Hart (deer) Hart (deer) Hart is an archaic word for "stag" (from Old English "heorot", "deer" – compare with modern Dutch "hert", medieval French "hart", German "Hirsch" and Swedish/Norwegian/Danish "hjort", also "deer"). Specifically, "hart" was used in medieval times to describe a red deer stag more than five years old. In medieval hunting terms, a stag in its first year was called a "calf" or "calfe", in its second a "brocket", in its third a "spayed", "spade", or "spayard", in its fourth a "staggerd" or "staggard", and in its fifth a "stag", or a "great stag". To be a "hart" was its
White stag of the white stag has often met with anger, because of its rare and elusive nature. For early man, the deer resprented a valuable resource, providing nourishment, clothing and other accessories; and the deer may have played a role in totemic culture. In "Guigemar", one of the twelve Lais of Marie de France (supposedly based upon tales of the Celtic Bretons), a white doe with antlers appears as an omen to the titular character. The white stag of Hungarian mythology was the subject of a children's book of the same name. "The White Stag" by Kate Seredy won the prestigious