Non ethno sword with strange inscription

eftihis · 10th March 2005, 12:12 PM

Dear friends,
Thanks for all this input, i couldnt imagine this subject to be so interesting!
Yannis, globalisation indeed, because i bought this some years ago as part from a lot of 5 weapons from UK. All the others were "ethnographic" and really old, so i assume this was also old and propably belonged to the same owner. I wanted the other ones, i just had to take this also. (So if somebody wants it, i happily will exchange it with an ethnograpchic!, islamic,greek, balkan or turkish)
So i do not think it was used in role -playing either, since this should have been for some years in a collection.
By the way, yes, the sword is shortened, it is easy to see.

So UK, is the home of the sword before coming to Crete.
It could have never been a local magical utensil here, because i dont thing anybody would write in a language that substitutes the letters of the English alphabet anyway.
It is interesting though that in Crete also, as well in Greece and like in all planet there use to be local magical practises, in which, in the example of Crete, an important role was played by the knife- not sword.
A famous example is the practise use by the young "lyrari" (lyra playing musician of our traditional music) that in order to became a great player, he had to go in a crossroad at night so that the "reraides" (mermaids in English?) will teach him to play perfectly. But for return, they would take his mind, so he would become "crazy". The only remedy is to draw a circle with a black handled cretan knife (only with black horn handle, i dont know why...) on the soil arround him.
The neraides will be arround him and teach him, but cannot enter the circle!

fearn · 10th March 2005, 12:56 PM

Hi Nechesh,

You could be right about the ceremonial magic part. As for whether the knife represents air or fire, I think that varies by tradition. I seem to recall that Gardnerian wicca uses air=knife, and Alexandrian wicca uses fire=knife (though I might have that reversed). Other groups follow one, the other, or both. It gets to be an interesting argument if you're in to such things, mostly because it starts with statements like "OF COURSE the knife represents...." "You idiot, who taught you?..." and ends up with "You know, this is confusing. Do what feels comfortable to you."

Hi Efithis,

Interesting that the Lyrari use a black-handled knife, because that's exactly what Wicca uses, a black-handled knife (athame). One of the major uses of the athame is to cast a circle, and your sword could basically be a big athame for public events (or whatever) if it's not a ceremonial magician's tool.

It's curious since as I posted about a month ago, no one knows where the term athame came from, although the black-handled knife is an old magician's tool.

Fearn

10th March 2005, 12:12 PM	#1
eftihis Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Chania Crete Greece Posts: 512	Dear friends, Thanks for all this input, i couldnt imagine this subject to be so interesting! Yannis, globalisation indeed, because i bought this some years ago as part from a lot of 5 weapons from UK. All the others were "ethnographic" and really old, so i assume this was also old and propably belonged to the same owner. I wanted the other ones, i just had to take this also. (So if somebody wants it, i happily will exchange it with an ethnograpchic!, islamic,greek, balkan or turkish) So i do not think it was used in role -playing either, since this should have been for some years in a collection. By the way, yes, the sword is shortened, it is easy to see. So UK, is the home of the sword before coming to Crete. It could have never been a local magical utensil here, because i dont thing anybody would write in a language that substitutes the letters of the English alphabet anyway. It is interesting though that in Crete also, as well in Greece and like in all planet there use to be local magical practises, in which, in the example of Crete, an important role was played by the knife- not sword. A famous example is the practise use by the young "lyrari" (lyra playing musician of our traditional music) that in order to became a great player, he had to go in a crossroad at night so that the "reraides" (mermaids in English?) will teach him to play perfectly. But for return, they would take his mind, so he would become "crazy". The only remedy is to draw a circle with a black handled cretan knife (only with black horn handle, i dont know why...) on the soil arround him. The neraides will be arround him and teach him, but cannot enter the circle! Last edited by eftihis; 10th March 2005 at 03:01 PM. Reason: added something

10th March 2005, 12:56 PM	#2
fearn Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,247	Hi Nechesh, You could be right about the ceremonial magic part. As for whether the knife represents air or fire, I think that varies by tradition. I seem to recall that Gardnerian wicca uses air=knife, and Alexandrian wicca uses fire=knife (though I might have that reversed). Other groups follow one, the other, or both. It gets to be an interesting argument if you're in to such things, mostly because it starts with statements like "OF COURSE the knife represents...." "You idiot, who taught you?..." and ends up with "You know, this is confusing. Do what feels comfortable to you." Hi Efithis, Interesting that the Lyrari use a black-handled knife, because that's exactly what Wicca uses, a black-handled knife (athame). One of the major uses of the athame is to cast a circle, and your sword could basically be a big athame for public events (or whatever) if it's not a ceremonial magician's tool. It's curious since as I posted about a month ago, no one knows where the term athame came from, although the black-handled knife is an old magician's tool. Fearn