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Broad Scythe-shaped Swords.—These are usually thick, heavy, round-pointed weapons, from about 8 to 16 inches in length and several inches broad at the butt, where they were attached to the haft by two or more heavy rivets, the heads of which are sometimes an inch across. About one-half of those in the National Museum are of the peculiar curved or scythe-shaped kind, and the greater proportion have thick central midribs. These, according to Wilde, seem to have been fastened at right angles to the hafts ‘like modern halberds.’ This view is generally accepted; but their great antiquity among metal weapons is probably not so great as Wilde seemed to think.
The swords discovered in Irish lake-dwellings are very varied; but they are all strikingly Celtic in character. A few have been formed of bronze, and differ in no respect from the greater number of those discovered in districts where, apparently, crannogs did not exist. The great majority of the crannog swords are, however, of iron, and are remarkable, as a rule, for their comparatively small size—their handles in particular. From this it has been inferred that the race or races by whom they were used must have been diminutive people. But the same remark may be applied to nearly all the swords of antiquity of which we know anything. The bronze swords discovered by Schliemann in the shaft-graves of Mycenæ are about 3 feet long—small weapons compared to the long, heavy, two-handed sword of the Middle Ages. In shape the crannog swords may be described, generally, as of two kinds: the one increasing in breadth from the handle to the end, which terminates in the form of a triangle; the other shorter, with a broad blade, quite in the Roman fashion. Both are double-edged, and are usually strengthened by a central ridge, while some rare examples are fluted. Their handles were for the most part composed of bone or horn, though sometimes wood was used; they were, as a rule, finished by a pommel, or knob of a semicircular or triangular form, secured and strengthened on the inner side by a plate of bronze, curving backwards. There is no hilt or guard, properly speaking, though the haft or handle usually somewhat overlaps the sides and edges of the blade, presenting a crescent-like figure, the curve of which tends in a direction opposite to that of the pommel. Bronze mountings frequently occur.
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No. 1.
Upper and Lower Portions of Sword-sheath of Bronze, from Lisnacroghera. Now in the Grainger Collection.
No. 2.
Upper and Lower Portions of Sword-sheath of Bronze from Lisnacroghera. Now in the British Museum.