My first Kerises

[A. G. Maisey]

Ron, the keris is a multi facetted cultural artifact, and what it is depends upon the period against which it is being considered, and the mind-set of the person doing the considering.

What is true for one person in one place may not be true for another person in a different place, or a different time.

Some present day Javanese people will describe the keris as a "prayer in steel". I do not know what thoughts have given rise to this idea, but if we examine the origins of the Modern Keris, during the Majapahit Period, this does seem to me to be a particularly apt description.

Probably the Javanese people who have coined this phrase did not have in mind the same things that I had in mind when I wrote "Interpretation", but the feelings involved may well be similar.

As to the differences between a great blade, and an ordinary blade, well, that is something that most people never really discover.

Technically it is probably not all that difficult to lay out the parameters for appraisal, but the idea of "great" requires that some indefinable extra comes into play, and that is the difficult part. It is perhaps a bit like the effect that a "great" painting or sculpture has upon us, something that is felt, and probably defies analysis.