great Canfield, in the county of Essex, in relation to its wider usage at home and abroad |pages=10–14 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge Universal Publications |year=2003 |isbn=9780954545505}}</ref>
[[File:BL_MS_Lansdowne_874,_191r_–_Thomas_Froxmere's_sketch_for_Droitwich_Church_memorial_window.jpg|thumb|Thomas Froxmere's sketch for a memorial window for himself and his wife in the parish church of [[Droitwich Spa]] around 1480, in [[British Library]] [[Lansdowne manuscript]] 874, [[folio]] 191 [[recto]]. The text describes the swastika as a "fylfot".]]
In the 15th century, Thomas Froxmere designed stained glass memorial window for himself and his wife Catherine Cornwallis in the parish church of Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire.<ref name="Cheesman-2019">{{Cite book |last=Cheesman |first=Clive |author-link=Clive Cheesman |title=The Display of Heraldry: The Heraldic Imagination in Arts and Culture |publisher=[[The Heraldry Society]] |year=2019 |editor-last=Robertson |editor-first=Fiona |series=The Coat of Arms supplementary volume 1 |location=London |pages=191–214 |language=en-GB |chapter=The heralds' swastika |editor-last2=Lindfield |editor-first2=Peter N.}}</ref> The window no longer exists, but Froxmere's sketch of it is preserved in the Lansdowne manuscripts in the British Library. The design has figures of him and his wife with annotations. The wife is depicted above a [[breaking wheel]], and the husband, wearing an heraldic [[tabard]], kneels above an [[Ermine (heraldry)|ermine]] swastika.<ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> Froxmere's notes describe the symbol as a ''{{Lang|en-emodeng|fylfot}}''. His instructions to the [[glazier]] are: ''{{Lang|en-emodeng|let me stond in the [m]edyll pane on the [...] a rolle abo[ve my heed] in the hyest [pane] upward the fylfot in the nedermost pane under ther I knele}}''.<ref name="Bradley-1897">{{Cite journal |last=Bradley |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Bradley |date=31 July 1897 |title=The derivation of "fylfot" |url=https://archive.org/details/p2athenaeum1897lond/page/162 |journal=[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]] |volume=3640 |pages=163}}</ref><ref name="Goodall-1978">{{Cite journal |last=Goodall |first=John A. |date=1978 |title=Two Medieval Drawings |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003581500040257/type/journal_article |journal=The Antiquaries Journal |language=en |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=159–162 |doi=10.1017/S0003581500040257 |issn=0003-5815|url-access=subscription }}</ref> According to [[Henry Bradley]] in 1897:

{{Quote|text=It seems to me very likely that fylfot in this passage (which it must be remembered is the sole authority for the word) is nothing more or less than "fill-foot," and means simply a pattern for filling up the foot of a compartment of a window. There is no reason to suppose that fylfot was the name of this particular device or pattern as distinguished from any other that might be used for the same purpose; for all we know, the word may even have been invented for the occasion, though the probability is rather that it was already a current term among the artists in stained glass.|title=The derivation of "Fylfot"|source=''[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]'', 1897<ref name="Bradley-1897" />}}

According to [[John Goodall (author)|John Goodall]] in 1978, the swastika may evoke four [[set square]]s, relating to [[Thomas the Apostle]], who was considered to have been a builder, while the wheel relates Catherine to her own namesake [[Catherine of Alexandria]].<ref name="Goodall-1978" />  According to [[Clive Cheesman]] in 2019, "In Froxmere's sketch, the swastika is not on a [[Escutcheon (heraldry)|shield]] but is free-standing like a [[Heraldic badge|badge]], and indeed there is no indication that it is meant to be hereditary, or heraldic, at all."<ref name="Cheesman-2019" />

Probably its most conspicuous usage has been its incorporation in stained glass windows notably in Cambridge and Edinburgh. In Cambridge it is found in the baptismal window of the [[Holy Sepulchre, Cambridge|Church of the Holy Sepulchre]], together with other allied Christian symbols, originating in the 19th century.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Fylfot File |year=2006 |pages=57–62}}</ref> In Scotland, it is found in a window in the [[Scottish National War Memorial]] in Edinburgh. The work was undertaken by [[Douglas Strachan]] and installed during the 1920s. He was also responsible for a window in the chapel of [[Westminster College, Cambridge]]. A similar usage is to be found in the [[Central Congregational Church (Providence, Rhode Island)|Central Congregational Church]] in [[Providence, Rhode Island]], USA, installed in 1893. 
 
The fylfot is sometimes found on church bells in England. It was adopted by the Heathcote family in Derbyshire as part of their iconographic tradition in the 16th and 17th centuries.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} This is probably an example where pagan and Christian influence both have a part to play as the fylfot was amongst other things the symbol of Thor, the Norse god of thunder<ref>{{cite book |first=Ernest John |last=Eitel |author-link=Ernst Johann Eitel |title=Buddhism : its historical, theoretical and popular aspects |edition=3rd |orig-year=1873 |year=1884 |page=119 |location=London |publisher=[[Trübner & Co]]. |url=https://archive.org/stream/buddhismitshisto00eite#page/118/mode/2up |access-date=31 March 2015}}</ref>{{Unreliable fringe source|date=September 2018}} and its use on bells suggests it was linked to the dispelling of thunder in popular mythology.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ernest |last=Morris |title=Legends o' the bells; being a collection of legends, traditions, folk-tales, myths, etc., centred around the bells of all lands |year=1935 |location=London |publisher=S. Low, Marston & Co., Ltd. |pages=12–14}}</ref>{{Unreliable source|sure=n|reason=1930s expertise on bells is not 2010s expertise on etymology.|date=September 2018}}

==In heraldry==
In modern heraldry texts, the fylfot is typically shown with truncated limbs, rather like a [[Crosses in heraldry|cross potent]] that's had one arm of each ''T'' cut off. It's also known as a ''cross cramponned'', ''~nnée'', or ''~nny'', as each arm resembles a ''crampon'' or angle-iron (compare {{langx|de|Winkelmaßkreuz}}). Examples of fylfots in heraldry are extremely rare, and the charge is not mentioned in Oswald Barron's article on "Heraldry" in most 20th-century editions of ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. A 20th-century example (with four heraldic roses) can be seen in the [[Lotta Svärd]] emblem.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

The addenda to James Parker's 1847 ''A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry'' cited John Green Waller's and Lionel Waller's 1842 ''Monumental Brasses'' for his definition of "Fylfot; a very ancient figure of some unknown mystic signification".<ref name="Parker-1847">{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=John Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/aglossarytermsu11parkgoog/page/n375 |title=A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table Illustrative of Its Rise and Progress |date= |publisher=[[John Henry Parker (writer)|John Henry Parker]] |year=1847 |location=Oxford |pages=337 |language=}}</ref> Parker cited the arms of Leonard Chamberlayne as they were drawn in the British Library's [[Harleian manuscript]] 1394 and gave the [[blazon]] as "[[Argent]], a [[Chevron (insignia)|chevron]] between three fylfots [[gules]]".<ref name="Parker-1847" /> In the 1894 new edition of ''A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry'', Parker described the fylfot as synonymous with the swastika and gammadion:<ref name="Parker-1894">{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=James |url=https://archive.org/details/aglossarytermsu08parkgoog/page/281 |title=A Glossary of Terms Used In Heraldry: A New Edition with One Thousand Illustrations |publisher=James Parker and Co |year=1894 |location=Oxford and London |pages=281}}</ref>[[Image:Arms of chamberlayne.svg|thumb|upright=.7|Arms of Leonard Chamberlayne: ''Argent a chevron between three swastikas gules''. James Parker's 19th-century heraldic glossaries [[blazoned]] these swastikas as "fylfots".]]{{Quote|text=Fylfot, [suggested to be a corruption of A.-S. {{Lang|ang|fíer-fóte}}, (for {{Lang|ang|fyðer-fóte}}) four-footed, in allusion to the four limbs]: an ancient figure to which different mystic meanings have been applied. All that can be said as to the occurrence in England is that it possibly was introduced from the East as a novel device; for a similar form is said to have been known in India and China long before the Christian era. It is called in the Sanskrit 'swastica,' and is found used as a symbol by Fylfot. the Buddhists. It is curious that the same kind of device appears in the Catacombs, and at the same time it is found on a coin of [[Æthelred II of Northumbria|Ethelred]], King of [[Northumbria]], in the ninth century. It is probably similar to the ornament which is mentioned by [[Anastasius Bibliothecarius|Anastasius]] as embroidered on sacred vestments during the eighth and ninth centuries in Rome under the name of ''gammadion'', which was so-called on account of the shape resembling four Greek capital Gammas united at the base. There is no reason to suppose that all these are derived from a common source, as such a device as this would readily suggest itself, just as the [[Greek pattern]] is frequent on work of all ages. It was on account of its supposed mystical meaning perhaps introduced into medieval vestments, belts, &c.; and though several instances of this use are found on brasses, only one instance occurs on coats of arms, namely, in those of CHAMBERLAYNE.<ref name="Parker-1894" />}}
He also quoted his earlier blazon for these arms, adding that they are "so drawn in MS. Harleian 1394, pt. 129, fol. 9=fol. 349 of MS" and that "NB. In Harl. MS. 1415 this coat seems to be [[Tricking|tricked]] with what are meant distinctly for three [[Scallop#badge|escallops]]".<ref name="Parker-1894" /> Parker also cited Froxmere's swastika in the Lansdowne manuscript 874:<ref name="Parker-1894" />
{{Quote|text=One instance only of the name also has been observed in any MS. or book anterior to the eighteenth century, namely in the directions given by Francis Frosmere, c. 1480, apparently to designate his monogram F. F. (See MS. Lansdowne, No. 874.)<ref name="Parker-1894" />}}
According to [[Clive Cheesman]] in 2017, these arms were ascribed to Leonard Chamberlaine in drawings in two manuscript [[armorials]] of the [[early modern period]] appended to copies of the [[Somerset Herald]] [[Robert Glover (officer of arms)|Robert Glover]]'s [[heraldic visitation]] of Yorkshire in 1584/5, including Harleian manuscript 1394 and the [[College of Arms]]' Philpot manuscript 51.<ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> In the College of Arms' armorial "EDN Alphabet", these arms are blazoned in abbreviated form as "Chamberlaine A. a ⌃ bet: 3 卐. G.", without naming the chevron or the swastika-shaped device. Cheesman describes the blazon as "Argent a chevron between three swastikas gules", noting that "The abbreviated, note-form blazon does not offer a name for the cross, but simply indicates it with a picture ... as can be seen from other entries, the compiler habitually draws charges rather than naming them".<ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> According to Cheesman, a similar coat of arms with [[Sable (heraldry)|sable]] instead of gules is drawn, unnamed, in 16th-century copies of the 15th-century Portington Roll and "may possibly be a version of the coat of arms ascribed in Sir William Fairfax's widely copied 'Book of Yorkshire Arms'".<ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> Citing Glover's visitation, Cheesman writes that "This ascription is itself rather inexplicable; Sir Leonard Chamberlayne of [[Thoralby]] in [[Buckrose]], presumably the person intended, is generally given quite different arms".<ref name="Cheesman-2019" />

==Modern use of the term==
From its use in heraldry{{snd}}or from its use by antiquaries{{snd}}''fylfot'' has become an established word for this symbol, in at least British English.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}} 

Thomas Wilson, writing in 1896, says, "The use of Fylfot is confined to comparatively few persons in Great Britain and, possibly, Scandinavia. Outside of these countries it is scarcely known, used, or understood".<ref name=Wilson>{{cite book |title=The Swastika: The Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migrations; with Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times |first=Thomas |last=Wilson |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |date=1896 |url=https://archive.org/details/theswastika00wilsuoft/page/n5/mode/2up |page=769{{ndash}}770}}</ref>

[[Frederick William Fairholt]]'s 1854 ''Dictionary of Terms in Art'' defined the fylfot as:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fairholt |first=Frederick William |author-link=Frederick William Fairholt |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Dictionary_of_Terms_in_Art_Edited_and/jtdhAAAAcAAJ |title=A Dictionary of Terms in Art |date= |publisher=[[Virtue, Hall & Virtue]] |year=1854 |volume=1 |pages=200 |language=en}}</ref>

{{Quote|A cross of peculiar form, frequently introduced in decoration and embroidery during the middle ages. It occurs on monumental brasses anterior to the accession of [[Richard II]]., being found on the girdle of a priest of the date A.D. 1011. It is considered to have been in use at a very remote period as a mystic symbol amongst religious devotees in India and China, whence it was introduced into Europe about the sixth century.}}

In his 1891 ''The Migration of Symbols'', [[Eugène Goblet d'Alviella]] wrote of the swastika under the names tetraskelion ({{Langx|fr|tétraskèle}}), gammadion ({{Lang|fr|croix gammée}}), or fylfot, ascribing to this name an [[Old English]] etymology:<ref name="d'Alviella-1891">{{Cite book |last=Goblet d'Alviella |first=Eugène |author-link=Eugène Goblet d'Alviella |url=https://archive.org/details/b24864791/page/49 |title=La migration des symboles |publisher=[[Ernest Leroux]] |others= |year=1891 |location=Paris |pages=49–50 |language=fr |trans-title=The Migration of Symbols}}</ref><ref name="d'Alviella-1894">{{Cite book |last=Goblet d'Alviella |first=Eugène |author-link=Eugène Goblet d'Alviella |url=https://archive.org/details/migrationsymbol00alvgoog/page/n71 |title=The Migration of Symbols |publisher=[[A. Constable and Co]] |others= |year=1894 |location=London |pages=39 |language=en-GB}}</ref>{{Text and translation|{{lang|fr|Les Anglo-Saxons donnaient à la croix gammée le nom de|italic=no}} ''fylfot'', {{lang|fr|du norrain|italic=no}} {{lang|non|fiöl}} (full, {{lang|de|viel|italic=no}} {{lang|fr|« nombreux ») et|italic=no}} {{lang|non|fot}} (foot, {{lang|de|fuss|italic=no}} {{lang|fr|« pieds »). On l'a observée sur des poteries et des vases funéraires, dès l'âge du bronze, en Silésie, en Poméranie, dans les îles orientales du Danemark. Aux âges suivants, elle se rencontre sur des objets de parure, des poignées d'épée, des bractéates d'or, des rocs sculptés et des pierres tombales. Chez les Scandinaves, elle finit par se combiner, sans doute sous l'influence du christianisme, avec la croix latine.|italic=no}}|2=The Anglo-Saxons gave to the ''gammadion'' the name of fylfot, from the Norse {{lang|non|fiöl}} (full, {{lang|de|viel|italic=no}} = "numerous"), and {{lang|non|fot}} (foot). It has been observed on pottery and funeral urns of the bronze age in [[Silesia]], in [[Pomerania]], and the eastern islands of Denmark. In the following ages it is met with on ornaments, on sword-hilts, on golden [[bracteate|brackets]], on sculptured rocks, and on tombstones. Amongst the Scandinavians it ended by combining, doubtlessly under the influence of Christianity, with the [[Latin Cross]].|3=[[Eugène Goblet d'Alviella]], ''The Migration of Symbols''<ref name="d'Alviella-1891"/><ref name="d'Alviella-1894"/>}}In more recent times, ''fylfot'' has gained greater currency within the areas of design history and collecting, where it is used to distinguish the swastika motif as used in designs and jewellery from that used in Nazi paraphernalia. After the appropriation of the swastika by Nazi organisations, the term ''fylfot'' has been used to distinguish historical and non-Nazi instances of the symbol from those where the term swastika might carry specific connotations. The word "swastika" itself was appropriated into English from [[Sanskrit]] in the late 19th century.<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Oxford English Dictionary |entry=Swastika |date=1933 |entry-url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.120833/page/n1120/mode/1up |page=290 |volume=X. Sole{{ndash}}Sz |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> However, the word and symbol continue to have major religious significance for Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and other eastern faiths. For this reason, some{{Who|date=February 2025}} have campaigned to have all uses of the word in a Nazi context changed to use the {{langx|de|[[Hakenkreuz]]}} [hooked cross].<ref name="How the world loved the swastika - until Hitler stole it – BBC – Mukti Jain Campion">{{cite news |last1=Campion |first1=Mukti Jain |title=How the world loved the swastika – until Hitler stole it |work=BBC News |date=23 October 2014 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29644591 |access-date=15 February 2022}}</ref> 

''[[Hansard]]'' for 12 June 1996 reports a House of Commons discussion about the badge of [[No. 273 Squadron RAF|No. 273 Fighter Squadron]], [[Royal Air Force]].<ref>{{cite hansard |house=House of Commons |jurisdiction=United Kingdom |title=273 Squadron (Badge) | url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1996/jun/12/273-squadron-badge |date=12 June 1996 |column_start=397 |column_end=404 |speaker=Mr. [[Nigel Waterson]] |position=Member for [[Eastbourne (UK Parliament constituency)|Eastbourne]] }} </ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.militarybadges.co.uk/blazer-badges/raf-squadrons/273-squadron-raf-old-pattern-blazer-badge?zenid=f9uuh89m45689p36coip34hom5 |title=273 Squadron RAF (Old Pattern) badge |work=militarybadges.co.uk |date=2015 |access-date=31 March 2015}}</ref>  In this, ''fylfot'' is used to describe the ancient symbol, and ''swastika'' used as if it refers ''only'' to the symbol used by the Nazis.

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=3oem}}
* {{Annotated link |Buddhism}}
* {{Annotated link |Hinduism}}
* {{Annotated link |Jainism}}
* {{Annotated link |Lauburu}}
* {{Annotated link |Boreyko coat of arms}}
* {{Annotated link |Triskelion}}
* {{Annotated link |Brigid's cross}}
* {{Annotated link |Ugunskrusts}}
* {{Annotated link |Western use of the Swastika in the early 20th century}}
* {{Annotated link |Esquarre (heraldry)}}
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* Stephen Friar (ed.), ''A New Dictionary of Heraldry'' (Alpha Books 1987 {{ISBN|0-906670-44-6}}); figure, p.&nbsp;121
* Thomas Woodcock and John Martin Robinson, ''The Oxford Guide to Heraldry'' (Oxford 1990 {{ISBN|0-19-285224-8}}); figure, p.&nbsp;200

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}
{{commons}}

{{Christian crosses}}

[[Category:Crosses in heraldry]]
[[Category:Cross symbols]]
[[Category:Swastika]]
[[Category:Visual motifs]]