The national flag of Latvia has three horizontal bands of maroon (top), white (half-width), and maroon; the flag is one of the older banners in the world; though the flag was officially adopted in 1922, a medieval chronicle mentions a maroon standard with a white stripe being used by Latvian tribes in about 1280. The maroon 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 edge 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. This story is similar to the legend of the origins of the flag of Austria.