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Heavier hacking-swords and polearm weapons became more frequent, as did Iron helmets and mail-coats. Gaels began to regularly use the double-handed "Dane Axe", wielded by the Vikings. Irish and Scottish infantry troops fighting with the Claymore, axes and heavier armour, in addition to their own native darts and bows.
Following the Celtic invasion of Greece in the 3rd century BC, the proliferation of elements of Celtic styles of weaponry and equipment had spread both far and wide, such as chain mail-style armor, the Montefortino, Coolus and Aden style helmets, thyreos-style body shields, and gladius and spatha style swords. Even though Celtic peoples had ...
The sword has been regarded as a legacy to the god-slaying weapons of Irish mythology by certain scholars, such as T. F. O'Rahilly, the analogues being the primeval Celtic deity's lightning-weapon, Lugh's sling that felled Balor, the hero Cúchulainn's supernatural spear Gae bulga and his shining sword Cruaidín Catutchenn.
Several notable Celtic scholars, including Joseph Loth and Kuno Meyer, have preferred to derive it rather from Old Irish bolc "gap, breach, notch" (cognate with Welsh bwlch), suggesting a linguistic link with the second element in the name of Fergus mac Róich's sword, Caladbolg and King Arthur's sword Caledfwlch. [5] [4] [6]
The word may derive from a conjectural proto-Celtic word *keternā, ultimately from an Indo-European root meaning a chain. [2] Kern was adopted into English as a term for a Gaelic soldier in medieval Ireland and as cateran, meaning 'Highland marauder', 'bandit'. The term ceithernach is also used in modern Irish for a chess pawn.
Caladbolg ("hard cleft", [1] also spelled Caladcholg, "hard blade") is the sword of Fergus mac Róich from the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. [2] Fergus calls his sword by that name in Táin Bó Cúailnge. Ailill mac Máta had stolen Fergus's sword when he caught him in flagrante with Medb. Fergus carved a dummy wooden sword to disguise the ...
The importation of gallowglasses into Ireland was a major factor in containing the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th century, as their ranks stiffened the resistance of the Irish lordships. Throughout the Middle Ages in Ireland, gallowglass troops were maintained by Gaelic Irish and Hiberno-Norman lords alike.
The term claymore is an anglicisation of the Gaelic claidheamh-mòr "big/great sword", attested in 1772 (as Cly-more) with the gloss "great two-handed sword". [3] The sense "basket-hilted sword" is contemporaneous, attested in 1773 as "the broad-sword now used ... called the Claymore, (i.e., the great sword)", [4] although OED observes that this usage is "inexact, but very common".