Early medieval Irish sword

[claimhteoir]

I've seen oakeshotts typology before, but I thought it was primarily concerned with later medieval swords, except for Viking and Anglo-Saxon blades. Does he have a classification for the kind of blades we're seen in early medieval finds?

Albion have some great stuff! The kern is a beautiful piece... some day, some day!

[brendan]

The oakeshott typology is solely of double edged bladed weapons and the type IX (Viking) is the earliest he goes - he relies on others to document earlier period stuff

Brendan

[claimhteoir]

Thanks Brendan. Yeah, that's what I thought, from what I'd seen online before.

[finnobreanan]

I've seen oakeshotts typology before, but I thought it was primarily concerned with later medieval swords, except for Viking and Anglo-Saxon blades. Does he have a classification for the kind of blades we're seen in early medieval finds?

Albion has some great stuff! The kern is a beautiful piece... some day, some day!

I have a copy of Oakeshott's book in my museum's library, and unfortunately, he does not address early Irish swords at all. Much of his collection came to Minneoapolis, Minnesota, and is being reproduced by a very fine company (as mentioned above). My museum did an exhibit of his (Oakeshotts) collection and some of the reproduction swords they (Albion) manufacture. It was a real treat to go to their workshop and see them at work and examine the original arms and weapons. Their work is high qaulity and I own one of their "darts" for my Irish impression, but as I said, they and Oakeshott did not study pre-Viking Age Irish arms.
http://www.albion-swords.com/

Note: it has been documented from Crannogs that the Irish were using Viking styled Swords!

PS: Albion sets up shop at the "Bristol" Renaisannce Faire in South-eastern Wisconsin every year. Their "tradesman" see me doing an Irish impression and constantly single me out to show me their fine "Irish Swords". I admire the quality, but as a public servant, I can't afford them.

[the_power]

The Irish certainly imported them in Viking times, as high-value objects. The natively produced ones were quite different, as seen in some of the objects like shown earlier in the thread.

Wow, a country where public servants are paid less than those of us in private industry! What an interesting concept...

Eoin, there aren't really typologies for Irish swords - not really enough of them. Also, they are quite different from continental/scandinavian swords, so it's not that useful to try compare them. Halpin does have a go at making a typology in his new book, but I don't know if it's published.

John