The national flag of Latvia consists of three horizontal bands of carmine red (top), white (half-width), and carmine red. The flag is one of the oldest banners in the world - the 14th-century manuscript known as the Livländische Reimchronik (“Livland Rhyme-Chronicle”) mentions a red standard with a white stripe being used by Latvian tribes in 1279. The red colour is sometimes described as symbolizing the readiness of the Latvians to give the blood from their hearts for freedom and their willingness to defend their liberty. An alternative interpretation, according to one legend, is that a Latvian leader was wounded in battle, and the edges of the white sheet in which he was wrapped were stained by his blood. The white stripe may stand for the sheet that wrapped him.