Ever since visiting the ancient fortress of Dunadd in 2019 and seeing the footprint in the stone on which the Scot Gaelic Kings of Dalriata were coronated in the 6th thru 9th centuries, I've had a desire to make a Celtic/Gaelic blade dedicated to that place and time in history.
Knowing only a few things about the legend of Arthur’s sword in the stone, it was somehow obvious to me that this was the place where the legend began, based on a real person in history. I've since found out that what’s known about him in recorded history from the 7th century (Adomnan’s Life of Columba) is that he was a Christian Celtic warrior prince, eldest son of the Dalriadan King Aidan, who died fighting the Picts in the late 6th century. Merlin also existed but was not the man behind the magic of Arthur pulling a sword from a stone. He was rather a murderous pagan wizard who was defeated by Arthur’s forces, lost his mind, and was later shown kindness to by the Christian Celts. A sword was likely part of the ceremony when kings were crowned at Dunadd, placing their foot in the carved footprint signifying their ‘union to the land’. The Christian missionary Columba was anointing them King, not the wizard Merlin. Five hundred years later medieval chroniclers in England and Wales wrote down this oral legend and for the last thousand years Arthur has been thought of as an Anglo Norman knightly King of the 12th century with the Disney-like turreted castle Camelot and magical encounters with ‘Excalibur’. In typical Edward style, the legend was apparently pillaged from their smaller neighboring country to the north! All the facts concerning a Scottish Arthur are abundantly proven in David Carroll’s book, Arturius – A Quest for Camelot. Nonetheless, something like this sword type was used to drive out the Romans in the 1st and 3rd centuries, and up through the centuries to the defeat of the Vikings when they invaded central Scotland at the battle of Strathearn in the early 10th century. Some say it was due to their greater stature, or the weather, or home territory, but could it have anything to do with a sword type that was advantageous over both the gladius of the Romans and also the blades of the Vikings? The main distinction of the Scottish swords is the forward slanting quillions of the crossguard, which is known to have been used for grappling and locking the opponent’s blade. By the late medieval and renaissance periods swords all over Europe began to adopt hooks and shapes in their crossguards for this very purpose. But the Scottish swords trace their origins all the way back to the saltire shaped hilt of the Anthropomorphic Celtic swords of the early Iron Age, which also had the forward slanting crossguards. Within two miles of the fortress of Dunadd is the Kilmartin churchyard where knights of the 1300’s are buried. They are portrayed on their tomb slabs with the same forward slanting type of swords. But this was six centuries after Arthur’s time at Dunadd. So this Gaelic Sword was designed assuming these Kilmartin swords were a progression of the Celtic sword on it’s way to becoming the Highland Claymore of the 1500’s.
But why has nothing of this period ever been found? No actual example of the Kilmartin swords were ever found either, with their forward slanting quillions and unique seven lobed pommel. Of the 50,000 men Emperor Severus lost in the North of Scotland in 209ad, none of their swords were ever found, except for a few at a Roman Fort ruin in the borders. In fact, of the millions of swords used throughout history, comparatively very few of any type have ever been found. Most battle swords were updated to the latest style or reground into other blades over the years.
Another possible advantage of the Scottish swords could’ve been the blade itself. We learn from history that it was the Celts who first used the pattern welding process to make their blades.
The Vikings, who were raiding Celtic lands at the time, learned it from the Celts and mastered the art in their homeland. In those days, little was known of the science of steels being melted in the mystery pot, so it was better to twist and layer many rods together to produce a blade capable of outlasting an opponent’s. A pocket of air in the crucible or a poorly calculated carbon content in the steel could have devastating effects. In other words, you stood a better chance of having some good steel in your blade if it was made of more than one solid piece. Perhaps this is why the Vikings took home what they learned, and made longer, stronger blades in the centuries following. But regardless of whether or not it was actually a better blade, every attempt was made in the forging and design of this Gaelic Arthur sword to bring back to life what realistically could’ve been weilded by a legendary warrior prince and national hero of the misty pre-history, dark and unknown 6th century Scotland. In my admittedly Scottish-biased opinion, the 'Arthurian legend', if nothing more than a legend, symbolically shows how the freedom fighter’s ‘Great Sword’ (the Highland Claymore) was drawn out of the Stone Age, when taken hold of by the right hands!
Comments